LIVE GAME Internationals Saturday Games

[Jedhead]

Missed the last game but going off the highlights, Olam looked fantastic. I didn't know he had that kind of speed and that kick for the last PNG try was special.

The PNG Kumuls were something special last night. They were playing to send Meady off a winner of course.

Not sure where he's headed after he finishes up with us, but he'd be more than welcome to stay onboard as our ambassador to PNG as he's so well liked up there and would help us snag and mentor potential 'rocks' from PNG. I think every team needs at least one Kumul to demonstrate their 'straight ahead sidestep'.

 

[McHunt]

Yep, we're meant to believe that Cobbo is fielding 900k overs from 7 clubs or something yet ONLY the Warriors chased Manu.

Now I rate Cobbo but it's not even close, Manu is an out and out superstar in multiple positions including the spine, Cobbo is just a winger who may or may not have the fitness and definitely has the error rate to be a risky purchase.

Nothing fishy.

Selwyn's agent would've got tons of interest because clubs would've been looking to snap him up while he's still relatively young and cheap.

 

[Kimlo]

Selwyn's agent would've got tons of interest because clubs would've been looking to snap him up while he's still relatively young and cheap.

The reported offers aren't young and cheap though, it's established superstar money. More than Paps money...

 

[McHunt]

I don't know about anyone else, but I seriously enjoyed this week of league far more than another NRL round. To me it highlights that the NRL could have a real gem here if they work hard at promoting IRL and funding teams a b it more.

I think instead of raising the cap by another 1m, raise it by 500k and use the rest of that money to fund IRL. I don't think an 11m salary cap improves the game much, but a 10.5m cap with the spare 17m going to IRL would do so much more for the game in the long run.

@BroncsFan raised good points about what's needed to make IRL shine but the one thing he didn't cover is there needs to be more games. Money aside, having 1 game a year in the middle of the season is not going to convince people to play for 2nd tier teams over Aus/NZ. There needs to be an end of year rep schedule, even if it's just a 3 week mini tournament of sorts.

Or have all 3 origin weeks as standalone and throw in 3 weeks of IRL with it. Cut the NRL season by 1 round to make up the broadcast difference in games.

The NRL should have a PNG team, based in Cairns, and a Pacific Island team, based in Logan. That should have happened before Redcliffe. And certainly should be prioritized over any farcical attempt to expand into another Australian state.

Despite being the most successful club in the last 20 years, the Storm has failed to expand rugby league into Victoria. Time to give Melbourne the flick, relocate the club, and grow the actual heartlands of the code.

 

[McHunt]

The reported offers

That right there

 

[Jedhead]

The NRL should have a PNG team, based in Cairns, and a Pacific Island team, based in Logan. That should have happened before Redcliffe. And certainly should be prioritized over any farcical attempt to expand into another Australian state.

Despite being the most successful club in the last 20 years, the Storm has failed to expand rugby league into Victoria. Time to give Melbourne the flick, relocate the club, and grow the actual heartlands of the code.

Don't give Storm the flick, but stop giving them the leg-up via the officiating.

 

[McHunt]

Don't give Storm the flick, but stop giving them the leg-up via the officiating.

Not give the Storm the flick, but relocate/rebrand them. They're a bunch of mercenaries, not a Victorian team.

 

[Mustafur]

Not give the Storm the flick, but relocate/rebrand them. They're a bunch of mercenaries, not a Victorian team.

As much as I would like to agree they still get half decent crowds, the game is already far from being national to take away even Melbourne is short sighted, That said if the club is ran bad post Bellamy and goes under well fair enough.

I think there is several Sydney clubs that can not exist before you get to Storm though, Roosters are basically the same thing as Storm just in Sydney and with less fans, only a few handful of players they have actually are from their feeder areas and besides everyone in Eastern suburbs of Sydney only care about Rugby, league is the poor persons sport to them.

 

[McHunt]

As much as I would like to agree they still get half decent crowds, the game is already far from being national to take away even Melbourne is short sighted, That said if the club is ran bad post Bellamy and goes under well fair enough.

I think there is several Sydney clubs that can not exist before you get to Storm though, Roosters are basically the same thing as Storm just in Sydney and with less fans, only a few handful of players they have actually are from their feeder areas and besides everyone in Eastern suburbs of Sydney only care about Rugby, league is the poor persons sport to them.

Half the problem with crowds are the ridiculous ticket prices. Airlines get this shit. They drop the prices to meet demand. Better to have the empty seats filled with schoolkids who got in for free than to leave them dormant.

 

[NSW stables]

Missed the last game but going off the highlights, Olam looked fantastic. I didn't know he had that kind of speed and that kick for the last PNG try was special.

Unfortunate that u missed it because i thought this was the best game of the three yesterday. It may not have been classy football but the contest was great.

PNG won the same way the hunters won the Qld Cup final. Through effort, determination and just running harder and tackling harder than the opposition.

 

[Mustafur]

Half the problem with crowds are the ridiculous ticket prices. Airlines get this shit. They drop the prices to meet demand. Better to have the empty seats filled with schoolkids who got in for free than to leave them dormant.

I know the ticket prices for Broncos games are quite high but Sydney games are not that expensive, there is also alot of free tickets given away to schools and such to try boost the crowds.

Looking at this, Warriors I wouldn't count because of the fact they haven't played at home yet, and Cronulla have half their stadium in scaffold as it's getting rebuilt. You can see it's the typical Sydney teams at the bottom, Tigers and Roosters.

Tigers would get more attendance if they just only played at Leichardt but because the club is basically 100% western Magpie owned these days they keep deluding themselves into thinking people from Campbelltown even care about that team and keep playing there. Roosters are effectively the worst team attendance wise in the comp and they are a good team, imagine if they performed like Tigers year in and out, they would probably average 5k, it also doesn't help the Moore park precinct is terrible to get to for anyone who doesn't live right near the stadium as the public transport links are terrible.

Parra since moving to the new Stadium has basically been locked in as the 2nd highest team attendance wise, and Penrith being 3rd is quite insane when you think about how terrible that stadium is to go to, it's mostly a paddock in a freezing valley that would rival Canberras temperatures some nights, I expect once they get a new fully seated and covered stadium they will easily be 2nd unless they drop off performance wise, I also think Canberras attendance is hurt by the fact it's an uncovered stadium, nothing would be more miserable then going there and it to rain as well.

Dogs and Rabbits are both hurt by the fact they play at homebush, I Don't really understand why Dogs don't just stay at Belmore, it can hold 20k and they sell out everytime they play there, plus it has excellent public transport being right next to the train station.

 

[Mr Fourex]

I’d be far more comfortable offering Lam others years than Milford. Cheaper, better organiser and seemingly less trouble.

...trouble? What trouble.....

 

[Accept]

The NRL should have a PNG team, based in Cairns, and a Pacific Island team, based in Logan. That should have happened before Redcliffe. And certainly should be prioritized over any farcical attempt to expand into another Australian state.

Despite being the most successful club in the last 20 years, the Storm has failed to expand rugby league into Victoria. Time to give Melbourne the flick, relocate the club, and grow the actual heartlands of the code.

Yep, totally agree. The NRL need to target the areas where the game is absolutely worshipped. Melbourne was never going to work out and Redcliffe won't exactly be a financial success in a city that isn't RL mad like it was in the 90's.

League heartlands in Australia barely exist anymore. Quite strong in the Hunter and the very outskirts of Sydney and Brisbane and that's about it. Most junior clubs struggle to fill age groups, the senior competitions around NSW struggle to fill the numbers to make a viable competition and TV ratings are at an all time low.

The future of the game lies solely with PNG and the island nations. I'm not sure if the NRL agree though.

 

[1910]

Wouldn't mind kyle laybutt in our squad. Best tackling technique I've ever bloody seen and a huge boot on him too.

He just went passed Jensen's record for most games for Townsville. He will crack 100 ISC games by the end of the season.

 

[McHunt]

Reminder: only two more sleeps until Team List Tuesday.

 

[McHunt]

Yep, totally agree. The NRL need to target the areas where the game is absolutely worshipped. Melbourne was never going to work out and Redcliffe won't exactly be a financial success in a city that isn't RL mad like it was in the 90's.

League heartlands in Australia barely exist anymore. Quite strong in the Hunter and the very outskirts of Sydney and Brisbane and that's about it. Most junior clubs struggle to fill age groups, the senior competitions around NSW struggle to fill the numbers to make a viable competition and TV ratings are at an all time low.

The future of the game lies solely with PNG and the island nations. I'm not sure if the NRL agree though.

They're RL mad up there

 

[1910]

Issue with the Hunters is they don't produce NRL players, Olam is nearly it since 2014. Why can't they produce NRL quality players? To be in the NRL you'd want to see more players going from there to NRL and Test football.

They've won a comp and made finals three times in that time, but I question the development.

 

[Alec]

Looking at the stats since I couldn't watch the game, did Manu really run for over 400m? Is that some kind of record?