RayCee
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Posts posted by RayCee
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37 minutes ago, Damien said:
The one sided reporting of all this beggars belief. James Graham's comments removed from Fox Sports and one sided articles with barely a mention of any opposition when there are so many against this decision. It's all pure propaganda.
Those who control the information control the people. Mind you with the Internet, that's getting harder to do. But it does show Fox are part of what's going on.
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18 minutes ago, Man of Kent said:
Troy Grant (IRL chief) believes there’s a chance of a U-turn, it’s “highly unlikely” other nations will pull out, ‘rebel’ Aus vs NZ tests won’t happen unless the World Cup is postponed/cancelled, Indigenous & Maori sides are a genuine possibility and seemingly first in line as replacements, failing that USA, Spain and South Africa are next.
https://www.totalrl.com/crucial-world-cup-decision-to-be-made-on-monday/ .
Indigenous teams would be very competitive and bad press for the defectors but I'd rather see nations that would benefit from the exposure instead. I see the USA an the most obvious but would have thought Serbia would have been in the mix. RL in Spain seems to be in an inactive state.
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6 minutes ago, unapologetic pedant said:
The Aussies have regarded us as "Mickey Mouse" since the 80s. In turn, we regard the French as "Mickey mouse". We even have an attitude to the Kiwis that they`re not the Australians, i.e. not the real deal. What hope for "fledgling nations" to be valued and taken seriously?
There are miserable off-field cultural aspects to all this negativity, but I would also draw a connection to the attitudes expressed on forum threads about blowouts that assert RL games are not worth watching unless the scores are close. And I would attribute those to abysmal levels in understanding of the game, all too apparent in the media coverage.
I see blow outs in just about every sporting tournament but somehow RL must be gauged differently. I view tournaments as a celebration of the sport and all attendees contributors. Hopefully out of this comes more respect and the RFL view internationals in Europe/Northern hemisphere as a vital part of the yearly calendar.
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2 hours ago, The Rocket said:
After I got off here last night and lay in bed thinking about what I had posted I knew there was so many holes in my argument that I almost wished I had never put it up. But if you do know me a little bit by now you will realise I do tend to give people the benefit of the doubt, and I do try to have faith in peoples motives or at least I do try to understand them....Any way unless some news breaks and there are some new developments I`ve said enough on the topic. Thanks for your time.
I think we've all said things that in hindsight we would have said differently.
I appreciate your input and unbiased honesty and many others here would feel the same way.
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53 minutes ago, Barley Mow said:
Whilst English players always made up the majority of the GB side, things were very different before union went professional and players came to us from south Wales (and a lesser extent the Scottish border counties). I couldn't agree that GB was really England.
Every single GB world cup squad contained non-English players - as many as 4 Welshman and 1 Northern Irishman in 1957. All the home nations were represented at various points and of GB's 3 world cup wins, there was 1 Scottish, 1 English and 1 Welsh captain.
It was the RFL's choice to stop entering GB in world cups, but if it goes ahead this year without Aus and NZ, France will definitely be the only country to have competed in every competition.
The first highlighted part was the point I was making. The second highlighted area seems to me to undermine what you were saying. In a whole squad only a few were not English lads. GB could have been called England, not had players from other nations and still been just about as competitive. I don't say that to disparage any players who represented GB but it was effectively an England side with a few very worthy additions.
On the third highlight, I said " there has always been an England presence of players if not in name".
It was a minor point in a post emphasising the French influence on the international game.
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There are so many inconsistent statements. Trent Robinson just said that the difference was that Europe has handled the pandemic with vaccinate and be less restrictive but in the SH it was lockdown and not so big on vaccinating. For that reason the refusal to go was understandable.
If it the difference was governmental handling of the virus, why were NZ in particular insisting on assurances from the WC committee of a protection level based, not on their efforts, but the general handling of the situation? if Trent has read this right, the WC committee could never deliver an assurance they would be happy with. So this waiting for assurances the NZRL engaged in could only end with one result. I think they knew that. It was all done to look like there was a legitimate reason to pull out when that was going to be the the outcome regardless of assurances. It hasn't fooled everyone.
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11 minutes ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:
I was just thinking, we talk about wanting people in France to be more aware of their RL heritage, well if the World Cup is to go ahead without Australia and NZ, France will be the only nation to compete at every RLWC, just a little fact that they could be proud of and really embrace.
The GB was really England so there has always been an England presence of players if not in name.
France were the instigator of the WC in RL and France the first nation to hold a WC. It was mainly through a man Paul Barrière who also was behind the formation of the International RL board. He refused to have his name attached to the WC trophy. He learned about RL when fighting for the French resistance and became heavily involved with RL after the war.
When people today think about the RL WC, they forget the efforts of those before them and even the present WC committee have made. That in itself should create a feeling of respect for the WC. Maybe I'm too sentimental.
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11 minutes ago, Toby Chopra said:
There's no perfect outcome now.
Loathe as I am to let the NRL win, in the cold light of day you have to accept the realities of power.
I think the least worst option now is postponement to 2022, if we can get binding participation agreements from the Australians.
The 2022 dates aren't great, but I genuinely fear a 2021 WC without Aus and NZ will be a financial disaster. Plenty of people are definitely going to ask for their money back for the Aus and NZ games, and the organisers will probably face refund demands for the rest of the tournament given it just won't be what was promised. They're still running social media ads now featuring Aus and NZ.
We all at things differently and I can’t see anything you’ve mentioned having merit.
Going ahead is the best option IMO and cancelling it altogether is the second best. For me a postponement is the worst option. There are no guarantees for 2022. The cost of postponing will be sizable. Going up against a Football WC too is foolish. The ARLC don’t seem interested in the RL WC and I that won’t change next year when they find other reasons not to support it. Handing all power to the ARLC is the last thing the sport needs. International RL should not be dictated to by any body within the sport.
As for the financial situation, the WC organisers are in the best position to make a call on that one. Your assumed pessimism regarding people turning off the tournament is speculation and unproven. Again, the WC committee will consider all such factors and will move forward accordingly. The glass is still half full to me.
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2 minutes ago, Henson Park Old Firm said:
In reality the Government of Queensland has told the NRL one more covid breach and they'll shut down the comp... I have a feeling australia and nz would then play.
This shows that the COVID protocols for the WC aren’t the problem. The issue would be all players respecting them. There have been too many beaches where players have ignored the protocols, even at the risk of losing lucrative contracts.
I'm not sure their participation is any more likely if the NRL comp cannot be completed. The WC would still affect some preseason training. -
I think people would be more sympathetic with the ARLC and the NZRL if they were desperately trying to get to the WC. They clearly aren’t interested in attending and COVID then becomes a convenient excuse.
Rather than wishing everyone else a successful,event, their attitude smacks of hoping the WC fails. I am shocked how brazenly this is being played out.
A potential schism that has been smouldering for years is now looking like a gaping divide. The weakness of RL in the Northern hemisphere is being taken advantage of in a shameless way.
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5 minutes ago, Man of Kent said:
Let's for a moment take Gus Gould - who no doubt has the ear of Peter V'landys - and his words about the NRL running international RL at face value.
How could it possibly be better than what was planned for the autumn? What is their game?
It may be what Lord Acton once saiid “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”.
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1 minute ago, Davo5 said:
Unfortunately the Pacific nations rely heavily on NRL funding and I’m sure the “threat” of losing that funding will prove to be the deciding factor in their participation.
They don't want to participate and influence others to join them? If pressure is applied, even tacitly, that's bordering on sabotage. I can't believe they would stoop that low.
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1 minute ago, frank said:
Just had the NZRL CEO on thIs evenings news, he had a smirk on his face and was almost laughing when he was justifying the reason for not fronting up. He stated that the NZRL would be millions out of pocket if they attended.
If they get money for attending and expenses are covered, I wonder how they could lose millions? It's turning into a real power game.
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6 hours ago, Futtocks said:
Yes, it was after 9/11 and they thought that touring the UK might be dangerous if somebody bombed the Eiffel Tower. We need Chairman Mo to go and badger them into committing again.
If my recollection serves me right, he had to more than badger them. The 2001 Kangaroo Tour nearly didn't proceed for security reasons. Yet, when Maurice Lindsay went to sort it out, he learned that they were still smarting over the weather disaster 2000 WC which hadn't produced any profit. No participants got anything financially. When a sizable sum was offered by the RFL as compensation, the dangers were mitigated.
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Forbes put up this article:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikemeehallwood/2021/07/21/this-is-why-the-rugby-league-world-cup-had-to-happen-in-2021/?sh=995c4537623e
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Whatever we all think, the RL WC committee have to consider the options. I hope the only reason to cancel would be financial and not yielding to those those who already feel they have the whip hand. Rescheduling to appease those who won’t even put up a team of players willing to represent them is a weak reaction.
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9 minutes ago, Man of Kent said:
He's right. Postponing is the lesser of two evils...
Which lesser, not playing it this year of not playing it next year?
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9 minutes ago, Mark S said:
Maybe this is all a ruse to generate some publicity, and the Aussies will come over after all. This morning alone the tournament has properly received PR that would be worth millions.
I live in hope that it is!!
As long as it isn’t to leverage more money out of the organising committee, yes a stroke of genius.
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I'm picking it will be called off now but it shouldn’t. Sport is going on all around the world. When the NZRL came out saying they wanted assurances of player safety when obviously the organisers had already given them that, I had my suspicions that this was a precursor to a jointly organised decision to pull out. The will to make the effort wasn’t there from either NZ or Australia.
There can still be an entertaining tournament for people to enjoy. If it can be held without negative financial implications then bring it on.-
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1 hour ago, Graham said:
Oh dear, that doesn’t reflect a good relationship between the club and their player.
Surely there’s a more diplomatic way of conducting the discussions.
I also wonder hat role the player's agent has in this impasse.
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On 30/04/2019 at 21:36, Graham said:
Manly are after signing Clint Gutherson. They are apparently putting a deal together to tempt the former Manly Junior back to the club.
He has put himself up for sale after Eels made an offer to re-sign him after originally stalling on approaching him.
From Eels point of view they have reportedly made a number of offers to Gutherson but his manager Sam Ayub has knocked them back on his behalf.
Apparently the Eels are now saying he has to sign by the end of the week or their offer is withdrawn.
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Rugby League World Cup 2021 (Merged Threads)
in The General Rugby League Forum
Posted
Self interest is everywhere, it's just more noticeable in a sport run like RL. It is dispiriting how a few at the top are behaving and understandable if going along has lost its appeal.
If the WC goes ahead, they will need the public getting behind it. The WC organisers have done a fine job. The teams coming are full of of young men and women giving their best and who don't own any of power struggle going on. Hopefully some good crowds go along to support them.