Ode to Holdsworthy

Firstly, I'd like to apologise to my League Blog co-conspirator, and to our two or three loyal followers, for my unexplained disappearance this year. But visualising the headline, "Dog goes down on Raider", my interest was finally tweaked in what I thought was another excellent Bulldogs scandal, albeit one that might have done much for breaking down homophobic preconceptions in the League world.

But this made me think, why was I not interested in League this year? I could blame it on a new job, on the fact that our TV antennae doesn't work so I can't watch any games at home, on the Bulldogs' poor form, or on the fact that my Canadian wife is not enraptured with League unless the Rabbitohs are winning. But I won't. I'll blame it on these five things instead.

5. The Melbourne debacle. Forcing Melbourne to play for no points was one of the most ridiculous decisions I have ever seen. It was like watching a match refereed by Shane Hayne. As has been said countless times from more serious League sources, Melbourne should have been stripped of their current points, told to keep paying the players what they had been paying them, and forced to front a team whose total salary was below the salary cap. The remainders should have had to sit out the season or, more sensibly, a one-off trading window could have been opened for Melbourne to immediately sell players to other clubs. It soured the entire season for me. If I were Greg Inglis, I would have smashed someone high (best candidate would have been Joey Johns while he was doing sideline comments in Origin 3), been suspended for 14 weeks, and then just had a nice holiday for the remainder of the season.

4. Gus Gould. Obvious, but have to put him in there. Doesn't Channel 9 realise that having him commentate games makes people turn the TV off? Leave him for pre/post/halftime comments and analysis to push his repititious and tedious agendas.

3. The Adjudicator. I don’t know when foxsports turned from a decent website with decent stories, to a jumbled mess of idiots writing ridiculous posts, and other idiots responding to them. I want to read well-considered serious articles that touch on the heart of footy. If I wanted to read that kind of guff, I would turn to League Blog.

2. Redemption. I hate redemption, especially when it's redemption from dropping one in a hotel corridor, or pissing on someone at a pub. And especially when it involves the Roosters.

1. Daniel Holdsworthy. I miss him. I miss his terrible passing. I miss his wayward kicking. I miss his loose tackling. Come back Daniel. Just not to the Bulldogs.