The Rocket

Manly aren`t exactly flush with good backs and Walker is good, but have you seen the highlights reel of that kid Josh Schuster they have on their books, have a look, kids got pedigree too. Whether he`s ready to play full time at 5/8 is another matter, but he will sometime this year. I thought after all that domestic violence stuff with Walker this year and Hasler turning up to court everyday for him that this might be the final straw and a chance to offload him without having to pay him out. It`s always a bonus if you can offload someone without paying him out and this could be the perfect excuse.

NRL affiliated OzTag had a tournament at Coffs Harbour on the weekend, about 140 teams, Bill Harrigan who runs it said there would have been 250 but for the virus. They had a few highlights on the news, a team out of Fairfield Sydney won the over 30`s, looked like they were all of Vietnamese background, and they were throwing the ball round like Harlem Globetrotters, they interviewed the losing Captain, I think from Tamworth? he was absolutely knackered and he said they were way too quick and evasive for him. I was just really pleased to see the game reaching into communities that mightn`t have the greatest representation in the tackle version of the game. P.S. Harry and Eddie, I don`t think the team mentioned double as the Vietnamese National RL team either.

Dylan Walkers in trouble with the Police again, he`s been charged with assault out the front of a pizzeria(not PapaJohns we don`t have them) in the middle of the day. Where to now for Dylan Walker, I can`t see any other NRL clubs touching him.

Fantastic, thanks.

Hela, who are the players in that great action shot from the above link.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/nrl/queensland-focus-on-winning-the-state-of-origin-series-rather-than-becoming-movie-stars/news-story/0f553ab098e1064cd6a495d312f5e74f And they wonder why the kids are playing afl up there, what a f---ing dinosaur, honest to god, what hope is there when you have stupid old pig headed farts like that running the game, you make a doco like that and the kids will sit there lapping it up, can you imagine the highlights they would have in it , but no Hatcher says we don`t want movie stars, the same week the afl almost equals the NRL in ratings up there. Unbelievable.

Pedant keeps an eye on the various League Tag competitions that have sprung up around the place in Oz and it is proving to be quite popular, especially when run in conjunction with Womens` tackle competitions. In fact he was telling me that the recently concluded Western Australian Mens and Womens Rugby League competition had 7 teams in the Womens tackle and 9 in the Womens League Tag competitions. I had no idea it or the X-League you participate in even existed before this thread was started, I had just assumed people were still just playing Touch and Tag like they were 30 years ago when I played. I think they`re both great ideas for taking Touch/Tag to the next level. Just got to get one of them in that damn World Cup.

I agree, he looked to like he was under a lot of pressure and lacked a bit of confidence, and that could be expected going straight into the superstar team and having to get everything right plus apparently having a lot of traffic run at him. Hopefully away from the spotlight he might gain the confidence to come out of his shell.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/nrl/knights-are-standing-by-pearce/news-story/551512d1fc294bc4cb8711d5a618df05 Rumours : * Newcastle were shopping Pearce; * Questions around Walters retention policy at Broncos.

Not the best photo Padge, can`t quite see the distinctive `red bits` or the `cheeks`. Thank God.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/nrl/knight-shift-in-wind-for-pearce/news-story/39a886100aeac1e368bbb1b7cbe9c4d1 Bit of news on player movement and a bit of a look at the future of Mitchell Pearce.

Thanks Wiltshire and thanks for the great post in return, talk about a mutual admiration society. I went on a whale watching tour once in the 80`s, there was a `birdos` club on board, it was so funny, in a nice way, but they spent the whole day stampeding from one end of the boat to the other whenever someone spotted something, "quick over here!! there`s a Hutton`s Shearwater !", anyway it was a lot of fun and we didn`t see a single whale but did see a sun fish which was amazing. By the way, it was amazing how many variety of birds there was, and I think we were about 40-50 kilometres off the coast. I know you couldn`t see land and that was something I`d never experienced before. And your last sentiment pretty well sums up my feelings as well. Little fellows going about their lives.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/caw-why-birding-is-taking-off-20200820-p55no9.html Pretty amazing figures from Oz, hopefully a sign that Covid is making people reassess what really is important in this world.

I thought he might follow Bennett to the new Brisbane franchise. Bennett used to have a father figure type relationship with Darius Boyd, who went with Bennett to several clubs. Roberts proneness to injury could be an issue though.

Good read. If the NSWRL are behind it there is a good chance it will grow. And as we have mentioned before it could work well in conjunction with the nascent womens tackle competitions. The Sutherland Shire is still the sort of area that prides itself on healthy outdoor Aussie lifestyle image, my wife`s parents live in the area and it still has a very `white bread `image, beach, footy, barbeques lifestyle. Adam Hills is from the Shire, I`ve heard him reminiscing about kids playing League on the street after school. Your third sentence of your second paragraph is certainly not beyond the realms of possibility and does certainly seem like an exciting prospect. It does give optimism that the attraction of this version of the code may eventually see its organic growth across the Rugby League world. That might sound like pie in the sky but once established in one area it`s not too big an expectation then for the next suburb or region to put a team together. As far as your region I did see a long time poster on this forum talking about long term growth prospects for League in England and though while he did mention Disabled Rugby League which of course is very important but perhaps having limited prospects and also female League which of course is a must, there was no mention of any non-tackle versions of the code. Which is a shame if that is the attitude, especially if we want to reach and engage a broader audience like what`s happening in NSW. Don`t worry about NZ, Gould`s on the job now with V`landy`s backing, so expect to see some big things happening in the next few years. Always enjoy your posts on the growth of these and other forms of the code.

That book was profoundly disturbing, at the time it was released I think Roosevelt was President and it lead to changes in Labour Laws. I think Steinbeck actually travelled or maybe lived with a family of Okies before he wrote it. Other great reads by Steinbeck are `Of Mice and Men` and a short story called `The Red Pony` which had a couple of interesting insights into early California. I`m reading ` The Second Machine Age `, " An ambitious, engaging and at times terrifying vision of where modern technology is taking the human race" _ The Economist.

Gday Chris , I don`t know if you had time to read the whole thread but general the gist of it was that Touch/Tag rugby is played all over your country and I believe Ireland and is largely not associated with Rugby league. In fact the Tag world cup I have been told is largely associated with union. The general consensus here is that by getting a version of the non-contact type of the game played at the RLWC would draw attention to the fact that whoever plays Touch or Tag rugby anywhere in the world would know they are playing a game associated with RL. A potentially huge audience. I saw the award you received when you posted the other day, I must say it is you blokes at the grass roots that are making things happen, not us tapping away on our keyboards. Cheers.

I assumed that Chris was referring to competitions of the abbreviated versions of Touch/Tag, are you now saying that there is no tag competitions played at all ? I have written a response to him explaining what was meant by League Tag. In fact your second paragraph is very similar if not identical in what I was going to convey to him. My apologies for misquoting you on the location of the Ladies League Tag Competitions. Your observations of the Tackle and LLT competitions in the Canberra area only confirms this really could be a winner for the code all round. I watched the Grand Final of the Northern Territory Rugby League this afternoon, defending Premiers and seeking a `threepeat`, I can almost guarantee you would hate that word, Litchfield Bears came from 28 -8 down to just fall short 28 - 26 to Darwin Brothers. Fantastically entertaining game of League with few errors and lots of passing and skill on display. There was a crowd of probably 3-4000 who were very vocal and seemed to be really enjoying themselves. Two of Brothers players were eligible for u18`s and nine were under the age of 21. The no.4 and no.2 for Brothers play in the NT afl final tommorrow. The little winger was a special, scored a couple of scorching tries and the no.4 was a whopping big ball playing, barnstorming centre. It brings to mind a comment by Phil Gould recently where he said the NRL should be taking more advantage of the young athletes in traditionally afl states and also an advertisement campaign by Melbourne Storm earlier in the year which said , " You can play both Codes you know ". Obviously an appeal to young afl players who may never have thought of having a run in Rugby League before. Pretty smart I thought and judging from the way the couple of dual codists I saw in the NT GF enjoying themselves not a bad tactic either. I know your thinking "well they may have played League first, don`t be so quick to assume they came from somewhere else with your (Aussies) ingrained RL inferiority complex", but I`ll leave that to you to judge. I think we both agree however that if you got enough people playing League Tag the same cross over would be bound to occur as well and likely even more so.

Your first three paragraphs and second sentence of your fourth sum up nicely what could be an effective strategy to take the game forward. Men`s participation in League Tag could easily follow the success of witnessing the success of Ladies League Tag. With any concerns about the toughness being outweighed by popularity. And popularity leading to credibility, like we have seen with alternative versions of cricket, initially considered not real cricket, now providing a pathway to other forms or just an expanded player pool. Especially if it can be rewarded with a position at the RLWC. One of the other prospective things I like about forming League Tag competitions is that it may enable kids to stay in or join the game at those ages where they may normally drop out. They are much more likely to reenter the tackle version of the code if they continue to play League Tag rather than drop out of the game all together. James Gordon of LoveRugbyLeague expressed enthusiasm to me at the idea of a national League Tag competition to the point where he said his site would certainly cover and promote it, possibly sponsor it and even enter a team. I like to imagine a scenario where all Rugby League Clubs ran League Tag teams in regional or otherwise competitions. Like you said earlier where in some of the Queensland Ladies League Tag competitions there was often some crossover between the non-tackle and tackle versions of the sport.

Bit too small maybe? Certainly didn`t lack courage or flair, damn shame, must be tough for a young bloke like that . There were rumours of Storm being interested.

Irish, the LoveRugbyLeague website ran an article in their mailbox this week on Touch and Tag Rugby League, this is the sort of thing that someone like yourself should email to them and any other thoughts you have on the advantages of promoting the various versions of the code. Especially coming from someone with first hand experience.

I watched the footage supplied by Les, at first it was ducking in and out of the water quite quickly, maybe the Dipper equivalent of `putting a toe in ` but then it ducked under and was gone for what seemed like ages, I was starting to think , this is not good, then up it came right as rain. I imagine that water would be quite cold. I have piece of swamp on my farm that I have had locked up for about 15 years, there is a family of wrens in there and they are the funniest darn things you`d ever see. They never shut up, they are at it from dawn to past dusk, if I go down there in the evenings there is a particular bushy tree(Paper bark) they like to roost in at night and they are in there , you can`t see them, twittering away right through until it gets dark, with eventually the occasional twitter then silence. Whenever a little bird stops and looks at me I am reminded of that line of Robbie Burns,...." and fellow mortal ". The reason I bring this up is because as like you say the body shape is similar to the Dipper, I was thinking when watching the Dipper whether some of that bulk may be a layer of body fat. They made need that in that cold wat-er, a little body like that could get cold right through very quickly.

I have a list of about half a dozen reasons why people don`t believe in climate change and the threat that it poses to the diversity of species, and I am not here to start a debate about that. However listening to Donald Trump talk about `raking` forests and others say that forests should be `thinned out` made me realise, a) they haven`t got a clue about what a ludicrous idea that is, given the size of forests and the variety of habitats within them, and b) they don`t really care. Forests, who needs forests ? what have they ever done for me ! And of course the same argument could be made about biodiversity. Dippers who needs dippers ? Could we live without it ? Would it matter if we only had a few species that we had a specific need for? I know that it would be greatly diminished for me if when I went for a walk if I didn`t catch sight of an `adder` or a `heron` or an `echidna`. But is it really essential.

Are they named `Dipper` because of the way they fly, a movement they make, or perhaps because they feed by `dipping` their heads and catching insects from the water or maybe from under the water ? I`d be very surprised if they completely submerged themselves looking for prey. He/She sure is a little beauty though.

Best game I`ve seen from him so far, his carries were good with I`d say pretty good post contact metres stats. Good energy levels and plenty of effort, I noticed when anything good happened he was in the thick of the celebrations which I think is a good sign about a players state of mind. I noticed the service from Canterbury`s dummy half was pretty lack lustre and that never helps the forwards so this maybe an issue they can fix up for next year. Johns said recently there was a hooker from SL, forgot his name , that was a must have for the Dogs next year, have heard no more about it.