Panic Sets In As Broncos Become A Complete Embarrassment
The Brisbane Broncos registered Tonie Carroll on Monday with the NRL and have named him on an extended five man bench for this weekend match against the New Zealand Warriors.
No, I'm serious!
The Broncos are on a bad losing streak and are out of the top 8 after a few months of terrible football, and how else would you turn that around than by calling on a retired player who's legs were gone two years ago?
This is the type of stupid move you would expect from a poorly run Super League club, a move forced by panic and by a coach who doesn't really have any answers.
Broncos coach Ivan Henjak got off to a pretty good start to his career after taking over from Wayne Bennett but its been downhill since. It all come to a head on the weekend when a poor Parramatta side beat the Broncos and after the game Henjak attacked New South Wales coach Craig Bellemy for playing Peter Wallace in Origin two.
Of course, the Broncos played Wallace, who apparently has broken ribs, against Parramatta so his criticism was very strange.
At the end of the day a team with Lockyer, Folau, Wallace, Hodges, Thaiday, Hunt and the like are out of the top 8, and that has to fall on someones shoulders.
I said when he was signed that I felt Ivan Henjak was a quick fix for the Broncos, someone who they would throw the coaching job too until they got a really top class coach they could cement at the clubs for an extended stay.
After the good start to the season, Henjak's stock rose, although the word out of Brisbane even at that time was that the club wanted Darren Lockyer to move into the coaching role when he retired.
Maybe now we are seeing why that feeling was there.
There Broncos have so much talent and a massive junior base to draw from. To go out and plead with a retired player to come out of retirement and pull on the boots this weekend is a disgrace!
I have always been a big fan of Tonie Carroll, but he retired for a reason. He was old, the game had passed him by and he was just as much of a passenger as anyone else in the side when he decided to hang up his boots.
My question is, how he he expected to come in and fix things? What quality does he possess that Ivan Henjak feels he must have in the side?
It can't be experience, they Broncos have plenty of that. Its not speed or mobility, and it sure as hell is not fitness. So what is he being brought back for?
You know if you look back over the last decade, all these teams and players who go out and act up, it always comes back to bitch them in the arse.
The Roosters are feeling the pinch in this regard lately as news comes through of another off field incident regarding someone within their club with two players charged today by the Police.
Now it turns out, he's just a dumb fuck, and if the Roosters have any sense they would sack him tomorrow.
Here is a guy who lost his licence, who was fined by his club about a 6th of his salary, and yet it still didn't sink into his thick head that he needs to behave.
The other player is some kid called Sandor Earl, who is 19 and made his first grade debut on the weekend against the Sharks.
Watching Jarryd Hayne's performance over this State Of Origin series has made me think a lot about the players in our game that are natural leaders.
The amazing thing about Hayne is that, 12 months ago, he was a very different person. A good athlete, a great player, but off the field he was starting to go down the wrong road, by his own admission.
Hayne credits his time with the Fijian World Cup side for turning his life around. Getting out the spotlight, out of the public glare and mixing, not with boys that get paid to play footy, but with men who value much more important things, its changed him.
You could see it in him and you still can now. Seeing Hayne pray with the Fijian side before and after games. It was an amazing experience to watch him grow before our very eyes.
Talk is cheap with most people, but for Hayne, he has held those experiences close to his heart, and its made him a better person. A better person makes a better footballer, every single time.
Now in 2009, Hayne is a leader, a role model, and all that at such a young age.
It made me think of other players I think would make great captains. These days captains are chosen because they are good with the media, they are a clean skin or sometimes just because they have been around the longest.
Some players get the captaincy and it lifts them to a new level. Other players it can crush, the expectation is too much.
It might be too soon, and you never know how a player will handle it, but I think Jarryd Hayne has shown he has the ability to be a great captain and a great leader. I also think that he would handle the responsibility well, because I don't think it would make him change too much from how he is conducting himself right now.
At club level, Hayne is head and shoulders above most of his team mates. He is the Eels these days. If Hayne plays well, they are in with a chance of winning the game. When he is off, they are hopeless.
At Origin level, well look at what he is doing. The Queensland side guts their way out to an amazing series win in Sydney last week, and yet even the Queenslanders were full of praise for Hayne who tried to take on the Maroons on his own.
Could he be ready to captain his state at such a young age?
I'd ask this. What does New South Wales need more than a good bloke that is willing to play his heart out and take his game to the next level?
For New South Wales, Game Three Should Be A Learning Experience
Its not very often that you get a State Of Origin game that you can experiment in, however game three in 2009 is shaping up as one of those games.
Queensland have wrapped the series up, and aside from a few elder statesmen in the front row, we pretty much know what direction Queensland will be going in over the next few years.
For New South Wales, its all up in there air. They don't have a core of players to build around, the coach is on his way out, the selectors are on their way out, they are staring a series white wash in the face, there is nothing to lose at this point.
New South Wales need to go into this third game wanting to learn as much as possible about themselves and the opposition. If ever there was a time to see what certain players can do, to see if certain players want it enough, this is the perfect game for it.
What Can We Learn About Queensland?
We know this, over the next few years the likes of Thurston, Folau, Hodges, Slater, Boyd, Smith, Hannant, Crocker and the like will be there. The Queensland backline will lose Darren Lockyer, and that is likely to see Thurston move to five-eight and see Scott Prince come in at halfback.
So we pretty much know what we have coming over the next few years.
What I want to know is how this Queensland side handles certain game situations. We have seen them against a fast moving, mobile forward pack. A have seen them against extreme structure. I want to see how they handle a bit of size and some aggression.
The great thing about Rugby League is that, no matter how good a team is, if you turn up ready to physically dominate a game, you can beat any opponent.
In the early 90's New South Wales built a dynasty on the back of great young forwards that just ripped in. Glen Lazarus, Paul Harrigan, Mark Carroll and Paul Sironen took the game to Queensland and they formed the backbone of Blues lineups for almost a decade.
I want to see how Queensland handle the biggest and best New South Wales has to offer.
This is the lineup I would chose for Origin three:
League Freaks New South Wales Team - Origin Three
1. Jarryd Hayne
2. Josh Morris
3. Michael Jennings
4. Chris Lawrence
5. Brett Morris
6. Terry Campese
7. Jamie Soward
8. Justin Poore
9. Michael Ennis
10. Luke Douglas
11. Trent Waterhouse
12. Ben Creagh
13. Paul Gallen (C)
14. Robbie Farah
15. Tom Learoyd-Lars
16. Anthony Whatmough
17. Feleti Mateo
Lets go through this side bit by bit:
The Forward Pack
I want to see how Queensland hand the likes of Waterhouse, Learoyd-Lars, Douglas and Poor. They are all big players, all relatively young and I want to see if they can form the core of a forward pack that New South Wales can build on for next season.
I have Creagh in there and Gallen at lock, but I want to see how Whatmough goes in the third match and I want to see if Mateo's footwork can cause problems in the middle of the field for the Queenslanders.
I have Michael Ennis as the starting hooker because I want to see what he can do. I have got Farah on the bench for a couple of reasons. I think he'll be a good change of pace, he can play in the halves if needed and I have a sneaky feeling that he would be a great combination with Ennis with both on the field at the same time.
The Halves
Soward's form means he has to get a run. He may be good, he may be terrible, but at least we would know how he goes at Origin level heading into the future. I think his long kicking game will be much needed by New South Wales.
I have brought Campese back. Give him another game and if he is poor again then put the red pen through him. But I need to see more from him at this level to see how good he is.
Having Farah on the bench, I'm interested to see how he goes in the halves for a while and also Mateo, I think he could slot in at lock but also take up some of the five-eight duties as well.
Between those four, all on the same side, you have the chance to learn a lot.
The Backs
Hayne played a few minutes at fullback in game two and his ball running was fantastic. He offered some attack from the back which is something New South Wales has not have in this series.
I have picked the Morris brothers on the wings because I think they are the form wingers right now. These two are deadly and I want to see if they would be a good combination at Origin level. They might not, it might be a disaster, but I'd rather know now!
Jennings showed he is very good at this level, hopefully he is over his injury by game three, but I want to see how Chris Lawrence goes. He has been talked about as a future Origin player for a couple of years now, well, get him in there. Even if he has his worst game ever, he'll be a more positive selection than Jamie Lyon, who has been terrible!
Its Not Rocket Surgery!
I never understand why New South Wales holds players out of the side because they are "Not ready". I'm only 28 and the vast majority of this Queensland side is younger than I am. Their back line hasn't been allowed to by alcohol and smokes for that long!
What are we waiting for?
You don't find out how a player handles State Of Origin football by leaving him in the NRL for years at a time. Look at Luke Bailey, great at club level, he gets completely destroyed at Origin level.
We held back Robbie Farrah because he supposedly wasn't ready. Meanwhile Queensland threw in their young hooker and now, at the same age, he is closing in one 20 Origin matches to Farah's 2.
Sure, you can keep the New South Wales jersey as something special all you like, but it wont matter one bit if the side keeps losing games!
If You Have To Lose, Do It In Style!
If we lose games, I want to lose finding something out and knowing what needs fixed for the next game.
For the last few years New South Wales has been treading water, throwing bits and pieces together and hoping to jag a win. That's not good enough any more, it never has been good enough. We need direction, we need to look at the future.
I would rather lose with a bunch of youngsters and know who is up to the mark and who isn't, then lose a game with players I know can lose, who have lost this series for the last few years, and who I know can not step up and do anything more than they have in the past.
Don't Be Like England!
I have said for years that England run out the same players, use the same tactics, the same preparations, and expect a different result.
Its madness, its complete lunacy!
We need changes. Forget all of these old players saying we should stick by players, forget all this talk that we are close to beating Queensland and just need things to go our way.
Queensland have not set the world on fire in 2009. They shut it down 50 minutes into the first game and won the second game on pure guts as they were injured and undermanned. They have just won their fourth straight series.....I mean at what point do we make changes. What needs to happen before these people realize we are not close to beating Queensland?
Go through the pain now. Make the changes, find out something new about ourselves and the opposition. Whats the worst that happens?
Queensland Secure History With Fourth Straight Series Victory
I never thought that I would see either state win four straight State Of Origin series. History has shown that the series is too close, that Origin dynasties are a flash in the pan, a brief moment when everything just works out right and a team can do no wrong.
The thing about State Of Origin is that these dynasties can fall without any warning. One state can look invincible and claim a sweep of the series one year, the next they are on the wrong end of a swept series and the opposition can't be stopped.
Thats all changed.
Take Darren Lockyer out of this Queensland back line and you are look at a group of players that should still be able to play at this level in 7 years from now. Israel Folau has only just turned 20!
For all the talk that Queensland will struggle when Price and Civoniceva retire, you see Ben Hannant showing why he is fast getting a reputation as one of the best props in the game.
Its an amazing achievement and Queensland is rightfully very proud.
As for New South Wales, its time.....so I hope you are ready for this....
Jarryd Hayne is the only New South Wales player that can look himself in the mirror today and honestly say that he played Origin football in 2009. He has been surrounded by a group of player, coaches and selectors that have been shown up to be totally out of their depth, and embarrassingly so.
At Origin level there is a key phrase that rings so true and is the basis for what ever Origin players game should be built on: Make it happen and don't die wondering.
If there is a lose ball, you dive on it. It doesn't matter if there are plenty of team mates around, make it yours. If the team needs meters, don't look for someone else to make them, demand the ball and throw yourself into the defense like it was the last touch of your career.
Origin football has never been about standing back and waiting. It has never been about seeing what happens. If you do that, you don't just get beaten, you get slaughtered.
Hayne went out and, as a winger, grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck. He didn't die wondering. His team mates did.
This should be the end of Craig Bellemys representative coaching career. Every single selector should be sacked. Kurt Gidley should have his captaincy removed, and be dropped from the team all together.
If you think that's harsh, look at the scoreboard. Look at the results. Magic will not make this lot any better.
Now going into game three you know what needs to happen? New South Wales needs to look at rebuilding for the future. Yay.....and it only took four straight series losses!
Campese needs to come back. I would like to see Jamie Soward in the side. I want to see if Feleti Mateo is up to Origin level. I want to see if Dane Lawrie can cause problems and if Chris Lawrence really is ready to take the next step. I want to see if Michael Ennis is just as horrible to play against in a sky blue jersey!
New South Wales can not pick the same players and expect different results. The 2010 series starts NOW!
If Jamie Lyon, Trent Barrett, Peter Wallace, Kurt Gidley, David Williams and the like get selected in Origin three, expect Queensland to hold the title for many years to come.
Hock Looking At Ban For Positive Test To Cocaine....IDIOT!
Ditch digger or professional footballer? Hmmm, I know which one I would choose. With that in mind I can't think of too many reasons for putting my choice in jeopardy, especially when one of those reasons is because I'm so fucking boring that a need to snort junk to have a good time.
Thats just me though!
Should we have seen this coming, I mean, is it normal for someones eyes to be sunk into the back of their heads like that?
Cocaine has been the drug of sportsmen for some time, simply because it gets out of your system so quickly. Marijuana lingers for a long, long time, where as with Coke, you need to basically be snorting the crap was your pissing into a cup to be caught doing it.
Its such a stupid thing to do, but he isn't going out into the wilderness on this one.
Wendell Sailor has shown everyone that yes kids, you can do drugs and it can work out in the long run. He was banned by the Australian rugby union for two years, a ban that was effective in Rugby League, and he has come back to The Greatest Game, back into first grade, back into a long list of well paid media jobs....kids, do drugs!
Still Sailor is a big name player, I mean, Hock is a professional footballer based on the fact that no one else in England can play the damn game, and then he goes and fucks it up!
As they say:
Now some people will get all upset over a positive test, but I want these idiots found and banned. Its when people are not getting found and banned that you start to question a sports drug testing policy.
So we head into another day and somewhere out there, a bloke that earned so much money by playing footy is now wondering how he could be so utterly stupid.
How embarrassing it must be to be Gareth Hock tonight.
Remember when I said we'd be in for a lot of comedy value as Super League clubs started talking contracts with players, well, its under way!
Some interesting things going on this week with young (Under 35) English halfback Richie Myler telling Salford to show him the money.
Myler is a very average player, he has achieved nothing and hey, being selected at halfback for England just confirms he can't play for shit. None of that matters though as he looks to squeeze every last cent out of Salford, who obviously can't match money on offer at other clubs.
Then we have Leed Smith of the Leeds Rhinos. There has never been a more average, middle of the road, not really that good at anything player in the history of the game than Lee Smith. However, Smith has decided to leave Leeds, and Rugby League and join up with some union club.
So here you have two young players that have shown nothing, have done nothing, but they want everything in return.
I've said for some time that the English game is run on ego. Its about appearing to be the greatest, having enough back slappers to convince you of that fact, and then getting off walking around your little northern town being a hero.
That is what drives English players these days.
Its not money, they get paid no matter how they perform. The fact that the likes of Paul Sculthorpe, Andrew Farrell and Keiron Cunningham have earned millions more over their careers than the likes of Lockyer, Fittler and Buderus says it all.
And its not achievement. That would involve working hard and building towards something, that goes against the tradition of just moving to St Helens, Wigan or Leeds and waiting for a trophy to fall in your lap!
Hell you can't even point at an all consuming desire to finally do SOMETHING at International level, after all, England were the 9th best team at last years World Cup!
Its all run on ego, players getting off on the groupie culture, the local hero status and a fan base that doesn't know, or care about their real standing in the game.
I've always said that a player should get the most amount of money he can possibly earn and do it as quickly as possible. No one gives you a golden handshake when your career is over (Unless you are an Aussie or a Kiwi, then Super League clubs do give you a golden handshake!) and now one admires a player because he earned less money during his career.
However, you can't help but be left bewildered when two players that would struggle at local A grade level in any football competition in Australia or New Zealand are going around dictating to others what they are worth and how good they are.
If English players of this "Caliber" are the ones able to call the shots, what does that say about the greater English game?
Once the likes of Offiah and Hanley were the stars picking and choosing where they would go and how much they were worth. Now its Myler and Smith?
I think it says a lot about the English game and the standards it now holds for itself.
What a Stumbling, Bumbling Mess This Has Turned Into
Imagine you were in charge of a must win game. You would want everything, every single little thing, to be perfect.
You'd want the right players, the perfect preparation...you'd do everything you possibly could to give yourself the best chance of winning.
That is why New South Wales loses Origin series after Origin series.
Preparation is the key for any coach, its what he is there for. Its not his job to tackle, kick, pass or run. His job is to prepare the side to the best of his ability and allow them to perform at their best.
That is where New South Wales are failing.
Lets look at the problems with this New South Wales side based purely on injuries.
*Michael Jennings gets select despite being injured, and can't play.
*Craig Wing gets selected despite being injured and pull out 2 days before the game.
*Jamie Lyon is selected despite being injured.
*Robbie Farah is selected despite being injured.
*Paul Gallen is selected despite being injured.
*Trent Barrett is selected and gets injured at training.
Unforgivable.
How they could have selected five players who are injured in one of the most important games in State Of Origin history is beyond me. They should all be sacked!
The most successful coach in State Of Origin history is Phil Gould. He is a master at preparing a side. No one is better than Gould at taking a team and 10 days later turning out a side that's committed, passionate and ready to play.
Even players that have had run ins with Gould have said they would run through a brick wall for him by the time they ran out on a field for an Origin game.
All of that came from the way Gould prepared his sides.
Phil Gould would never have picked so many injured players. Queensland wouldn't, its a recipe for disaster.
This is a State Of Origin game and one third of your original squad is injured? Its asking for a massacre!
Time is going to tell how this plays out, but I'm not confident at all. You hear nothing, not a peep, out of the Queensland camp and all the while New South Wales is chasing its own tail trying to work out who is fit enough to play after 8 days.
The Sydney Roosters are in dead last place on the NRL ladder and its not looking like they will get any better any time soon. The side has completely given up, they are carrying millions in bad contracts and the players they hoped would kick on never have.
The one area the Roosters have looked to hold it together though is dicipline, handing out fines left, right and center, dropping players, hell they fined Willie Mason for taking a piss.
So how in the hell can the Roosters allow their coach, Brad Fittler, to get pissed the night before a match?
Now people have come out in Fittlers defence. He is a good coach, he is a good bloke, he was just letting of steam, its a one off. Thats all fine.
You're fired.
In the NRL the most important person at a club is the coach. The way a coach conducts himself goes right through the club, its effects every grade and it effects how players apply themselves to the job at hand.
You want examples?
Look at the way Wayne Bennett has walked in and turned around a complete joke or a club in the Dragons, or the way Brian Smith turned a boozy clubs run one whats good for the boys into an incredibly professional and well drilled outfit in Newcastle.
It all comes from the coach.
The role of a modern day coach is complex. He has to be feared, but trusted. He has to be someone that scares you into doing your job to the very best of your ability, and yet be able to make you feel like the most important player in the game, even if you are the 18th man called in 24 hours before a game.
He has to be able to inspire you, make you believe in yourself, and yet if you make a mistake, you need to be able to hear him breathing down your neck, even when he is not actually there.
Integrity is everything in this regard. If a coach says one thing and does another, he will lose his players. He he undermines a player they will never forget. As a coach you have to be a solid as bedrock, its your job and the entire club, at all levels relies on this.
You can't fine players and drop them for turning up to training with alcohol in their system when you are stumbling around hotel rooms the night before a game.
Don;t think this is a first, sure everyone makes mistakes, but you don't go from being an all feared, all seeing coach one minute to going out and getting pissed with the boys the next. This has to have been going on for some time and when you look at the Roosters results, it seems to suggest that at first, the players liked having Fittler as their coach, but over time, he lost them.
Looking forward, how does Fittler possibly install any dicipline on players. When 18 year olds are coming into first grade and they know they behave better than the coach, how can they possibly respect him?
How can Fittler honestly call together the team before a training session and do a blood alcohol test? How can he fine anyone for anything after the embarrasing was he has supposedly fined himself.
Its over. Its completely over, and if Brad Fittler had any sense, he would have stood down with immediate effect.
England Are So Good The Only Competition They Could Get Would Be Against An All Star Team?
French Rugby League was doing really well until a bit of money started to be generated by it and the French game was infiltrated by English coaches and officials. These leeches walked into a growing area that was showing great promise and started to tell the French how to become even more competitive....like England.
It took all of about 4 years, but now France is basically back to square one, having had a disastrous World Cup and now coached by a bloke who wouldn't get a job coaching a pub team.
A lot of really good suggestions tend to come out of England, and one the back of destroying French Rugby League, now the Poms have another beauty, a Super League All Star team that will actually give them a challenge!
Now keep in mind that England is good, really good. I mean, this is a side that went to Australia last year and managed its only win against a PNG side who has players in it that earned $12 a week. Having said that, I think the referee screwed PNG out of a couple of tries that would have given them a convincing victory.
So this idea is that this amazing English side would play against a bunch of overseas players from Super League clubs (Is there any other kind?) and it would make for some amazing spectacle that in now way has anything to do with the envy they have about State Of Origin.
The idea is that a bunch of old NRL players, who are just looking to fluff their nests with a bit of extra cash at the end of their careers, will be up for a game against an English team that is hopeless unless its playing the 10th ranked team in the world.
Lets look at it though, if only for a laugh. Lets pick an All Star team of our own.
League Freaks Incredibly Committed Super League All Star Team
1. Brett Hodgson
2. Matt King
3. Paul Whatuira
4. Matthew Gidley
5. Amos Roberts
6. Greg Bird
7. Michael Monaghan
8. Jason Cayless
9. Mark Riddell
10. Paul Rauhihi
11. David Solomona
12. Tony Puletua
13. Steve Menzies
Now, far be it from me to suggest that this side would kick the ever loving shit out of the team that Andy Wilson named in his article in the Guardian (which by the way included no less than 4 players that are not in Super League!) but, my team would kick the ever loving shit out of Andy Wilsons side.
So you get my team together, and you throw on a jersey and make up a logo for them to play under. You give them some money to compensate them for their time and make them feel special.
They run out mid week against a bunch of Pommy players they know well. They play them every week in Super League. They have trounced them at Test level, seen them go to water at the first sign of trouble against decent opposition.
They are playing for a nothing team. The officials are all against them, heaven forbid England gets thrashed by a bunch of semi retired players, they have already been paid so its not like a half hearted effort would see them lose out, and they have a game on the weekend that might actually mean something.
Phone it in!
So we see a bunch of uninterested players against England. England want to win because, without made up contests, English sides don't win anything else. So these former stars of the international game get to watch England in a big circle jerk, Eddie and Stevo are caressing the English ego with tender loving care, and Jamie Peacock holds up some made up trophy and gibbers off some garbled rubbish in which the only word you understand is "Pride". Although he might be requesting Pide...no one can tell.
Does anyone honestly think this is a good idea?
Does anyone think this would stop England being thrashed when they face Australia?
See, this type of fantasy talk always happens around State Of Origin time. The Poms look over and see this amazing, high quality contest between two sides that want to die to win. They see the best players in the world bash each other, and while they would never claim to be envious, they wish they had something similar.
They tried Yorkshire vs Lancashire a few years ago, and that fell flat, possibly because that rivalry stopped meaning anything a few hundred years ago.
Then you see people trying to draw lines and make clubs All Star teams.....missing the point completely.
The real problem is that all the best international teams in the World are in the Southern Hemisphere.
New Zealand, Australia, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji and PNG on their day would easily account for England.
Still I think English likes being in a position where their only challenges are against at best semi professional teams like France, Ireland or Wales. I think they like to feel special once in a while, big fish in a small pond. It makes a difference from when they play true test nations and get thrashed unmercifully.
Then when England actually decide to leave their shores and face one of these Test nations, they get destroyed by 50 points, of course, thats all a one off!
There is no hope for England. Make up any games you like, the English game is dying and no one cares, not even English fans.
If they don't care, why should any of the rest of us?
If Only New South Wales Had Its Own Israel Folau...
I really wish New South Wales had its own version of Israel Folau.
I mean sure Folau was born and raised in New South Wales, and he only moved to Queensland a couple of years before his firstgrade debut, but still, I want someone like him that actually wants to play for New South Wales in State Of Origin 2.
Someone thats 6ft 4in and over 100kgs, an outside back who can put some fear into the Queensland side.
Oh hold on, we do!
So why didn't New South Wales pick Jamal Idris?
He's too young, he's only 18 years old, he is still in school and no one has been able to play Origin at that age since....Israel Folau.
Yeah but his form against the best players in first grade is, well, its outstanding.
You don't want to push them to fast though, I mean he is just a schoolboy still, he could play in the Under 20's for two years still, and yet here he is ripping up the best in the NRL every weekend.
So what the fuck are we waiting for?
Both Michael Jennings and fat arse Jamie Lyon are under injury clouds heading into State Of Origin 2. To the point where selectors have named two back up players, both of which are more suited to the wing.
Idris is the form center in the NRL right now, he is huge and I don't want him to go out and be a star, but at least give this young star of the future some experience against the games best.
New South Wales has for some reasons hated giving young players a run, no matter how good they are players and how obvious it is that they are a star of the future.
Just look at how long it took for Robbie Farah to supposedly be up to the mark? He is now 25 and has played just one State Of Origin game. Cameron Smith is just one year older, at 26 years of age, and yet he has already played 17 State Of Origin games!
Ben Creagh made his State Of Origin debut in the last game also. He is only 24 years old.
Queensland have SEVEN players players 24 years or younger in their current team and between them they have an incredible 43 Origin games to their credit! In return New South Wales have 6 players (Including Creagh) younger than 24 years of age and they have just 12 Origin games between them.
It was a series that was billed as one that would be about building for the future, and yet all we are seeing is why teams of the past have failed.
The sooner New South Wales picks the stars of the future the sooner we back the Origin shield.
Which brings me back to Idris. Here we have a great young athlete, a kid thats old enough to make the best in the game look like they are completely out matched. These are the type of players that you hand Origin jerseys. Not old men who have had their day.
League Freak 03/07/2009 11:17 Go to the "Media" section of this site, then scroll down to the "Rugby League Television And Video" section and click on the League TV link. That should be handy for you.
wiz66 03/07/2009 00:55 cant watch the NRL anymore since Sentanta went bust so its all we got
League Freak 01/07/2009 10:57 Its not so much watching them, its more a case of being a witness to the murdering of a great game!
wiz66 29/06/2009 22:05 At the moment its bad enough watching them never mind playing for them
League Freak 29/06/2009 20:44 To be fair, if I played for Wigan I'd try and eat myself to death as well!
wiz66 29/06/2009 17:02 piggy riddell makes kieron cunningham look like twiggy but great defense
wiz66 29/06/2009 17:01 Tim Smith - bipolar - bisexual more like tackles like a girl
League Freak 25/06/2009 12:47 I think so. I mean, if ever a player got white line fever....
wiz66 24/06/2009 16:25 Do you think Garath Hocks season will end on a high
Australian Kangaroos 05/03/2009 10:42 Remember former pommie 'Legend' Dale Laughton? No? Nor did I... but its been reported here that he has been busted for a severe Coke habit...and I'm not talking the fizzy stuff
Australian Kangaroos 05/03/2009 10:38 Hope Tim also taught him the quickest way to the international terminal from Campbelltown as well. He will want to go home within 6 months
League Freak 05/03/2009 10:34 Well Tim Sheens has said they have spent the off season teaching him really basic stuff. He was terribly under coached.
Australian Kangaroos 05/03/2009 10:30 Wonder how long before that pom Gary Ellis or whatever his name is decides NRL footy is waaaay above his station?
League Freak 04/03/2009 09:36 No, like most things Jamie Peacock does, he was no good in either fight!
wiz66 03/03/2009 14:15 I think you will find that Willie Mason got knocked on his arse by Jamie Peacock but Josh Perry would have won on points after the last one
Australian Kangaroos 02/03/2009 18:08 Good to see Jamie Peacock getting bashed by another Aussie. First it was big Willie... now its Josh Perry. You would think he would have learned by now....
League Freak 16/01/2009 20:00 He's a very handy player, he's had problems with weight but he'll be a very good buy for Wigan.
wiz66 14/01/2009 00:07 Freak whats your opinion of Wigan signing Mark Riddell
wiz66 02/11/2008 21:58 ABSOLUTE SHIT - DO YOU HAVE A GIRLS TEAM WE CAN PLAY IT MIGHT NOT BE AS EMBARASSING
wiz66 30/10/2008 20:28 AK you forgot pigeons, pies, George Formby, Warm beer, flat caps and black puddings to mention just a few
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