Hindy thrives in solo role

LB is happy to preview what could be the greatest round in the history of rugby league - round four.

Friday
Panthers @ Broncos
Very little between these two poor teams. The key for this match will be whether Broncos players can hear Darren Lockyer any more. He has reportedly put his voice under wraps in preparation for a spoken word tour of his autobiography, 'Locky: Worst Nickname Ever', at the end of the year.

Sea Eagles @ Rabbitohs (Central Coast)
There is something about the charming surrounds of the Central Coast stadium that makes it completely inappropriate for rugby league. The sooner it is turned over to the performing arts or cricket, the better.

Saturday
Titans @ Raiders
It's Methuselah vs Zygote, Ethiopia vs South Sudan, Shakespeare vs Matthew Reilly, old vs new. A false dichotomy really, as the two are merely different sides of the same coin. Speaking of coin, there are some great exotic TAB options for this game, including an over/under of 3.5 for insensitive remarks in the media about Matt Orford, 6.5 for references to Dad's Army when discussing the Titans, and an appealing 12000.5 for the size of the crowd. LB will be limboing right under that one.

Cowboys @ Eels
Perhaps the match of the round, although on further reflection probably not. Stephen Kearney will look to continue his task of moulding the Eels team into the salary-cap cheating Storm team he occasionally contributed to the guiding of, while Neil Henry will look to continue wondering why he ever left Canberra. Kearney at least appears to have the ear, if not the rest of the body, of his players. He could be seen patiently addressing them during half time of their round two 'clash' with Penrith, with hilariously ineffective consequences, while in the opposing dressing room assistant coach Steve Georgallis had to take over while CEO Mick Leary was re-inking Matt Elliot to a two year extension.

Sunday
Dragons @ Knights
The Dragons are understandably desperate to retain Wayne Bennett, on the understanding that if he goes he will take last year's NRL trophy with him. But by the time of the second play the ball in this match Bennett's $2m transfer to the Knights may be all but a formality. Unfortunately for the Knights Bennett will then come clean and admit that he will be selling his services to the highest bidder on a weekly basis for the remainder of the season.

Warriors @ Sharks (Taupo, NZ)
In the history of all home rugby league matches relocated to a venue in closer proximity to the away team, the away team has won 13 of 27 games. LB expects this trend to continue. Incidentally, Taupo is rather smelly.

Tigers @ Roosters
The team that thinks they should have won last year against the team that knows they were lucky to finish second but somehow thinks that they'll win this year. In the Tiger's favour is excitement machine Benji Marshall, who LB caught up with this week.

League Blog: Benji, many regard you as an excitement machine. Can you tell us exactly what an excitement machine is supposed to be anyway?
Benji Marshall: Haha, good question. My suspicion is that there is no such thing, and it stems simply from the ubiquity of mechanical and electronic technology in our shared cultural memory. In a different era I'd be an excitement lathe or an excitement mill.
LB: Thank you, Benji Marshall.

Monday
Bulldogs @ Storm
After facing potential State of Origin rivals in his first three rounds, Jamal Idris will be taking his foot off the accelerator against Beau Champion, who hasn't got a hope in hell of making State of Origin. Idris appears at least 1.2m/s faster than last year, which may be the reason he's not as slow. The winner will be the only undefeated side left in the comp, which should add extra spice - cinnamon, the only bark-bound spice, to be precise.

The Good News

It’s hard to pick from the many good news stories that litter the 2011 NRL season, but League Blog will try.

It was heartening to see the renewed focus on scrum formation in round one, with referees lovingly adjusting players’ arms and giving precise instructions. Fantasy League operators are already scrambling to add a scrum formation metric to their player ratings.

The Bulldogs and Eels gave their fans reason to hope by winning against more fancied, though equally unattractive, opposition. This hope is far preferable to the pre-season hope that all clubs bar the Sharks have.

The two teams used different formulae for the victories. The Dogs employed a judicious mixture of recruitment and blind luck, which should put them in good stead for 2013 after the inevitable crash back to earth in 2012. The Eels hired new supercoach Stephen “Firm, not hard” Kearney, who obviously was the real reason for all the Storm’s since revoked amazing success.

A number of exotic betting options are
available in the comments section at League Blog

Exotic TAB options. While LB believes firmly that exotic and TAB should never be in the same sentence, it is a sign of the good health our game is in that new betting options are available. These include whether a field goal will be scored, and whether it will be kicked by a prop as the first scoring option. Here’s a TAB spokesman with more:

“If a punter follows a team that is a short-priced favourite in a match, he might simply prefer to take up to $4 about there being a field goal rather than $1.20 about his team winning, just so he still has an interest in the match.”

The NRL is said to be in highly advanced discussions with TAB about boosting the number of exotic options for Sharks and Panthers matches. Meanwhile David Gallop had this to add:

“While exotic bets raise concerns, we have to accept that there are elements of betting on the game that many people enjoy - particularly players and player agents. We don't want to drive punters to the offshore agencies, where it's completely unregulated. Allow me to make an analogy with drug or arms dealing – if we don’t do it, someone else will."

Such frankness is comforting, and appears to be spreading to player evaluations as well. Days after saying Greg Inglis’ natural position was fullback, Craig Bellamy has come out again and said that Chase Stanley’s natural position is sitting in the player’s box in a suit. Fantasy League operators have begun groundwork on a new competition which only allows players to play in their natural positions. LB feels it is high time this discussion was brought out into the open and hereby nominates Craig Bellamy's natural position as National Natural Position Coordinator.

A lot of promise

After it was revealed that senior Wests Tigers vowed to retire from the NRL if their side did not make the top eight last year, LB has discovered a number of other instances of this type of motivational ploy.

• One could be forgiven for doubting the value of the vows of Trent Barrett, Nathan Cayless and Brett Kimmorley to retire should their sides not make the eight, but at least each has kept their word.

• It was initially thought that Ricky Stuart had made a similar pledge, but it has been revealed that his vow to retire did not come with any conditions attached to it and must therefore be ruled ineligible.

• Then referees boss Robert Finch vowed to retire if a number of key rule changes weren’t made, including doubling the number of linesmen to four, doubling the number of touchlines to two, halving the number of goalposts to one, doubling the number of referee’s bosses to two and doubling the number of revolutions of the Harvey Norman insignia prior to announcement of a video ref decision. Finch has of course since retired and can now be found in a number of online league tipping competitions.

Several NRL sides have tried to implement similar player vow systems for the 2011 season, with varying success.

So far Reni Maitua and Chris Walker are the only two players from the Eels to promise to retire if their team doesn’t make the eight, although a number of Sharks players have signed on for lesser vows, such as to show up to training more or less on time and to enter the field legally during a player interchange.

Other notable vows:

• Steve Matai has vowed to get himself suspended into retirement should Manly not make the eigh.

• Jonathan Thurston has come under fire for not including any club goals in his vow, promising only to retire if not selected to play for Queensland while fit.
  

• Panthers CEO Mick Leary has vowed to retire if he extends Matt Elliot’s contract before round seven.