woo hoo Footys back

[Wally]

PNG or Fiji? Fiji is a Rugby union stronghold and who the hell is going to move to PNG to play for them???!

Waerea-Hargreaves, he's a headhunter

[Innuendo]

How good was Allan Mcindoe. A favourite. Commentators on TV and radio refer to St George Illawarra as St George only and most players do. I think it is insulting to the joint venture. If it wasn't for Illawarra (one of the strongest areas for juniors in the NRL ) St George wouldn't exist anymore. Imagine commentators referring to St George Illawarra as only 'Illawarra' the sky would fall !! Anyway regardless of what Dragan's fans will tell you St George Illawarra has won only one premiership.

Macca in full flight was an awesome sight and it happened pretty often. I was there the day he got 5 tries against the Gold Coast. Another awesome one was a length of the field with Rod Wishart. Two wingers on the same side of the field in full flight! Macca would be in an ice bath straight after every match as his knees were shot.
I hear you on the St George thing. I attempted to once join a Dragons forum as a Steelers supporter and was boo'd out of the place with comments like St George jumper Illawarra socks etc.

As Mauser says Fiji or PNG oe Samoa are both massive development areas for League, a lot of current and past players have heritage from such countries, like Jarryd Hayne, Adrian Lam, Petro Civenaceva (spelling?), Uate, Foi Foi just to name a few. It wouldn't be hard to achieve the same thing with a team there. If a relatively lowly supported game like Union can have a tri-nations League should be able to achieve it.

I'm all for a an Islander team even if mixed Islands to start with. Not so sure about Australian born players (even with Islander heritage) representing other countries although I understand the reason for growth.
Funny how Manoa Thompson rarely rates a mention when Jarrad Hayne is talked about. Surely Brisbane needs a second team. Western Australia has been ripped off. When I was there in the late seventies it was a Rugby League city with some AFL and the reverse is true. The Central West could easily support a team but the issue would always be where they played out of. If it was Orange they would claim the team, same for Dubbo, Mudgee, Bathurst etc.

Bathurst hosts NRL next week with the Panthers vs Titans match at Carrington Oval. Phil Gould knows the benefits of supporting country league and gave a 5 year commitment to the Panthers playing once a year in Bathurst. The Panthers having a local club here was what likely got it over the line along with Bathurst City Council support.

[HK1837]

Same stuff happened to North Sydney supporters who got royally screwed. I also find it a shame that the Magpies have essentially disappeared, being an Aussie bird (and my favorite Aussie bird at that) I would have been far happier with the Magpie logo but they were already called Wests Magpies so Wests Tigers was the only option as it couldn't be Balmain Magpies.

[davegmh]

Brisbane Souths are the Magpies, and haven't they had some champions come from that club !!......and coach

[mauser]

haha I think its going to be a tough year for Manly. :-)

Mauser

[davegmh]

Who ??

[wbute]

Bathurst council are paying the NRL an undisclosed amount to host that game. Dubbo turned the NRL down.
Rugby union relatively unsupported???? They are lucky to find enough Kiwis to play league amongst the Union players. I think league needs to address heartland issues before it has no country players left and it just becomes a game for pacific nations.

[HK1837]

Yes locally Union is not anywhere near as well supported as League or AFL.

[damienengland]

I'm impressed. Although the title of this post refers to 'Football', the content has maintained a consistent discussion around Rugby or variants thereof. This thread might be the longest conversation anyone has had about Rugby League in the history of the world!

[Innuendo]

Yeah mate we're talking about the greatest game of all - Rugby League. You know the one with International representative games and where you don't get point for getting close!