UTK

That time of year again?

Townsville is a very comparable size and isolation to Cairns, will definitely have challenges as the Cowboys do in attracting players outside the region but it's really not a big deal in the scheme of things. As long as they're playing their games in Port Moresby they will represent PNG fine, it's a necessity of the circumstances presented.

Yesterday's buildup and first 20 was superb, one of the best opening exchanges to a game all year. Just too big of a gap between AUS/NZ and Samoa, even then the tries NZ scored throughout the game were quality so it was an enjoyable watch for the most part.

Side will definitely be based in Cairns. There's no real difference between Cairns and the other major expansion options of Perth/NZ2 in terms of attracting "big name" players. A Perth side will spend half their lives on planes and are much further from the player pools on the East Coast/PNG than Cairns is, NZ2 would face the same alleged problems as Auckland.

Even in that article Hill makes pretty clear that their home ground will be in PNG. Every NRL club takes at least 2-3 games on the road each year, whether that be to play in country towns, alternate NZ locations, non-NRL states, etc it's standard practice for every club in the league. For the PNG side those 2-3 games naturally would be Cairns given they're based there and by the sounds of it the likes of Suva, Apia, etc. might form other options the government would support to broaden the reach of this commitment into the Pacific. Assume the likes of Lae might be included in that as well to cover the entirety of PNG. Being based in Cairns is a non-negotiable though, we're decades away from a team that resides in Port Moresby like the Hunters.

Haven't personally seen one reported yet, should've specified that average is for the Championship as opposed to the Bowl and is compared to the Oceanic Cup Group A (AUS/NZ/TONGA) from 2019.

Crowd for the game yesterday was 23,269, leaves us with a rolling average of 20,706 for the series so far. 2019 Oceanic Cup average was 22k but utilised a double-header of mens Tonga and Samoa sides in the tests at Eden Park. 2014 4N average was 20k, but with 7 games rather than 4. I've seen on another forum that tickets sold for Melbourne were sitting at around 12.5k on Tuesday earlier this week, so that game will probably push toward the 18-20k mark at a guess. Looks like we're tracking broadly in-line with previous tournaments/perhaps a minimal improvement overall.

I believe Mal has already said everyone who didn't get a run in the first match will get a game against NZ next week - so Flegler, Hynes, Trbojevic and Holmes are likely to come into the side. I absolutely would prefer if everyone was full-strength but ultimately from AUS/NZ's perspective the winner of the competition will be whoever wins in NZ next week, not whoever wins in Melbourne. We'd now be around 40 weeks into the RL season here if you consider trials to be when the season starts, 35 or so if not. A week off at this stage of the season probably makes a big difference in the final when you consider the intensity these next 2 games are likely to be played at. Kiwis might be in a bit of a different position because their 18-21 squad members are very much developing players in Kini, Levi, Greig and Whyte. I wouldn't be surprised if the latter 2 make their debuts the Kiwis forward pack though.

Could be wrong but from memory once 7s got Olympic status RL clubs were effectively mandated to switch to Union, some of the biggest union clubs even today were initially league clubs I believe.

Unfortunately the terrible scheduling means next week is effectively a dead rubber in preparation for the final the week after, daresay both sides are understrength next week.

Both games against Samoa last year had 6 NRL-based players in the 17 - Young, Farnworth, Burgess, Whitehead, Radley, Thompson If you want to get real technical McMeeken and Tomkins were also in those sides and obviously based in France.

Very different spine in this Samoa side. In saying that, Samoa should never have made the semis. Woolf bottled Tonga's chances by bringing an injured Hopoate back for his first game of the tournament in the QF, and even then Samoa only scraped past them.

Samoa have frontloaded their energy heavily, NZ weathered the storm and are now dominating.

That was the best Siva Tau vs Haka i've ever seen. Samoans making a point of going straight to all of the Kiwis with Samoan heritage, massive staredown between Leniu and Asofa-Solomona. Crazy stuff.

Couple of late changes for Samoa: Brian To'o is out, replaced by Greg Marzhew Izack Tago is out, replaced by Tommy Talau Justin Matamua is out, replaced by Ronald Volkman Connelly Lemuelu is out, replaced by Royce Hunt on the bench with Heilum Luki starting on an edge.

NZ 'A' have defeated Tonga 'A' 36-26 in a tightly-contested affair promises a bright future for both nations at test level. Brilliant to see both sides creating more comprehensive development pathways toward the national side, initiatives such as this match are necessary in the pursuit of achieving sustainable long-term performances for both sides.

I'm not sure how you could work out that 8 high performance centres would cost less than 1 NRL club, unless I'm reading that wrong. If the PNG club survives 10 years we'll have well and truly extracted ROI in respect of NRL player pool development, government funding/favour and strengthening the International game. A short-term failure of 2-3 years would be the worst-case scenario.

Yeah I suppose this is one of those fortunate situations where there is no wrong choice, be nice if one could play centre but I warrant putting Dom there without extended first-grade experience in the position.

No Young is a big call. Suppose those missing the 17 will depend on the bench composition, assuming Walker plays it's probably 2 of Lees, Farrell and Mulhearn to miss out?

Hodgson was only contracted to the Knights until the end of 2023 and the Knights opted not to offer him a new contract, ended up with yet another season-ending injury that required surgery - one of those unlucky ones with a body that has let him down so far. Played pretty well in NSW Cup in the limited gametime he got across the 3 seasons he had here, would be able to pick up a NSW/QLD Cup contract somewhere if he really wanted to stay in Australia.

Don't want to jinx it but I think Cas have nailed the quota signings they have made for next season. One of Leighs big wins in getting promoted and subsequently rising up SL was getting massive output from what would've been relatively cheap overseas players - particularly Amone and Ipape. At the time I remarked both would be quality signings for the club despite their lack of first-grade experience downunder and I would absolutely consider Putt, Namo (ACL recovery pending) and El-Zakhem in the same category. Horne will also improve as gets an extended run.

Alex Young is heading across on a development contract slot for 2024 with a mutual option for a top 30 spot in 2025. Dom and Murphy are both going but neither has been officially announced yet, pretty widely acknowledged that the Roosters need to get some coin off their books next season to make them compliant before announcing the likes of Young. Angus Crichton heading to RU would've solved that problem but Rugby Australia pulled their offer.

100% correct mid-season Internationals must exist to be placed within the mind of the general RL-supporting population. We had a golden opportunity to transitioning to 3 rep rounds mid-season with Origin+ Pacific Internationals every week and V'landys and Abdo bottled it.

For some perspective on Sponsorship: Digicel are the platinum sponsors of the Kumuls and Orchids, they currently pay $1 Million AUD/year for that privilege Digicel and ExonnMobil became naming rights co-sponsors of the domestic competition, this deal is also worth $1 Million AUD/year Santos is the naming rights sponsor of the national stadium in Port Moresby - this deal is worth 375k AUD. Port Moresby Vipers had 15 Companies sponsoring their side in 2023 with their platinum sponsor NCD contributing 700k AUD (length of sponsorship unknown) Mendi Muruks platinum sponsor PRK renewed their sponsorship this season for 800k AUD (length unknown), local government also pledged 250k AUD to the side.