The Sideline Eye

The Parkes Spacemen’s great run in the finals may have fallen one step short but the boys can hold their heads high.

An old adage in sport is that it is often harder to defend a premiership than to win one.

The Spacemen did a fine job of defending their 2013 premiership this season.

A month before the finals started, their looked to be a chance they might miss the finals altogether.

Even after they had secured a finals spot, their last round loss to Macquarie didn’t instill a lot of optimism.

The Spacemen saved their best footy for the finals series and deserved their spot in last Sunday’s grand final.

I watched most of the second half on the Group 11 website live stream and when Spacemen captain Pat Rosser steam-rolled the defence to score and get his side to within eight points, I have to say I thought they were a real chance of finishing over the top the home side.

It was not to be and to be fair, CYMS deserved to win.

The Spacemen put up a great fight and deserve a lot of respect for their season.

On a sour note, Parkes’ back-rower Todd Barrow was bitten during a tackle in the first half of the grand final.

He and Rosser made a complaint to referee Wayne Hughes, indicating who the CYMS player was.

I am yet hear of any further action being taken and reports claim there was nothing about the incident on the official match report.

Biting has no place in any sport except perhaps apple bobbing or pie eating.

I only class these as sport so I can convince my wife I need to lay on the lounge and watch telly.

Biting definitely has no place in rugby league.

In a sport where contestants have the opportunity to legally cause pain to the opposition on every play, it is a sign of a weak player who has to resort to a cheap shot like biting someone in a tackle.

I have so much respect for those players who put their bodies on the line every match.

Watching a diminutive halfback or hooker take down a rampaging man-mountain of a forward with a good, technically correct tackle has always fascinated me.

It takes courage, biting is the opposite of that.

I eagerly await any action from Group 11 on the incident.

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How good were the NRL semi-finals last weekend?

Two unlikely comebacks and both matches decided by golden point field goals.

I was out with a mate, a Bulldogs supporter (I don’t hold that against him), on Saturday night and we watched their semi-final win.

He is passionate about his support of the Dogs and jumped around like an escaped monkey after Trent Hodkinson kicked the match-winning field goal against Manly.

It was great to see.

This weekend is sure to provide some more entertainment as the last four teams play for a grand final spot.

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Five rounds into the British Premier League soccer and there have been some results even Nostradamus could not have seen coming.

Manchester United, fresh from spending 150 million pounds on new players, let a 3-1 lead slip against newly-promoted Leicester City, going down 5-3.

Leicester deserved the win but they should never have been allowed to.

Manchester United should have killed the match off by dominating possession and playing sensibly.

They couldn’t and now sit in 12th position, one spot behind an equally unimpressive Liverpool.

These two teams were the big spenders during the summer transfer window with Liverpool’s purchases costing in excess of 110 million pounds.

Leicester, who are causing me some concern, sit in seventh after spending 12 million pounds.

My concern stems from while they were in the Championship (a level below the premier league), it was easy to follow them and Arsenal.

With The Foxes now in the premiership and doing well, I just hope Arsenal stay in front of them.

The Gunners currently sit in fourth spot which if they can finish there, will make for another solid season.