Mal Meninga wants Australia to tour Great Britain [2019?]

[Abicus]

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/bring-back-northern-tours-to-grow-international-game-meninga-20181020-p50ayj.html

Meninga said it was time to revisit heading to the other side of the globe. ‘‘I think we need to go to the northern hemisphere,’’ Meninga said. ‘‘I’m not sure what that is. We need to get back to the old Kangaroos tours. It’s the right time to do that, but I’m not sure what will happen.

‘‘I know all teams will play more representative games, but in what form I’m not sure. I think we’ve got an obligation to promote the game internationally. We know New Zealand Rugby League has struggled in recent times. The more games we play here [as well] will be better for the international game.

~~~~

If only there was a way to play Great Britain next year? Oh, and on that: https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/league/107939304/nzrl-plan-big-to-capitalise-on-kiwis-success

Stuff report that: "It was signalled earlier this year that the British Lions would come down under, but it's understood issues over TV contracts may mean they come just to New Zealand."

 

[Clogiron]

Good luck with that one Mal, bit like pi**ing in the wind I should imagine.

[Dunbar]

Even though he almost single handedly beat Wigan in the first ever game of Rugby League I ever saw... and even though he was responsible for a lot of Great Britain heartbreak (1990 second test anyone!)…

You have to love Big Mal and his desire to grow international League

[Abicus]

14 minutes ago, Dunbar said:

You have to love Big Mal and his desire to grow international League

You think he would know then that Great Britain are touring the souther hemisphere next year, and not vice versa. Seems clueless most of the time.

[DavidM]

9 minutes ago, Abicus said:

You think he would know then that Great Britain are touring the souther hemisphere next year, and not vice versa. Seems clueless most of the time.

Knowing RL and it’s organisation we’ll go to Oz at the same time as they come here and we’ll both wonder where the other is 

[Damien]

I actually feel sorry for the likes of Meninga and some of the other Australia administrators. Even listening to Todd Greenberg today, and some of his past comments, has me thinking that they really want to promote the international game in a far bigger way than they are now. The trouble is they have to placate the clubs and keep them happy, otherwise they will be out of a job, so I think they tone down and dont act on what they think is right for the international game.

[Dunbar]

5 minutes ago, Damien said:

I actually feel sorry for the likes of Meninga and some of the other Australia administrators. Even listening to Todd Greenberg today, and some of his past comments, has me thinking that they really want to promote the international game in a far bigger way than they are now. The trouble is they have to placate the clubs and keep them happy, otherwise they will be out of a job, so I think they tone down and dont act on what they think is right for the international game.

As a sport we have always been more club focussed... they are the heart of the sport and create partisan and passionate fans.  While it is a great strength it can also be a huge barrier to any initiative that may be valuable to the wider sport but impactful at the club level.  International calendar expansion is a perfect example of that.

[17 stone giant]

Excellent idea, Mal.

Great Britain vs Australia in 2019 for The Ashes.

Wembley, Principality Stadium - Cardiff (if we're playing as GB, let's go outside of England for a change), Old Trafford.

Once we've beaten them, they'll be begging us to go over to Oz again soon, so that they can try and win them back. And when they do beg, we'll go down under and tour everywhere except Australia. Cook islands, Fiji, the lot. That will teach them.

In my head that's how it will all happen anyway.

 

 

[kiwis 13 6]

Saw Todd Greenberg interviewed at halftime on NZ Sky TV saying how the international game is alive and important and they want more events like this. REALLY WISH someone present had the nuts to ask Greenberg - after the NZ warriors receive there grant what happens to the rest of the money that NZ Sky TV pays for the NRL rights? 21 years is a long time to wait are the NRL ever going to spend any of it watering the roots of the tree they picked it from? 

[Jim from Oz]

If Todd Greenburg really wants more events like this, then why doesn’t he bloody well organise it /  a proper, locked in international rugby league calendar with the clubs and the RLIF ??!!

[Oliver Clothesoff]

Very late in the day to be organising and properly marketing an Ashes series for next year, regardless of whether it’s here or in Australia. Get it planned properly and marketed accordingly for 2020. 

[17 stone giant]

33 minutes ago, Oliver Clothesoff said:

Very late in the day to be organising and properly marketing an Ashes series for next year, regardless of whether it’s here or in Australia. Get it planned properly and marketed accordingly for 2020. 

But couldn't you say the same about the on/off GB tour to the southern hemisphere in 2019?

There was a suggestion on another thread for a Pacific tournament with everyone except Australia. Or certainly a few teams anyway. Play that next year and Australia can come here. Announce it now and there's still a year to go. That's plenty of time.

[Oliver Clothesoff]

1 minute ago, 17 stone giant said:

But couldn't you say the same about the on/off GB tour to the southern hemisphere in 2019?

There was a suggestion on another thread for a Pacific tournament with everyone except Australia. Or certainly a few teams anyway. Play that next year and Australia can come here. Announce it now and there's still a year to go. That's plenty of time.

Definitely too late for that as well, IMO. Knowing our RFL, they’d release details for it in late August. 

If it’s not announced by the end of the month with dates, venues and kick-off times set in stone, scrap it for 2019 IMO. It needs as much time as possible to wet the appetite and to build suspense, this isn’t a wet Wednesday night in Leigh against France, it’s a three game, winner takes all series against Australia, the World Champions, the best there is. 

Don’t wait around till April-May time before releasing dates and venues before waiting another month or two with kick-off times and ticket details, give it a whole year to build it up. We need to promote this properly and we need people knowing when it is, where it is and what time it is a year in advance. 

[17 stone giant]

I don't agree with that. Certainly not regarding the Aussies coming here, anyway. Granted the GB tour will take more organising - because the plan there is to travel to different countries - but the Aussies in Great Britain is fairly straightforward. Three venues from London, Cardiff, Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, maybe. 

Big boxing events don't always get announced one year in advance. England football fixtures don't either. They still are able to sell out.

It's only three tests. We're not talking about a world cup or large tournament.

Look at the ticket sales for the NZ series - it's hardly the case that everyone is finalising their plans one year in advance.

Also, I think it makes sense to announce things in stages. What I would do is:

1 Get agreement with Australia that they will definitely come and play for The Ashes. That's essential because you don't want any screw ups there.

2 Announce shortly after the NZ series (give it a few days to let the headlines about the NZ series be written etc. and once it goes quite on the RL front, make the announcement). That gets you in the press. As part of the announcement I'd make a statement about wanting to consider the possibility of GB perhaps playing in a different stadium to where we have traditionally played. I'd mention Wembley still because of past matches and the tradition of it, but I'd also say that London has lots of wonderful stadiums - I'd be full of praise to try and get them onside - and that I thought that Emirates, Spurs, London Stadium were all fantastic venues that would be great choices were we to opt for one. I'd do likewise with a suggestion of maybe playing in Wales (I'd big up the Principality stadium and mention how amazing it would be to play with the roof closed and how the challenge cup was there some years ago etc.) or the North East (which is a chance to praise the magic weekend and the local support for it etc.). What all that does is give licence to local papers in those areas to write headlines speculating whether GB might play in Cardiff, or in Newcastle, etc. A bit of cheap and easy extra publicity.

3 Then I'd go and do the work on finding the stadiums and dates and times, before announcing those early next year - again getting media headlines. I'd make sure that I mentioned the places I'd rejected, to show that I haven't just forgotten about them. I'd say that it was a really tough choice between Cardiff and Newcastle, but that I'd lost my nerve and we'd be playing in Hull again. Just joking - I'd go to with Cardiff, but maybe mention that I'd sticking with Newcastle for the Magic Weekend for the following year - even if that was just regurgitating old news.

4 Having already arranged for it to be designed and made (maybe go to Hummel or whoever), I'd then make an announcement to reveal the new GB shirt. Make a big thing of that. Have Burgess and the boys wearing it. Talk it up and how iconic it is. Maybe have some past players wearing previous GB kits. Make a big story out of it. GB kits down the years - the BBC sports website lap up stuff like that. Nothing controversial in there - just a few pics of the shirts and them being worn in past matches.

That's all just off the top of my head, but that's already three separate announcements that tell bits of the story and give the media something to write about. I'd look for other ways to get in the media too - maybe see if the Kangaroos can visit St Georges Park for a training session, like they've done before. Because it's predominantly a football venue, i'd try and muscle in a bit on the football pages as a result - get the Kangaroos to talk up how great a facility it is and maybe have one of them make a comment about how England football ought to finally get some success after so many years of failure. Nothing rude - just a bit of humour to hopefully get featured on the BBC football pages, rather than stuck in the rugby league page where less people will see it. We've got the cricket Ashes over here too next year, so there's maybe an angle there that you can also feed off. You can certainly use that in the build up to the RL ashes. The cricket will have finished in September I'd imagine, so you can do the usual and have the GB players talk about how they want to replicate the success of the England cricketers, etc. Or if we lose the cricket, they'd come out and say how much they wanted to win the RL ashes to give the country some consolation and get one back on the Aussies. Then you've got the squad announcement, etc.

You don't want to tell everyone everything right away. If you do that it will get forgotten about. You want to stage manage the release of information for maximum impact and exposure.

[ghost crayfish]

A key thing about a successful tour is having a host country to visit, who wants you there! Australia has been saying repeatedly that they don't want to host a GB tour, that it doesn't fit their current TV deals and won't be profitable. NZ hasn't commented either way, and no one from England seems to be able to say what they're actually trying to achieve by doing it! It's just a stupid thought bubble from that fat oaf who ran your game into the ground, and now seems to be dithering about at various international conferences talking in circles and throwing around half formed ideas...all with zero follow through. Australia touring France and the UK next year, while NZ hosts a Pacific Cup, makes perfect sense. It's an easy, logical, profitable and appealing way to ensure both hemispheres see meaningful top class test football next year. And yet because of this vague GB idea floating around, we're looking at...what exactly? England going 2 years without a home game. A new 'brand' none of you even seem to want being reinvented, to float around NZ playing 'friendlies' against Pacific teams, at best, squeezed in around the cup that will be their actual focus. I'm as disappointed and confused as anyone about why Australia doesn't want to host any GB tests, but they have made their position clear. That being the case, this GB idea is a plan so poorly thought out and so doomed to failure, of course Nigel Wood's greasy fingers are all over it.

[Scubby]

This is where leaders lead! If it doesn't look right, feel right or is going to lose you money you just pull the plug and arrange something better. Has Rimmer got any leadership qualities whatsoever? Can you believe we actually axed a 4 Nations when we now have 4 bloody competitive nations. Why do we do it to ourselves?

[Gerrumonside ref]

It’s good news that they want to tour the Northern Hemisphere again.

On top of three tests against England, what other tour matches could they be offered?  France, Wales, Scotland or Ireland?  County teams?

I take it the Super League clubs would have no interest, but I might be wrong.

[17 stone giant]

Ideally I'd like the Aussies to be able to play France in France as a warm up to the series, but I'm not sure whether travelling to France would be logistically and financially viable. If it's not, then I'd play France vs Australia in one of the heartlands stadiums that isn't being used for the test series. I'm sure the crowd would get behind the French for that game, and it would be a chance to get a first look at the Aussies, so hopefully you'd get a half decent crowd turn out.

vs France - Hull

vs GB - Wembley

vs GB - Principality

vs GB - Old Trafford

Four matches is enough for the Aussies, isn't it? One warm up and then The Ashes. If they need another then maybe Wales at the Cardiff Arms Park. That would be a good one if you're later going to use the Millennium for the GB test.

[Clogiron]

Calm down, calm down everybody you're flying off discussing venues and warm up game's and date's and even training venues. I know that the lack of International game's gets you like that, something that those in charge fail to recognise, but it's just one man, admittedly the coach of the world's premier RL nation, but I would be more excited if it was someone like Nick Politis or some other NRL club bigshot talking it up, that's who needs convincing.    You can ignore what Greenberg says like yesterday, he's like a politician and gives out platitudes to suit the occasion, that's how he keeps his job. Until the club's on both sides can be convinced by cold, hard cash which seems very unlikely to materialize nothings gonna happen.

[Pulga]

What's up with Great Britain?

 

Am I the only one who thinks it's a waste of ranking points?

Just have England. I'd be all for seeing Australia get toppled off the top of the world rankings.

[Damien]

3 hours ago, Scubby said:

This is where leaders lead! If it doesn't look right, feel right or is going to lose you money you just pull the plug and arrange something better. Has Rimmer got any leadership qualities whatsoever? Can you believe we actually axed a 4 Nations when we now have 4 bloody competitive nations. Why do we do it to ourselves?

The Four Nations had its faults but at least it was relatively set in stone and we seemed to have some sort of an international calendar. We have certainly gone backwards without it. Now it just all seems to be done on a whim with no plan and no one has a clue what is going on from one year to the next.

Even if didn't have a Four Nations every year between World Cups there is definitely a place for it between World Cups. If we had a Four Nations A with NZ, Australia, England and Tonga and Four Nations B with France, Samoa, PNG and Fiji, or dare I say Confederations Cup along the same lines, intermediate between World Cups the top Nations get some additional high quality games. Then we could have Northern hemisphere tours the year after a World Cup then Southern Hemisphere the year before. A nice simple 4 year calendar with nothing too convoluted and there would be some sort of structure and everything would be set in stone.

[Oxford]

16 hours ago, Clogiron said:

Good luck with that one Mal, bit like pi**ing in the wind I should imagine.

 I wanted to write this, well something like it, and no give me Tonga, Samoa, the Kumuls and the French cos then I might have a chance of seeing it happen.

[Rupert Prince]

It would be nice to have top stadia which had decent in goal areas. 

3 or 4(?) games is not a 'tour',  its just a series. We would have a tour if it was in say our season, ie when we play in our winter, and had games inbetween Tests.

We should have each league's GF followed by one side's winners travelling to WCC including all remaining selected national players.  After the WCC there can be a warm up for both sides then the 1st Test. Then a 2nd string game for tourists against a B team. Then remaining Tests. 

The tourists would have their GF players and all the remaining 1st choice players and reserves so there would be at least one 2nd string game to be make up a 'tour'. Possibly more, it depends on how many train on players you have.

If we here in England (UK of GB!!) hand a more realistic shorter season (24 games) then a more coherent end of season international (by whoever) series would be cogent. Blue Riband events. 

 

[Sports Prophet]

15 hours ago, 17 stone giant said:

Excellent idea, Mal.

Great Britain vs Australia in 2019 for The Ashes.

Wembley, Principality Stadium - Cardiff (if we're playing as GB, let's go outside of England for a change), Old Trafford.

Once we've beaten them, they'll be begging us to go over to Oz again soon, so that they can try and win them back. And when they do beg, we'll go down under and tour everywhere except Australia. Cook islands, Fiji, the lot. That will teach them.

In my head that's how it will all happen anyway.

 

 

Lol... That will teach Australia what exactly? Never to tour GB again?

[17 stone giant]

23 minutes ago, Clogiron said:

Calm down, calm down everybody you're flying off discussing venues and warm up game's and date's and even training venues. I know that the lack of International game's gets you like that, something that those in charge fail to recognise, but it's just one man, admittedly the coach of the world's premier RL nation, but I would be more excited if it was someone like Nick Politis or some other NRL club bigshot talking it up, that's who needs convincing.    You can ignore what Greenberg says like yesterday, he's like a politician and gives out platitudes to suit the occasion, that's how he keeps his job. Until the club's on both sides can be convinced by cold, hard cash which seems very unlikely to materialize nothings gonna happen.

Don't worry, we're not taking things too seriously or getting our hopes up too much. I'm certainly not, anyway. It's just fun playing 'rugby league administrator' now and again. If you read all the threads, you'll find we've all got several different proposals for the international game, on the go. Next year, I think I'm touring the southern hemisphere with GB, hosting an ashes series, and running a six nations tournament somewhere, all simultaneously. It keeps me happy to think about such things, until the real action starts next week. It's what I love about rugby league - the lack of any real structure for the international game allows this sort of fun and speculation. I can't do it with football and rugby union because they're both too damned organised. They know what they're doing from one year to the next. Only with rugby league can I let my creative imagination flow. Lol