JoneslessBishop Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 Real shame that the Tongan RL authorities are in such a mess: http://www.loverugbyleague.com/news_22045-court-case-reveals-tongan-rl-s-chaos.html Let's hope it doesn't put their World Cup participation at risk. They have possibly the most talented side of any Pacific Nation, but will be very different to add indigenous growth to their team. A NSW/ Qland Cup team like PNGs and hopefully Fijis must seem years away after this. Any one got an news on the Fiji teams entry to the NSW Cup? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommygilf Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 It's certainly disappointing with regards to their domestic development. Fiji on the other hand seem well on the way to a NSW cup team in 2017/2018 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoneslessBishop Posted May 20, 2016 Author Share Posted May 20, 2016 A suppose if Tonga and Samoa are to go down the NSW/ Qlnd Cup route, it will be phased, and with Samoa hosting Fiji this autumn, hopefully a good crowd would encourage them to be the next applicants. Hopefully this court case can be the catalyst for Tonga to sort themselves out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farmduck Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 How efficient did people think the Tonga RL was? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoneslessBishop Posted May 20, 2016 Author Share Posted May 20, 2016 You hope for a little better than total chaos. People said the same about PNG but the Hunters now seem pretty sustainable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Futtocks Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 Real shame that the Tongan RL authorities are in such a mess: http://www.loverugbyleague.com/news_22045-court-case-reveals-tongan-rl-s-chaos.html Let's hope it doesn't put their World Cup participation at risk. They have possibly the most talented side of any Pacific Nation, but will be very different to add indigenous growth to their team. A NSW/ Qland Cup team like PNGs and hopefully Fijis must seem years away after this. Any one got an news on the Fiji teams entry to the NSW Cup? There's time for this to be sorted and new board members elected, well before the RWC. Let's hope they achieve a degree of stability soon. Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted. Ralph Waldo Emerson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allora Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 Tonga, Samoa, Cook Islands and PNG are small impoverish third world nations that rely on Australia and NZ for economic support. I think we expect to much in regards to internal development. They will bring some players through but I think our estimations that they will be contenders and forces in our game our way off the mark. Just because some second generation Kiwis or Aussies turn out for them at Test time does not make them contenders raised in their home Country. Talent is secondary to whether players are confident. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scubby Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 As desperate as it sounds, there is nothing really to see here. As mentioned previously, exactly what were people expecting? The best thing to happen is that these things come to a head and then the RLIF can insist certain things are put in place for participation in future world tournaments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spinnerhowland Posted May 21, 2016 Share Posted May 21, 2016 Given the RLIF is supposed to ask for an Audit of members each year to show development, budgets, plans, etc. How does it get to this stage without someone speaking up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 21, 2016 Share Posted May 21, 2016 Tonga, Samoa, Cook Islands and PNG are small impoverish third world nations that rely on Australia and NZ for economic support. I think we expect to much in regards to internal development. They will bring some players through but I think our estimations that they will be contenders and forces in our game our way off the mark. Just because some second generation Kiwis or Aussies turn out for them at Test time does not make them contenders raised in their home Country. Out of all the Pacific island nations only PNG and Fiji have any real growth and development potential due to population size. 7.5 million in PNG and nearly 1 million in Fiji while the likes of the Cook Islands have 15,000, Tonga 100,000 and Samoa 200,000 leaving these 3 nations to solely rely on 2nd&3rd generation players born in NZ and Australia to make up as much as 80-90% of their teams. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommygilf Posted May 21, 2016 Share Posted May 21, 2016 Out of all the Pacific island nations only PNG and Fiji have any real growth and development potential due to population size. 7.5 million in PNG and nearly 1 million in Fiji while the likes of the Cook Islands have 15,000, Tonga 100,000 and Samoa 200,000 leaving these 3 nations to solely rely on 2nd&3rd generation players born in NZ and Australia to make up as much as 80-90% of their teams. Totally agree the Cook Islands are tiny, however, a "Polynesian/pacific" based team that plays maybe one game a year in Rarotonga wouldn't be completely unthinkable? Like all the pacific islands the Cook Islanders love the NRL and any presence would be well received. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yipyee Posted May 21, 2016 Share Posted May 21, 2016 Out of all the Pacific island nations only PNG and Fiji have any real growth and development potential due to population size. 7.5 million in PNG and nearly 1 million in Fiji while the likes of the Cook Islands have 15,000, Tonga 100,000 and Samoa 200,000 leaving these 3 nations to solely rely on 2nd&3rd generation players born in NZ and Australia to make up as much as 80-90% of their teams. Croatia and iceland are similar in population but they produce and field good national sides... its more to do with wealth and competition from othwr sports rather than population sizes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yakstorm Posted May 22, 2016 Share Posted May 22, 2016 The TNRL to be honest don't run the majority of their competitions or development anymore with the NRL taking over the majority of these tasks. As such it's not a surprise that RL participation in Tonga has actually increased despite these off field issues. PACIFIQUE TREIZE: Join the team by registering as a fan today at pacifique13.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim_57 Posted May 22, 2016 Share Posted May 22, 2016 Out of all the Pacific island nations only PNG and Fiji have any real growth and development potential due to population size. 7.5 million in PNG and nearly 1 million in Fiji while the likes of the Cook Islands have 15,000, Tonga 100,000 and Samoa 200,000 leaving these 3 nations to solely rely on 2nd&3rd generation players born in NZ and Australia to make up as much as 80-90% of their teams. Agree with this and it somewhat forgotten when people ridicule these nations for being full of Heritage players. PNG & Fiji have the population to have a good flow of homegrown players in the NRL or SL. Tonga, Samoa & Cook Islands, no matter how well development pathways are set up are only ever going to be mostly heritage players, which for me is fine if those players are truely passionate about their heritage. I can see PNG breaking ahead of the rest before too long, with any luck they could one day be another major player source to rival NSW, QLD & NZ in which case they should have a solid group of PNG born and raised players who will stick with them and make them a genuine international force. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 22, 2016 Share Posted May 22, 2016 Croatia and iceland are similar in population but they produce and field good national sides... its more to do with wealth and competition from othwr sports rather than population sizes Iceland yes but Croatia has roughly the same population as NZ around 4.5 million people. When it comes to the likes of Tonga, Samoa and the Cook Islands we shouldn't expect anything different than these sides being filled with NZ and Australian born players who are either just starting their career, just about finished or not good enough for the NZ and Australian test side or nsw and Queensland. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 22, 2016 Share Posted May 22, 2016 Agree with this and it somewhat forgotten when people ridicule these nations for being full of Heritage players. PNG & Fiji have the population to have a good flow of homegrown players in the NRL or SL. Tonga, Samoa & Cook Islands, no matter how well development pathways are set up are only ever going to be mostly heritage players, which for me is fine if those players are truely passionate about their heritage. I can see PNG breaking ahead of the rest before too long, with any luck they could one day be another major player source to rival NSW, QLD & NZ in which case they should have a solid group of PNG born and raised players who will stick with them and make them a genuine international force. This. PNG has the population and they are a RL mad nation with RL being played in every city, town and major village/settlement. Plus they now have the structure and pathway with the sp hunters for their most talented players to progress into the NRL or super league while Fiji is very similar with maybe a smaller population of around 1 million but again being a rugby mad nation with a huge player pool and with the proposed structure and pathway of a nsw cup side. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farmduck Posted May 22, 2016 Share Posted May 22, 2016 Australia needs a player base of over half a million to produce about 300-400 NRL players. At that ratio, Tonga would need a total of 10,000 people playing weekly just to maintain a permanent quota of 6 NRL players. Then throw in the fact that RU is the dominant sport. If Tonga fields 20 home-made players every week in NRL, SL and the OZ State Cups, then they are probably already punching well above their weight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim_57 Posted May 22, 2016 Share Posted May 22, 2016 This. PNG has the population and they are a RL mad nation with RL being played in every city, town and major village/settlement. Plus they now have the structure and pathway with the sp hunters for their most talented players to progress into the NRL or super league while Fiji is very similar with maybe a smaller population of around 1 million but again being a rugby mad nation with a huge player pool and with the proposed structure and pathway of a nsw cup side. I would hope within 10-20 years PNG and Fiji will become a genuine 4th large source of talent for the NRL. People down this way love to throw around lack of player numbers/strength as a reason not to expand, yet they have a virtually untouched RL mad country of 6 million+ just on their doorstep. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 22, 2016 Share Posted May 22, 2016 I would hope within 10-20 years PNG and Fiji will become a genuine 4th large source of talent for the NRL. People down this way love to throw around lack of player numbers/strength as a reason not to expand, yet they have a virtually untouched RL mad country of 6 million+ just on their doorstep. The Last time I checked the population of PNG on wiki it was given as 7.1 million in 2011 compared to 5.2 million in 2000. So you would think that today's(2016) population would be at least around the 7.5 million mark with maybe just over 8 million by 2020. This is a huge number which is nearly twice that of NZ which already produces large numbers of RL players not only for NRL teams but their u20's and for teams in the NSW&queensland cups even though RL isn't NZ's #1 sport so the mind truly boggles at the true potential of a 8 million strong RL mad nation in supplying RL talent for the NRL and beyond. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim_57 Posted May 23, 2016 Share Posted May 23, 2016 The Last time I checked the population of PNG on wiki it was given as 7.1 million in 2011 compared to 5.2 million in 2000. So you would think that today's(2016) population would be at least around the 7.5 million mark with maybe just over 8 million by 2020. This is a huge number which is nearly twice that of NZ which already produces large numbers of RL players not only for NRL teams but their u20's and for teams in the NSW&queensland cups even though RL isn't NZ's #1 sport so the mind truly boggles at the true potential of a 8 million strong RL mad nation in supplying RL talent for the NRL and beyond. Exactly, even considering it's a 3rd world country and other factors, the fact there are only a small handful in the NRL is ridiculous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoneslessBishop Posted May 23, 2016 Author Share Posted May 23, 2016 It's far from all about population size. Tonga and Samoa are able to put out union sides that can be highly competitive. NSW/ Qland Cup teams could ensure a boost to heritage squads, especially in key positions like half-back, as Australian teams do seem keen to push Pacific Islanders into forward or outside back positions Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim_57 Posted May 23, 2016 Share Posted May 23, 2016 It's far from all about population size. Tonga and Samoa are able to put out union sides that can be highly competitive. NSW/ Qland Cup teams could ensure a boost to heritage squads, especially in key positions like half-back, as Australian teams do seem keen to push Pacific Islanders into forward or outside back positions No, but it is a pretty big factor. Tonga & Samoa with their population will realistically always rely on Heritage players even if the right pathways are in place for homegrown players to make the NRL. So if the eligibility rules stay as is they will always be second fiddle, and if they change the rules players will likely opt for Aus/NZ if it's one nation for life. PNG has the potential to produce a big player base for NRL, the key is getting the juniors in the spotlight and watch their numvers multiply year on year and their National team become a force. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoneslessBishop Posted May 24, 2016 Author Share Posted May 24, 2016 Rules on eligibility only look like they will aid the pacific nations - suggestion is they will be able to play origin and still play for a pacific nation, and that if they do chose Oz or NZ, that they can switch back. Bigger player pool adorned by both, especially the former as Origin more lucrative than an Oz/ Kiwi shirt. If domestic development can result in full union teams for Tonga and Samoa, it must surely add to League player pools, and should be encouraged Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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