ghost crayfish

Gorden Tallis was all power and aggression - scary man, loved him! Mark Geyer was another one. His emotional volatility eventually held him back from achieving his potential, but at his best in his peak years, Geyer had the size, crazy eyes and intensity to make opposition players fear for their lives!

Agree with this. I very much dislike representative teams announcing 19 man squads in alphabetical order - it's nonsense! Announce the team, you obviously know what it is

If the best option for younger props to select is Matty Lees, it makes sense they still feel the need to pick Hill. Lees is nowhere near test standard I'm afraid.

I think post-season internationals can work (to an extent) in Australia, but not on their own. For continuity and general public awareness, the Kangaroos need to be active mid-year. Selection speculation is an important part of it for me - there is none of it for end of season games, it's more just a case of "who is fit?" The Kangaroos need to be promoted as the ultimate aspiration, and this means the logical season progression of club footy, into origin, immediately into a test match. That keeps the interest and awareness up a bit through the back end of the season. While the pre-Origin scheduling also wasn't ideal, the Anzac test at least helped a bit with that. It feels like since it disappeared from the calendar, a bit of momentum has also gone out of our post-season schedule.

You are right, sadly, but it would be appalling if the powers that be simply accepted that the game has simply moved on. Luckily govt investment in the Pacific means they have to try at least a little bit to make it work. It is clear - and has been for 25 years - that post-season tests don't work in Australia. Interest dims after the grand final... the 4 Nations seemed to be creating some momentum, but that died away for some reason. Obviously the game has moved on from full 3-test series in mid-season, but I can't believe we can't have one stand alone test weekend after Origin - this would enhance origin further by bringing test selection debate into the mix, and be a massive boost for the Kangaroos brand. When the only games the Kangaroos play are in October, it will continue like this.

How can England not have named its team by now? Surely they'd be straight out with it as soon as possible after the GF, while people are paying a bit more attention to the sport.

Catalans played very courageously, but they will never win Super League until they back their own young talent over filling the team with ageing imports. Sure, they need a few, but the balance is wrong and they just look old and slow in attack. I don't know what Mitchell Pearce was even in the team for? Sam Tomkins was clearly their main organiser and general play kicker, so they surely should be starting with Arthur Mourgue out there with him, to give the side the speed they sorely lack. Pearce did nothing. Likewise with their two plodding Australian centres - there are a few French outside backs who are quicker than those guys, and one of them should be playing.

It's unbelievable to me that JJB actually has a commentary gig. He may be knowledgeable (I don't know, I can't understand him) but a broadcast commentator needs to be able to speak well. I have the good fortune of watching games on delay so can fast forward his parts - and I always do, that's how intolerable I find it listening to him. Truly horrible.

The game in the UK at the top level is clearly not in a great place, but the exciting thing is that despite all the terrible mismanagement, it is still hobbling along and the potential is still clearly there. Crowds are actually up, the England team has its best set of outside backs in 25 years, and the international game is at least starting to organise itself. There's definite reason to be positive. The NRL was in a similar place about 15 to 20 years ago in some ways - obviously from a higher platform, but still a victim of mismanagement and blatantly not achieving its potential. The game felt at serious risk of being overrun by rugby union here. It took some big reforms such as establishing the ARLC and getting News Ltd out of the management of the game for it to start turning that around. For Super League, a similar big reform is happening now, with the partnership with IMG - big change needed to happen to get the top level competition structure right, and lift the whole operation, and hopefully it will. The potential is there and it feels like the next 3 years are massive for the sport in the UK and France.

Yeah I think he's calling it at the right time, while he can still perform at a good level.

Does anyone know anymore about why Blake Austin left? Seems weird a bloke like him would leave a club mid-year that is competing for a finals spot, to go to a cellar dweller getting smashed every week. The wheels hadn't fallen off then, but on top of Leeming's earlier departure, it seems the coach is putting some big name players offside - perhaps for the right reasons to change culture, who knows? But doesn't seem to have made any immediate improvements!

I have England as favourites, but not by such a margin you should be worried about winning too easily. After you lost to Samoa at the World Cup, I think you should just be hoping to win the series... Remember, as well as beating Great Britain, Tonga were also unlucky to lose to England the last time the teams played. I think it's very unlikely you'll win with 3 thrashings - there might be 1 big England win in there, but I also expect Tonga to go very close to winning at least 1 game along the way, if not 2.

Well... yeah... my point was that if the coach needs to shift someone out of their usual position, Farnworth would probably be able to adapt pretty comfortably.

I've actually heard it said that Farnworth would prefer to play on the right, and only plays left for Brisbane because Staggs had that spot first and is probably more of a specialist on that side.

In the aftermath of the Super League war, I never thought we'd see rugby league in Australia this healthy again. Those crowd figures and TV ratings are phenomenal. The only thing missing now is an international scene to match what we had pre-1995, and I am starting to feel optimistic we'll see that rectified in the next few years. Great times for the game in this part of the world, and here's hoping we see some of that momentum flow into the northern hemisphere, too.

Along with George Williams, who has proven he would be among the better halves in the NRL, Smith looks like a pretty good player to me and seems to be improving all the time. Dodd is also a great talent and certainly impressed NRL observers at the start of the year. I think England are OK for halves, and about on par with any time since I've been watching the game.

It's a tricky balance, but there have to be some minimum standards at least. A capacity of 13,000 is not good enough. In my opinion, there should be a minimum capacity of 20k in play for any finals host, and all-Sydney games should be played at one of the big Sydney grounds. All their supporters would be able to access the game anyway, so what's the problem?

Amazing to see the Dolphins drawing such large crowds in Brisbane. Really does show 2 Brisbane teams is long overdue... particularly when you compare them to some of the perpetual strugglers in Sydney.

The Melbourne Storm certainly are not high profile in Melbourne, but they're not invisible either. They get crowds and corporate support that put most Sydney clubs to shame, and they usually get their obligatory 1 article a day in the paper, while at the same time being totally swamped by the AFL, which is pretty much a religion here. Soccer is also pretty big among large sections of the Melbourne population, and it probably doesn't help local development of rugby league players that rugby union also exists here, and they are each competing for the same small proportion of junior rugby talent. With the addition of the Dolphins to the NRL, and speculation about a second NZ team to follow, the two traditional areas the Storm have looked to are both getting more contested, so they definitely need to pick up local junior development. Last night was promising, as the kid looks like a great talent - hopefully a sign of things to come.

It's fantastic seeing the crowds that teams like the Knights and Warriors are getting now. It's a massive boost for the competition, and this wave of support will hopefully flow into the international season too. It feels like the early 90s again... The Super League war put such a big hole in the game down here, I think it took 20 years for it to properly recover, and then COVID hit. We're back now bigger than ever, and with rugby union really slumping in this part of the world, we have massive potential to go forward. Very exciting times.

A very good idea, except I wouldn't go too hard on the charity angle given rugby league needs to keep every broadcast and sponsorship cent it makes from any new product it introduces...

It's interesting that this TV deal doesn't seem tied to the length of the season, but is instead simply for 'Super League'. This can't be right, but given the clubs had a separate vote on loop fixtures, it must be? Seems weird, but if it is true, they're surely mad not to shorten the SL season somewhat and attempt to create other content, such as mid-year internationals, 'origin', or another club cup comp, that they can sell to broadcasters. Obviously the devil is in the detail, but unless Sky has some sort of exclusivity on rugby league content, if other broadcasters are interested, it seems like it'd be pretty easy to create 4 pools of 3 or 4, with a magic weekend, a couple home games that clubs can include on their season ticket, and a short finals series. Brand it as something different, then sell it to one of the other broadcasters interested in the sport?

Put it on Channel 4 and use it as a proper tool for hyping the upcoming season. Make it a charity event and get celebs involved too. Whatever, there must be SOMETHING your administrators can do to give England a game that actually helps to promote the domestic competition. Or not. Super League is fine as it is I guess. Wonder how low the next TV deal could go?

I understand concerns about quality, and previous crowd numbers etc. suggest the demand isn't great, but I still think it'd be a bit crazy to bin mid-season rep stuff completely. I think the model the game needs to move to over there is creating multiple products to sell to broadcasters and sponsors. IMG are right to recommend cutting short what is an incredibly long SL season, and I think rep footy and a re-jig of the Challenge Cup (I'd go pools of 4 at the 16-team stage, playing over 3 weeks, leading to qualification for the quarters) are the way to inject life and hopefully draw more broadcast money in. Aside from that, mid-year rep footy has the bonus of creating speculation about selection and adding a break from the club competition just as it starts getting a bit monotonous. I'd actually start the English season with an England v All Stars game, promoting the new SL season. I'd then move into a mid-year 4 Nations played over a 3-week period (with a SL break). The final could then be played a bit later in the season, or maybe post-season, as a warm up for the southern hemisphere opponent.

Interesting to see the extra details that come out of this, but sounds like definite potential to grow OurLeague into an actual moneymaking proposition, while also hopefully growing the visibility of the sport through more Channel 4 coverage, and more mainstream French coverage. In the hands of competent administration, they should be able to achieve both - leading to more lucrative sponsorship deals as well, presumably.