The Rocket

Here`s one for you: The shift to day rugby is the preference of broadcaster Channel Nine - owner of this masthead - who want the Wallabies on their main channel and leading into evening NRL games, as opposed to a secondary channel at the same time. As reported in today`s Sydney Morning Herald. The way it should be - the entree before the mains.

I wouldn`t have thought 50 was beyond the realms of possibility if the player payment disparity continues to grow and NRL`s hunt for talent intensifies. The thing for me is I find it hard to believe that there is any difference between the talent level and potential of English juniors than there are with juniors in Australia or any where else. Therefore out of those juniors there would be roughly the same proportion who are of NRL potential. And when you`ve got probably the second biggest player pool in the world that means a lot of potential NRL standard players. I think the Bailey Hodgson`s, Dom Young`s, Herbie, and probably Will Pryce are going to be the tip of the iceberg. If you`re a talented kid in England I don`t think it will be hard to find an NRL club who will stick you in with a family, pay for everything and probably $20k on top of that and take a chance on you. Worst case scenario they send you home. But as I said it`s all about numbers, and there is still a lot of kids playing League in England I gather. And of course that doesn`t count the ones that will come over that are already established.

We`ve always had a few Kiwis in the comp but I`d say very few actual PI born players, unless they were born in the PI and their parents had migrated to NZ, but even now there really aren`t many. But yes agreed even the few Kiwi`s we`ve had probably had some Islander blood, different story now with 46 % of players having PI and Kiwi heritage.

It`s what has always frustrated me. You should be far stronger than the Kiwis as they haven`t a fraction of the numbers playing League that are playing in your country, it is just the fact they happen to be next door to us and you aren`t. imagine if your 40 000 whatever were next door to us, I suspect we would have seen a very different international scene over the last 30 years.

Why do you think the Kiwis have been largely competitive with the Aussies for the last 30 whatever years. They haven`t always had the amount of players they have now in the NRL but the ones they have had have always played in the NSWRL or NRL which means week-in week-out those players are playing in the best comp in the world. So when they put a Kiwi team together they were largely competitive. If you end up with 20 or 30 players who are good enough to be chased by NRL clubs a) it probably means they are stand-out talents anyway and are likely to only get better, and b) it probably means when they are supplemented or supplement the best players in your competition you will a have a far greater chance of being competitive with or beating Australia. You do that a few times, whether it be in WC`s or tours, and it will do far more for English League than losing a few dozen players. I reckon even if you lost 50 players to over here it wouldn`t break your competition but boy would it give you some top-line players to choose from when it came to picking your national team. Think big picture mate.

Good one, yes I think we`ll get the chance to see if the Cowboys halves are performing as good as everyone says especially with the pressure the Storm will put on them. Thanks for that Dunbar, just the sort of thing that I thought could make a thread like this interesting.

Well said, I think seeing it written down with obvious enthusiasm makes it all the more enticing. Two great choices.

Generally every weekend there`s something in particular that piques my interest either in a game, between two teams or even just the jostling on the ladder. Sometimes all three. This week I`m particularly looking forward to see Anthony Milford`s comeback against Brisbane and secondly seeing how 27 year old Lachlan Miller`s debut for the Sharks goes. Miller played League all his youth but was poached by Oz union sevens where he played for 5 years culminating at the Tokyo Olympics. He thought his NRL chance had passed him by but instructed his agent to put feelers out to NRL clubs to try and have one last crack at NRL. Craig FitzGibbons gave him a chance and after his recent form where : " Miller, who boasts speed and special evasive skill, leads the NSW Cup in tackle breaks and second for line-break assists. " Makes his debut this weekend. A life long dream come true. Looking forward to see how he goes. Any other highlights that you`re looking forward to in either Super League, NRL or elsewhere, would be great if you could share them as it might provide another point of interest for other posters.

I think Wally Lewis could probably have covered about every position on the League field if he wanted to. And that`s the view of someone who hated him with the best of them back in the day.

If you can`t buy big forwards, buy small backs. Makes your forwards look bigger.

Just in case anyone is interested heard an interview with Billy Moore today ex-Bear`s player and still involved with the club. He made it very clear that the afl model of inner-city teams moving interstate, maintaining ties with their foundation club but eventually forging their own identity would be happily accepted by the Bears hierarchy. Did say they would be keen to still play four games at Bear park, one of them definitely the Manly derby.

Admittedly I talked him up when he came on the scene with his League background and him being mates with V`landy`s I thought he might have had a bit of the can-do mentality. Just to double check afterwards I asked my sister who had worked with him when he was in politics what he was like, she told me he was a complete duffer and really not that good. That was a worry, looks like you`ve witnessed a bit of that yourself. That response of his and I`m assuming you were polite, was childish and unnecessary.

It`s easy to think that all is peachy over here, but the game`s security is far from a foregone conclusion and there`s been many a time, usually off-field incidents or selfishness of individuals involved in running the game, that have made me wonder why I bother and I do contemplate chucking it in. Sometimes I think it`d be great to fast forward the whole thing forward 10 years, wake up and see where the game has ended up and spare myself all the angst in the meantime. The whole thing sorted, one way or the other.

No and that`s the problem, it`s a wealthy and aging area and what families are there tend to have small families who aren`t likely to let their kids play League. Having said that they do have juniors in both boys and girls but probably don`t have access to the numbers that would allow the NRL to let them back in the comp. Expansion has definitely got to be in areas where there is potential for producing large numbers of juniors. Bear`s stadium is a lovely old ground but hemmed in by residential housing and there is a snow-ball`s chance in hell of it ever being anything more than that. It`s the sort of ground, like the suburb itself, that will attract a dilettante`s crowd of League supporters perhaps for a couple of games per year just because it is fashionable. You wouldn`t want to base an NRL club around it.

I don`t mind at all mate, they`ve got a whopping great big Leagues club right in the centre of one of the most expensive places to live in Sydney, if not Australia, Sydney`s lower north shore. They are probably about a mile away from North Sydney CBD, second in NSW to the Sydney city CBD, which is why the Bears used to get such high end sponsors and of course it is a wealthy demographic in the North Sydney area.

There`s a pommy bloke who lives in Perth who posts in the Aussie forums who`s heavily involved in WA Rugby League. He reckons that they`ve had a great year over there this year with 5 or 6 new junior clubs springing up and he insists that the money would be there for a WA bid. That begs the question of course why involve the Bears, I can only imagine it is their pathways. The Bears aren`t short of a quid which is probably why Souths, Roosters and the Fijian Silk Tails have been tied up with them. If anything I would say that Perth would no longer need the Bears a lot sooner than the Bears wouldn`t need Perth. If they`re sending Gov`t Ministers to meet NRL officials shows something is cooking, and I can only imagine the strings that V`landy`s will attach; financial, stadiums and otherwise before they get near the 18th license. BTW the WA Gov`t. announced during the week a $6b (3.4b pnd) surplus, in an era when Govt`s are drowning in red ink they are cashed up and ready to spend. Foxtel have also said they are ready to tip in for the right 18th bid and Perth fits the timeslot that they need filled perfectly as well. I think there is a lot right about a Perth bid.

They`ve been saving this for Magic Round. The Sunday Telegraph can reveal WA’s Minister Sport David Templeman and the chairman of Venues West Peter Bauchop are in Brisbane for Magic Round for talks with NRL powerbrokers about a possible alliance with one of rugby league’s most famous old clubs. The chairman of the North Sydney Bears, Daniel Dickson, has confirmed the two parties had recent talks. They are obviously attracted to our heritage,” Dickson said. “The path for us was always to go alone but they have reached out and we’ll listen to all options. “We both have a desire to be in the NRL so anything is possible. The Perth bid is super impressive in that it has the full support of a WA government that is prepared to invest money into the bid and provide long-term financial support. It would also open up a new market for the game with huge growth opportunities. The NRL has added the Dolphins as the 17th team for next year but are keen to add an 18th franchise to increase broadcast revenue from the extra game each weekend. Commission chairman Peter V’landys and CEO Andrew Abdo will no doubt have talks with WA government officials in Perth for Origin II on June 26. WA would want the majority of home games to be played in Perth but North Sydney Oval would host up to six games each year. HBF Park, a modern rectangular stadium, would host the matches in Perth. The Bears might be finished as a stand-alone NRL club but they are pretty wealthy and committed to having a team in the NRL somehow. This sounds promising.

It`s been in the papers a lot over here lately, in the comments section attached to one article, one ` old boy` demanded that these boys be made to sign contracts stipulating they can`t play League for three years upon graduation. That one really cracked me up. Another asked why do " our " schools waste all this money of such ingrates. Typical. As I pointed out in reply in the comments section; it`s incredible how these products of the bastion of the free market system can so quickly abandon free market principles when it doesn`t suit them and secondly, there is one reason and one reason alone these private schools have scouts prowling the Rugby League fields of western Sydney and throwing around scholarships, because they can`t field competitive union teams in their own right anymore due to the pressure to focus on academic achievement and the different demographic this is consequentially attracting. Having said all that, having clubs like the immaculately presented Trent Robinson`s Roosters holding coaching sessions at schools like Kings, one of the more expensive, doesn`t hurt either. Yes and then there`s the money.

30 000 in for the first game last night, built up for 40 000+ for the second. Another 30 000 for the first game tonight, with reports about 38 000 in for the second. All tickets sold leading up to the Penrith v. Storm game later tonight. So about 52 000. Magic Round is something that no other code can come close to replicating in this country, it is a gold-plated promotional and revenue generating opportunity. The NRL are going to have to do a lot more to make sure that the nonsense that happened last night doesn`t ruin this as a family event. I read reports that the fight in last nights crowd went on for one minute before security intervened. Not good enough.

Great opportunity in New Zealand today: The Warriors vs Rabbitohs Magic Round match will be shown live on channel 3 in NZ, huge deal since it’s one of the big FTA channels and the warriors games are usually shown on the less watched FTA channel Prime. Plus it’s on straight after the news so should get big audience. I read another tweet related to this that said that not even super rugby gets this.

I don`t get Netflix but I think I know what you mean. I met and shared dorms at university with a lot of private school boys, they were nice enough and a couple I was friends with, but definitely an air of superiority/ born to rule type mentality. Problem I always had though was, you could never tell them apart, it`s like they come off an assembly line and I suppose that`s what their parents wanted - a type. Funny enough though, despite their expensive educations, the cleverest and most interesting characters I ever met at university were always the public ( what we call Gov`t. ) schools anyway, blokes and girls whose natural intelligence wasn`t stifled by a plum in the mouth or a supercilious attitude. A quick example of the kind of native intelligence you got from the Gov`t school boys, I had a mate from the central coast, cleverest bloke I ever met and a mad Sea Eagles fan. We went and saw one night this Aussie comedian called Austen Tayshus, real arrogant ####, if people didn`t laugh at his jokes it was the audiences fault for being stupid, he used to do this thing with his hands, `over your heads` if people didn`t laugh at a joke. We`re standing there in this venue jammed packed in with about 500 people and after about half an hour Tayshus starts cracking this joke about a plane crash in America, my mate nudges me in the ribs and says watch this and he yells out " you think that`s funny mate, my parents died in that plane crash ", deadly silence in the venue, Tayshus was stunned and in front of the whole audience offered a grovelling apology " sorry mate I had no idea etc. etc. " he starts another joke this one about religion and this time my mate yells out " and now you`re having a go at my religion " deadly silence in the venue once again, but this time Tayshus knew he`d been had and it bought the house down. Needless to say this huge Islander bouncer sidled over to us and said one more peep. You wouldn`t have got that stuff from a private school boy in a million years.

Surely not a " stone the crows and starve the lizards cobber ! " type genuine.

An Australian Martyn ?

They`re a real slow burn aren`t they, with the Hunters and the u`20`s now in the Qld comp, give it 2 or 3 more WC`s and we could start to see a really strong internationally competitive PNG side, possibly WC semi-final material.

Leeds Rhinos to host New Zealand in World Cup warm-up at Headingley | Yorkshire Evening Post " The blockbuster clash, on Saturday, October 8 (6pm), will be Rhinos’ first meeting with Test opposition since a full house at Headingley saw them narrowly beaten by the Kiwis seven years ago. It comes a week before the tournament begins and eight days ahead of New Zealand’s opener against Lebanon in Warrington. " Great for the build up for the Cup I thought.