Ricky Stuart was right. When it comes to brickbats and bouquets dished out after games of rugby league, it is the halves who most “own” the result. They are the game’s playmakers, the quarterbacks. They are credited with Dally M points, they dominate pre-match conjecture, they are targeted, for good and ill, in post-match analysis. And while it might not be fair on them or their team-mates – halves can’t do what they do without a platform of possession and territory laid by others – as a wise man once said, it is what it is.
Sydney Roosters are NRL favourites for several reasons, not the least of which is that their halves, Luke Keary and Cooper Cronk, are the game’s premier playmakers, its master manipulators. On the back of physical ruck battles won mostly by their intense, brutish forwards, Keary and Cronk ritually dismantled the ragged, rattled and disappointing Brisbane Broncos at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Thursday night. In the end it was Roosters 36, defeated Broncos 4. The gulf was Carpentaria.
The Roosters played with clinical, relentless, and dare one say it “Storm-like” intensity in defence and attack. Every ruck was a competition – and the Roosters won most of them. In a game talked up as a blockbuster, the visitors were like Edward II of England after the Battle of Bannockburn – sent home to think again.
The SCG surface has known critique of late and while it sported several shades of green – notably “jungle”, “olive drab” and “dun” – it held up well after heavy rain. Conditions were mild yet slightly slippery, thus field position was key. Cronk and Keary held that key.
Cronk, particularly, owned the ground. He kicked on early tackles. If the Roosters were on their 40m, the plan was: roost it; chase like dogs; hammer them. And it told on the Broncos.
After typically strong forward charges, Keary sent a precise flat ball in front of Joseph Manu who dished quick-hands for his winger, Matt Ikuvalu, who stepped the rushing defence and scored. Angus Chrichton flew hard and straight, all bones and vigour, and bashed through those Broncos he didn’t carry across the line. Such are the Roosters’ riches he’s been starting on the bench. He wore No 17.
Jamayne Isaako, who like several team-mates had an unhappy evening, caught a Keary kick and was rumbled over the sideline, Kodi Nikorima trying to hold him back like a man pulling back the tide.
Tevita Pangai Junior tried to stem the flow the best way he could. The latest “next big thing” knew his team needed Cronk on the ground, preferably in pain. He hit the No 7 late and hard, in the back, causing Cronk’s head to whip back. It was cheap and nasty, and Junior will know a case at judiciary.
It didn’t stop the Roosters. Waves of them came hard at the Broncos, controlled and clinical, physical. They looked great. Cronk continued to throw his teammates at the Broncos’ line, one after the other. It was subtle, effective and pure Cronk.
Keary’s work was flashier but just as dangerous. He ran angles, he kicked and passed with alacrity. He’s a real footballer and looks in the form of his life. Were the Blues’ Origin team to be picked now, he is a lock at No 6. And the Maroons could do worse than his mate in the 7.
By contrast the Broncos’ halves, Anthony Milford and Nikorima, were solid and not spectacular. Flashy footwork is their strength, yet they had no ball – their team-mates could barely hold onto it. The Broncos spent 80% of the first half defending. Some players enjoy this stuff but it’s still extremely tiring and the Broncos were rent asunder.
After 32 minutes it was 18-nil, but it could have been 30. Mitch Aubusson was one of many Roosters in motion when he stepped through a ragged and rattled Broncos line. Daniel Manu flew and caught a kick, and waltzed over in the shadows of half-time. And off they went, with 32 missed tackles against the team in “Cheezel” orange.
The Broncos were better in the second half, presumably after a methodical and clinical tongue-lashing from their coach Anthony Seibold. You wonder though what he could have said. Seibold was brought to Brisbane because his pitch for the gig was chosen over those of Wayne Bennett and Kevin Walters.
Didn’t matter anyway. The Broncos could have been coached by Bennett, Walters and Robert the Bruce, and it still would not have mattered. It was all Roosters. By the end they were running free like the buffalo, and scored a try the Fijian rugby sevens Olympic champions would have sat back and thrown bouquets at.
