NEWS Siebold chuffed with pre-season fitness

[Black Philip]

Because even footballers are smart enough to not buy into a dying code. In another 5 or so years time, the sport may very well be staring at extinction in Australia.

It feels like union has been bleeding out for quite some time. Even the junior talent pools have become more diluted with AIC schools now offering league. I don't know if it's lack of foresight and action on behalf of union or down to League being too strong, but it definitely looks like union is cactus in Australia.

 

[I bleed Maroon]

It feels like union has been bleeding out for quite some time. Even the junior talent pools have become more diluted with AIC schools now offering league. I don't know if it's lack of foresight and action on behalf of union or down to League being too strong, but it definitely looks like union is cactus in Australia.

The Super Rugby killing off the Western Force was the real beginning of the end for them. Pessimism surrounding the codes future in Australia had already begun to grow, then the domestic competition goes ahead and throws fuel on the fire by summarily ostracizing the entire western half of the country with what they felt like was a kneejerk and panicked action. Not that we can talk; our inaction in not jumping in to fill that vacuum as quickly as possible doesn't say much for our administrative judgement either, and it's a vacuum that remains to this day.

The Force were having troubles yes, but not doing a tonne more to ensure the survival of Union in WA at a time when people are beginning to wonder if the sport has a future at all was incredible incompetence at best or a surefire sign that things really are crook in Tobruk at worst.

 

[Renegade]

It feels like union has been bleeding out for quite some time. Even the junior talent pools have become more diluted with AIC schools now offering league. I don't know if it's lack of foresight and action on behalf of union or down to League being too strong, but it definitely looks like union is cactus in Australia.

symptomatic of living up your own arse for years looking down on the mungos.

 

[Locky’s Left Boot]

Travis failed to mention Brad Thorn and Peter Ryan were there as well:

Session with Broncos helps Reds
raise intensity ahead of Super Rugby season​

Reds recruit Henry Speight says a combined training session with the NRL's Brisbane Broncos has helped the Reds raise their intensity levels just over a month out from their first Super Rugby trial. While the Reds will kick off their Super Rugby campaign against the Brumbies in Canberra on January 31, they returned to pre-season training later than the Broncos and Speight said Saturday's session at the NRL club's HQ at Red Hill was a valuable "pick-up in pace". Several of the Reds have hardly stopped this year, with many in the squad having played the recent NRC season, while the team's World Cup representatives, who only returned from Japan just over a month ago, still to return to training.

New Reds recruit Henry Speight said the combined session with the Broncos was valuable. Photo: Getty Images

"It was a bit of a pick-up in pace but we only have, realistically, three training weeks before our first trial game and it's going to come around pretty quick," said Speight, the former Wallabies winger who has joined the Reds this season from the Brumbies. "The more we can do stuff like that - running our shapes against quality opposition who can really test us in some of those games - it's really going to benefit our squad." Slogging it out in 36 degree heat in Brisbane was little fun for either team but Speight said it was valuable. "It was good, tough, but both squads embraced it and embraced each other and it was very good to experience that," he said.

Isaac Lucas takes on the Broncos defence in a game of touch. Photo: Getty Images

"I've never been a part of a cross-code training session, so it was a good initiative from both coaches. "It's just an opportunity to come together and see how each other work and function as a unit and there's a lot of things we can take out of that and vice-versa from the Broncos' point of view. "We're representing Queensland and Brisbane, so to be coming together every now and then is a positive thing." Broncos coach Anthony Seibold has invited other codes into his training sessions in the past, including the Waratahs when he was at the helm of the South Sydney Rabbitohs.

Broncos half Brodie Croft attempts to get away from Reds recruit Josh Flook. Photo: Getty Images

While they play different codes, Seibold said there was value in the meetings.
"I'm a big supporter of rugby union, I love the catch and pass and the skill level of rugby, so to bring the Reds down here with Brad (Thorn) and Peter Ryan, some guys who are really familiar to us here at the Broncos and have been great servants of the Broncos, it was great for us to host the Reds," he said.

"I'm very respectful of what Brad's trying to do there and I'm a big supporter of where they're going as a club and a franchise, so it was a great opportunity for us to compete."
Thorn and Ryan are among only a handful of players to have won NRL and Super Rugby titles, while Thorn is also a World Cup winner with the All Blacks.

Broncos hooker Andrew McCullough takes on the Reds' Hamish Stewart in a game of touch. photo: Getty Images

Speight said the respect held for the coach by both clubs was amazing. "A lot of our boys were looking at the Broncos boys - some of the Origin boys and Test players - and then Thorny walks in and there's just a bit of an aura about him and both squads respect him and even the trainers and coaches," he said. "He's a very humble man and he lives by his actions and that's something we're trying to emulate."

Session with Broncos helps Reds raise intensity ahead of Super Rugby season

Reds recruit Henry Speight says a combined training session with the NRL's Brisbane Broncos has helped the Reds raise their intensity levels just over a month out from their first Super Rugby trial.

www.rugby.com.au

If that was a game of touch, then that Macca photo doesn’t surprise me one iota. Looks like he is about to release the ball a second too late. Old habits die hard.

 

[McHunt]

He effectively took over the Titans

It feels like union has been bleeding out for quite some time. Even the junior talent pools have become more diluted with AIC schools now offering league. I don't know if it's lack of foresight and action on behalf of union or down to League being too strong, but it definitely looks like union is cactus in Australia.

 

[Wolfie]

A couple of years ago there was some discussion on here about trying to get him on board as an assistant. I think at the time he was working with a country Queensland rugby team but I could be wrong.

I'd heard at one point he was being discussed to replace Wayne, but nothing ever came of it and he got his shot at the reds. I remember seeing him at the Roosters game i think it was last year. The bloke is an absolute tank.

 

[K-Style]

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I'm still in disbelief that she landed the job after the way she drove the Bulldogs into the ground.

 

[Morkel]

 

[Huge]

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That's Darryl Brohman wearing a black wig isn't it ?