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Rugby League World Cup 2021 (Merged Threads)


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36 minutes ago, Blind side johnny said:

It may well be a pointless argument here on a forum but don't you think that these are exactly the sort of things that have been discussed before making this decision? Despite what some on here have suggested this wasn't a "back of a fag packet" decision.

No I agree, it was very calculated....by the NRL. How can you state player welfare concerns without actually consulting the players, as we now know to be the case? It stinks of the NRL doing what it wants for its own self interests. 

Edited by hunsletgreenandgold
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1 hour ago, Dunbar said:

I suspect that it will have very little effect but here is the submission I made to NRL.com feedback page today.

............................................................

I write to you today as a lifelong supporter of the great game of Rugby League.

While I may be based on the other side of the world in the UK, I have always felt a massive connection to the game in Australia, ever since I first saw the great Kangaroo team of 1986 progress unbeaten through England and France and I had the absolute pleasure of watching the likes of Sterling, Miles, Meninga and Kenny ply their wonderful skills in our club competition.  Fast forward 35 years and now I am subscriber of WatchNRL who very very rarely misses a single game of NRL.

I can honestly say that my passion for the sport of Rugby League in Australia is only surpassed by my love of international Rugby League; that unfortunately all too rare occasion when we get the chance see the best players from competitions from all over the world come together to test themselves.  Of course, the elite competition in which the international teams play is the World Cup.  The 2021 edition was set to be the biggest, most ambitious and potentially most impactful tournament our sport has ever seen.  A tournament that would have allowed Rugby League to reach audiences in both volume and reach that it has never seen before.

And then we hear the news today that the ARL and the NZRL have decided to forfeit attendance at the upcoming World Cup.  A decision that has been foreshadowed by noises coming out of the NRL about the impact that the competition will have on players and their preparation for the 2022 season.

I see that the reasons that have been given for this stand down is player welfare and player safety.  But what has become of player choice?  The choice that a player has to play in a competition that only comes around two or maybe three times in their lifetime if they are lucky.  Let us use Boyd Cordner as our example here.  He has had to step down from the game tragically early due to the ongoing effects of concussion.  Many years from now, when he reflects on his career, I am sure one of the highlights he will remember most fondly will be playing and scoring in a World Cup final and subsequently lifting the trophy.  A potential memory that the authorities have unilaterally taken away from a generation of players by deciding to withdraw them from the competition.

As I started with.  I have been a player and fan of our sport for 35 years and in that time I have seen Rugby League throw away many opportunities to showcase our great game.  But none like today.  While other sports move heaven and earth to allow elite players to play in elite competitions, our sport decides that it is all too hard.  Come the autumn of this year when I see the Premier League soccer grounds full of passionate fans or the Australian Rugby Union team playing in front of 80,000 fans at Twickenham, I will remember today as the day that our sport threw away yet another chance to show the world it is indeed the greatest game of all. 

It is the greatest sport and it deserves better than what it received today.  I am not even angry, I am beyond that, I am just deeply deeply saddened that the game has once again self destructed.

And to finish where I started.  I used to love the Australian Rugby League and I was a subscriber to WatchNRL.  No more.  I have watched my last game of NRL.

Just read your whole post/letter, it`s far bigger than my flippant response about tonight`s game, I just hope it lands on someone who is importants desk tomorrow. 

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3 minutes ago, Blind side johnny said:

It may well be a pointless argument here on a forum but don't you think that these are exactly the sort of things that have been discussed before making this decision? Despite what some on here have suggested this wasn't a "back of a fag packet" decision.

nope i really don't because if it had they know this argument doesn't wash because the experts are saying that we can have full stadiums, we can un bubble in September and come October things will be pretty much normal... 

There is no way this was discussed because they know they would look stupid while other sports teams are all for coming over...

there issue is solely about this 2 week problem.. this other stuff is guff and an excuse. its obvious to anyone 

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2 minutes ago, Blind side johnny said:

It may well be a pointless argument here on a forum but don't you think that these are exactly the sort of things that have been discussed before making this decision? Despite what some on here have suggested this wasn't a "back of a fag packet" decision.

The flimsy holes in the "player welfare" argument are there because this isn't about Player Welfare at all.

This is entirely about players quarantine time being part of their holiday time or NRL clubs' pre season - and that it would regardless be impacting on the latter.

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3 hours ago, Smudger06 said:

Brazil RL have offered to send a mens team as well as a womens team, nice 1 brazil. 

A nice gesture to be sure, but if you've seen their match against the heritage Filipinos which the latter won with ease you'll know that they'd be as far out of their depth as the Russians were in 2000 if not even more so.

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17 minutes ago, Blind side johnny said:

If the competition were to go ahead without either the Australian or NZ teams would decent crowds turn out to watch the games?

Or is there the danger of it becoming a half-hearted and embarrassing tournament?

This isn't an attempt at negativity, just reality in the face of a relentlessly anti-RL media.

Overwhelmingly Yes.

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3 minutes ago, Man of Kent said:

RLWC2021 saying it plans to assign volunteer roles from next month. Doesn't sound like it's going to be postponed/binned off. At least, not yet. 

It’s got to be full steam ahead especially if the Aussie players revolt against the decision because they want to play.  Need to give a bit of space and time for a u-turn.

Edited by Gerrumonside ref
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21 minutes ago, Blind side johnny said:

If the competition were to go ahead without either the Australian or NZ teams would decent crowds turn out to watch the games?

Or is there the danger of it becoming a half-hearted and embarrassing tournament?

This isn't an attempt at negativity, just reality in the face of a relentlessly anti-RL media.

Probably why the media is getting behind this topic, to then crush a weaker tournament later.....

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10 minutes ago, Big Picture said:

A nice gesture to be sure, but if you've seen their match against the heritage Filipinos which the latter won with ease you'll know that they'd be as far out of their depth as the Russians were in 2000 if not even more so.

I saw it, I agree. 

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This isn't a post about COVID in general (so please don't take it that way mods) but more to point out just how ridiculous this could all end up looking for our antipodean friends. New cases today are 39,906 - which is over 4000 less than yesterday and 8000 less than the same day last week (for any Aussies reading that is important because we have peaks and troughs depending on what day of the week it is sometimes) - so whilst it's early, all the signs are we've 'peaked'. In the January peak, 3 months after recording 65k cases a day we were down to between 1500-2000 cases. Add to that the hugely severed links between cases and deaths in the UK, you can safely assume if this starts to follow a similar trend by 23rd Oct there will barely be any COVID in the UK. 

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this has soured my relationship and love of watching nrl - wont be watching a fraction of the matches i used to do or buying any nrl merch - good job we not relying on them to come over and help us out in a world war or something - cowardly losers and quitters the lot of em.

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see you later undertaker - in a while necrophile 

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5 hours ago, Damien said:

Its amazing how the likes of Townsville, Canberra, Newcastle and Gold Coast sustain NRL teams isnt it?

But what other sports are they up against a Man Utd or a Leeds United, Arsenal its a false argument even certain Non-League football teams in the UK get decent gates all their is down under is Rugby League, Union & Cricket. 

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23 minutes ago, Blind side johnny said:

That doesn't answer the question. FYI the comparative rates are orders of magnitude different. Japan has locked down; we have thrown open the gates and shouted "stuff it". I can understand some people being just a bit circumspect about visiting the UK at present.

The declared number and rate of infections depends on a number of factors, a key one in my view is the number and type of test and the percentage of those tests that are reported as positive as well as the honesty in reporting self tests and the demographics of country, demographics of admissions, geolocation. Add in hospital admissions, duration of stay, deaths, ICU case etc and you have a very complex set of figures that render comparisons difficult.

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5 minutes ago, hunsletgreenandgold said:

This isn't a post about COVID in general (so please don't take it that way mods) but more to point out just how ridiculous this could all end up looking for our antipodean friends. New cases today are 39,906 - which is over 4000 less than yesterday and 8000 less than the same day last week (for any Aussies reading that is important because we have peaks and troughs depending on what day of the week it is sometimes) - so whilst it's early, all the signs are we've 'peaked'. In the January peak, 3 months after recording 65k cases a day we were down to between 1500-2000 cases. Add to that the hugely severed links between cases and deaths in the UK, you can safely assume if this starts to follow a similar trend by 23rd Oct there will barely be any COVID in the UK. 

I think that's why they have done it now, chief.

Edited by Man of Kent
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7 minutes ago, graveyard johnny said:

this has soured my relationship and love of watching nrl - wont be watching a fraction of the matches i used to do or buying any nrl merch - good job we not relying on them to come over and help us out in a world war or something - cowardly losers and quitters the lot of em.

Must admit I didn’t put Canberra v Paramatta on this morning, whereas I’d usually have had it on in the background while I was working. 

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39 minutes ago, yipyee said:

Is Australia pulling out of the Olympics ?

Are the All blacks and Wallabies moth balling their teams?

Or are the rugby league players soft cowards?!

 

 

Pretty easy saying that,sat behind a keyboard 10,000 away and as been reported the players were not consulted on the decision.

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maybe the kangaroos should change their kit from green and yellow just to plain yellow - there would be no question of the english going over there if it was the other way round - because at the end of the day we have the minerals and they don't 

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see you later undertaker - in a while necrophile 

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10 minutes ago, Devon Ram said:

But what other sports are they up against a Man Utd or a Leeds United, Arsenal its a false argument even certain Non-League football teams in the UK get decent gates all their is down under is Rugby League, Union & Cricket. 

I think Damien was being rather facetious when he said that, after another poster suggested 99.2% of Aus population was in 5 cities that didn't include those areas. 

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2 hours ago, The Rocket said:

Nuts isn`t it, the one thing they haven`t got that we have, that they would absolutely kill for and we want to stuff it up, as Irish said " you couldn`t make that stuff up". Any way mate it`s not about us tonight, as much as I`m up to my neck in the code wars down here, this is about the kick in the teeth to English League tonight.

Not quite the one thing, one of two things.  They never embraced the Origin concept in interstate matches, their version of State of Origin was more halfhearted, maybe because the Vics were worried about losing their dominance over SA and WA?  As they haven't interstate matches since 1999 SOO is another thing which RL has over them.

2 hours ago, Smudger06 said:

The disgraceful thing is the ARLC are now spinning it to be about covid safety and the masses are lapping it up.

Those who know, know this not to be the true Reason at all. Australia are sending cricketers to Bangladesh, no one knows the real situation on the ground regarding covid in that country. They have sent large Olympic teams to Japan. 

It's betrayal this is, a proper stab in the back. 

I can't imagine just how they expect anyone to buy that load of ###### when the Australian national RU team will be playing in Britain this November.

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44 minutes ago, Dunbar said:

Just a quick line from me that calling out the players for this is both wrong and self defeating.

All the quotes I have seen from NRL players about the World Cup is that they are looking forward to it.  Similarly a survey quoted on here said that 75% of players were happy and ready to come. Some wouldn't but that is their choice.

But that choice has been taken away by the ARL and NZRL under pressure from the clubs.  The issue was the competition and the quarantine and how that would impact NRL 2022... the player welfare messaging is an attempt to deflect.  Give them the choice, don't take a potential once in a lifetime experience away from them without consultation. 

The players are as much a victim of this selfish decision as the fans.

 

The players could defy their clubs and come to play anyway, infact the first all golds tour did this and created the game in the SH.

Lets see if the players have the stones as ultimatley they will be on holiday and can do as they please as long as they report back for duty before the season starts.

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14 minutes ago, Davo5 said:

Pretty easy saying that,sat behind a keyboard 10,000 away and as been reported the players were not consulted on the decision.

The players could still play, the union clubs told the players not to go on the original tours.

Maybe the olympians and the union players just have more self respect

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Just now, Man of Kent said:

Adam Pearson pipes up with Super League clubs' very own 'selfish and parochial' view https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/adam-pearson-hull-fc-super-5686936

Could he not just shut up for a day?

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I was born to run a club like this. Number 1, I do not spook easily, and those who think I do, are wasting their time, with their surprise attacks.

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