Another halfback leaves Penrith

It’s perhaps not as crucial a letting go as NSW halfback Peter Wallace last year, but Joe Williams has been released and has joined the Bulldogs. It’s true that in the current scheme of things he probably looks as if he’d be waiting an eternity for a run on start, but he’s at least the 5th number 7 that has exited from the club in the past year or so (Craig Gower, Wallace, Brett Firman, Richie Williams and now Joe Williams). Add to that the fact that Luke Lewis is tied with Souths for next year, and it just looks like a revolving door of halfbacks at CUA Stadium.

Which, of course, is no good for Penrith considering the well known and proven belief that premiership winning teams require top shelf halfbacks who control the play, provide solid leadership and vision, and prove a class above their opposite number in almost every game. Jarrod Sammut’s form has been a bit unsteady over the past month and he may be showing that he’s not a long term option as a 7, so one would have to be wondering whether or not it’s wise for Matt Elliott to use the left over money from the moving on of Lewis and Tony Puletua at the end of the year to try to lure a top class specialist half and solve the problem that’s existed ever since Craig Gower’s form started dropping off around 2005/6.

Put simply, we can’t win a premiership, let alone prove ourselves as genuine contenders, until we realise that there’s no merit in part time halfbacks. If only Gower had been a bit more open in letting people know that he was itching for a code switch earlier than this time last year so that he could have been released and the money left over used to keep Wallace in a Panthers jersey.

Source: Fox Sports

Sports retirements…

Annika Sorenstam, the woman who dominated womens’ golf in the same way as Tiger Woods has the mens’ game will line up her final putt at the end of the current LPGA season, as the Sydney Morning Herald reports. Meanwhile, whispers suggest that after some problems with her game, world no. 1 tennis player Justine Henin will announce her retirement from professional tennis, aged just 25. According to the Fox Sports report, the Belgian is yet to win Wimbledon, so any tennis fan (I’m a casual one – it’s unarguably a fun game to watch, and play if you can get a serve over the net with enough regularity) would hope that she decides to have one final tilt at the grass courts of the All England Club before putting her racquet away once and for all.