KEY POINTS:
There's a prowler loose in league and none of us will be safe in 2008.
Last year it was the grapple tackle which wrestled us into exhausted submission. There was no such thing as a quiet news day for the NRL in 2007, because any lull was simply
another invitation to grapple with the grapple.
No sooner had league put a hold on the grappler than the prowler tackler arrived.
Firstly though, the opening salvos in the 2008 season revealed a different sort of prowler. League is loitering with intent, ready to tackle viewers at any moment with a message reminding them that 2008 celebrates 100 years of Aussie league.
There is one particularly clever time-travelling ad for this gala occasion, but by kickoff on Friday night it felt as if you'd been grappled by a posse of blokes with short back and sides, long shorts and calf-high footy boots with clods of ancient mud stuck to them.
A hundred years is a very long time, but not nearly as long as this season will seem if they carry on with the desperately reverential 100-year celebration theme every week.
But there was also another prowler in our midst.
For those who missed it, the prowler tackle turned up in the opening round of 2008 (which is the centenary season by the way).
The prowler tackle involves a couple of tacklers holding the ball-carrier up, but not well enough for the referee to call hold. Then a third bloke arrives and whacko, he delivers the mother of all hits to our helpless victim.
At this point, and it is early days in the season which celebrates 100 years of league, I'd say getting grappled by a grappler is a lot safer than getting prowled by a prowler. While a grapple tackle pretty much describes the act to a T, a name prowler tackle concentrates on the reconnaissance element of the deed while overlooking the amount of venom at impact.
The initial prowler tackle for the centenary season was committed by the Roosters forward Riley Brown, while the recipient was the Souths playmaker Craig Wing, who is also a former Rooster. Basically, Brown shouldered Wing in the back.
The battle lines between the two teams after the match were drawn roughly like this: the Roosters thought the tackle was great and Souths thought it was terrible.
This is Australian league at its best. Get a meaty issue to concentrate on, give it a sexy handle, and line up a load of blokes on each side of the argument.
The early scorecard reads that Brisbane supremo Wayne Bennett is leading the charge against the prowler, while Roosters forward and all-round league spokesman Willie Mason reckons Brown did nothing wrong. Roosters coach Brad Fittler managed to blame ... you guessed it ... Craig Wing. Souths coach Jason Taylor is fuming and says the Roosters probably trained for the move. The Roosters claim the hit was legal yet admit pleasure in removing dangerman Wing, who has a busted shoulder.
Wing, whose wing is in a sling, was the most conciliatory.
My bet is the prowler is a marked man, especially in the year celebrating 100 years of league glories. History has its place, and in some cases the administrators realise its best place is in history, especially when trying to encourage all those little footy players into your code.
So, the prowler tackle may have arrived as an issue and no sport does issues like Aussie league. Good, it makes for interesting sport.
Grappling with the prowler would be a highly appropriate way to celebrate 100 years of league across the ditch.
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All praise to English cricket's Barmy Army of supporters who made a major contribution to a packed and vibrant Basin Reserve for the second cricket test. The travelling troops have been among the stars of this cricket tour, surrounding the matches with an atmosphere that we often struggle to create when left to our own devices.
The Barmy Army is a pleasure to behold. One of their stars is the trumpeter, who belts out a great Ring of Fire, the Johnny Cash classic. The Barmies will also have done much to revive the English team's spirits after their dismal first test showing. It must be great for a sports team to travel the world backed by such ebullient fans.
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The reappointment of Graham Henry ahead of Robbie Deans as the All Blacks boss is an absolute master stroke - compared with the retention of Ian Foster instead of Warren Gatland as the Chiefs coach, that is.
Foster was reappointed with ridiculous and indecent haste early last season, no doubt as yet another key play in the New Zealand Rugby Union's fabulous "jobs-for-the-boys" battle plan.
No other professional sports outfit in the world would have re-hired Foster so early in the season on his record, especially with such a highly rated coach as Gatland waiting in the wings.
As the employer, the NZRU must take major responsibility, but the Chiefs are just as much to blame in my book. They should have battled hard for Gatland but actually seemed quite happy with the Foster deal.
It would be interesting to know exactly what took place behind the scenes, and how the appointment was made.
The NZRU lost a golden opportunity, and one that doesn't come along all that often, to bring a world-class New Zealand coach into their ranks in place of a man who is clearly struggling to lift a forever struggling side.