There can’t have been many stranger sights back in the seventies than that of Onny Parun standing at the service line , all the while biting on a piece of string, as he prepared to serve.
Odd it may have been, but, one should never knock what clearly works. And work it did for the Wellington born Parun, who used the string to hold his head in place while serving due to a neck injury. That it could have prematurely ended the career of one of New Zealand’s finest tennis players would have been a travesty.
But, it didn’t deter Parun, who with some good old fashioned Kiwi number eight wire ingenuity came up with a solution to prolong his career. And there surely must have been many a Kiwi tennis fan that will be forever grateful that Parun was able to play on well into his thirties.
Parun, born in 1947 and of Croatian descent, paraded his ability on the word stage for close to seventeen years from 1966. During that time he became one of only three New Zealanders to reach a grand slam singles final. Having reached the 1973 Australian Open final against John Newcombe he fell at the last hurdle. Still, it was a magnificent achievement. Only Anthony Wilding before him had reached a grand slam final (Chris Lewis was ten years away at that stage). A quarterfinal spot at the US open also beckoned that same year.
Parun had threatened to for some time to break through to the top echelons of world tennis. He had already reached the quarterfinals of Wimbledon in 1971 and 1972 and was holding a world ranking of 20 during those two years. So, with his first grand slam final appearance in 73, he had definitely made it in the world of tennis. That form stayed with him for another three years as his ranking remained in the top twenty, culminating in a career high of eighteen in May 1975.
During that five year span, Parun was to team up with Australian Dick Crealy in 1974 to win the men’s doubles at the French Open. Surely, a fitting result for a player that had toiled away for so long, working hard on his game and never giving up, too come away with some of the spoils in a major tournament.
It wasn’t just doubles titles that Parun had the tenacity to procure. From 1974 through to 1976, he collected himself five ATP tour singles titles. Fitting, too, that two of these (1975/76) were in front of his home crowd at the then named Benson and Hedges Open, played at the home of New Zealand tennis, Stanley Street. On both occasions he beat his fellow countryman in Brian Fairlie. The 1975 vintage was of a titanic struggle. Plentiful action abounded in his marathon five set victory. One year later they did their version of Groundhog Day when they once again went into battle. Once again Parun prevailed in five sets.
Throughout his career, Parun could never be accused of a lack of commitment towards playing for his country. From early 1967 as a teenager through until 1982 at the age of thirty-five, he was the backbone of this country’s Davis Cup squad. Along with a core group of players of the ilk of Fairlie, Lewis and Russell Simpson, he helped New Zealand from the mid seventies until the early eighties to an unparalleled level of success in what is the tennis world’s premier team’s event.
Parun won thirty of thirty-two Davis Cup matches. This at first glance may not appear anything startling. However, over his fifteen years he had to contend with some of the world’s best such as Rod Laver, Newcombe, the great Ken Rosewall as well as the likes of Indian Vijay Armitraj. Pretty lofty company, indeed. To come close to a fifty percent winning record over a lengthy period was a mighty performance.
After his retirement from professional tennis, Parun, went on to live and coached successfully in Britain for twenty years. Which was a shame for New Zealand tennis to miss out on a person of the quality of Parun. And tennis, here, certainly could have done with his help, as it these days appears to be in downward spiral into oblivion.
Over the last decade he has returned to New Zealand and now coaches in Wellington. But there is no sign of Parun being approached to manage the Davis Cup squad. What better person could there be to help tennis in this country out of the doldrums? For Parun was a man that got results throughout his career not just from talent but, also, sheer hard work.
Despite this, he has been recognised in the form of an OBE for services to tennis.
It is a richly deserved reward for Parun who has dedicated his life to the game he loves, not to mention helping young players achieve their dreams.

Significantly different this finals football, isn’t it? A step up in intensity as well as a faster pace than some of you have ever experienced prior to this. Despite this, you blokes from the New Zealand Warriors gave it your all tonight up against the Gold Coast Titans at Skilled Park. You scored three tries, they scored five, and it showed as you were playing catch up football for the last twenty-five minutes of the first half, and at the back end of the match.
Sure, you had your moments, and one could have been forgiven for thinking that you were going to run away with the match, for during the opening fifteen minutes you had much the better of proceedings.
James Maloney made a tremendous try saving tackle on Titan’s winger Kevin Gordon early on. Once again Maloney was one of your best. Handles pressure well, doesn’t he. And he didn’t give away a penalty all night long. His kicking game was great for you; nearly gained a 40/20 on two occasions. But, not quite. All the same, some excellent metres were gained through his judicious use of the boot.
This was on the back of some fierce go forward as you directed your big forwards up the middle of the park. It paid handsome dividends as you gained large amounts of territory, too. Russell Packer led the way. So young, and yet plays well beyond his years. Just imagine how good this guy’s going to be in five years time. Not far behind were Captain Simon Mannering and Michael Luck. And what about Michael Luck, eh? Only three weeks ago he suffered one of the most horrendous leg gashes seen in the game of league when his left thigh was opened up so badly that it required fifty stitches. Wouldn’t play for the remainder of the season, some said. Yet, here he was, back after only three weeks. Tough as nails, he is. Balls bigger than basketballs, most would assume of this guy.
All this possession and you did what would be expected of any team in such a situation: you opened the scoring with a try to Aaron Heremia in the 7th minute. With the conversion to James Maloney, you had a 6-0 lead and looked like you were on your way to a home match in week two of the finals series.
But, you hit somewhat of a speed bump. A couple of penalties against you and a try to William Zillman in the 18th minute brought you all back to earth with a thud. For a time it seemed to take the stuffing out of you, as you seemed to be a touch on the flat side. The pace of the game looked to be taking its toll on you, as you were starting to miss tackles. None more so than in the 32nd minute as Zillman went over for his second try of the night and his side’s third. That he managed to bust through three tacklers and scoot away for a try ten metres wide of the left upright was not a glowing endorsement of your usually miserly defensive qualities. The 27026 strong crowd were in raptures.
Not long after, their delight became downright luminous, as in the 36th minute Matt Rogers had you all dumbfounded when he took an inside pass and run fifteen metres to score the Titan’s fourth try.
It wasn’t looking good for you at 22-6 down going into the break. But, to your credit, you came out in the second half and threw everything you had at the Titans. You began to gain momentum and gain a level of dominance over the locals. Two tries, one in the 48th minute to Jerome Ropati’s replacement Joel Moon, and then another to Manu Vatuvei -which gave “The Beast” the club try scoring record- in the 59th minute and it seemed that you were well and truly on your way back.
That was until Vatuvei undid all his good work by attempting to offload in an untenable position on the first tackle of an attacking set of six. This was not the first time that he has been guilty of such an act this season. Perhaps this is one of the few weaknesses in his game, currently.
What was worse for you was that this led to the Titan’s scoring in the next passage of play with a try in the left corner to Kevin Gordon. 28-16 to Gold Coast and this is where the score stayed.
You tried your mightiest for the remaining twenty minutes, but it seemed that the harder you pressed the worse you got. There were uncharacteristic errors from the likes of Lance Hohaia. You seemed to lose your focus on attack over the quarter of an hour. Why? Was it the pressure? It must have been hard, but all you had to do was maintain your composure. After all, you were starting to put the heat on the Titan’s during the third quarter. They were starting to wither against your onslaught, too.
But, it was not to be, as the Titan’s held on to their hopes of premiership glory in four weeks time.
Not so for you lot though. A nervous time over the coming two days awaits you as your fate is now in the hands of others as the wheel of fortune is spun.
You can only sit around hoping that it lands on the prize you now desire the most; the chance to redress tonight’s failings with a second chance somewhere, sometime in Australia next weekend.

It was always going to be a difficult little assignment. Up against a side that was out of contention for a finals spot, thus having nothing to play for other than pride, with a predilection for ad lib football was not the most intoxicating way to spend an evening.
But the New Zealand Warriors managed it with remarkable sang-froid in their 26-12 win over the Parramatta Eels in Sydney tonight. While they did commit some unnecessary errors at times, generally they stuck to the basics for the majority of the match. For them this meant gaining good go-forward early in the tackle count before any consideration was given to emitting the ball wide to their outside backs. Their young props Sam Rapira and Russell Packer were in fine fettle as they led the way with a rampaging display of power running.
What was best of all though was a stupendous defensive effort on their part. This has fast become the Warriors trademark.
And they showed in the opening five minutes just why teams have had so much trouble breaking through their defence. Parramatta had all the ball over the opening exchanges and threw plenty of attack at the Warriors. Despite this the Warriors held firm and then proceeded to pile on an inordinately large amount of pressure of their own right back on the Eels. After having forced their antagonists through the agony of four goal line drop-outs between the 8th and 13th minutes, Parramatta’s defence finally succumbed as Brett Seymour went to his left side attack before putting in a grubber kick for Centre Jerome Ropati to gather and dive over in the tackle of Jarrod Hayne in the left corner.
A promising start, it has to be said. This, sadly, was undone thirteen minutes later through inattention on the part of the Warriors players. Having just conceded a penalty and two metres out from their own line, the sharp minded Timana Tahu spied an opportunity when he took a quick tap and hurled his body over the Warriors line for a four pointer to give Parramatta hope of sending off Nathan Cayless a winner in his last match before retirement.
That hope was speedily snuffed out in the 32nd minute by a Warriors outfit hell-bent on going into the finals with good form on their side when Kevin Locke took control of an out of control chip kick from Hayne. Not enjoying the scenery in his own half so much, he decided to take a break from the drudgery of home life and headed off toward the right side attack in search of a more meaningful way of life. What he found was a like minded companion in Brent Tate who he offloaded too and bid a fond adieu to his mate Tate as he took a forty metre whirlwind tour alongside the right touchline to dive over for his side’s second try and give the Warriors a 8-6 lead going into half-time.
Unfortunately for them, they also went into the break with one man down as James Maloney was sinbinned in the fortieth minute for tackling Luke Burt without the ball in a blatant professional foul twenty metres from the Warriors goal line.
This didn’t deter the visitor’s however. By the time Maloney was back on the field in the 50th minute, they had not only negotiated their way through what was potentially a tricky ten minute with only twelve men, but also a penalty count that had ballooned out to 8-2 in Parramatta’s favour.
And yet the Eels could not penetrate the stoic twelve man defence of the Warriors. There was too much lateral movement and not enough hard running up the middle of the ruck from Parramatta. This simply made it easier for the Warriors to shut the home side’s attack down. That and the constant array of offloads gone wrong.
Eventually, the extra possession afforded the Warriors by Parramatta told on the locals, and the Warriors on a three try scoring spree over the space of twelve minutes starting with Jesse Royal dotting down under the crossbar in the 56th minute.
What was particularly impressive about the Warriors performance was the patience they displayed. Yes they offloaded when the time was appropriate, but, on the whole, they kicked for field position at the right times, hard yakka up the middle of the ruck was the order of the day. And they did it all with such aplomb.
That patience was rewarded in the 65th minute when Aaron Heramia ran from dummy-half and terminated any contact the defence may have wished to have with him as he escaped the Eels attentions to race thirty metres up field before passing to Locke who scored beside the left upright. With Maloney’s conversion, the Warriors were out to a fourteen point lead and the result was never in doubt from here on in.
Even more so after Manu Vatuvei dived over in the left corner three minutes later to give the warriors a 26-6 lead.
All that was left now was for Cayless to score a consolation try with six minutes until full time remaining. He didn’t get the win he would have liked to finish his career with, but, still, the last scoring play of the match was a nice end for the big bloke.
It didn’t hide the fact that Parramatta was comprehensively outplayed by a Warriors side that are hitting the apogee of their form at the right stage of the season.
Now all they have to do is carry that form on for another four weeks.

Warriors 26(J Ropati, B Tate, J Royal, K Locke, M Vatuvei tries, J Maloney 3 goals)
Parramata 12(T Tahu, N Cayless tries, L Burt 2 goals)

By the end of the 2009 NRL season I thought there was more chance of Paris Hilton’s soon to be drug addled brain coming up with a viable solution to solving the sizable Middle East peace issues than there was of Ivan Cleary being the right person to coach the New Zealand Warriors. Wouldn’t get them to the top eight let alone a grand final this year, I had decided at the time.
Well, I was wrong. I got it all so wrong. That’s right, wrong. Cleary has put in a masterful performance in getting his side into finals football. That he has taken what was a rabble of a team at the end of 2009 and turned them into a serious finals contender says a lot about his coaching ability.
He admitted earlier this year that he and his coaching team had got the fitness routine wrong. He has shown admirable qualities by admitting he made mistakes, and then setting about not repeating those same errors. To put an Oscar Wilde slant on it: it may be considered a misfortune to make a mistake once, but to repeat it just seems like carelessness. In this case one could hint at it been even worse than that. Well, Cleary has shown himself to be a smart operator by not slipping into such a careless method of thinking. Instead, he didn’t panic and calmly set about righting what went wrong.
What’s more, he has had to negotiate his way through this season with a litany of injuries. Quite possibly, the Warriors have had the worst injury toll of any of the sixteen clubs. Not only have that, but almost all of the sidelined players been Cleary’s star playing staff. At various stages he has been without Simon Mannering, Brent Tate, Manu Vatuvei, Brett Seymour and Sam Rapira. This list doesn’t even take into account the loss of Steve Price who has had to retire without playing one match in 2010.
So Cleary has achieved what are undeniably fine results with at times a young inexperienced side. Which one cannot deny bodes well for future seasons, regardless of what happens from here on in during the upcoming final’s series. He now has a more than adequate halves pairing in Seymour and James Maloney at his disposal. Both possess extremely handy kicking games, and have enhanced their side’s attacking credentials. And in Maloney, Cleary has the added benefit of a reliable goal kicker.
Throw into the mix of ingredients for next year Feleti Mateo and for the first time since the great Ali Lauatiti, the Warriors will soon have a ball playing second rower. With Cleary’s apparent calm demeanour, Mateo will more than likely give this side the x-factor it needs to become one of the true heavyweights of the competition.
All this aside, let’s not forget that this season has not faded out for the Warriors. They are a team on the way up and appear to peaking at the right time of the year. The young players have had to stand up and take more responsibility due to the injuries suffered, which will no doubt stand them in good stead for September football. As a team they have improved their defence under Cleary immeasurably. In past seasons they have been known for their flamboyant attacking style but not always for their defensive fortitude. Well Cleary has well and truly changed that. They are now one of the more formidable defensive units in the competition. And as they showed against Brisbane in the weekend, when the forwards go straight up the middle of the park and set a substantial and solid platform, then the backs are very much capable of making line breaks that can lead to a phlethora of points. So the attack is there when the opportunity presents itself.
And, it seems too, that in Cleary the players trust. That they, in general, play well, would suggest a team that have faith in their coach.
So, the immediate future is looking good with the real possibility of Cleary’s men delving deep into the soon to be contested final’s month. And if it is not meant to be this season, then there is a realistic hope that with Cleary at the helm and continuing the good work that he has been doing, then the Mt Smart faithful are in for a lot of happy times over the next few years.
By the way, just to reiterate; I was WRONG. Ivan Cleary, you have done a fantastic job.

Before a fearsomely raucous crowd of 21,627 baying for the blood of the Brisbane Broncos, the New Zealand Warriors produced a scintillating first half performance that put the result beyond doubt by half-time.
A further forty minutes later they had secured a 36-4 victory in their last home match of the regular season, and brought finality to their entry into this year’s final’s series. It was pulsating nonstop action, so be prepared to be dazzled by a seven tries to one extravaganza by the Warriors at Mt Smart Stadium tonight.
They had come mentally switched on, knowing that a win would guarantee a final’s berth. So too had Brisbane, but for them the evening was about to take on dire consequences for their aspirations of playing September football as they began to wilt under the Warriors ferocious onslaught.
A rip-snorting try scoring exhibition such as this can only be produced after an initial prelude of forceful domination by one’s forwards, though. This the Warriors pack did with aplomb. None more so than twenty year old prop Russell Packer who showed no thought at all for self preservation as he willingly hurtled himself at the Brisbane defensive unit, time after time sending defenders scuttling. When he and his fellow mates in the forwards along with wing Manu Vatuvei- who also took it upon himself leave a litany of carnage behind him as he also produced a series of hard hitting ball carries- weren’t amusing themselves by softening the visitors up with their cogent endeavours, the whole team was finding productive ways to release their inner enforcer with some tremendous defence in the opening quarter. Not just on their own line either, but, also constant gang tackles in the Broncos red zone.
Eventually the pressure told on the Broncos side, for in the 13th minute Vatuvei soared high above his opposite number Jaral Yow Yeh to claim a fifth tackle bomb from Brett Seymour and procure his side’s first points of the night in the left corner.
The Warriors kept the pressure on over the next eight minutes gaining the match’s first penalty and shortly after forcing Brisbane into a goal line drop-out. Shortly after, Yow Yeh was back in the thick of things as he knocked on from a bomb in his own twenty metre zone. This was the Warriors cue to pounce gleefully on some splendid field position as Lewis Brown in the 21st minute runs left from dummy half on the diagonal through an inordinately large cavity in the Broncos defence to touchdown five metres in from the left sideline. As with the first try, James Maloney missed the conversion, but, at 8-0 ahead, things were looking highly promising.
That promise turned into something even more substantial four minutes later as Brown this time was on the receiving end of some ingenious work from hooker Aaron Heremia who had looked devoid of options on the last tackle. As a last resort, looking around for some help, he spotted Vatuvei roaming wide on the left side of the field, so employing the judicious use of his kicking game, he put a cross field kick in for Vatuvei to swoop on and pass on the inside to late replacement for Joel Moon, Jerome Ropati who offloaded to Brown who dived over five metres wide of the left upright.
If the Warriors playing staff were over the moon with a fourteen point lead, a further four minutes down the time line that is life, they would have been delirious with happiness as they found Captain Simon Mannering barging over in the right corner of the northern end of the ground.
At 18-0 down it wasn’t looking good for the Broncos. They did however begin to gather some helpful servings of possession over the next five minutes, thanks largely to a run of penalties in their favour. This was their chance to fight their way back into the match. But an inexperienced side that was missing Darren Lockyer simply could not handle the intensity with which the Warriors played. Not having the ball did not deter the home side, one bit. Instead they took great pride in keeping their line intact with some stinging defence. A superb effort, it was, as they forced Brisbane halfback Peter Wallace to knock-on. To compound his error, he had a momentary lapse in judgement as he talked back to the referee, thus being penalised for backchat. The frustration was starting to tell on the Broncos, and the locals were only two happy to take advantage of Brisbane’s misfortune.
There is none better at capturing the moment than Brent Tate either, as he easily snapped the defensive blade of Matt Gillette and cast his way along the western touchline with an ever increasing ferocity before passing back on the inside to Lance Hohaia who went on to score under the crossbar. With Maloney’s conversion, the Warriors had an unreachable lead of 24-0.
There was to be no way back for Brisbane and there would be no looking back for the Warriors. They had obtained their goal of a finals berth with half the match still to go.
Forty minutes of complete football on their part. They had put in a professional performance of doing the basics first. Good metres up the middle of the ruck, quick play the balls, and most importantly, they had made sure the fort was fully fortified with desirable defensive qualities.
The challenge for them now was to go on with the job and rack up a big score, setting in motion some rapid momentum for the coming weeks of a higher intensity foray into final’s footy.
Take long, it didn’t, for them to further enhance their tally of memorable plays for the highlights package. And what better participant could you think of to score the try of the match other than the club’s longest serving player in Lance Hohaia? That’s right, there isn’t one. Now, Hohaia is not one for dilly dallying around, it seems. When given the scope to further add to his already impressive career list of try scoring feats, this is a man that just can’t say no. This we all found out in the 49th minute as he scooped the ball up on his own forty metre line and took great delight in humiliating the Broncos defence by galloping his way through the middle of the ruck past four bystanders. Not only did he manage to make his adversaries look decidedly amateurish, he then put a chip kick over Yow Yeh-who by this stage had been banished to fullback after having failed to contain Vatuvei on the wing- regathering, to dive over for the try just to the side of the left upright.
At 30-0 down the Broncos looked dispirited and it showed in their play. There were passes going astray, dropped ball that would not be expected at Toyota cup level. Israel Folau was the only attacking weapon to look likely of troubling the Warriors. Even when Folau did manage to break through the Warriors defences they always showed the desperation to put a halt to Folau’s attacking tricks.
Once they had soaked up what little pressure Brisbane could throw at them, they once again went to work and demonstrated their own scoring proclivities by having Ben Mautalino romp over to dot down by the right upright in the 58th minute.
With a 36-0 lead it was no surprise that the spark faded from the night’s pursuits over the final quarter of the match.
In fact Coach Ivan Cleary took the opportunity over the last ten minutes of proceedings to rest key players such as Mannering and Vatuvei.
This opened the way up for Yow Yeh to score a consolation try with three minutes of the game remaining. Not that it would have meant much to the visitors as they could see their final’s hopes fading faster than Nero could light a fire.
For the Warriors though, they have now given themselves an outside chance of a top four finish. With a for and against of plus thirty-nine, a big win against Parramatta next week along with other results going their way and they may yet get to entertain their fans at Mt Smart again this season.

NZ Warriors 36(L Brown 2 L Hohaia 2 S Mannering B Matulino M Vatuvei tries J Maloney 4 goals)Brisbane 4(J Yow Yeh try)

Opportunities don’t always come along as regularly as some would like. So when they do it pays to take them as the New Zealand Warriors found out this evening in their 19-16 loss to Manly at Brookvale Oval tonight.
With the score tied at sixteen-all with fifteen minutes left to play, the Warriors had chances to attempt a field goal on two occasions. Instead they opted to go for the try each time. It was to no avail though, as they botched their efforts. On one such occasion, Joel Moon attempted to offload on the second tackle, only to lose the ball forward. Not the percentage play, especially when a field goal was begging to be kicked. In the end it was two competition points that got away from them.
In a tight match where points were at a premium the obvious option was to consolidate their position with a one pointer and force Manly to play catch up football. At least most would have thought so. Instead, they now have left themselves in a position of having to secure one more win to clinch a finals berth, thus ensuring that next Friday’s game against Brisbane takes on added significance in their eager search for some fulfilling September football action.
It’s not that the Warriors played badly. On the contrary, there were plenty of positives to come out of the match for the visitors. Their forwards created some admirable go forward. The kicking game was nothing but fantastic. And even though they did not win, they continue to play well away from home. In the past this has been one of the major concerns for the club.
While they did have a slow start, after twenty minutes they began to forge ahead and gradually push back the enemy forces. There was the odd grenade lobbed in their direction by Manly which put some minor dents in their armoury, but in the 23rd minute the Warriors decided to raid, plunder and generally run amok. On the 5th tackle James Maloney put up a mistimed bomb which Manly failed to clean up leaving the steeden available for Bill Tupou to pillage from his opposite number and offload to Captain Simon Mannering who passed on the inside for Maloney to navigate his way through the Manly defensive line to dot down and give his side an 8-6 lead after the conversion.
Manly attempted a fight back to regain lost territory with some surges up the middle of the ruck over the next five minutes. Anthony Watmough in particular was making impressive darting sorties with the Warriors defensive units having trouble containing him.
This led to a try to Tony Williams in the 29th minute in the right corner after Manly had gone wide and Glenn Stewart threw a superb one handed pass to Williams. At 10-8, Manly must have thought that they had repelled the Warriors forward movement and severed the visitor’s ties with any form of momentum.
But, it was not to be as the Warriors regained the initiative with a four pointer to Mannering.
Goodbyes can be difficult for many people. Not Mannering, though, who without a moment's hesitation bid a rather hostile adieu to Stewart with a fine fend and headed towards the prosperity that is the opposing side’s in-goal area, all the while treating some of the local inhabitants with the absolute disdain usually attributed to the more repugnant elements of society as he charged straight through their lightly built fortifications to touchdown next to the left upright.
With the conversion to Maloney, the Warriors had a four point lead going into the break. This they increased to six in the 44th minute with a penalty goal to Maloney.
Even though the Warriors were the more dominant of the two sides for much of the second half, they couldn’t translate this into extra points. They looked to be dominating on several fronts. They were making ground up the middle of the ruck with relative ease. Defence, on the whole, was desperate and at times, brutal. The kicking game of Maloney was brilliant. And then there were the aforementioned windows of possibility for the winning the contest. Yet they could not crack Manly, try as they might.
Instead it was the home side that were responsible for accumulating the majority of points in the second half. First in the 47th minute when "T-Rex" Tony Williams went over for try number two of his individual tally, then with four minutes to go, standoff Trent Hodginson slotted a field goal to prise two valuable competition points away from the Warriors.
To add salt to the Warriors wounds, Manly captain Jamie Lyon kicked a last minute penalty goal to give his side a three point win.
The Manly faithful were in raptures, however, the Warriors players must have been left wondering what could have been.

So, twenty-eight points will get you into the finals, eh. That’s what everybody is saying. And you guys at the Warriors are on that so called magical number. But, this does not take into account point’s differential, and yours is currently plus two. Not too bad, but there are other teams around you on the table that have a healthier for and against than you.
Don’t be a stranger to the far superior accommodation that comes with a further two competition points, will you. Come out this weekend against Manly with your level of self-confidence inflated to its optimum capacity, thus allowing you to perform at the altitude that we all know you are capable of, all the while taking the splendid opportunity to nestle in to the strikingly cosy habitat offered up on thirty points.
This would eliminate a possible matchup with St George in week one of the finals, not to mention enhancing your chances of striding towards a top four finish in the regular season. A home final in week one would be nice, wouldn’t it?
Of course, to achieve this you first have to get a win over the former premiers. Though, you’ll need to improve on last weekend’s performance against the Newcastle Knights. But, then, I’m guessing that you already know this, don’t you.
It appeared against the Knights that you were down on your usual high standards. Mentally, you simply didn’t look like you were hyped up to the level needed. You weren’t over-confident after a fine display against Cronulla the previous week, were you? Remember, there is a fine line between confidence and arrogance. Confidence being where you treat the opposition with the utmost respect, yet still believe in your ability to achieve what you are aiming for. Arrogance, as you would be aware of, is where you don’t take the opposing team seriously enough.
Perhaps this lack of mental ferocity on the day led to some of the mistakes that you would not usually commit such as missing touch from a penalty. There were errant passes and handling errors that would not normally committed. But just think, you pulled off a win against a side that played like their season was on the line (it was) and you did it when operating well below your best. Which it has to be said, seems to be grounds for optimism, wouldn’t you say?
As with most things in life, there was some good in your performance. Despite not being at your best you still managed to pull off a win. Your defence was of miserly proportions once again. Of the last seven matches, you have conceded no more than ten points on five of those occasions. So you continue to deliver when it comes to defence. Which you will need to continue on with against Manly.
They may no longer be the force they were in 2008, but they are still a highly competent side as well as being an extremely desperate one too. If the Sea Eagles lose this weekend their hopes of a top four finish will more than likely be extinguished. They won’t even be a certainty to secure a top eight spot. Surely added motivation for you to put out the flame of a finals contender and potentially disencumber yourselves of a possibly dangerous foe come finals time.
And you will be helped along by the fact that you will more than likely have a settled team on Saturday at Brookvale Oval. The only question mark is over the fitness of hooker Ian Henderson, who has an ankle injury, though he will be given until the last minute to prove his fitness. If he fails in his race to be in suitable shape for the match, this will mean only limited disruption to your combinations. And you do have Lance Hohaia as a potential replacement for Henderson, with the enticing prospect of Kevin Locke coming back into the team in his preferred position at fullback.
You have Manu Vatuvei in ominous try scoring form and itching to inflict as much damage on his opponents as is humanly possible.
Now all there is to find out is just how badly you want that top four spot come September.