England vs Samoa Series

[crashmon]

13 hours ago, gingerjon said:

I think the easiest comparison - and it's not perfect - is with soccer in Australia, although that has changed given the visibility of the Matildas.

The difficulty is for anyone outside the UK to understand that the sporting landscape here looks like: Premier League football, international football, other kinds of football, some more football, women's football, quirky European football, rugby union, this football over here, cricket, retro football, everything else ...

We're high up in the everything else though.

I'd put International RU above Womens football, and put Club RU in the everything else.  Seeing how the elite club RU comp is now shown on that massive channel knows as Premier sports.

[Jparrish]

13 hours ago, gingerjon said:

I think the easiest comparison - and it's not perfect - is with soccer in Australia, although that has changed given the visibility of the Matildas.

The difficulty is for anyone outside the UK to understand that the sporting landscape here looks like: Premier League football, international football, other kinds of football, some more football, women's football, quirky European football, rugby union, this football over here, cricket, retro football, everything else ...

We're high up in the everything else though.

Having worked at an A-league club, this is the comparison I would use. Both have a lot of similar issues

[Mojo]

7 hours ago, StandOffHalf said:

I might have Luciano Leilua over Su'A. I think he's been good for the Cows in 2024.

 

Leilua plays for the Dragons with Sua lol or maybe you mean Sua Faalogo?

[Mojo]

7 hours ago, Welshleaguelover said:

Don't be surprised if there's a few pullouts from Samoa.

Think Tonga only came over with players that didn't make the finals last season.

Can see some pressure coming from the clubs.

The Panthers boys are definitely going especially if they delayed the tour by a week because of Critchons wedding. Those Panthers boys are the leaders in that samoan squad. Rts also committing to the tour is a huge bonus. I don't see them fielding a weaker team then last year. If Luai gets injured then that will definitely weaken the samoan team and I don't see them beating England at all

[StandOffHalf]

57 minutes ago, Mojo said:

Leilua plays for the Dragons with Sua lol or maybe you mean Sua Faalogo?

LOL, I must be living in the past. Could have sworn he was still with the Cows. Shows how much I watched the Dragons in 2024, haha...

[Sports Prophet]

8 hours ago, Welshleaguelover said:

Don't be surprised if there's a few pullouts from Samoa.

Think Tonga only came over with players that didn't make the finals last season.

Can see some pressure coming from the clubs.

Let’s just think about that very notion.

An NRL club would be mad to place any undue pressure on a player to pull out of an IRL sanctioned tour. 

1. because they are not allowed to

2. because it hinders opportunity to sign other highly talented players who expect to find themselves selected for representative duties

3. because they would be held accountable by the RLPA and the player managers, which are the last organisation and individuals a club would wish to be scrutinised by

4. because there is no leverage a club can use to pressure a player from not participating anyway. What action can a pro club possibly take, should a player tour against the wishes of that professional club?

If any player pulls out of the tour due to such “pressure”, then I would challenge that player’s commitment to representative football in the first place and the national team is better off without him.

Edited September 18 by Sports Prophet

[Odsal Outlaw]

7 minutes ago, Sports Prophet said:

Let’s just think about that very notion.

An NRL club would be mad to place any undue pressure on a player to pull out of an IRL sanctioned tour. 

1. because they are not allowed to

2. because it hinders opportunity to sign other highly talented players who expect to find themselves selected for representative duties

3. because they would be held accountable by the RLPA and the player managers, which are the last organisation and individuals a club would wish to be scrutinised by

4. because there is no leverage a club can use to pressure a player from not participating anyway. What action can a pro club possibly take, should a player tour against the wishes of that professional club?

If any player pulls out of the tour due to such “pressure”, then I would challenge that player’s commitment to representative football in the first place and the national team is better off without him.

But look what happened with the Lebanon tour to France!

[graveyard johnny]

8 hours ago, Welshleaguelover said:

Don't be surprised if there's a few pullouts from Samoa.

Think Tonga only came over with players that didn't make the finals last season.

Can see some pressure coming from the clubs.

if thats the case and players pull out without been injured the series is not worth a wonk

[Mojo]

50 minutes ago, Odsal Outlaw said:

But look what happened with the Lebanon tour to France!

I think that's more to do with the late schedule by IRL and playing that game a week after the nrl grand final, and isn't that during the SL season as well? The IRL board members are running the international game down the drain

[Sports Prophet]

57 minutes ago, Odsal Outlaw said:

But look what happened with the Lebanon tour to France!

So some Lebanese players are not participating. Have any of the French, Lebanese and/or players complained to the authorities that clubs are placing undue pressure on players to pull out?

I don’t think they have. So that tells me either there was no undue pressure from NRL clubs for players to pull out and/or those players don’t want to play anyway.

[Click]

2 hours ago, Mojo said:

I think that's more to do with the late schedule by IRL and playing that game a week after the nrl grand final, and isn't that during the SL season as well? The IRL board members are running the international game down the drain

What has the IRL got to do with it? They haven't organised it.

[Click]

1 hour ago, Sports Prophet said:

So some Lebanese players are not participating. Have any of the French, Lebanese and/or players complained to the authorities that clubs are placing undue pressure on players to pull out?

I don’t think they have. So that tells me either there was no undue pressure from NRL clubs for players to pull out and/or those players don’t want to play anyway.

You seem to live in a world where everyone is on an equal playing ground.

The real world doesn't actually function that way.

[Mojo]

7 minutes ago, Click said:

What has the IRL got to do with it? They haven't organised it.

It was organised not long ago and then cancelled a couple days later

[Click]

1 minute ago, Mojo said:

It was organised not long ago and then cancelled a couple days later

Yeah, neither the organising or cancelling had anything to do with the IRL though

[Mojo]

1 hour ago, Click said:

Yeah, neither the organising or cancelling had anything to do with the IRL though

But doesn't IRL approve it tho? Surely they're the ones that gives them the green light to go ahead with it?

[Click]

6 minutes ago, Mojo said:

But doesn't IRL approve it tho? Surely they're the ones that gives them the green light to go ahead with it?

But what would that have to do with anything? The IRL have almost zero power.

The countries involved organised it, they just had to get the IRL to sign off on it

[Sports Prophet]

4 hours ago, Sports Prophet said:

So some Lebanese players are not participating. Have any of the French, Lebanese and/or players complained to the authorities that clubs are placing undue pressure on players to pull out?

I don’t think they have. So that tells me either there was no undue pressure from NRL clubs for players to pull out and/or those players don’t want to play anyway.

->

2 hours ago, Click said:

You seem to live in a world where everyone is on an equal playing ground.

The real world doesn't actually function that way.

I don’t understand the point of your response to my earlier comment sorry Click. Can you clarify further for me please?

[Mojo]

16 minutes ago, Click said:

But what would that have to do with anything? The IRL have almost zero power.

The countries involved organised it, they just had to get the IRL to sign off on it

That's the problem right there. IRL should've told the organizers it was a bad idea in the first place. They have the power to deny it because the timing of it all was off. IRL knew it was a bad idea and still approved it. How do you not see that?

[Click]

7 minutes ago, Mojo said:

That's the problem right there. IRL should've told the organizers it was a bad idea in the first place. They have the power to deny it because the timing of it all was off. IRL knew it was a bad idea and still approved it. How do you not see that?

Why was it a bad idea in the first place? 

Why did the IRL know it was a bad idea? 

 

[Click]

9 minutes ago, Sports Prophet said:

->

I don’t understand the point of your response to my earlier comment sorry Click. Can you clarify further for me please?

Well you seem to think everyone is on an equal playing field. They aren't.

Players aren't able to freely criticise their clubs if their clubs have said "no" for them to take part in this series.

Countries aren't able to freely criticise clubs or the governing body, they have to work within these numerous organisations or they would never get any positive contributions/buy in from them again.

 

[Damien]

30 minutes ago, Mojo said:

That's the problem right there. IRL should've told the organizers it was a bad idea in the first place. They have the power to deny it because the timing of it all was off. IRL knew it was a bad idea and still approved it. How do you not see that?

It wasn't a bad idea though.

[RP London]

5 hours ago, Sports Prophet said:

So some Lebanese players are not participating. Have any of the French, Lebanese and/or players complained to the authorities that clubs are placing undue pressure on players to pull out?

I don’t think they have. So that tells me either there was no undue pressure from NRL clubs for players to pull out and/or those players don’t want to play anyway.

to be fair there are plenty of cases of general life where things happen that shouldnt at work after undue pressure and people dont complain due to the kick back that would come at them.. I'm not saying there was pressure but just that it isnt the case that just becuase it hasnt been reported means it didnt happen, it can often be the case that there is then an avalanche when the first person does complain and there is evidence for that all over the place. 

Edited September 18 by RP London

[Mathius Hellwege]

22 minutes ago, Damien said:

It wasn't a bad idea though.

great idea for RL in France, spectacularly bad timing due to the parallelity with both Grand Finals

[Sports Prophet]

1 hour ago, RP London said:

to be fair there are plenty of cases of general life where things happen that shouldnt at work after undue pressure and people dont complain due to the kick back that would come at them.. I'm not saying there was pressure but just that it isnt the case that just becuase it hasnt been reported means it didnt happen, it can often be the case that there is then an avalanche when the first person does complain and there is evidence for that all over the place. 

I take you back to one of my points though. What will the NRL clubs pressure the player with? We’re not gonna pick you? What a load of . If a player is good enough, he’s getting picked.

[Sports Prophet]

1 hour ago, Click said:

Well you seem to think everyone is on an equal playing field. They aren't.

Players aren't able to freely criticise their clubs if their clubs have said "no" for them to take part in this series.

Countries aren't able to freely criticise clubs or the governing body, they have to work within these numerous organisations or they would never get any positive contributions/buy in from them again.

 

Yes they are freely able to criticise their clubs if they are being pressured not to play. What are the clubs gonna do if the player says, “stuff you, I’m playing”?

If nations are not getting buy in now, why would they expect to get buy in, in the future? They shouldn’t, so there is no logical reason for them not to complain is there?

Edited September 18 by Sports Prophet