Geoff Carr should build a bridge..

[dukey]

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a fan of Carr. But if I was in Folau's position, I wouldn't expect to be treated any differently to what's actually happened.

 

[Flutterby]

If I was the AFL I would be jumping for joy at the amount of FREE publicity Geoff Carr is providing. At least they are paying Issy a truckload WHEN he actually becomes an employee of theirs

 

[Porthoz]

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a fan of Carr. But if I was in Folau's position, I wouldn't expect to be treated any differently to what's actually happened.

What an unbelievable load of sh!t.
Carr has done more harm to Rugby League than Folau and GWS will ever do!
And now, he goes to the extreme of determining who Tonga, a sovereign country, is allowed to use as support staff?
Since when does the NSWRL rule the International game? [icon_thumbs_do

It's petty, it's low and it paints our game black! :evil:

 

[Big Pete]

Off the Wall
Written by: Jeff Wall
Oct 19, 2010 9:16am

The ARL has made the right call in banning Israel Folau from any role with the Tongan team in the lead up to Sunday's match against Samoa - a curtain raiser to the opening Four Nations Test match between the Kangaroos and the Kumuls.

The ARL's stance has been criticised by Kevin Sheedy - who in a couple of week's time will be Folau's coach as the Western Sydney AFL team. Enough said!

As Geoff Carr said yesterday, if Folau is interested in promoting rugby league in Tonga, how come he has accepted the AFL's millions? You can bet your last dollar that if he is doing any promotional work in Tonga it will be for the AFL!

The tough stance against Folau cannot be compared with the David Vidot issue. I remain of the view that he should have been allowed to play for Samoa - and David Vidot is not switching codes!

I hope the ARL, or the Independent Commission if and when it is established, addresses the whole issue of how to deal with players who switch to another code mid-season.

And it especially needs to address the issue of players who potentially have years ahead of them in the game and who switch code to be used as a marketing tool by another code - and the AFL in particular.

When Israel Folau signed with the Western Sydney AFL team mid season - and in the middle of the Origin series - his representative career should have ended then and there.

The game's administrators need to put in place a tough, no nonsense policy that club officials, and Origin officials, cannot circumvent.

If a player is being signed by another code principally as a PR stunt to use against rugby league - and that is clearly what Folau and Karmichael Hunt were recruited for - then rugby league might fight back.

And fighting back means ending their representative careers - and in my view their NRL careers need to be reviewed as well.

I was frankly appalled at the way Folau was made almost a hero by some of his teammates during the Origin series, and in the remainder of the NRL premiership.

The only way to stop that is for the game's administrators to put in place tough protocols. The guiding principal ought to be that if you switch codes, and do so in a way and at a time that allows the other code to use you as a marketing/PR tool, then your rugby league career ends then and there.

On that basis, both Folau and Hunt should not have been allowed to play out the season with the Broncos, let alone play Origin football.

Let's put the boot on the other foot - can you imagine if a young high profile AFL player switched mid-season to rugby league, Andrew Demetriou would gladly allow him to be used to promote rugby league in Melbourne while still playing AFL?

That simply would not be allowed to happen.

And it must not be allowed to happen in the NRL in the future. Before the start of the 2011 season water tight protocols must be in place - to prevent a repeat of the nonsense we had to put up with last season, and this season.

The AFL is targeting rugby league territory for a number of reasons - boosting its television audience is key among them. But it is also after rugby league's sponsors, and our juniors.

The AFL is cashed up. They are a significantly greater threat than soccer or rugby union.

If the AFL wants to take on rugby league it is free to do so - but we don't need to, and cannot afford to, give it a helping hand!

The article in question.

 

[Foordy]

AFL says league boss Geoff Carr has helped their cause by criticising Israel Folau's move to Aussie Rules

AND the winner for the AFL's employee of the year is ... Australian Rugby League chief executive Geoff Carr.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal that Carr's ongoing crusade to ban AFL convert Israel Folau from any representative rugby league since news of his looming defection broke in June has given the rival code at least $2.44 million worth of free publicity.

The value, compiled by Media Monitors at the request of The Daily Telegraph, includes Carr's campaign to ban Folau from Origin II and III to the most recent blow-up over the former Kangaroos Test star's desire for a Tongan farewell game this weekend.

No wonder officials at AFL headquarters are laughing and joke that Carr is their game's "best employee" who has helped put GWS on the sporting map. It is believed the second Sydney team had barely created a ripple in the NSW sporting pool until Carr claimed in April last year that the AFL's push into western Sydney would be the rival code's version of "Vietnam".

An AFL spokesman refused to comment on the research, but sources claim they are surprised that the ARL chief has spent so much time talking about their code rather than let the issue simply rest.

"[Signing Folau] has obviously created a bit of discussion, but we did not expect it would generate from the ARL," said a source.

"It's a bit surprising when their sport is going so well he is constantly talking about ours.

"It's been bonus coverage. We don't want him to stop."

Since Folau signed with GWS in June, he and Carr have appeared together in almost 1500 news items across TV, radio, internet and press.

In The Daily Telegraph alone Carr and Folau have featured in four back page stories, the latest last Monday over the skirmish about being a waterboy for Tonga.

full article: http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/nrl ... 5941457139

as we all suspected Carr has done more to help the AFL than Folau has, and he is not even getting paid for it...

 

[Porthoz]

Ge, what a surprise! :roll:

 

[Flutterby]

The sooner the Independant Commission is in place to get rid of this douche bag the better.

 

[Flutterby]

Hope Carr and his cronies are happy now. All this BS means we may never see Issy return to the truly great game. He will still be very young when he finishes his marketing job with AFL and could still contribute immensely to our game should he decide to come back as was his initial intention - but now it seems that may no longer be.

http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/nrl ... 5941963743

 

[dukey]

What's to say he'd come back anyway? Maybe rugby union will offer him a spot, and as he's shown by leaving Melbourne and eventually rugby league for successively bigger contracts. When he first signed with Brisbane I recall him saying he'd return to the Storm, but he just forgot about all that. No doubt he'll forget about rugby league, too, unless the NRL can print a cheque long enough to fit a squillion zeroes on.

 

[Flutterby]

Issy has always says he would absolutely return to league. I never believed he would go back to the Storm, but I truly believed his intention was to come back to league. He may still do it, but the way Carr and his cronies have carried on it makes it much less likely.

 

[Flutterby]

Issy handed out the jersey's to the Tongan team - suck that Carr you douche.

 

[Flutterby]

Tonga would have forfeited the match, so yeah nothing to Issy per se - but not good at all for Tonga