THE first round of the competition certainly delivered a few surprises.
It also reminded the Bulldogs and the Rabbits, highly fancied before a ball was kicked, that football matches are won on the field, not in the newspapers.
Souths' new Broncos recruit, David Taylor, had publicly, and rather unwisely as it turned out, anointed the Rabbitoh pack as "the best in the competition".
He will be forced to live with that hasty error of judgement for an entire season.
Big is not necessarily "best", particularly when big is being run ragged by a shrewd game plan specifically designed to swing the balance to the swift and evasive.
Coach Brian Smith is new at Bondi but he's an old hand at the game.
Blind Freddy could now draw up a game plan to bother the Bunnies.
If Rusty knows as much about rugby league as he does about acting, he'll be cursing Smith for weeks to come.
Admittedly, it's early days and one good performance doesn't make a rep player, but it can alert the representative selectors to a potential candidate.
Nate Myles, playing No.13 for the Roosters, turned in the type of non-stop performance that will be needed to replace Dallas Johnson's wonderful work rate as Queensland lock forward. The NSW selectors might also have been watching this year's half/five-eighth combination without realising it.
By the time Origin I rolls around, Mitchell Pearce and Todd Carney, who plays extra five-eighth from the fullback position, may have put together such a string of performances in combination that they pick themselves.
The Bulldogs are another team that opened their season as if paralysed by print.
The abundant flow of negative press surrounding the Newcastle outfit seemed to affect the Dogs more than it did the Knights.
The Bulldogs' first half revealed a team that appeared to believe the two points were theirs just for turning up.
What a surprise they got. The Knights hit them with the best 40 minutes of attacking variety played by any team in round one.
The real eye-catcher was the rapid short passing to straight runners attacking the gaps.
The Dogs' defence seemed powerless to put a lid on the ball movement.
The 16-0 half-time scoreline was kind to the Belmore boys.
It could have been well into the 20s.
For those of us who had the Knights well and truly out of their final-eight calculations, it was a reminder that the loss of two forwards by Newcastle no more guarantees failure than the acquisition of two by South Sydney guarantees success.
Disillusioned Newcastle fans who have condemned the many for the actions of a few, and claimed they'll no longer support the team, may care to review their outlook.
When any team has its problems, the more broadminded or balanced view must surely be that the whole of society, which includes the disillusioned crusaders, should no more be condemned for the actions of its criminals than a football team should be for its small proportion of alleged wrongdoers.
In any event, if the football lesson the Knights dished out to the Bulldogs was any indicator, the many are obviously going to make sure the few don't bring the club to its knees.
In the Sydney opener on Friday night, Parramatta demonstrated a reasonably well-organised defence when things were desperate on their tryline, but like last year didn't display much structure in attack.
They'd lower their mistake rate if they had some. It was their own mistakes that killed off their second-half winning time.
It looks like they'll again rely on flash, ad lib assault keeping the ball alive to spring free a member of their quite formidable strike power.
They will be a dangerous football team when it clicks.
St George, by comparison, had obviously used the trials effectively. They brought a machine-like attacking routine to the contest in which they completed, on my count, 37 of 38 sets.
A remarkable achievement for the first round.
Ironically, neither of their tries were produced by teamwork.
High completion rates don't guarantee victory, but with them the Dragons cut to the bone the opposition's chances at the money end.
Their disciplined percentage play will win them most of their games again this year.
I'm hesitant to agree with those who think their style of football won't be enough when the stakes go up in September.
Monday night's game was weird.
It's the Year of the Tiger all right - Tim Sheens's men pulled off a football escape of Houdini proportions against Manly.
They won while being absolutely physically trounced. How did they do it?
Des Hasler doesn't know. Neither does Tim Sheens.
Even Houdini is still scratching his head.
Email a friend