The NRL revive talk of 2023 season opener in LA

[The Great Dane]

On 21/04/2022 at 20:44, UTK said:

Using this as an argument against the Hunters is absolute nonsense, there are 15 Australian NRL clubs, 13 QLD Cup sides, 12 NSW Cup sides and even more junior rep sides at each age group below these levels. There are more than enough opportunities for Australian athletes to make it, it is definitely not arbitrary as to who gets in the system and who doesn't there are many different factors that influence this and failure to identify the correct talent is an issue that has much more to do with individual clubs rather than the NRL itself.

The Hunters have 1 club in the QCup that represents nearly 9 million people - a population that is as much of a RL heartland as NSW/QLD. The Papuan talent that populates the QCup/NRL is infinitely more valuable to Australian RL systems than propping up another team of mediocre Australians in QCup, PNG talent raises the standards of QCup which in turn exposes Australian players coming through the grades to a higher level of competition. There's already the entire Hunters squad plus over a dozen other players signed to other QCup sides in the competition, without those player QCup would be undoubtedly weaker which is in no way in the interests of the QRL/NRL. 

Only recently has PNG begun reforming their schoolboys system to provide a proper structure for junior talent to come through while the Digicel cup is also in the process of expansion. Once some of these structures become further refined PNG will be the largest source of untapped talent in RL bar none and the Hunters will provide the NRL an access point to that talent, it would be grossly negligent of the NRL not to continue fostering this pathway when further expansion is expected in the next few years.

You are so unbelievably ignorant of the state of RL in Australia, it's position compared to it's competitors within Australia, the opportunities afforded to players depending on where they are from within Australia, and the amount of talent with the potential to be NRL players that it loses in each age group each year because of a lack of opportunities. You don't even seem to really comprehend the geographical constraints in play in Australia.

In other words you haven't got the faintest clue what you are talking about, and what you've said is such nonsense that it's not worth responding to because it doesn't map onto reality in the slightest.

Look, put simply growth in PNG cannot be allowed to come at the expense of growth in Australia because Australia is where the money is. It's really that simple, look after Australia or risk loosing everything, and considering the basic facts of the matter the NRL is doing a terrible job of looking after the vast majority of Australia.

Edited April 25, 2022 by The Great Dane

[Big Picture]

5 hours ago, The Great Dane said:

Two major problems have harmed the NRL's on field product in the last 15-20 years.

Somewhere in the mid 00s the referees adopted a philosophy to refereeing, commonly referred to as 'game management', where instead of simply enforcing the rules to the best of their ability they would try to subtly manipulate the game so it 'flowed' better and would in theory be more entertaining.

In practise what ended up happening as a result was the refs were effectively given the discretion to decide whether or not they'd enforce the rules when they were broken, which lead to totally inconsistent rulings which not only totally stuffed the game, and allowed prior unforeseen amounts of bias to leak into the game, but lead to a whole bunch of other knock-on effects.

Jumping ahead, instead of removing that refereeing philosophy and removing as much of the subjectivity that had leaked into the rulebook as a result, i.e. addressing the real issue, PVL and the current NRL's 'solution' to the problem was to introduce the six again rule, which not only failed to fix any of the problems it was specifically introduced to fix, in fact it exacerbated most of them, but has so completely screwed the game in a bunch of other ways that it's to the point that the game's so different from what it used to be that it may as well be considered a completely different sport, and not for the better.

If you truly believe that the current confused trash is better than what was on the field even a few years ago, then I strongly suggest that you do yourself a massive favour and look up some older footy.

If you're interested in some suggestions then a good place to start would be the 2015 GF and round 22 2019 Storm vs Raiders. Those games are great examples of modern footy at it's best, and what it could and should be with a few minor changes. If you're willing to look at older, golden age, stuff then the 89 and 97(ARL) GFs are a great place to start. 

BTW, you're simply wrong if you think that field position was bought more cheaply in the NRL 5 years ago then now, when these days the refs regularly give cheap possession and field position to teams for reasons that even they can't explain after the fact because of the 6 again rule.

I think you misunderstood me, I don't think that the NRL is any better now than then, I haven't bothered to watch any NRL matches from any years after 2016.  I've watched a great many matches from the late 1980s and 1990s and I prefer those head and shoulders over the ###### being served up now in both hemispheres.

[gingerjon]

6 hours ago, Big Picture said:

I haven't bothered to watch any NRL matches from any years after 2016

[...]

I prefer those head and shoulders over the ###### being served up now in both hemispheres.

Is this like me saying I can't stand what the young people are listening to these days when I couldn't actually name you a single thing that the young people are listening to these days?

[Dunbar]

On 19/04/2022 at 11:01, The Great Dane said:

guys like Buddy Franklin, Dustin Martin, and Christian Petracca would have been just as big of stars as Sivo, Kikau, et al., had RL realistically had a chance of converting them to RL in their youth.

I don't know any of these guys as I don't follow AFL in any way.  But I assume that they had a background in Rugby League as juniors as you can't just be assuming that a talented athlete in another sport would be as good at Rugby League as a superstar such as Kikau?

[DavidM]

9 hours ago, Big Picture said:

I think you misunderstood me, I don't think that the NRL is any better now than then, I haven't bothered to watch any NRL matches from any years after 2016.  I've watched a great many matches from the late 1980s and 1990s and I prefer those head and shoulders over the ###### being served up now in both hemispheres.

At the moment you’re missing seeing two of the greatest club sides probably ever 

[Dunbar]

11 minutes ago, DavidM said:

At the moment you’re missing seeing two of the greatest club sides probably ever 

Spot on.  I loved Rugby League in the 80's and 90's but I have no idea why anyone would brag about not watching the NRL for the last 6 years.  Some of the games so far this year have been absolutely outstanding. 

[DavidM]

1 minute ago, Dunbar said:

Spot on.  I loved Rugby League in the 80's and 90's but I have no idea why anyone would brag about not watching the NRL for the last 6 years.  Some of the games so far this year have been absolutely outstanding. 

I watched Penrith yesterday and Melbourne today and i was thinking this is as good as ive ever seen . The speed , intensity , skill , conditioning is just unrivalled

[RL Sonja]

I’m the same.

I love old footy but Storm and Panthers are exceptional teams.

[Big Picture]

In this report from the Sydney Morning Herald about the struggles of the grassroots approach in the US, it states that "The game would be staged at the 22,000-seat Banc of California Stadium in Los Angeles, with the time difference allowing for a Saturday night fixture to be broadcast back to Australia on Sunday afternoon".

The trouble with playing on Saturday night in LA is that 8 PM there is 11 PM on the east coast (and almost everywhere east of the Mississippi too), so a match at that time will make zero impact over here in the (very unlikely) event that a match between two Sydney suburban teams attracts much interest from US TV networks.  I can't see what makes them think that this will help them break into the North American market.

[Dunbar]

On 01/05/2022 at 13:19, Big Picture said:

so a match at that time will make zero impact over here in the (very unlikely) event that a match between two Sydney suburban teams attracts much interest from US TV networks.  I can't see what makes them think that this will help them break into the North American market.

I suppose that a byproduct of being the biggest name in town on the East coast of Australia has given the NRL the perception that names like Penrith, Souths or Canterbury are big names. 

They are in Australia and they are well known to NRL fans globally but that is not a big community. 

If the Australian Rugby League want to sell their sport in the US they should start with the Kangaroos.  But they shoukd have started with that 30 years ago instead of letting the All Blacks become the biggest brand in international rugby.