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Tex Evans Thigh

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Everything posted by Tex Evans Thigh

  1. Would recommend anyone going to come along and watch 9s at Desert Breeze Park Thursday and Friday and the Master tournament plus USA v Canada on the Friday. Should be great events!
  2. Easier to stomach. Come off it, we have to listen to Australians constantly belittling anyone and everything that isnt NRL. If Penrith were so superior they wouldnt need a couple of marginal calls. Wigan got the rub of the green but deserved the win. Let's not forget things like the high shot on Fields and French's marginal disallowed try. Try focusing on the quality of the product not trying to appease whinging Australians.
  3. The fact it is generating discussion with all the braindead Australian social media following doing their predictable 'refs are ruining the game' whinge, directly after their 'This will be a cricket score' ###### is a massive plus. Yes, there were a couple of dubious calls but whatever happens with decisions that would have been a close, hard game. It was a pleasure to watch and well done Wigan for creating the event they did, the crowd for making the atmosphere and both teams for ripping in. Great night for RL. They should have given that last try to go to extra time. More drama and would have reduced the whinging somewhat but then again they are hard wired to whinge.
  4. Lebanon is one of many elephants in the crowded elephant room that is the international RL front office. Very competitive team for a nation that simply doesn't compete at a high level in any sport. I'm convinced Lebanon is fertile ground but it's completely ignored outside world cups. I can only imagine your average lebaneseer being at the very least least interested in Lebanon playing countries such as France and England and likely winning in the France case. Take games to Lebanon. Invest just a small amount and it'll likely become a RL stronghold very quickly. But we wont.
  5. The RLU teams will join as affiliates so will formally be part of it going forward. This will enable players to be selected for the national team without any hassle and the winner of the division being able to go into the national play-offs, so positive progress. The make-up of the board is also a lot more balanced now as others have pointed out so again more good progress. The game over here is coming along nicely after the horrible NARL debacle.
  6. That Fev squad will only slightly resemble the squad that ends up playing in the league. Fev's first 17 is the second strongest in the league and could challenge Wakey on its day but the big problem for Fev is depth as a few injuries and you're into the aforementioned released League 1 squad players. A lot will depend on injuries and the dual reg agreement with HKR. I could see Fev anywhere from 2nd to 6th.
  7. Likely being funded by the teams themselves like the USA v Jamaica game was, but good that it's going on. I think the Masters game between the same two teams is the curtain raiser.
  8. Great guy, awful news. Hopefully he can get through it.
  9. Noticed a couple more Mick Morgan rip-off quotes in that game. Mardle has got no shame!
  10. great news! They also have a better chance of being in SL than London next year so all to play for/install floodlights for. Good luck to them, would have been a massive shame to lose all the work that's gone on up there over the years.
  11. This is the main take-away, there are a lot of positives. Not connecting with RL teams is a poor oversight but there is a lot of good stuff being rolled out. I'm taking my team to the 9s (and playing in the Masters against my better judgement) and both events are building nicely. I'm also looking forward to the coaching seminar they are putting on for coaches of the 9s teams, that sounds like a good initiative to help develop the game over here.
  12. This is not entirely true. The RLU in the north east is not affiliated with the USARL as things currently stand. Your general point is accurate though, the game is relatively stable and starting to grow again.
  13. Whichever way you slice it, the NRL engaging with a Union team and not engaging with RL teams is really poor.
  14. It's a lot of players but frankly not that many are big misses. There are a lot of very old players in that list and a lot of them have indeed retired. With more funding the only ones you'd probably want to keep are Hankinson, Cozza and maybe ET and Davies for depth. Obviously Hau as well but he was always just here on loan. I think Fev's 17 for next season is actually better than last season but the big issue is squad depth so a lot will depend on what we get from HKR and how they integrate into the squad when they come over.
  15. I really wish we could travel back to 1895 and come up with a more distinctive name for our sport. In situations like this it's quite frustrating. Having said that, we'll probably get a ton of casual American fans rocking up to see 'Rugby' because at least the term is well known. Was the same in Denver, I had a taxi driver who thought he'd been to see the All Blacks, even after the game, and he claimed to be a fan, yet couldn't recognize he'd been to watch a completely different sport.
  16. The 9s has a $20k prize pot, no indication on the split, and it is $500 to enter. The organization has been a bit laboured so far but it should be a good event once we get there. The USARL are also trying to get an international game organized with Canada but sounds like some issues in trying to get the NRL to endorse it (not sure why they have to) as it would overlap with the 9s finals. USA v Canada masters also confirmed.
  17. Given it literally just happened, I'd say it was very possible, especially in a play off system where one off games determine who was promoted.
  18. Not to state the obvious, but the grading is part of the system. A lot of clubs will have voted for it without knowing the full impact, people are allowed to change their minds once they get a fuller picture. I suspect there was also a lot of 'toeing the line' from clubs that didn't really like the concept but didnt want to rub their new corporate overlords up the wrong way. It still doesn't get away from the fact that London have abandoned their academy because of the IMG grading system. Even if they are using it as an excuse, without it there would be no excuse and we wouldnt be here now. I suspect you might have even seen an investment in their academy to take advantage of the fact that their pathway could lead to SL, that opportunity has been taken away from them.
  19. London's decision...driven by the new system.
  20. Whether it's in Hughes pocket or put back into other areas of the club is irrelevant. Hughes doesn't see the value in running an academy under the IMG system, the IMG evangelists can try and spin it however they want but that is the formal, official reason.
  21. They wouldn't have stopped if this system hadn't been implemented. They have effectively been told they won't be in SL in 2025, so what's the incentive to spend money on something that will bring them no immediate benefit? They're better off spending their money on a big screen and some fake Facebook followers. This development is a direct impact of the IMG system. London are free to invest their money where they see fit.
  22. It's ok saying that the RFL are to blame for not letting clubs run academies as that to me was a huge failing and ridiculous decision in the first place, and it wouldn't be fair to compare clubs in this instance, but then it's not fair to compare on finances or crowds either. However, IMG have brought in this god awful points scoring system KNOWING that was the case and junior development is a huge part of any sport, particularly one with dwindling pathways and playing numbers. Did they just think this wasn't going to come up? It seems like every day another huge hole is exposed in this fag packet plan and it's barely even operational. All the spreadsheet RLFC fans were cheering to the rafters when London won promotion - "just what we need", Kyle Amor - "Great for the game". How many more of this kind of story are we going to get before the penny drops? While it's terrible for the game that London have taken this decision, I don't blame them in the slightest. They are pointing out yet another flaw in a system that has taken their ambition, ripped it up and wiped its backside with it. They could be gearing up for a crack at SL but instead they've thought why bother. Why bother indeed.
  23. Wonder if Kyle Amor wants to re-evaluate his stance. What a terrible decision.
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