The Rocket

Send this in. Your first testimonial !

Not wounded at all, perhaps more surprised, and the offending post was far from gentle to neither Cockneys or Australians. But I`ll leave it there, that`s O.k. Good night.

And this is why my friend you must get together with someone more tech-savvy than yourself (your words) and put together a CD or whatever you put these things on (I am as tech-savvy as you) of exactly everything you have been talking about and you can show plenty of highlights from the different League Tag competitions and send to the relevant people at the different clubs. There has been some wonderful promos for different clubs on here recently, York, Coventry, Newcastle and all the other clubs you mention with plenty of contact numbers etc., plus importantly send one to the RFL. I hesitatingly refer to you as friend as I read your post on " rat faced Cockney oiks " and Australians a couple of days ago. Not quite sure where that came from, very strange. I don`t like Victorians and I mock Tasmanians and Queenslanders and even Poms sometimes, but Pedant, that attack was beyond the pale. Anyway it`s good to know exactly how you feel about Australians, I won`t forget. One thing that has struck me about this forum is the antipathy felt by some, it appears only some, to Australians, I don`t quite understand where that comes from, I have met quite a few English people over the years, gone camping and to the League with Pommy backpackers and they always struck me as being not much different to ourselves. Anyway it`s all very interesting.

This difference that you talk about between the two, is that due to the fact that Tag requires the removal of the Tag which is more difficult than the simple `touch`, hence the `pinging` it around in Touch to avoid approaching defenders. The difficulty in removing the tag also aided by what you describe as the `hip-swivelling evasion techniques`. I imagine this is why it is easier to make breaks in Tag as mentioned by a poster on here recently. Last weekend or possibly the weekend before they had the semi-finals of a W.A. womens touch tournament on NITV here, looked awfully like full field with either 7 or 9 players per team. Had an interesting rule where the player couldn`t score from dummy half, but where several times the dummy half would find themselves in the in-goal frantically looking for an unmarked teammate to plant the ball. Led to some very dramatic finishing with players catching and diving to plant the ball before they were touched. The whole thing was a great advertisement for the sport in that `afl rusted on state`. The numbers you quoted in the Monarch Blues competition are mind boggling and the success of the touch/tag competitions in Auckland likewise, it`s interesting when you talk about the revenue raising potential of such ventures, I think it would be wise for all RL clubs to head down the path of health, fitness, well being centres for their communities, the money raised isn`t going to fund a first grade team but could be awfully handy even just expanding in their own areas. I exchanged emails with the young lady who runs the community programmes at Coventry Bears recently, she talked about the success of their Touch/Tag competition and other community programmes they have run, ` fitness in the park`, fun-runs and community bike rides. They also do a weekly podcast featuring local musicians, very innovative. I suggested they might try involving local comedians, the afl have done a masterful job over here enlisting several very high profile comics to their cause, they even have a programme which combines afl news with comedy which rates exceedingly well, it`s called ` The Front Bar`. The whole thing was very interesting and she was keen to know what my interest in League was, I told her I was just a fan from Oz and encouraged to have a read of our TTRL thread on this forum. Always spreading the word. I find the problem when talking to most people about these things is that they are familiar with Touch and Tag but League Tag is to many an undiscovered and unnamed species , it makes it difficult, especially when to us, the initiated, see it as that obvious missing evolutionary link between the different RL creatures.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/rugby-dementia-link-leads-to-calls-for-collision-rugby-to-be-banned-in-schools/ar-BB1bNBtm?ocid=msedgntp Interviewed in this article is a headmaster from a Rugby ( union ) school who have banned `collision` rugby from their curriculum and replaced it with what he calls " touch rugby ", I wonder how the boys are going with the play-the -ball, six tackle sets and all that room with the 10 metre rule, they won`t know themselves, it must feel like their playing a completely different sport. Now I just wonder what that school would have done if they couldn`t have reverted to a game that had invented these rule changes, who knows, they might have had to play soccer. Heaven forbid. I was saying earlier that there should be a concerted push to get TTRL into schools, it`s fun, it`s easy to play and it`s safe and it`s like Rugby League. Well wouldn`t that be typical if f****** union get the jump on us and start introducing it into their schools and call it `Touch Rugby`. Ar$e in gear RFL.

Great response, damn shame to see it like that though, I was exchanging posts with `Man Of Kent` recently and he was relating how he plays in an 02 Touch comp where he lives, that is the sponsor of the England union team I assume, he too also said that union was all over Touch where he lives. Madness. I bought this up with a Rugby League journalist in your part of the world and his words to me were, it was `probably 20 years too late` and `that ship might have already sailed`. Unbelievable. Still wouldn`t stop RL clubs from approaching Touch/ Tag players about joining League Tag competitions. Either way I don`t believe it is too late, I just think the RFL need to make a concerted effort, these forms of the game should become free advertising for RL where ever they are played, imagine if all the very best players from these competitions where chosen to play in representative fixtures run by Rugby League, especially as high profile as a World Cup. Union can never use these forms of the sport at a high profile representative level, they are too obviously League like. I don`t think it`s too late for League to `head them off at the pass` to coin a phrase. We just have to exploit unions weakness in this, and their weaknesses are 1) they are playing a version of our game, and 2) they can never really take it anywhere but to a local level because to take it any higher than that may involve media coverage which will only invite comparisons and ridicule to their game. We must exploit this vulnerability. Pedant tells me the Touch/Tag World Cup is ostensibly a union dominated tournament with far more union jerseys on display than League, well why aren`t we playing a League match at that venue or a venue nearby at the time this tournament is held, free admission to all participants. Why don`t we invite the top 16 teams to participate at our World Cup. Touch/Tag could have a World Championship for all nations who play every four years and every other four years their best 16 teams could play at our World Cup. Any way mate sorry about the diatribe, thanks for the post, your last sentence exemplifies why we can`t give up on this without a fight.

On a thread a while back on the future of the game a poster asked `' why has League gone backwards " in your part of the world, it said there was no point blaming the media or the public, we have to perhaps look at the game itself and ask why it hasn`t captured the publics imagination and gained new fans. It`s not like League is invisible, as the poster said most people would be aware of League in your country, in fact at some point most people would have seen a game, so why haven`t they become followers. The failure of expansion clubs probably provide evidence of this failure. I`ve been thinking about this for quite a while now and was considering starting a thread about it. There has been plenty of threads about where the game should be in 5, 10, 50 years, largely concentrating on geographics, but nothing about the nature or style of the game itself. An article in todays paper only confirmed my recent thoughts, apparently there is a large lawsuit brewing in your part of the world revolving around concussions amongst former players in rugby union. I think we are only going to hear more of this sort of thing. In our part of the world the decline in youth participation is masked by the rise of Islander and Maori participation. Anyway getting back to your quote above, " with hints of basketball or handball", I do wonder whether that this is the direction that League should think about heading towards, you will understand my hesitation in starting a thread on this topic, as I imagine that it may well go down like the proverbial ` lead balloon` in most quarters. The poster I mentioned before talked about planning for what future fans want in 5, 10 years, as I see it, one of the greatest threats to attracting the next generation is competition from the frenetic excitement provided by video games, how do we compete with that ? the recent SLE GF may have been gripping for traditional fans but is it going to capture new fans ? All this is purely hypothetical, but I do wonder whether whether a type of `throw it around `, `ad-libbing` dare I say frenetic type of game should be where League is heading. This was another reason why i bought up the idea of the smaller ball recently, as I thought it would facilitate the off-load, you could even say the `charge down ` rule change could have similar consequences. Two areas where I know you will respond is, 1) why can`t players be taught to off-load more, and 2) where does this leave the tackle. With regard the first question, I`m talking about going further than adding one or two extra off-loads per set, I`m talking about a more frenetic throw it around game. The tackle, well there will still be tackles. Any way I throw this out there, and as I say it is pure conjecture, but as I said we here so much about the future of the game and where it may be played, but how will it be played if we are going to engage new fans and future generations who are going to have a much higher bar in what they consider exciting.

Great to hear from someone who actually plays it, I haven`t played for 30 years, back in the 90`s, but remember there be literally hundreds of people at a park in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, Rooster territory, at the competition I was in. At that stage there was no affiliation with the NRL, that was something that would take another 15 years before the penny would drop, that `Hey, there are a lot of people here who probably never followed a League team in their life, do they know what they are playing is a version of League`. I went along with a mate and his girlfriend, she was of Indian origins, previously she wouldn`t know one end of a football from the other, I`ll never forget the sight of her flying down the wing ball in hand, the whole extended family are dedicated Manly Sea Eagles followers now. Back to what you are saying, I agree the ability to make breaks is essential, it`s part of the whole excitement of all the different versions of League, not enough in tackle if you ask me these days, broken field running , someone being chased by someone else are all things that people love to watch and are fun to be part of. One question though, why the rule about keeping the kick below head height ? Anyway thanks for your contribution it`s great to have someone actually involved contribute, otherwise we would never know the details like you describe above. Regards Rocket.

That article was far too pointed to be an accident. Apart from the blaring headline 'TRY TAG RUGBY LEAGUE " which 12 months ago could just as easily read `TRY TAG RUGBY`, every where else throughout the article where ever Try Tag Rugby was mentioned the word League was never far behind, even if it was only used in it`s form as another word for `competition`. We know from having corresponded with the bloke who runs the TryTag Rugby franchises that he uses that term only so as to widen the appeal of his offering, fair point, especially since a lot of his business is run out of union dominated regions. The prospect that RL clubs, where ever they may be, you used London as an example, could tap into local Touch/Tag competitions to form weekend League Tag teams would seem a natural fit. Toes may be trodden on though if TryTag Rugby comps are franchised, but I`m sure that could be sorted. It`s a golden opportunity. Anyway I have to admit I was cock-a-hoop when I saw the article, 'straws in the wind` as you say and these things have to become part of the vernacular, but at least heading in the right direction.

https://www.rugby-league.com/article/57461/try-tag-rugby-league-returns-to-action Am I imagining this or are the RFL making a concerted effort to associate themselves with `Try Tag Rugby` with talk of partners and affiliations and being promoted under a main story on their webpage. They are even calling it Try Tag Rugby League, no confusion about it`s origins there !! I think they also mention a map where you can find the nearest competition and `taster` sessions for those who would like just to try it first before committing, great idea. Well done RFL.

Graham and DoubleD you have both summed up our off-seasons entertainment perfectly. It` de Belin, then it`s Hayne with the Xerri on top.

I`ve been on that Hill at SOO in the mid-eighties, they don`t mind having a drink up there, I can remember empties and not-so-empties flying around everywhere up there if they saw something they didn`t like, that might have been a smart move by your wife. The photo of the GB team leaving the ground with the crowd clapping shows them standing in front of what looks like the members stands. Probably much more likely to clap up there, more likely to be a hail of beer cans from the hill. My Grandmother came to Australia from England when was 4, she died a couple of years ago aged 101, she supported Australia in everything but not against England, especially cricket, she was still going for the Poms. She never became an Australian citizen, I don`t think she ever really considered herself Australian.

Sometimes I`d get in the lift at the hospital and he would be in there, we would say G`day to each other but never anymore than that, It wasn`t to years later that I bought a book called ` Retro Rugby League` and I saw his picture in there and recognised him straight away, I wish I had known, he would have played against all my childhood heroes. I`ve read about that famous Third Test victory at the SCG, legend has it that the Australian crowd stood and cheered the Poms off the field after the victory. Must have been one of those magical sporting moments when it didn`t matter who you went for, you just know you`ve witnessed something special by a special group of people.

Yeah mate the name was Kevin Longbottom .https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Longbottom I used to work at the same hospital as Cliff Watson, the veritable man-mountain.

Nice yarn. I was talking to an Aunty of mine recently who has lived her whole life in the Ryde/Eastwood area, she was telling me that when Balmain made the GF that year that all the shops were adorned with the Black and Gold. A golden era. Maybe you can help me with something, I was very young but I have recollections of a South Sydney player called George Longbottom, am I correct in thinking that he was a bit like Greg Inglis, a big strong long striding player of Aboriginal descent.

Everyones got a soft spot for the Tigers, my old man tried to shanghai me into following them when I was a nipper in the early 70`s,went for St. George instead. Whenever they`re on TV you usually know your in for a good game, good to see them sticking with Maguire, he might bring a bit of grit to the club. I still think it is outrageous that a first grade Rugby League Club in a billion dollar comp has to play out of a ground like Campbelltown Stadium (ha..ha...call it a stadium.) Mini-Bank West down there would really shore up the Tige`s future. NRL and State Gov`t ar$E-in-gear.

Pedant will love that, no mention of the you-know-what.

Not sure if you saw the same video as me, the one I saw he seems to hold the ball in one hand a lot, lifting his arm up and dropping the pass off over the defenders shoulder/head, I love players who have that ability like Joey Manu and SBW, so dangerous when you can make those offloads. Anyway Graham one to watch out for and another Kiwi, their finally start to assemble a nice little squad of halves.

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.