Football season almost over for 2009

The business end of the football season is upon us now with the last premiership games for the year being played today. The big experiment for 2009 was appointing two referees for each first grade match, an experiment which I believe has been a dismal failure. I am hoping that the National Rugby League ditches the idea during the off-season and reverts to a single referee for 2010. Having two referees on the field seems to have confused crowds but there have been times when the referees themselves were confused over their roles and who was the senior referee at the time play was stopped.

The highlight of the season, particularly from a Canterbury supporter, has been the rise in success for the Mighty Bulldogs, whose official club name reverts to Canterbury-Bankstown - a move universally welcomed but particularly welcomed by the followers of the club including me. Never being one for change for the sake of change I never see any reason why some clubs keep changing their names and their colours. It's been tried before without success. In 1995 Canterbury, Easts and Balmain all changed their name to Sydney and included their club mascots in the name to create Sydney Bulldogs, Sydney Roosters and Sydney Tigers. All three threatened each other with legal action over who had the right to call themselves Sydney though Canterbury and Balmain put it all down to a bad experience and changed their names back for the 1996 season. The Roosters changed their name to Sydney City Roosters but later dropped "City". Why did they not go back to just being Easts?

At the end of the day, clubs can call themselves anything they like but it won't change who they are. In Canterbury's case they had to leave their home ground of many decades, the Belmore Sports Ground, due to the state of the place. After years of neglect Belmore needs bulldozing and complete reconstruction and Canterbury are reported to have applied for a grant from the Commonwealth Government to fund a redevelopment of Belmore so that the Dogs can finally go back home after many years basing their home at Concord Oval, the Olympic Stadium and the Sydney Showground.

Back to the premiership itself, Canterbury have definitely been the most improved club this year. They have missed out on a first in Rugby League by a whisker - being the first club to take the Minor Premiership (first place on the ladder) after being placed last the year before. The Minor Premiership in 2009 goes to St George but only on points for and against. They otherwise tie with Canterbury on 38 points. The league ladder is below and for eight of the clubs they will already be unveiling plans for next year.

        St George-Illawarra Dragons    38 
 
        Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs  38 
 
        Gold Coast Titans              36 
 
        Melbourne Storm                33 
 
        Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles     32 
 
        Brisbane Broncos               32 
 
        Newcastle Knights              30 
 
        Parramatta Eels                29 
 
        Wests Tigers                   28 
 
        South Sydney Rabbitohs         27 
 
        Penrith Panthers               27 
 
        North Queensland Cowboys       26 
 
        Canberra Raiders               22 
 
        Auckland Warriors              20 
 
        Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks     14 
 
        Sydney Roosters                14

There is one piece of history left for Canterbury to make this year. Whilst missing out on the Minor Premiership they can still be only the second team to win the Grand Final after being last on the ladder the year before. The only other time this happened in football history was when Wests took the wooden spoon in 1933 and then beat Easts in the 1934 Grand Final by 15 - 12.

Looking well into the future, the North Sydney Bears are continuing with their pursuit to base a 17th premiership team on the Central Coast of NSW by 2013 to be known as the Central Coast Bears. Bluetongue Stadium in Gosford would be their home ground if the Bears made it back into the first grade competition. As someone who never cottoned on to all the interstate clubs that are part of the Sydney-based premiership nowadays I do hope the Bears make it back.

Next week we see St George up against Parramatta, Canterbury will play Newcastle, The Gold Coast will host Brisbane and Melbourne will play Manly.

Written at 21:03 on 6 September 2009 by Lord Watchdog.

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