The Orange

Interesting article on the Daily Telegraph site about the Kumuls making a play for the NRL.

The PNG Government is behind this bid in a big way:

PNG Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare has also pledged $10 million to help build a new stadium in Port Moresby and a further $250,000 to assist the PNG bid team, headed by Gold Coast chairman and veteran league official Paul Broughton.

It’s true to say that there are plenty of competing bids from within Australia – Central Coast, Central Queensland and a second Brisbane side, not to mention outposts such as Adelaide and Perth.  Also not to mention a second NZ team but more on that later.

The usual mantra WIIFM applies.

As far as the NRL is concerned, the answer could well be “plenty”:

PNG Minister for Sport Philemon Embel wrote to Gallop saying: “The passion of six million PNG people for rugby league is undisputed. Unlike the Australian-based possible expansion teams, a PNG team will increase revenue to the clubs.

“The New Zealand Warriors increase revenue to the NRL by at least $10 million a year. PNG would do the same.”

This last point is something that our retard … oops, retro friends across the ditch forget when they call for the Warriors to be kicked out of “their” National League.

It’s not just a case of ditching the Warriors (boom boom) but losing ANOTHER team – the Warriors pay their way along with another team.  Or should that be we pay, largely through Sky.

I can’t see the Kumuls flying soon but it certainly would add another dimension to the NRL plus yet another weak team that the Warriors can lose to.

Not that many sleeps to go until the real rugby season starts.

First thing’s first.

I have almost cracked the one and only KPI for this site:

if you search Google for “cheating aussies”, this site ranks #1

however, if you search Google for “cheating Aussies” or “Cheating Aussies”, this site ranks a paltry #2

Who would have thought caps mattered so much?

Anyway, given that a big chunk of the purpose of this site is to poke the borax at our cobbers across the Drink, it’s going to be a little odd to say nice things about Oz.  And Oztralians.

However, that dear reader (yes, both of you) is what I must do.

Rugby league in NZ would be dead if the Aussies hadn’t kept the Warriors alive.  Sure, they reap the $$$ from this and as I’ve pointed out before, the Warriors in fact pay their way and that of another Aussie team through the money Sky pays for TV rights.

Sure they steal some of our players.

But now, the NZRL has started stealing some of them back – born Australians who are died in the wool (boom boom) Kiwis.

Without the exposure to the NRL and the development that’s come from that, we would never have won the Rugby League World Cup.

And now the soccer.

The Aussies have never been given the plaudits they deserve for keeping an A team league alive in NZ.  The FSM knows that Auckland did its best to ruin the chances of professional football ever being played in NZ.

Critically the core of the successful All Whites teams came from the Nix – players like Bertos, Paston and Brown have all been developed in the A-League.  Without exposure to that level of football, it would be hard to see NZ fielding a team that was competitive enough to win.

So there you have it.

The same week we finally reach number one in Google for “cheating aussies”, I end up thanking the Aussies.

PS Luckily we don’t have to thank Aussie rugby refs for anything!

I had to laugh when I read this headline:

Early Kiwis exit boosts NZRL coffers

Here’s the deal.  While the Kiwis dip out on performance prize money (they only get 25K pound for third compared to 100K pound for winning), the fact the Poms made the final means more fat round white Pommy bums on seats.

“The partners split the overall profits. England qualifying for the final makes it more likely that there is a full house, whereas Australia-New Zealand would have been a harder sell.

“So from that point of view, the financial return will probably be healthier because England are in the final.”

But wait – there’s more!

The Kiwis will also save travel and accommodation costs by heading home today instead of next week.

Perhaps Teacher Ted should have come back from the 2007 RWC and said look on the sunny side … we saved two weeks of travel and accommodations costs!

As for the Four Nations, it’s hard not to wonder if the slower game under the French ref worked against the Kiwis.  As hard as it is to say, Shayne Hayne would have been better.

Still, the ref didn’t make the Kiwis drop bombs, knock on, or miss tackles.

While it was obviously a bummer not to have another shot at the Kangarooteds, there were many positives to come out of the tour:

• Kearney continues to develop as a coach
• Junior Sau and Waerea-Hargreaves in particular shone as young players with talent
• Fui Fui is back in the Kiwis fold
• Benji didn’t get injured

At least we have some half decent international league on top of the NRL.  Even so, it beats the aerial ping pong that passes as rugby union these days.

It’s been a while since we last visited my favourite topic – cheating Aussies.

At least a couple of weeks.

However, you don’t need to wait long for our cobbers across the deetch to do something underarm.

Apparently, Tim Sheens is upset for his innocent wee boys who have a score to settle.

THE Four Nations final between Australia and England is poised to detonate with Kangaroos coach Tim Sheen giving his side the green light to “square up” with England for some grubby tactics from their last encounter – as long as it’s legal.

OK, let’s get this straight.  Tim Sheens thinks his team – including the grub of all grubs Gallen – has been hard done by??

What’s interesting is to see that this view is not just a Kiwi piss take.

Some of our cobbers agree:

… the moment Gallen was selected the Australian team lost my support. Why would you select somebody like Mr Cheap Shot Merchant from a team like equal last placed Cronulla, that only brought the game into disrepute all year, unless you intended to use some cheap shots yourself? Fancy Sheens complaining about grubby off the ball incidents. Gallen is a master of those and his swinging arm in the last game was totally unnecessary and typical of the low life grub he is. Yes the Aussies love to dish it out but cant take it. I never thought I would ever say this in my entire life but go the Poms.

It gets better!

conan of NSW unfortunately, there is one comment from a kiwi you paranoid fool. Also, how do you know he is not living in NZ. Surely you are not too stupid to realise how the WORLD Wide Web works. I would be surprised if the kiwis threw their game against the Poms to get away from the whinging Aussies. Pitty they still have to put up with whingers like yourself. Like your team, harden up.

I think s/he meant to say they wouldn’t be surprised but nothing surprises me about those Aussies.  Jarrod surprises though!

i wouldnt go to england if you paid me you fools im aussie through and through, but when it comes to league, i cant follow a team of skirts, my australian side is a totaly different side to the one who is playing in the final….. i am a new south welsh man and one all year round not just at origin time. so in saying that i cant go for a side with a bunch of whinging sooks who worry bout the cheap shots they cop when they do it all year round…..and for the tosser who said gallen was our best …best what……..best at given away possession….he is a fool, big sam burges im glad he is coming to souths next year he looks the goods…GO THE POMMIES …….RIP INTO THESE FAIRIES…… WANNA BE WORLD CHAMPS …COULDNT EVEN GET THAT JOB DONE, CLOWNS

Let’s hope the game is half as much fun as the comments on the Telegraph web site!

Hmmm … those poor Warriors just can’t keep out to the news.

After a dire season in 2009, the Warriors are clearly (or should that be Cleary?) trying to make some changes.

The big one of course is replacing Steve Price as Captain. Reading the press, you’d think someone had shot the guy.

Yep, he’s an icon, but he’s 35, still wants to play Origin, and is starting to reach the stage where injuries are becoming more frequent.  He won’t be around in 2011.  He’s yesterday’s man.

Simon Mannering is 23 and the future of the Club.

It would be a no brainer if Pricey wasn’t the most loved Aussie in NZ since … since … . Ever.  (There is no other!)

The press are all over this like the swine flu in both NZ and OZ.  The Daily Telegraph has tried to make it an issue to generate some web traffic:

THE Warriors have sacked Steve Price as captain.

Price is a champion player, leader and bloke.

The decision is a disgrace.

That’s subtle.  No mention of the facts about his age, his SOO commitments etc.

Interestingly, Dean Ritchie is getting some back on this one:

This is simply called succession planning, the hallmark of smart team management, and an excellent strategy in developing team harmony.

Not that disgraceful after all.

Mate you must be deadset kidding yourself. Its the best decision for the club. What happens next year when he retires and we’re left with no captain? The club is bigger then any 1 player and I don’t care who they are or what right people think they may have. He is a champion player, bloke and leader but we need to prepare our next leader/s. If that means he loses the captaincy in his final year then so be it. He needs to man up, get out of the papers and just concentrate on preparing the Warriors and Simon Mannering for a future without Steve Price.

You go mate!

Not everyone agrees of course:

Ten points if you worked out the title.

Here’s a clue.

Or perhaps for NFL, five points for union, and four points for league.

Smashed Em Bro.

Great TV.  Love it.

Must write full sentences.

Righto.

We all love the full contact with rugby and league.  The professional era has seen bigger, fitter, faster athletes smashing each other, eh bro.

Just like the NFL.

Problem is that the NFL is finding out that those big hits keeping on hitting well after players retire.

They wear protection for a reason (no, not THAT type of protection):

But in the long term, most alarming of all is the reason why those children in the park – none of them more than 12 years old – were kitted out like medieval knights girded for battle. Even the most casual observer can’t watch a game for 10 minutes without realising that gridiron football is a brutal business.

Funny thing is that the Yanks think NFL is brutal and they were all that protection.  But perhaps the protection ain’t working?

In September, the University of Michigan published a survey (paid for by the [NFL]) of more than 1,000 former players, who had all put in a minimum of three seasons. The study found that among those over 50, dementia, Alzheimer’s and other memory-related diseases were five times higher than the national average, while for younger retired players the incidence was 19 times greater.

Hands up those who think the NZRFU board must have played NFL?  But we shouldn’t poke the borax:

The NFL and others have challenged the reliability of the figures, but anecdotal evidence from physicians and other research points to an identical conclusion. Ever more cases are also coming to light of ex-players suffering from the separate condition of CTE, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy. They are, in plain English, “punch-drunk,” like a boxer who’s hung around the ring too long.

What about the future?  Good question!

So what happens now? Obviously you can’t eliminate injuries in football without getting rid of the game itself. Like boxers, the players know the risks they are getting into and, though careers are not long, they are well paid. The biggest obstacle to real change is the sport’s macho culture.  …  But that culture still consists of men playing through injury as a point of pride. It’s where concussion is for wimps, and where a bone-crushing hit is as big an attraction as a cleverly worked touchdown.

The point of course is that NFL has been professional and smashing em bros for decades.

The issue for league and union is that we haven’t yet seen the impact of the level of contact we now have and love.

We’re used to league and union players being drunk – but punch drunk?

If you read the headlines, you’d think the life of a rugby league players revolves around drinking, sex, and urinating.

Often at the same time and in the same place.

So you might be surprised to find out that barely a month after the 2009 NRL Grand Final, the Warriors are among a number of teams back in “pre-season training” for 2010.

It was only 29 days ago when 3.6 million television viewers tuned in to watch Melbourne beat Parramatta in the Grand Final. The first cricket Test of the summer is 24 days away from starting, yet the Sydney Roosters, New Zealand Warriors and South Sydney will this morning start training for their 2010 campaigns.

Yep, Xmas is still almost two months away and the first round of 2010 NRL is around 4 months away and the poor bastards are busting their guts.

Don’t worry, but Ivan will give the boys a couple off days off over Xmas:

Former Cronulla five-eighth Brett Seymour will start training today with his new club in New Zealand, but Warriors coach Ivan Cleary has arranged for his players to have another short break over the Christmas-New Year period.

Let’s just hope the Warriors didn’t organise a piss up for the new boys!

Great to see the Kiwis continue to grow.

While rugby league will always be judged on the success of its club competition – and frankly, it’s streets ahead of any rugby comp at present – the international game provides significant pluses for the games.

First, it allows the game to put on the international stage which in turn provides a boost to the other parts of the game.

Second, in doing so, it provides an opportunity for players to travel, experience different countries and I suppose get pissed and do all the things rugby players get up to on too.  Or put another way, it stops top leaguies from drifting off to the dark  side just to go on tour.

Third, and this is the bit we like, it provides us with another chance to stick one up the West Islanders.   Choice bro!

The good thing to come out of the weekend is that the “one off” results are starting to become more regular.

Sure, we can expect that the cheating Aussies will win more than their fair share (although putting “fair” and “cheating Aussies” into the same sentence takes some real effort!

But the Kiwis are now starting to believe they can just like the little tug in the kids’ story (or was it a train??).

At least that’s what Graham Lowe thinks:

“They’re not overawed by anything or anyone playing for Australia,” Lowe said. “They’re comfortable with their own space and with what they are doing in the NRL and that’s why the fear factor that certainly was there for a long time is not there now.”

Put it another way.  We know how good they are but we know who we’re up against.

There’s also a bigger pool of players with leadership experience:

Lowe said the fact the Kiwis – headed by skipper Benji Marshall – were now key men at their clubs was a major aspect of the new confidence.

What’s even better is that the Kiwis are competing but with a stack of established players resting up.

Even Aussie coach Tim Sheens can see the winds of change:

When Cameron Smith says to you: ‘That is the hardest game he can remember playing’ – and he only played the grand final a few weeks ago – you know that’s a hard game,” Sheens said.

Good on ya Tim … now go back to bleating about the Pommy ref!

The Storm have done as expected and won their third NRL crown in their short history.

Someone from the Warriors should be taking notes.

You do have to wonder about whether there was ever any chance of Steve Kearny becoming the Warriors coach.

As for the Eels, they went well beyond what could have reasonably been expected, coming from 8th to play in the Grand Final.  In doing so, they went one better than the Warriors history breaking effort in round one of the playodds last year, ironically beating the Storm.

Speaking of irony (no, not Tony) it shouldn’t be a complete surprise that the Eels’ style of play has been compared to the Warriors of 2002 who – it must be said – fell one at the final hurdle.

Daniel Anderson clearly is more than a capable coach and appears to have learnt a little to relax a little more from his stint at St Helens.

Let’s hope the Warriors backroom boffins take note – playing an open game doesn’t need to at the expense of making it into the playoffs.

In fact, the reverse is the problem with the Warriors – if you’re to miss out on the playoffs, then you really need to give the fans something to cheer.

Let’s hope the lessons from 2009 are well learnt at Warriors Central.

Mind you, a bad season for the Warriors is the equal of a good game of rugby these days.

You can always expect the NRL judiciary to add to the drama around the time of a test against the Kiwis or the Grand Final.

All you can ask of any judiciary is that they are consistent.  And that is undeniably the case with the NRL judiciary.

Come Anzac test time, you can set your clock by the fact at least one of the Kiwis top team will get a week or two off for some trivial matter.  Come in Isaac Luke!

On the other hand, you can equally expect the same people to turn themselves inside out to justify NOT “robbing the game” of a high profile Aussie.  Think none other than Jarryd Hayne.

The Sydney Daily Telegraph has tried to provide a for and against analysis on the issue.

The case against Hayne being let off is reasonably straight forward:

The gravity of Hayne’s offence was recognised immediately by the match officials. A possible eight-point try is not a parking ticket. It’s more like a rap for negligent driving.

Hell, Isaac Luke wasn’t even penalised!

There’s also a big difference between carelessness and reckless indifference. Put all the bromances to one side and history will show Hayne couldn’t cover his line in time to prevent the try and his late note was a very sour one for rugby league.

Bryce Gibbs, Tim Sheens, Cameron Smith, Kevin Moore, Goodwin and legions of Tigers and Dogs fans are fully entitled to question why foul play should be so handsomely rewarded.

Clearly there is one rule for some and another for the rest.

The case “for” Hayne is laughable and has nothing to do with what happened but everything to do with who did it.

[The clampdown on dangerous contact with legs or feet is] a justified call from the game’s suits, yet there was sufficient concern over the weekend that the vagaries of the judiciary system might rob the Grand Final of the best thing the game has going for it right now. Luckily, it has not, because Hayne is in form rarely witnessed.

Who cares what the game is or who did it?  The same criteria was NOT applied with Luke nor ironically with Cameron Smith (Queenslander playing for a Melbourne team).  Funny that.

Still, it shows what we all know – the NRL judiciary is just another bunch of cheating Aussies.