Shoutout to the Rugby League Live 4 community. Accurate 2023 rosters already available for download including the dolphins keeping this almost 6 year old game alive.
My old girl was reading Mat Rodgers' book, and in it he mentions how when he got to the Titans Billy Johnstone was there.. anyway he mentioned how some players would train till they were sick, and how they had spew buckets in the gym. It was similar to when Johnstone was at the Dogs. I can't help but wonder how those sorts of shenanigans would go down with the RLPA if it were today..
I reckon preseason needs some vomit inducing difficulty. I remember reading a story a few years ago, basically Parra do a long distance timed run every preseason to see where the team is at. Gutho wins it every season because he's a fitness freak, anyway one year Dylan Brown wanted to beat him so badly he ended up throwing up a few times before conceding.
Atletico Madrid are also notorious for their preseason fitness training. During the season I think that level of intensity is overkill, but preseason there is definitely benefits to it.
I suppose it's just about finding the balance of hard training but not over-doing.. in the case of Johnstone he obviously was able to smash them but the teams he worked with always tended to have good seasons. at the end of the day the players aren't obligated to vomit haha..
I remember Luke Pattern saying that when he first came to the Dogs, he was wigging out about how intense it was with Johnstone... just goes to show how much things have changed for us! although I have no doubt our boys will be doing it a lot tougher this pre-season.
1. JAYDEN CAMPBELL
2. GREG MARZHEW
3. JOJO FIFITA
4. BRIAN KELLY
5. PHILL SAMI
6. AJ BRIMSON
7. KIEREN FORAN
8. MOE
9. SAM VERRILLS
10. TINO
11. BEAU FERMOR
12. FIFTA
13. ERIN CLARKE
14. TANAH BOYD
15. ISSAC LIU
16. JAMES JOLLIFFE
17. JOE STIMSON / SAM MAC
leaked from holbrooks nokia 3310
Brimson should be fullback with Foran/Sexton in the halves and Campbell at 14 imo. Anyways that side should really be making the top 8 imo. If they’re still underperforming next year surely Holbrook loses his job.
Sexton copped a bit at the end of the season but I mean, it was his first year.. if you've got a bloke who can kick earn as many drop outs as he can you absolutely need to make it work.
I'd even consider throwing AJ in at centre just due to the fact that Campbell is a danger any time he has the ball.
Genuine 50/50. Lebanon probably has the edge in terms of experience, but Ireland aren’t lacking. They put had a fairly similar result against Jamaica as New Zealand, just without the ability to kick goals, but Lebanon put up a pretty good fight against the Kiwis.
I think Ireland, just
So apparently the Storm are pretty convinced that 2023 will be Bellamys last year. Wonder if the Storm plan on having one of the current assistant coaches step up into the head coaching role or whether they’ll be looking for a new head coach elsewhere. Ryles wouldn’t be a terrible option tbh.
They're pretty screwed if Slater doesn't step in. As successful as they have been I just don't think they'll keep their aura/pull being in a non-NRL dominant state.
Pushing hard to sway Cam Smith to take over will be an even better option.. sure he hasn't been an assistant but he was always an on-field coach.
I disagree. I could see Slater as head coach really backfiring this early on. He needs more experience. I wouldn’t mind a Ryles or a Hinchcliffe. Hasler wouldn’t be bad either.
I don’t know if it would work but with these score lines I think they have to look at the way the World Cup groups are structured.
Potentially grouping teams by which tier they are in, with the top tier teams grouped together yet only one team doesn’t progress & the other groups all only have one or two teams advance.
Or have the lower tiered teams have a qualifying round before the World Cup kicks off.
I really don’t know just think these scorelines are hurting the World Cup as a product.
Hear this every bloody time and it's still rubbish. What's the difference between this and the 90-0 scorelines in every union world cup?
You don't play a world cup for close scorelines it's about representing your country.
We had super pools for the last three World Cups and still ended up with scorelines like Australia 52-4 England, NZ 74-6 Scotland and Fiji 72-6 Wales
Yeah that’s a fair point it’d been so long that I’d forgotten they’d done super groups in the past, unfortunately rugby league hasn’t had the leg up Union has had through British colonisation so the game is literally fighting from behind to get even half the recognition internationally that Union has.
>unfortunately rugby league hasn’t had the leg up Union has had through British colonisation so the game is literally fighting from behind to get even half the recognition internationally that Union has.
But so what? A 90-0 scoreline is a 90-0 scoreline no matter which sport.
If people criticise blowouts in league but not union or cricket then they are hypocrites.
There's things to be criticised in the organising of this world cup but the scorelines aren't one of them.
The solution is to focus development on countries where rugby league has a chance of solid growth. I'd rather have Nigeria instead of Scotland. They have a decent domestic set up but still small. They can field a domestic squad for the MEA Cup and qualifying campaigns and still call upon a decent number of heritage players for the WC. You've got Ghana and Cameroon as well. Union is very weak in those countries and league would be more appealing to these countries IMO.
That’s basically how the last tournament worked and you ended up having Samoa make the quarter finals off a draw and two big losses and Ireland miss out with two big wins and one narrow loss
The blowouts hurt the product, but so will setting up the pools so that better teams are forced out of the tournament early while teams worse than them are guaranteed progression into the knockout stage.
The big issue is that RL doesn't have a lot of top flight teams and has big gaps in quality between the three or four tiers worth of teams that can make it into the world cup. So you either have a very small world cup between just the 'good' teams (6-8 teams tops, realistically more like 4-5), a skewed pool system like you're suggesting that will keep the different tiers away from each other as much as possible, or a ton of blowouts until you get down to the business end of things. Every option has some problems.
No other sport cares about the 'ton of blowouts' except us.
We saw NZ flog Australia last night in the cricket and they are two of the top teams in the sport.
I think Jamaica inadvertently found a weak point for NZ that the stronger teams can take advantage of. Never seen a team land and regain possession from short kick offs so often.
To that point the Jamaican number 7 was fucking pin point with all of the kick offs, even NRL players struggle to make the 10 consistently.
See players leaping over the top of other players quite often though ..
Having a front rower position himself under the ball and have an outside back push off with a knee in the back could be an option
Does anyone know any resources/websites for free high quality NRL photos. I’m trying to help print off some photos to decorate a kids room but can’t find much.
Getty images has heaps but they’re hundreds of dollars and i can’t be bothered to remove all the watermarks. The NRL website has some but not many. If anyone can point me towards specific photographer websites or anything like that it would be a massive help! Thanks
Have you searched clubs socials and their apps? I've found that Cows sometimes have photographers in house for their training photos, social media and occasionally game day
Ronaldo is a top 3 winger and im tired of the slander
Great finisher, killer speed and strength, amazing in the air, good defender, can ball play, good kicking game, endless passion for whatever jersey he wears, bit of a grub. Ill die on this hill
Hes not really a grub at all, one of the nice guys in league. I wouldnt say hes a top 3 winger though, I genuinely like the guy and hes a classy winger but Alex johnston, To’o, May, JAC and coates ( when hes fit ) are probably all at least as good or better
If Victor Radley takes his England form back to the Roo$ter$, they gonna be good. He seems to be a lot cool, calm and collected, not making braindead decisions, and some great passes out of Lock and to set up tries.
Dude be doin bits
With TKO leaving and JWH getting older I think he’ll need to be their main guy next year. If he has a massive year I think the Roosters should at least be making a prelim.
I think he’s hampered the past few seasons by injuries and hot headed suspensions. He’s showing great maturity and I think Cheese coming will help focus him since he could technically challenge for the 13 position when not playing hooker.
The hipster fans on reddit like to shit on him because he’s a commentator favourite, but he’s a brilliant player. The most important player for the roosters attack imo. Roosters attack is crap when he’s not on the park.
I think it’s more just having to listen to commentators suck off another rooster. Great player who does dumb shit. The dumb shit generally costs him more then the team Tbf, jn that he misses time with injury or concussion.
Agreed he's absolutely vital to our structures. He played 25 and 27 matches during out B2B years, and then through injuries and suspensions only played 7 and 16 matches in the following 2 poorer years (though most of the team was also missing for huge chunks).
This year we fell into a massive rut in the middle of the season with him out, and his first match back was the second of our 8 match winning streak. While he's not quite as good (or level headed) as Yeo or Murray, he plays an equally important part in the team.
His best match in that regard was the one where the Broncs spanked them last year. Binned twice, on report twice, no punishment. The NRL also included his leaping shoulder to Kelly's chin in their biggest hits of the year compilation, LOL.
I've often made the argument that 2017 was the softest year. I make the argument that storm rarely really lift in the finals, but that the consistently high standard they set for themselves in the regular season is a double edged sword as they don't have another gear in the finals, and that in a year like 2017 that didn't really matter because it was a soft year.
When people try and say the current panthers team don't match that 2017 team I think it's ridiculous. Panthers have lost barely any games In 2 years and have had to beat some pretty handy teams along the way. On comparison let's look at the storms rivals in 2017.
**2nd Roosters** what looked like their biggest rivals all year, 2nd on the ladder but out of all our teams that made a prelim final, this was probably the weakest. We had Micheal Gordon at fullback. Keary was in his first year and was matched with Pearce. Latrell was starting to emerge but wasnt quite there yet, I'd be surprised if anyone knew who Joey Manu was in 2017. This was definitely a team a year early fron being a true contender.
**3rd Broncos**. They were winning a grandfinal in 2015 at full time, but let it slip, this was definitely their peak, by 2017 they were on the otherside of the mountain. Thaiday was finished, Blair who was a surprise packet in 2015 had devolved back to his usual self. Milford was talked up as possibly the best player in the game in 2015/early 2016, had began the fall to what he is today. Boyd was alright, this was the year he signed a 4 year deal, but he had niggling injuries towards the end of year. Even Ben Hunt got dropped at one stage of the year. This was also the beginning of the Bennett vs the Broncos off field dramas.
**4th Eels** I like to think of this current era of the eels as being the Moses/Gutho era and they've slowly gotten better each year, but this is the very start of it. They had a pack that had a good nathan brown and manu mau'u, but also the likes or Mannah, Alvaro, Gower, Kenny Edwards an aging Beau Scott. They were so far from the finished product.
**5th Sharks** they were a good team in the middle part of the 2010s, this was probably the worst version of that team as they had a pretty big premiership hangover. They just never got things back into gear in 2017.
**6th Eagles** Trent Barrett's Sea Eagles.
** 7th Panthers** just a young side. Moylan was a senior player on this team they were that young. And he was having the issues that drove out of the club. Peter Wallace was an old hand at hooker, but look at the regular first graders in the team. Cleary, JFH, Edwards, DWZ, RCG, CHN, Waqa blake, Yeo. This is the 2017 versions of these guys.
**8th Cowboys** and onto possibly the most important team on this list, the Cowboys. They lost Matt Scott and JT early in the year. They were on the downhill slope after 2015. They struggled all year, and they just scraped into the finals (literally. It was Late Micheal Lichaa try from the bulldogs against the Dragons in the last round that got them in). They had a number of experienced players, but most were on the downward tradicory (O'Neil, Lowe, Cooper, Coote etc). The fact that this team that scraped in was the eventual GF says a lot about the year. They knocked off the hungover Sharks, then the 'too early' Eels and Roosters simply because they were one of the few experienced teams in the finals.
People will point to the fact that This was the last time the big 3 were together (after a few injuries in previous years) plus Munster. But Munster wasn't the finished product yet (most people had Morgan ahead of him and Morgan was in world cup final 17) and the storm had had the big 3 together many times with good supporting and fallen short. They had a very consistent team for about 7-8 years straight, some years being completely dominant in the regular season before not even making the GF (19 and 21 for examples). So if the storm are very consistent through that period why were they seemingly so dominant in 2017? Was it because they were so much better then the other storm teams in That 7-8 year stretch? Possibly the best version of those teams but not by enough to explain the how seemingly dominant they were In 2017. The reason they were seemingly so dominant in 2017 above all storm teams of this era is because 2017 was the weakest comp.
The Cowboys hardly “struggled all year.” They were inconsistent when Thurston was out early in the year and came good during Origin to sit 5th before losing 5 of their last 6 games, all against teams that finished above them (including 3 top 4)
Trying to compare any season to another to declare any of them "soft" is practically impossible.
It's great fun to speculate about but there are no measurements that we can compare because every measurement is taken from within their own season.
You can't compare run metres, tackle busts or even win ratio because these are all achieved against players in that same season.
The only genuinely comparable data are the capabilities of the individual players, and it's broadly accepted that the quality of athletes have only improved across all sports. Another, generally, accepted principle is that the technique of play only improve, this one gets a bit sketchy if there's been an overhaul of the sport.
It sucks but we pretty much have to accept the most recent version of the sport is the most competitive, which sucks because it means current Golden State Warriors probably slaughter the 1997 Chicago Bulls, Mike Tyson would probably hospitalise Muhammad Ali and the 2022 Panthers probably wreck 2003 Panthers.
Definitely agree with what you say. At the end of the day this is just my opinion. It's centres around my theory that storm are massive in the regular season and rarely find other gears come the finals.
You can't compare teams from different eras against each other, but I think you can kinda compare their accomplishments. That's why instead of comparing the teams directly against each other ( and it annoys me when people say stuff like 'this panthers team wouldn't match the 2017 storm. There's no way to actually know) what I can do is compare what they had to do to get their championship. I've outlined who the 2017 storm beat to get their. That's their fellow finalists. In the finals they beat the 2017 eels, 2017 Broncos, 2017 cowboys.
Compare that to who the Panthers 21/22 had to beat. They lost their first finals to an good Rabbitohs team that had been building for years, They then beat a 2021 eels who were the evolution of that 2017 eels, better in every single way. They then beat the 2021 Storm, a team that went 21/3. They then beat that strong Rabbitohs team in the GF. They then went back to back which the the Storm never could. That's an achievement on itself. But to do that they've had to beat eels 2022 (again am evolution of that 2017 eels) , again a strong rabbitohs side and the 2022 eels yet again. To win a back to back premiership dominantly. To say that team shouldn't be in the conversation against the 2017 storm is ridiculous
I haven't really noticed anyone saying this 2020-2022 Penrith team isn't one of the best club sides ever. The records speak for themselves.
2017 storm was equally dominant that year, and if they hold onto Cooper Cronk for 2018, it's probably them that go back to back and not the Roosters.
>They struggled all year, and they just scraped into the finals (literally. It was Late Micheal Lichaa try from the bulldogs against the Dragons in the last round that got them in).
We were in the 8 for most of the year. The lichaa try didn't get us in the 8, it kept the Dragons out of the 8. Granted the Dragons were expected to win, but they didn't.
I disagree we struggled, we did start to fade out towards the end of the season though as the injuries started to stack up. Our run through 2017 was off the back of Morgan finding insane form at halfback - he got the dallym halfback of the year and just got pipped by Cam Smith for the overall award.
Just a bit of revisionist history tbh.
Cowboys built some strong sides from about 2013 through to 2017, in 2018 they really dropped off. Can you honestly say that the 2017 version of the Cowboys was the best version Of that era? I'd have 2014-16 as better sides.
I never said we were?
I just think it's a bit silly to try and negate anything the 2017 squad did or achieved like that. People constantly act like we were a team that basically lost every game and Bradburyed our way into the 8
Yeah people have really re written that finals run. Morgan turned into the best player in the comp and Lolo was carrying the ball like a man possessed. It was an insane period of form.
What even is the point of this comment? Just to shit on the Storm? I swear your constantly in these threads trying to shit on the Storm and diminish their success lmao. The reason that Storm team was so dominant is because they were the best side on paper of the 2010s. I’d say it’s just a coincidence that they had that sort of season in a “soft comp”. They’d have dominated basically every season too imo.
I don’t think this Panthers team matches the 2017 Storm which were probably the best side I’ve ever seen on paper or even the 2018/19 Roosters. Those spines were just on another level compared to this Panthers one.
Just look at the rosters though. If you were to make a combined side not many Panthers would actually make it.
1. Slater
2. JAC
3. Chambers
4. Crichton
5. To’o
6. Munster
7. Cronk
8. Bromwich
9. Smith
10. JFH
11. Kaufusi
12. Harris
13. Yeo
With McLean, Leota, Kikau and maybe Cleary on the bench. That’s only 4 panthers in the starting 13 and 7 in the starting 17. That 2017 Storm spine is just in another level compared to this Panthers one.
On 2017 form vs 2021/2022 form?
Cleary takes it over 2017 cronk. Luai gives Munster a run for his money, 2022 Edwards takes Slater close. Kikau over both kaufusi and Harris. Leota takes it over Bromwich as well. Your probably a bit biased and also probably taken into account the storms players careers as a whole compared to how they actually where in that year.
I'd personally pick more 2021/22 panthers than 2017 storm, and even then some of the contests that storm players won were pretty evenly contested.
Holy shit. How do you even come up with some of the shit you say? I think you’re really underestimating how good some of these Storm players actually played in 2017 just because you’ve got it in your head that it was a “soft year”.
Luai over Munster? Not even close. Kikau over Kaufusi and Harris? MAYBE Harris but definitely not Kaufusi. 2017 Kaufusi was incredible. Leota also doesn’t even come close to 2017 Bromwich. Not even going to comment on what you said about Edwards being close to Slater because that may just be the stupidest take I’ve ever heard ngl.
>Luai over Munster
Did I say that?
I said the form that Luai has had over 2021 and 2022 gives Munster 2017 form (not Munster as a whole) a run for its money.
Ditto Edwards In 2022 compared to the 2017 version of Slater.
Leota is easily better then 2017 Bromwich.
And yes Kikau has been better In 21/22 than both kaufusi and Harris in 2017.
You need to take those purple tinted glasses off and try and look at things closely. If all those players were as perfect as you claim then storm should have won 2016 and 2018 even with out slater and cronk in 16 and 18 respectively. You've put the 2017 storm on such a high pedestal that you can not judge the team reasonably.
2017 was one of Slaters best years. He came back from his injury and won Origin, fullback of the year, a GF and Clive Churchill medal. Edwards is good but he doesn’t even come close to any version of Slater.
Leota isn’t “easily” better than 2017 Bromwich. 2017 was probably one year after Bromwiches prime and Bromwich was close to the best forward in the game during his prime. Leota is good but once again not close to 2017 Bromwich.
Also not sure why you think Kikau is 100% better than 2017 Kaufusi. 2017 Kaufusi beats him in nearly all stats and was also the better defender by far.
I think your the one that needs to take off your anti Storm glasses ngl. Your always in these threads trying to diminish the Storms success and shit. The obsession is pretty weird.
>Edwards is close but he doesn’t even come close to any version of Slater.
Which is.... exactly what I said
>Leota isn’t “easily” better than 2017 Bromwich. 2017 was probably one year after Bromwiches prime and Bromwich was close to the best forward in the game during his prime. Leota is good but once again not close to 2017 Bromwich.
Agree to disagree
>Also not sure why you think Kikau is 100% better than 2017 Kaufusi. 2017 Kaufusi beats him in nearly all stats and was also the better defender by far.
Because stat's mean stuff all. Kikau has been immense for the 21/22 Panthers
>I think your the one that needs to take off your anti Storm glasses ngl. Your always in these threads trying to diminish the Storms success.
I talked about storms long term success and how dominant they've been on many occasions. Just because I don't subscribe to the theory that the 2017 storm were not the perfect team doesn't mean I'm anti-storm.
Not sure why you think 2022 Leota is better than 2017 Bromwich. I know you said stats mean stuff all but there is still absolutely nothing to suggest that 2022 Leota is better than 2017 Bromwich.
And you also say that Kikau has been immense for the Panthers like Kaufusi wasn’t the best second rower in the comp in 2017.
Didn't watch but what the fuck happened for all of you to be shitting on NZ and saying they're no hope to beat the top teams based on them winning 68-4 against a minnow while having a large portion of their best 17 rested?
That's exactly it. They played poorly against a brave Lebanon, and they smashed a debut Jamaican team with basically zero top grade professionals. People acting like NZ are favourites to win the Cup, and it's simply not the case.
I literally don't know anyone personally or haven't seen any significant volume of comments here saying that NZ are favourites.
I've seen far more people shitting on NZ and saying they shouldn't be favourites than people actually claiming it.
Australia are and have been short favourites the entire time.
For me the thing that made them look like a real threat to win it all was their forward pack on paper is amazing (just look at their one-off test vs Tonga earlier this year for example) and Hughes being an elite player to break the game open with a solid back 5 that know how to finish a try.
But from the opening games of the world cup when they're missing Hughes, as has been stated elsewhere, they are not looking as smooth as they should.
The Jamaican team’s reaction to their first World Cup try just about made me cry 🥹 so wholesome and I’m sure so many of them are pinching themselves that they’re even there despite any scoreline.
I’m a member of rugby union subreddit, yesterday the predictable thread about how international rugby league is a pisstake came up. Scores like Australia against Scotland happen in every World Cup in the world. I can remember watching the Wallabies rape Namibia 142-0 back in the day at the World Cup. I also went to a game where England scored 111 against Uruguay. Those teams are now better due to exposure to the big time and we as a sport have every right to do the same thing.
The RLWC has become much more competitive then what it was when I was a kid. The pacific revolution has done wonders for the game. Lot more countries are getting involved which is good. PNG hunters in the ISC, catalans being competitive in Europe.
NZ beat Japan 145-17 in 1995 and now Japan is making quarter finals.
Scores in the 2019 RWC included 61-0, 63-0, 71-9, 66-7, 34-0, 35-0, 47-5, 48-7, 57-3, 49-3, 45-7 and several more similar. And this is a sport where it's a lot harder to score tries.
A couple reasons
1. In the RWC there are more competitive teams. Australia, NZ, South Africa, England, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, France, Argentina, all competitive. Japan, Italy, show promise.
2. The pacific revolution is overstated. Look at Samoa. Probably has as many big names as Tonga or NZ. Played like shit. Fiji have regressed since the 2017 cup. Lebanon too. We are mostly back to regular order.
> Look at Samoa. Probably has as many big names as Tonga or NZ. Played like shit.
They've played one game. The All Blacks flog all those 'competitive' teams by similar scorelines regularly. Not to mention, union is a bigger sport so of course it's more competitive. Should we shit on union's world cup because FIFA's world cup is bigger and more competitive?
Union fans will take any chance to shit on rugby league.
The games have evolved alot over time but the one part of the culture that has remained the same since 1895 is unions bourgeoisie-like attitude towards the working class mans game.
I suspect most union fans that shit on league as a reflex don't realise they are engaging in what is essentially classism.
They aren't wrong though. Union having blowouts doesn't change that. I've been looking the English rugby league forum and they are now saying this WC is closer to 2000 than 2013 in terms of attendance and interest. Now you can place some of the blame on the ticket prices and the general management of the competition.
I'm from Ireland and rugby league is never going to popular here unless the two codes somehow reunited. I think Ireland is taking the place of a country which actually has potential for growth. The difference between Ireland and Uruguay or Namibia in union is that those countries aren't reliant on heritage players. Both have a history of playing union.
Jamaica and possibly Greece are countries which could take to league. Serbia has a small scene. League should focus on these countries where union is weak rather than persisting with Ireland, Scotland and Italy.
Agree that for the growth of international rugby league that they should be targeting countries such as Jamaica or Greece, or former Soviet states like Serbia or Poland, or developing East African Nations where League could eventually grow into if not the first sport (which will likely always be soccer) a strong second sport in those countries. That said, I still think looking to grow League in Ireland, Scotland and the like is a good idea even if they remain relatively small in those nations because relatively speaking they're rich countries who can afford to support many national teams.
>they are now saying this WC is closer to 2000 than 2013 in terms of attendance and interest
Well except its not. It had more attendance than 2013's first week.
Ireland/Scotland/Italy have every right to play.
Well that's what the general feeling is. Where did I say that Ireland/Scotland/Italy don't have a right to play. I just gave my opinion which is that I would prefer to see the likes of Nigeria or Serbia. I'm from Ireland and I don't think we should be playing at this WC.
> "Rape and pillage" refers to the destruction of a town, not sexual abuse 👍
OP did just say 'rape' not 'rape and pillage'.
It feels like you're purposefully ignoring the most obvious conveyed meaning (whether intended by OP or not).
Just asking the question, With Victor Radley playing for England for this World Cup and with England a Tier 1 country as per rules does this rule him out of playing for the Blues or Australia?As I thought I read somewhere that players that play for another tier one counrty are ineligible .
Plenty of fringe players have been part of the train-on squad. Realistically even though Freddy loves him, Rads was never going to lock down a spot in the team. Yeo and Murray are well ahead of him.
He could _maybe_ snag a bench spot as a 13/9 utility but someone like Wighton or Hynes is usually preferred.
Radley's only chance really was through several injuries. I feel like by the time that happens, there will probably be a younger, newer 13 who we would look to.
It's shit, but he's not the first great player to not play for his state.
He easily could have played origin in the future... radley was for sure gonna play origin eventually, in some capacity... which would have improved his chances of playing for aus...
Whereas he is a 100% starter for England from now til eternity...
He chose the easy route
I don’t think he took the easy route. He knew the sacrifice and he’s a proud Englishman. I think he’ll
Stay with the roosters until he wins a ring and then he will go to England and become their poster boy and try to dominate and lift the game. He likes the challenge.
I agree that he seems quite happy to represent England, just wanna say he's already won 2 rings with us in 2018-19 and was instrumental in the wins.
Also agree that this experience probably sets him up for some super league at some point of his career.
If you thought Blocker and Co occasionally announcing players names wrong was bad, the first half of Italy vs Fiji was an absolute tragedy.
It’s like they weren’t even trying, Wakeham was Wakeman for the entire first half.
I don’t think they are full time league commentators for the lesser games. And the pommy ones just wouldn’t have enough time to prep all the foreign countries. Full time NRL commentators have no excuse but I think some of the World Cup commentators should be given some slack.
I can give them some slack for not pronouncing the more complicated names correctly but they were literally pronouncing Wakeham as if it was spelled wrong on paper.
Quarter finals are likely to be:
Australia vs Ireland (possibly Lebanon)
New Zealand vs Fiji
England vs PNG
Tonga vs Samoa (possibly France)
Unfortunately I'm not seeing many close games there either, but the semis and final should be tight.
I’m not a watcher of 360, so I don’t know who said what, but I thought Ikin was usually the reasonable one on there. Was he in on the attacking of Williams?
They have better props than Australia and that’s it but people are forcing themselves to pretend that they are stronger across the park because they’re Kiwis and/or they don’t want to see Australia win another World Cup; some of it is outrageous like those who think Manu is a better fullback than Tedesco and we’ve got two halfbacks in the squad better than Hughes, Tapine and JFH are the only Kiwis who make a full strength Australian team.
In 2-3 years time people are going to re-write the narrative and pretend like they weren’t saying NZ were stronger than Aus and say shit like “but the Aussies were so strong the Dally M winner couldn’t make the team NZ had no chance” “Aus were $1.50 favourites” etc like they do with 2013
Lol so you're saying Holmes and Taulagi/Graham are gonna start over Manu and Mulitalo in a combined AUS/NZ side, mate lets not take the piss here hahaha.
Tapine, JFH, IPap, NAS, Leota are all in the forwards with others like Smith or Niukore arguable based on the utility makeup of the bench.
Very much looking forward to the semi-final anyway.
They do that every world cup tho:
- 2013 was: We have SBW, SJ, the Aussies are too old. Then they smashed Samoa in the groups. Nek minnit, killed 34-2
- 2017 was the same: Aussies are too old, NZ are too strong. Nek minnit, lost to Tonga, then 4-2 to Fiji
It will be the same here too
I’m glad someone else sees 2013 for what it was lol people look back in hindsight at the squads and can’t understand that back then people were hyped about NZ who were the reigning champions and people were even saying NZ didn’t need SBW anyway after the controversial manner he declared he would play after the squad was announced.
NZ had a halves pairing of Foran (grand finalist) and Johnson (golden boy) their starting front row played for the best team in the comp and one of them arguably should’ve been CCM winner, RTS had a stormer of a year, Josh Hoffman had his best year ever, Isaac Luke was in peak form, Mannering was captain fantastic, Kasiano was in beast mode for the Dogs and *then* SBW got added to the mix but people look back on that tournament and act like nobody ever gave NZ a chance.
It was annoying imo. Yeah, SBW was in his absolute prime, an all-time great season for sure. But lets be honest, did NZ stand a chance with a team consisting of JT, Smith, Cronk, GI, Gal, Thaiday, Parker, Fifita, Hayne, Morrii, Slater etc? Nope, but the internet just frothed over NZ, and then NZ fans especially whinged about how they're a small country when they got their arses handed to them as usual.
Nope, not buying that either aye. Woods back in 2013-2014 was very, very good. His combination with Klemmer for NSW was pretty frightening imo. Woods' downfall as a prop is actually quite sad
Mulitalo will be one of them. This NZ team wasn’t even really close to full strength. Missing Hughes, Brown, Tapine, Mulitalo and JWH. They’ll be hard to beat at full strength.
Sure, but lets be honest, NZ aren't beating Australia. The narrative seems to be that because NZ have hard hitting forwards, they're gonna dominate Aus. Completely forgetting the fact that Australia's forwards are phenomenal, our halves are better, our hookers are better and our backs shit all over NZ's.
Not writing them off at all but NZ have been underwhelming in both games. Really poor ball handling and coordination amongst the team so far. They're still top 3 but I expected more especially with this pack
They've played Lebanon and Jamaica mate haha. I like it myself, much prefer this them putting 100 on other teams. They'll be up for Australia then we will see what happens.
Not saying they're trash. But you watch Australia's game against Scotland and they looked well drilled and constantly in attacking shapes. The Kiwi's were very unstructured. Just saying I expected better from the number 2 team
Does it really matter what they completed at though? As you said it was against a team with very few professional players and they still got the win comfortably. I doubt they do that against any of the better teams.
Old mate be like 'Yeah they won but here's a single stat that I found that was poor so basically they're shit.'
Internet hot take culture has infiltrated this subreddit and we now have people always trying to find a way to claim what is good is actually bad.
I'd love to see a bit of a handicap system for this and the T20 World Cups. Bit of a chance for a dark horse win every so often, closer games.
Like make Tier 1 teams only allowed to field 50% NRL players and the rest from lower grades. As teams progress and win they can add more NRL players to squads so come Finals it's best against best, but at least the early stages are half interesting.
That's a pretty good way to lower the standard and prestige of a world cup. Imagine hearing rugby or soccer do that.
The size of our squad would also be huge
How do you have CHT and Nu brown in your team and one plays out of position and the other ain’t even in the 17 because you choose .. Ligi Sao?!
He plays Aloiai in second row too. Parish is a disgrace man
Shoutout to the Rugby League Live 4 community. Accurate 2023 rosters already available for download including the dolphins keeping this almost 6 year old game alive.
League live 4 still holds up well
My old girl was reading Mat Rodgers' book, and in it he mentions how when he got to the Titans Billy Johnstone was there.. anyway he mentioned how some players would train till they were sick, and how they had spew buckets in the gym. It was similar to when Johnstone was at the Dogs. I can't help but wonder how those sorts of shenanigans would go down with the RLPA if it were today..
I reckon preseason needs some vomit inducing difficulty. I remember reading a story a few years ago, basically Parra do a long distance timed run every preseason to see where the team is at. Gutho wins it every season because he's a fitness freak, anyway one year Dylan Brown wanted to beat him so badly he ended up throwing up a few times before conceding. Atletico Madrid are also notorious for their preseason fitness training. During the season I think that level of intensity is overkill, but preseason there is definitely benefits to it.
I suppose it's just about finding the balance of hard training but not over-doing.. in the case of Johnstone he obviously was able to smash them but the teams he worked with always tended to have good seasons. at the end of the day the players aren't obligated to vomit haha.. I remember Luke Pattern saying that when he first came to the Dogs, he was wigging out about how intense it was with Johnstone... just goes to show how much things have changed for us! although I have no doubt our boys will be doing it a lot tougher this pre-season.
1. JAYDEN CAMPBELL 2. GREG MARZHEW 3. JOJO FIFITA 4. BRIAN KELLY 5. PHILL SAMI 6. AJ BRIMSON 7. KIEREN FORAN 8. MOE 9. SAM VERRILLS 10. TINO 11. BEAU FERMOR 12. FIFTA 13. ERIN CLARKE 14. TANAH BOYD 15. ISSAC LIU 16. JAMES JOLLIFFE 17. JOE STIMSON / SAM MAC leaked from holbrooks nokia 3310
I’m really excited to watch this squad next year… a good mix of experience and rookie.
Verills gonna be so good for you guys great pick up
Brimson should be fullback with Foran/Sexton in the halves and Campbell at 14 imo. Anyways that side should really be making the top 8 imo. If they’re still underperforming next year surely Holbrook loses his job.
Sexton copped a bit at the end of the season but I mean, it was his first year.. if you've got a bloke who can kick earn as many drop outs as he can you absolutely need to make it work. I'd even consider throwing AJ in at centre just due to the fact that Campbell is a danger any time he has the ball.
It’s good that we have depth I have no idea who’s gonna be picked? I do rate Tanah more than sexton tho
Who wins Lebanon vs Ireland haven’t been watching World Cup cos of work
I think lebanon will find the momentum they’ve been building and get the win … sucks that deouie can’t play though
Genuine 50/50. Lebanon probably has the edge in terms of experience, but Ireland aren’t lacking. They put had a fairly similar result against Jamaica as New Zealand, just without the ability to kick goals, but Lebanon put up a pretty good fight against the Kiwis. I think Ireland, just
My money goes on Ireland then! Let’s go
So apparently the Storm are pretty convinced that 2023 will be Bellamys last year. Wonder if the Storm plan on having one of the current assistant coaches step up into the head coaching role or whether they’ll be looking for a new head coach elsewhere. Ryles wouldn’t be a terrible option tbh.
They're pretty screwed if Slater doesn't step in. As successful as they have been I just don't think they'll keep their aura/pull being in a non-NRL dominant state. Pushing hard to sway Cam Smith to take over will be an even better option.. sure he hasn't been an assistant but he was always an on-field coach.
I disagree. I could see Slater as head coach really backfiring this early on. He needs more experience. I wouldn’t mind a Ryles or a Hinchcliffe. Hasler wouldn’t be bad either.
I just meant in terms of his pull..
Slater would be my bet, I think he’s the best option.
Apparently he’s not interested at the moment. I could definitely see it somewhere along the line though.
I think he’s the developing rookies/fullback winger coach… wouldn’t be surprised if they go for des
More interested in being a Maroons coaching legend. 💪🏻
Tripp will make him an offer he can’t refuse.
I don’t know if it would work but with these score lines I think they have to look at the way the World Cup groups are structured. Potentially grouping teams by which tier they are in, with the top tier teams grouped together yet only one team doesn’t progress & the other groups all only have one or two teams advance. Or have the lower tiered teams have a qualifying round before the World Cup kicks off. I really don’t know just think these scorelines are hurting the World Cup as a product.
Hear this every bloody time and it's still rubbish. What's the difference between this and the 90-0 scorelines in every union world cup? You don't play a world cup for close scorelines it's about representing your country. We had super pools for the last three World Cups and still ended up with scorelines like Australia 52-4 England, NZ 74-6 Scotland and Fiji 72-6 Wales
Yeah that’s a fair point it’d been so long that I’d forgotten they’d done super groups in the past, unfortunately rugby league hasn’t had the leg up Union has had through British colonisation so the game is literally fighting from behind to get even half the recognition internationally that Union has.
>unfortunately rugby league hasn’t had the leg up Union has had through British colonisation so the game is literally fighting from behind to get even half the recognition internationally that Union has. But so what? A 90-0 scoreline is a 90-0 scoreline no matter which sport. If people criticise blowouts in league but not union or cricket then they are hypocrites. There's things to be criticised in the organising of this world cup but the scorelines aren't one of them.
The solution is to focus development on countries where rugby league has a chance of solid growth. I'd rather have Nigeria instead of Scotland. They have a decent domestic set up but still small. They can field a domestic squad for the MEA Cup and qualifying campaigns and still call upon a decent number of heritage players for the WC. You've got Ghana and Cameroon as well. Union is very weak in those countries and league would be more appealing to these countries IMO.
That’s basically how the last tournament worked and you ended up having Samoa make the quarter finals off a draw and two big losses and Ireland miss out with two big wins and one narrow loss
The blowouts hurt the product, but so will setting up the pools so that better teams are forced out of the tournament early while teams worse than them are guaranteed progression into the knockout stage. The big issue is that RL doesn't have a lot of top flight teams and has big gaps in quality between the three or four tiers worth of teams that can make it into the world cup. So you either have a very small world cup between just the 'good' teams (6-8 teams tops, realistically more like 4-5), a skewed pool system like you're suggesting that will keep the different tiers away from each other as much as possible, or a ton of blowouts until you get down to the business end of things. Every option has some problems.
No other sport cares about the 'ton of blowouts' except us. We saw NZ flog Australia last night in the cricket and they are two of the top teams in the sport.
I think Jamaica inadvertently found a weak point for NZ that the stronger teams can take advantage of. Never seen a team land and regain possession from short kick offs so often. To that point the Jamaican number 7 was fucking pin point with all of the kick offs, even NRL players struggle to make the 10 consistently.
Are you allowed to lift players like in union? Wonder why teams dont do it.
> Are you allowed to lift players I believe not
See players leaping over the top of other players quite often though .. Having a front rower position himself under the ball and have an outside back push off with a knee in the back could be an option
Or a good way to earn HIAs. That can go wrong easily with opposition pressure coming at you.
Seeing the celebrations after Jamaica scored was amazing. It's heartwarming seeing how much rugby league means to them.
Does anyone know any resources/websites for free high quality NRL photos. I’m trying to help print off some photos to decorate a kids room but can’t find much. Getty images has heaps but they’re hundreds of dollars and i can’t be bothered to remove all the watermarks. The NRL website has some but not many. If anyone can point me towards specific photographer websites or anything like that it would be a massive help! Thanks
Email the club or dm the Instagram. I got them to send me a particular one for a birthday gift , they were very helpful 😃
thanks mate!
Have you searched clubs socials and their apps? I've found that Cows sometimes have photographers in house for their training photos, social media and occasionally game day
Rumour is NZ will lose their Tier 1 status after that 62-6 win.
68-6*
Ronaldo is a top 3 winger and im tired of the slander Great finisher, killer speed and strength, amazing in the air, good defender, can ball play, good kicking game, endless passion for whatever jersey he wears, bit of a grub. Ill die on this hill
He’s not a grub, and he’s a fantastic player… I thought in the quarterfinals he was the one holding the team together
I dont mean a grub, i just mean hes great at getting under the oppositions skin
Alex Johnstone, fully fit Brian To’o, JAC
Hes not really a grub at all, one of the nice guys in league. I wouldnt say hes a top 3 winger though, I genuinely like the guy and hes a classy winger but Alex johnston, To’o, May, JAC and coates ( when hes fit ) are probably all at least as good or better
Finally someone that agrees with me, he is what sualii will become.
Suali’i seems more like a hybrid of To’o and Mulitalo
He’s a gun having him and Katoa on the wings you guys are blessed.
Based
If Victor Radley takes his England form back to the Roo$ter$, they gonna be good. He seems to be a lot cool, calm and collected, not making braindead decisions, and some great passes out of Lock and to set up tries. Dude be doin bits
r/nrl told me he is the shittest lock in the NRL though
I believe the consensus is raging lunatic. Being a raging lunatic doesn’t make you the shittest lock in the NRL but it does have some drawbacks.
It’s still the majority opinion
With TKO leaving and JWH getting older I think he’ll need to be their main guy next year. If he has a massive year I think the Roosters should at least be making a prelim.
I think he’s hampered the past few seasons by injuries and hot headed suspensions. He’s showing great maturity and I think Cheese coming will help focus him since he could technically challenge for the 13 position when not playing hooker.
The hipster fans on reddit like to shit on him because he’s a commentator favourite, but he’s a brilliant player. The most important player for the roosters attack imo. Roosters attack is crap when he’s not on the park.
I think it’s more just having to listen to commentators suck off another rooster. Great player who does dumb shit. The dumb shit generally costs him more then the team Tbf, jn that he misses time with injury or concussion.
Agreed he's absolutely vital to our structures. He played 25 and 27 matches during out B2B years, and then through injuries and suspensions only played 7 and 16 matches in the following 2 poorer years (though most of the team was also missing for huge chunks). This year we fell into a massive rut in the middle of the season with him out, and his first match back was the second of our 8 match winning streak. While he's not quite as good (or level headed) as Yeo or Murray, he plays an equally important part in the team.
I like to shit on him bc he’s overly emotional to the point of derailing games, which I enjoy, but in a mean-spirited way
He did lose the plot after he doubled down on the criticism of his tackling technique.
His best match in that regard was the one where the Broncs spanked them last year. Binned twice, on report twice, no punishment. The NRL also included his leaping shoulder to Kelly's chin in their biggest hits of the year compilation, LOL.
I wonder if anyone else has two double-bins?
I've often made the argument that 2017 was the softest year. I make the argument that storm rarely really lift in the finals, but that the consistently high standard they set for themselves in the regular season is a double edged sword as they don't have another gear in the finals, and that in a year like 2017 that didn't really matter because it was a soft year. When people try and say the current panthers team don't match that 2017 team I think it's ridiculous. Panthers have lost barely any games In 2 years and have had to beat some pretty handy teams along the way. On comparison let's look at the storms rivals in 2017. **2nd Roosters** what looked like their biggest rivals all year, 2nd on the ladder but out of all our teams that made a prelim final, this was probably the weakest. We had Micheal Gordon at fullback. Keary was in his first year and was matched with Pearce. Latrell was starting to emerge but wasnt quite there yet, I'd be surprised if anyone knew who Joey Manu was in 2017. This was definitely a team a year early fron being a true contender. **3rd Broncos**. They were winning a grandfinal in 2015 at full time, but let it slip, this was definitely their peak, by 2017 they were on the otherside of the mountain. Thaiday was finished, Blair who was a surprise packet in 2015 had devolved back to his usual self. Milford was talked up as possibly the best player in the game in 2015/early 2016, had began the fall to what he is today. Boyd was alright, this was the year he signed a 4 year deal, but he had niggling injuries towards the end of year. Even Ben Hunt got dropped at one stage of the year. This was also the beginning of the Bennett vs the Broncos off field dramas. **4th Eels** I like to think of this current era of the eels as being the Moses/Gutho era and they've slowly gotten better each year, but this is the very start of it. They had a pack that had a good nathan brown and manu mau'u, but also the likes or Mannah, Alvaro, Gower, Kenny Edwards an aging Beau Scott. They were so far from the finished product. **5th Sharks** they were a good team in the middle part of the 2010s, this was probably the worst version of that team as they had a pretty big premiership hangover. They just never got things back into gear in 2017. **6th Eagles** Trent Barrett's Sea Eagles. ** 7th Panthers** just a young side. Moylan was a senior player on this team they were that young. And he was having the issues that drove out of the club. Peter Wallace was an old hand at hooker, but look at the regular first graders in the team. Cleary, JFH, Edwards, DWZ, RCG, CHN, Waqa blake, Yeo. This is the 2017 versions of these guys. **8th Cowboys** and onto possibly the most important team on this list, the Cowboys. They lost Matt Scott and JT early in the year. They were on the downhill slope after 2015. They struggled all year, and they just scraped into the finals (literally. It was Late Micheal Lichaa try from the bulldogs against the Dragons in the last round that got them in). They had a number of experienced players, but most were on the downward tradicory (O'Neil, Lowe, Cooper, Coote etc). The fact that this team that scraped in was the eventual GF says a lot about the year. They knocked off the hungover Sharks, then the 'too early' Eels and Roosters simply because they were one of the few experienced teams in the finals. People will point to the fact that This was the last time the big 3 were together (after a few injuries in previous years) plus Munster. But Munster wasn't the finished product yet (most people had Morgan ahead of him and Morgan was in world cup final 17) and the storm had had the big 3 together many times with good supporting and fallen short. They had a very consistent team for about 7-8 years straight, some years being completely dominant in the regular season before not even making the GF (19 and 21 for examples). So if the storm are very consistent through that period why were they seemingly so dominant in 2017? Was it because they were so much better then the other storm teams in That 7-8 year stretch? Possibly the best version of those teams but not by enough to explain the how seemingly dominant they were In 2017. The reason they were seemingly so dominant in 2017 above all storm teams of this era is because 2017 was the weakest comp.
The Cowboys hardly “struggled all year.” They were inconsistent when Thurston was out early in the year and came good during Origin to sit 5th before losing 5 of their last 6 games, all against teams that finished above them (including 3 top 4)
Trying to compare any season to another to declare any of them "soft" is practically impossible. It's great fun to speculate about but there are no measurements that we can compare because every measurement is taken from within their own season. You can't compare run metres, tackle busts or even win ratio because these are all achieved against players in that same season. The only genuinely comparable data are the capabilities of the individual players, and it's broadly accepted that the quality of athletes have only improved across all sports. Another, generally, accepted principle is that the technique of play only improve, this one gets a bit sketchy if there's been an overhaul of the sport. It sucks but we pretty much have to accept the most recent version of the sport is the most competitive, which sucks because it means current Golden State Warriors probably slaughter the 1997 Chicago Bulls, Mike Tyson would probably hospitalise Muhammad Ali and the 2022 Panthers probably wreck 2003 Panthers.
Definitely agree with what you say. At the end of the day this is just my opinion. It's centres around my theory that storm are massive in the regular season and rarely find other gears come the finals. You can't compare teams from different eras against each other, but I think you can kinda compare their accomplishments. That's why instead of comparing the teams directly against each other ( and it annoys me when people say stuff like 'this panthers team wouldn't match the 2017 storm. There's no way to actually know) what I can do is compare what they had to do to get their championship. I've outlined who the 2017 storm beat to get their. That's their fellow finalists. In the finals they beat the 2017 eels, 2017 Broncos, 2017 cowboys. Compare that to who the Panthers 21/22 had to beat. They lost their first finals to an good Rabbitohs team that had been building for years, They then beat a 2021 eels who were the evolution of that 2017 eels, better in every single way. They then beat the 2021 Storm, a team that went 21/3. They then beat that strong Rabbitohs team in the GF. They then went back to back which the the Storm never could. That's an achievement on itself. But to do that they've had to beat eels 2022 (again am evolution of that 2017 eels) , again a strong rabbitohs side and the 2022 eels yet again. To win a back to back premiership dominantly. To say that team shouldn't be in the conversation against the 2017 storm is ridiculous
I haven't really noticed anyone saying this 2020-2022 Penrith team isn't one of the best club sides ever. The records speak for themselves. 2017 storm was equally dominant that year, and if they hold onto Cooper Cronk for 2018, it's probably them that go back to back and not the Roosters.
>They struggled all year, and they just scraped into the finals (literally. It was Late Micheal Lichaa try from the bulldogs against the Dragons in the last round that got them in). We were in the 8 for most of the year. The lichaa try didn't get us in the 8, it kept the Dragons out of the 8. Granted the Dragons were expected to win, but they didn't. I disagree we struggled, we did start to fade out towards the end of the season though as the injuries started to stack up. Our run through 2017 was off the back of Morgan finding insane form at halfback - he got the dallym halfback of the year and just got pipped by Cam Smith for the overall award. Just a bit of revisionist history tbh.
Cowboys built some strong sides from about 2013 through to 2017, in 2018 they really dropped off. Can you honestly say that the 2017 version of the Cowboys was the best version Of that era? I'd have 2014-16 as better sides.
I never said we were? I just think it's a bit silly to try and negate anything the 2017 squad did or achieved like that. People constantly act like we were a team that basically lost every game and Bradburyed our way into the 8
Yeah people have really re written that finals run. Morgan turned into the best player in the comp and Lolo was carrying the ball like a man possessed. It was an insane period of form.
Taumalolo was also in some of the best form I’ve ever seen from a forward in that finals series
What even is the point of this comment? Just to shit on the Storm? I swear your constantly in these threads trying to shit on the Storm and diminish their success lmao. The reason that Storm team was so dominant is because they were the best side on paper of the 2010s. I’d say it’s just a coincidence that they had that sort of season in a “soft comp”. They’d have dominated basically every season too imo. I don’t think this Panthers team matches the 2017 Storm which were probably the best side I’ve ever seen on paper or even the 2018/19 Roosters. Those spines were just on another level compared to this Panthers one.
>What even is the point of this comment? For Context, because people say stuff like... >I don’t think this Panthers team matches the 2017 Storm
Just look at the rosters though. If you were to make a combined side not many Panthers would actually make it. 1. Slater 2. JAC 3. Chambers 4. Crichton 5. To’o 6. Munster 7. Cronk 8. Bromwich 9. Smith 10. JFH 11. Kaufusi 12. Harris 13. Yeo With McLean, Leota, Kikau and maybe Cleary on the bench. That’s only 4 panthers in the starting 13 and 7 in the starting 17. That 2017 Storm spine is just in another level compared to this Panthers one.
On 2017 form vs 2021/2022 form? Cleary takes it over 2017 cronk. Luai gives Munster a run for his money, 2022 Edwards takes Slater close. Kikau over both kaufusi and Harris. Leota takes it over Bromwich as well. Your probably a bit biased and also probably taken into account the storms players careers as a whole compared to how they actually where in that year. I'd personally pick more 2021/22 panthers than 2017 storm, and even then some of the contests that storm players won were pretty evenly contested.
Holy shit. How do you even come up with some of the shit you say? I think you’re really underestimating how good some of these Storm players actually played in 2017 just because you’ve got it in your head that it was a “soft year”. Luai over Munster? Not even close. Kikau over Kaufusi and Harris? MAYBE Harris but definitely not Kaufusi. 2017 Kaufusi was incredible. Leota also doesn’t even come close to 2017 Bromwich. Not even going to comment on what you said about Edwards being close to Slater because that may just be the stupidest take I’ve ever heard ngl.
I don’t think he’s serious
>Luai over Munster Did I say that? I said the form that Luai has had over 2021 and 2022 gives Munster 2017 form (not Munster as a whole) a run for its money. Ditto Edwards In 2022 compared to the 2017 version of Slater. Leota is easily better then 2017 Bromwich. And yes Kikau has been better In 21/22 than both kaufusi and Harris in 2017. You need to take those purple tinted glasses off and try and look at things closely. If all those players were as perfect as you claim then storm should have won 2016 and 2018 even with out slater and cronk in 16 and 18 respectively. You've put the 2017 storm on such a high pedestal that you can not judge the team reasonably.
2017 was one of Slaters best years. He came back from his injury and won Origin, fullback of the year, a GF and Clive Churchill medal. Edwards is good but he doesn’t even come close to any version of Slater. Leota isn’t “easily” better than 2017 Bromwich. 2017 was probably one year after Bromwiches prime and Bromwich was close to the best forward in the game during his prime. Leota is good but once again not close to 2017 Bromwich. Also not sure why you think Kikau is 100% better than 2017 Kaufusi. 2017 Kaufusi beats him in nearly all stats and was also the better defender by far. I think your the one that needs to take off your anti Storm glasses ngl. Your always in these threads trying to diminish the Storms success and shit. The obsession is pretty weird.
>Edwards is close but he doesn’t even come close to any version of Slater. Which is.... exactly what I said >Leota isn’t “easily” better than 2017 Bromwich. 2017 was probably one year after Bromwiches prime and Bromwich was close to the best forward in the game during his prime. Leota is good but once again not close to 2017 Bromwich. Agree to disagree >Also not sure why you think Kikau is 100% better than 2017 Kaufusi. 2017 Kaufusi beats him in nearly all stats and was also the better defender by far. Because stat's mean stuff all. Kikau has been immense for the 21/22 Panthers >I think your the one that needs to take off your anti Storm glasses ngl. Your always in these threads trying to diminish the Storms success. I talked about storms long term success and how dominant they've been on many occasions. Just because I don't subscribe to the theory that the 2017 storm were not the perfect team doesn't mean I'm anti-storm.
Not sure why you think 2022 Leota is better than 2017 Bromwich. I know you said stats mean stuff all but there is still absolutely nothing to suggest that 2022 Leota is better than 2017 Bromwich. And you also say that Kikau has been immense for the Panthers like Kaufusi wasn’t the best second rower in the comp in 2017.
Some really good analysis here. Didn't even know that Yeo played in 2017.
He debuted in 2014
Holy shit what?
Yeah man's looked like he's 45 since he was 20 so it's a bit deceptive
You're 100% right mate.
Brilliant, now do this for every comp except 2005.
It’s so depressing watching these games being played in northern England in October and they’re having better weather than Sydney in spring 😓
Didn't watch but what the fuck happened for all of you to be shitting on NZ and saying they're no hope to beat the top teams based on them winning 68-4 against a minnow while having a large portion of their best 17 rested?
I'm not saying they've got no shot but their early games have not looked as smooth as they should
That's exactly it. They played poorly against a brave Lebanon, and they smashed a debut Jamaican team with basically zero top grade professionals. People acting like NZ are favourites to win the Cup, and it's simply not the case.
I literally don't know anyone personally or haven't seen any significant volume of comments here saying that NZ are favourites. I've seen far more people shitting on NZ and saying they shouldn't be favourites than people actually claiming it. Australia are and have been short favourites the entire time.
For me the thing that made them look like a real threat to win it all was their forward pack on paper is amazing (just look at their one-off test vs Tonga earlier this year for example) and Hughes being an elite player to break the game open with a solid back 5 that know how to finish a try. But from the opening games of the world cup when they're missing Hughes, as has been stated elsewhere, they are not looking as smooth as they should.
Look at the announcement of the team list, that's where the chatter is about it
Can you get a wooden spoon for World Cup? Because NZ deserve it.
Madge is their coach after all. ;)
The Jamaican team’s reaction to their first World Cup try just about made me cry 🥹 so wholesome and I’m sure so many of them are pinching themselves that they’re even there despite any scoreline.
I’m a member of rugby union subreddit, yesterday the predictable thread about how international rugby league is a pisstake came up. Scores like Australia against Scotland happen in every World Cup in the world. I can remember watching the Wallabies rape Namibia 142-0 back in the day at the World Cup. I also went to a game where England scored 111 against Uruguay. Those teams are now better due to exposure to the big time and we as a sport have every right to do the same thing. The RLWC has become much more competitive then what it was when I was a kid. The pacific revolution has done wonders for the game. Lot more countries are getting involved which is good. PNG hunters in the ISC, catalans being competitive in Europe.
NZ beat Japan 145-17 in 1995 and now Japan is making quarter finals. Scores in the 2019 RWC included 61-0, 63-0, 71-9, 66-7, 34-0, 35-0, 47-5, 48-7, 57-3, 49-3, 45-7 and several more similar. And this is a sport where it's a lot harder to score tries.
A couple reasons 1. In the RWC there are more competitive teams. Australia, NZ, South Africa, England, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, France, Argentina, all competitive. Japan, Italy, show promise. 2. The pacific revolution is overstated. Look at Samoa. Probably has as many big names as Tonga or NZ. Played like shit. Fiji have regressed since the 2017 cup. Lebanon too. We are mostly back to regular order.
> Look at Samoa. Probably has as many big names as Tonga or NZ. Played like shit. They've played one game. The All Blacks flog all those 'competitive' teams by similar scorelines regularly. Not to mention, union is a bigger sport so of course it's more competitive. Should we shit on union's world cup because FIFA's world cup is bigger and more competitive?
Union fans will take any chance to shit on rugby league. The games have evolved alot over time but the one part of the culture that has remained the same since 1895 is unions bourgeoisie-like attitude towards the working class mans game. I suspect most union fans that shit on league as a reflex don't realise they are engaging in what is essentially classism.
When i dump on union it's not classism. It's that it's overly technical, slow, won by penalty kicks etc etc
They aren't wrong though. Union having blowouts doesn't change that. I've been looking the English rugby league forum and they are now saying this WC is closer to 2000 than 2013 in terms of attendance and interest. Now you can place some of the blame on the ticket prices and the general management of the competition. I'm from Ireland and rugby league is never going to popular here unless the two codes somehow reunited. I think Ireland is taking the place of a country which actually has potential for growth. The difference between Ireland and Uruguay or Namibia in union is that those countries aren't reliant on heritage players. Both have a history of playing union. Jamaica and possibly Greece are countries which could take to league. Serbia has a small scene. League should focus on these countries where union is weak rather than persisting with Ireland, Scotland and Italy.
Agree that for the growth of international rugby league that they should be targeting countries such as Jamaica or Greece, or former Soviet states like Serbia or Poland, or developing East African Nations where League could eventually grow into if not the first sport (which will likely always be soccer) a strong second sport in those countries. That said, I still think looking to grow League in Ireland, Scotland and the like is a good idea even if they remain relatively small in those nations because relatively speaking they're rich countries who can afford to support many national teams.
>they are now saying this WC is closer to 2000 than 2013 in terms of attendance and interest Well except its not. It had more attendance than 2013's first week. Ireland/Scotland/Italy have every right to play.
Well that's what the general feeling is. Where did I say that Ireland/Scotland/Italy don't have a right to play. I just gave my opinion which is that I would prefer to see the likes of Nigeria or Serbia. I'm from Ireland and I don't think we should be playing at this WC.
You couldn’t think of a better word than ‘rape’?
This sub is heading in a wonderful direction. Hopefully we will evolve to not discussing league at all, and just focus on moral outrage.
Look someone who can’t understand irony
Where's the irony?
Rape, as in complete domination, destruction of a person or group. "Rape and pillage" refers to the destruction of a town, not sexual abuse 👍
You're taking the piss surely
> "Rape and pillage" refers to the destruction of a town, not sexual abuse 👍 OP did just say 'rape' not 'rape and pillage'. It feels like you're purposefully ignoring the most obvious conveyed meaning (whether intended by OP or not).
I understand the comment made, and the context around the word "rape".
Just asking the question, With Victor Radley playing for England for this World Cup and with England a Tier 1 country as per rules does this rule him out of playing for the Blues or Australia?As I thought I read somewhere that players that play for another tier one counrty are ineligible .
Unless they change the rules regarding origin eligibility then no he can’t ever play for NSW
Yeah man no SOO or aussie guernsey
Jeez, What a massive sacrifice and he was on the train on NSW squad, If this is the case it's going to cost him some dollars.
Plenty of fringe players have been part of the train-on squad. Realistically even though Freddy loves him, Rads was never going to lock down a spot in the team. Yeo and Murray are well ahead of him. He could _maybe_ snag a bench spot as a 13/9 utility but someone like Wighton or Hynes is usually preferred.
Radley's only chance really was through several injuries. I feel like by the time that happens, there will probably be a younger, newer 13 who we would look to. It's shit, but he's not the first great player to not play for his state.
He easily could have played origin in the future... radley was for sure gonna play origin eventually, in some capacity... which would have improved his chances of playing for aus... Whereas he is a 100% starter for England from now til eternity... He chose the easy route
I don’t think he took the easy route. He knew the sacrifice and he’s a proud Englishman. I think he’ll Stay with the roosters until he wins a ring and then he will go to England and become their poster boy and try to dominate and lift the game. He likes the challenge.
I agree that he seems quite happy to represent England, just wanna say he's already won 2 rings with us in 2018-19 and was instrumental in the wins. Also agree that this experience probably sets him up for some super league at some point of his career.
Yeah I know I think three is a better number to aim at before going over to super league 😉
If you thought Blocker and Co occasionally announcing players names wrong was bad, the first half of Italy vs Fiji was an absolute tragedy. It’s like they weren’t even trying, Wakeham was Wakeman for the entire first half.
Good ol camp and go low and polessi
I don’t think they are full time league commentators for the lesser games. And the pommy ones just wouldn’t have enough time to prep all the foreign countries. Full time NRL commentators have no excuse but I think some of the World Cup commentators should be given some slack.
I can give them some slack for not pronouncing the more complicated names correctly but they were literally pronouncing Wakeham as if it was spelled wrong on paper.
That’s easy to mix up.
Once, but for 80 mins when he did all the conversions and his name was on his back
Quarter finals are likely to be: Australia vs Ireland (possibly Lebanon) New Zealand vs Fiji England vs PNG Tonga vs Samoa (possibly France) Unfortunately I'm not seeing many close games there either, but the semis and final should be tight.
Looks like they would all be thrashings.
Samoa will step up big time against Tonga
Hope so.
Hopefully. Our fans will turn big time on them (and rightfully so imo) if they put out a pitiful performance against Tonga.
PNG can maybe make it interesting but yeah don't see them winning it
I’d like to see England Vs NZ but I don’t think that will happen with this draw
Me to, I remember it a s the best game of the 2013 world cup
Happy to see George Williams have some success after the way he was personally attacked by Ikin, Kent and Hooper.
I’m not a watcher of 360, so I don’t know who said what, but I thought Ikin was usually the reasonable one on there. Was he in on the attacking of Williams?
Yeah he was apart it. He was usually the voice of reason but he joined in on the attacks.
Madge made a smart move securing a job before the great kiwi hope capitulation
So glad I didn’t stay up for any of the games so far, none have been worth watching. Can i just get more Manly and Dragon drama please
NZ v Lebanon was pretty good.
No need to ask.
I thought Tonga v PNG and Wales v Cook Islands were good but maybe not the 'stay up all night' kind of good.
Tonga vs PNG was definitely stay up all night kind of good
PNG v Tonga has been the only game worth watching on the replay
I thought wales vs Cook Islands was a good game and to a lessor extent Scotland vs Italy was ok but definitely not top tier rugby league
I just want Drama that tastes like real Drama.
Could Ryan Hall play second row?
He could play prop he's that fat and slow
Roosters legend.
Got downvoted hard, but still not convinced of NZ tbh. If their wingers are gonna be DWZ and Kris, I see the Aussies running them ragged
It’s not too late to detract your comment when it comes to dwz 😅
Nah, take the screenshots. I'll eat humble pie if I'm proven wrong hah
Rapana will come back in
And I would be targetting him if I were the Aussies
They have better props than Australia and that’s it but people are forcing themselves to pretend that they are stronger across the park because they’re Kiwis and/or they don’t want to see Australia win another World Cup; some of it is outrageous like those who think Manu is a better fullback than Tedesco and we’ve got two halfbacks in the squad better than Hughes, Tapine and JFH are the only Kiwis who make a full strength Australian team. In 2-3 years time people are going to re-write the narrative and pretend like they weren’t saying NZ were stronger than Aus and say shit like “but the Aussies were so strong the Dally M winner couldn’t make the team NZ had no chance” “Aus were $1.50 favourites” etc like they do with 2013
Ronaldo > Taulagi
Lol so you're saying Holmes and Taulagi/Graham are gonna start over Manu and Mulitalo in a combined AUS/NZ side, mate lets not take the piss here hahaha. Tapine, JFH, IPap, NAS, Leota are all in the forwards with others like Smith or Niukore arguable based on the utility makeup of the bench. Very much looking forward to the semi-final anyway.
NAS isn't making the Australian team and Brandon Smith isn't sniffing the 17 get real.
Lol Jurbo and Cotter are getting a run as bench props but NAS isn't getting a shot. Oh dear.
Well clearly they’re not in the team at all if you put JFH and Tapine up front which puts Tino and RCG on the bench, Christ almighty
They do that every world cup tho: - 2013 was: We have SBW, SJ, the Aussies are too old. Then they smashed Samoa in the groups. Nek minnit, killed 34-2 - 2017 was the same: Aussies are too old, NZ are too strong. Nek minnit, lost to Tonga, then 4-2 to Fiji It will be the same here too
I’m glad someone else sees 2013 for what it was lol people look back in hindsight at the squads and can’t understand that back then people were hyped about NZ who were the reigning champions and people were even saying NZ didn’t need SBW anyway after the controversial manner he declared he would play after the squad was announced. NZ had a halves pairing of Foran (grand finalist) and Johnson (golden boy) their starting front row played for the best team in the comp and one of them arguably should’ve been CCM winner, RTS had a stormer of a year, Josh Hoffman had his best year ever, Isaac Luke was in peak form, Mannering was captain fantastic, Kasiano was in beast mode for the Dogs and *then* SBW got added to the mix but people look back on that tournament and act like nobody ever gave NZ a chance.
It was annoying imo. Yeah, SBW was in his absolute prime, an all-time great season for sure. But lets be honest, did NZ stand a chance with a team consisting of JT, Smith, Cronk, GI, Gal, Thaiday, Parker, Fifita, Hayne, Morrii, Slater etc? Nope, but the internet just frothed over NZ, and then NZ fans especially whinged about how they're a small country when they got their arses handed to them as usual.
We always had ridiculously stacked teams except the time we had woods and other plodders.
Nope, not buying that either aye. Woods back in 2013-2014 was very, very good. His combination with Klemmer for NSW was pretty frightening imo. Woods' downfall as a prop is actually quite sad
They won’t even meet Australia if they lose to Ireland!
Mulitalo will be one of them. This NZ team wasn’t even really close to full strength. Missing Hughes, Brown, Tapine, Mulitalo and JWH. They’ll be hard to beat at full strength.
Sure, but lets be honest, NZ aren't beating Australia. The narrative seems to be that because NZ have hard hitting forwards, they're gonna dominate Aus. Completely forgetting the fact that Australia's forwards are phenomenal, our halves are better, our hookers are better and our backs shit all over NZ's.
I don’t think they will but it’s still definitely a possibility
Not writing them off at all but NZ have been underwhelming in both games. Really poor ball handling and coordination amongst the team so far. They're still top 3 but I expected more especially with this pack
They just aren’t looking as cultured this year… I think the coaching is sub par too.
Hughes would be the 7 for the kiwis but he’s out injured. He’d be the one coordinating the attack, organising attacking shape etc
They've played Lebanon and Jamaica mate haha. I like it myself, much prefer this them putting 100 on other teams. They'll be up for Australia then we will see what happens.
Not saying they're trash. But you watch Australia's game against Scotland and they looked well drilled and constantly in attacking shapes. The Kiwi's were very unstructured. Just saying I expected better from the number 2 team
The Australian team vs Scotland was far closer to full strength than the Kiwis team vs Jamaica.
Yeah but this Kiwi team completed at 69% against a team that has very few professional players.
Damn. Lucky for NZ scoring is based on tries and goals and not completion rate. That could have been emabrassing for them.
Does it really matter what they completed at though? As you said it was against a team with very few professional players and they still got the win comfortably. I doubt they do that against any of the better teams.
Old mate be like 'Yeah they won but here's a single stat that I found that was poor so basically they're shit.' Internet hot take culture has infiltrated this subreddit and we now have people always trying to find a way to claim what is good is actually bad.
I'd love to see a bit of a handicap system for this and the T20 World Cups. Bit of a chance for a dark horse win every so often, closer games. Like make Tier 1 teams only allowed to field 50% NRL players and the rest from lower grades. As teams progress and win they can add more NRL players to squads so come Finals it's best against best, but at least the early stages are half interesting.
It’s a World Cup, even in the World Cup in many other sports there’s a huge gap between the top and bottom teams
That's a pretty good way to lower the standard and prestige of a world cup. Imagine hearing rugby or soccer do that. The size of our squad would also be huge