terry j
Ron Walden (29)
I'll 'fess, decided to give it a go last night. IIRC the last SOO game I watched was maybe four years ago?? Before then over a decade I'd say.
But, series decider, queensland domination blah blah, why the heck not I thought. AND, I decided I would try as hard as I could to watch it 'fresh', ie ignore as best I could any and all thoughts about the worth of the game I had formed over the years, watch it 'as a game of league' in and of itself.
Honestly, I tried REAL hard at that.
It lasted maybe, dunno, three or four minutes? I mean you just cannot ignore the elephant in the room for too long, sooner or later the bleedin obvious simply has to be acknowledged.
What a dull, one dimensional tedious example of a game it was. I could not help but notice (what I call) the pass/tackle ratio. One pass, one tackle. That was it. Then three players laying on him for (what I estimated as an average) of three seconds or so. Nothing too scientific there, 'one thousand, two thousand' etc.
Then one pass, another ten metre run, wash and repeat.
Out of curiosity (let's face it, the game itself provided no interest so I had to make something up) I just kept counting the pass tackle ratio. I'd eat my hat if it were drastically different than 90% of 'one pass, one tackle' (which included one pass then kick)
The HIGHEST number of passes per tackle I counted was seven (IIRC), that happened once in the latter part of the first half.
A few fives, tad more fours with the threes and twos being the majority of the remaining 'ball in play' incidents, with as mentioned probably 90% being one pass.
A very significant part of the game, when you take into account how long it takes for the tackle to be made and then play the ball, is a complete STOP. When it IS in play, 90% of it is one bloke running straight into another (or usually three) other blokes.
That's it.
I truly get the emotional side of it, series decider and all that, but the game itself??
Think it might be another decade
But, series decider, queensland domination blah blah, why the heck not I thought. AND, I decided I would try as hard as I could to watch it 'fresh', ie ignore as best I could any and all thoughts about the worth of the game I had formed over the years, watch it 'as a game of league' in and of itself.
Honestly, I tried REAL hard at that.
It lasted maybe, dunno, three or four minutes? I mean you just cannot ignore the elephant in the room for too long, sooner or later the bleedin obvious simply has to be acknowledged.
What a dull, one dimensional tedious example of a game it was. I could not help but notice (what I call) the pass/tackle ratio. One pass, one tackle. That was it. Then three players laying on him for (what I estimated as an average) of three seconds or so. Nothing too scientific there, 'one thousand, two thousand' etc.
Then one pass, another ten metre run, wash and repeat.
Out of curiosity (let's face it, the game itself provided no interest so I had to make something up) I just kept counting the pass tackle ratio. I'd eat my hat if it were drastically different than 90% of 'one pass, one tackle' (which included one pass then kick)
The HIGHEST number of passes per tackle I counted was seven (IIRC), that happened once in the latter part of the first half.
A few fives, tad more fours with the threes and twos being the majority of the remaining 'ball in play' incidents, with as mentioned probably 90% being one pass.
A very significant part of the game, when you take into account how long it takes for the tackle to be made and then play the ball, is a complete STOP. When it IS in play, 90% of it is one bloke running straight into another (or usually three) other blokes.
That's it.
I truly get the emotional side of it, series decider and all that, but the game itself??
Think it might be another decade
