Marlborough Express - Weekend Express
Now it’s a case of off-season blues
Never quite know what to do with myself when the league is over for the year, though I do have some important events coming up.
Tuesday’s Melbourne Cup, the race they say stops two nations, is a must watch every year as we cheer our Kiwi contingent on. The 2020 edition was set to be a strange one though with the usual 100,000+ crowd reduced to zero, as the state of Victoria is still suffering because of Covid-19. And while we didn’t win – trust the luck of the Irish – The Chosen One did his big band of Kiwi owners, and Cambridge trainers Murray Baker and Andrew Forsman, proud with a courageous fourth placing.
There was more appointment viewing for me when the Vodafone Warriors celebrated the year in a special Sky Sport feature on Wednesday, with highlights from our 2020 campaign.
The broadcast also featured the announcement of end of season awards, including the naming of the Simon Mannering Medal winner for 2020. By now you will know who claimed the accolades, and an added bonus was the showing of previously unreleased material and interviews from within the camp.
It preceded game one of State of Origin live from Adelaide, with New South Wales in the somewhat unusual position of being very-strong favourites.
Origin is now into its 40th year but this is the first time Adelaide has ever hosted a game.
Technically Queensland are at home, and despite NSW favouritism, the Maroons have Wayne Bennett back in charge as coach and will be no easybeats, especially with Aussie coach Mal Meninga, who led Queensland when they dominated between 2006-13, as assistant. If Brad Fittler’s Blues can win the series this year they will be only the third NSW outfit to win three series in a row.
The series will be played over three consecutive Wednesdays, so I know how I’ll be spending my nights for a while.
My love of league and the Warriors is no secret and I can never get enough of mixing with the players.
But it does cause some moments of sadness, especially when it is time to say farewell to players I have come to know and like very much.
And that’s exactly what happened last week when I caught up with two terrific players, Nathaniel Roache and Isaiah Papali’i, for a spot of lunch, a good chin-wag and to bid them all the best for new careers at the Parramatta Eels.
They were accompanied by Jazz Tevaga, who also qualifies as a terrific bloke. Jazz is staying but he does love a free lunch.
I do not think we ever got to see the best of Nathaniel and that’s a great shame because he is a player a lot of experts in the game rate.
He was dogged with some horrible injuries that saw him side-lined way too often.
Isaiah burst on to the scene and has always been a solid performer for us, and he might well be one of those players who moves on and comes back to haunt us by being outstanding for the Eels against us.
Others going are Gerard Beale, another whose time at the club was hampered by injury, but who has decided, like Adam Blair, to retire. Lachlan Burr probably had his best year for us during the chaos that was the Covid-19 restricted season, but he’ll be in North Queensland Cowboys colours next year and playing for our departing coach Todd Payten.
I suspect we all think it must be a bed of roses being a professional footballer but time catches up with everyone, and when your face no longer fits, or a new coach wants a different direction, it can be an unforgiving profession.
Remember to be kind to each other, a smile goes a long way.
Finally, I couldn’t finish without a mention of the mighty All Blacks, who blew the Wallabies off the park to retain the Bledisloe Cup on Saturday night. An awesome performance to say the least.