NRL 2024
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Weird round, a few pumpings and some weird results.
The Dogs flogged the Dragons, and made attacking look easy.
The Cowboys beat the Tigers easily, but still leaked 28 points to a poor attacking team. Scott Drinkwater is having an awful year and should be playing reserve grade (oh to think they chose him over Hammer)
Manly did unManly things and held off Melbourne. Melbourne were shit though.
The Roosters went to Canberra and flogged them. The Roosters are now the team i thought they were in march
Penrith took losing the Warriors personally, and took all that anger out on the top of the table side. The absolutely smashed Cronulla, and the Sharks are back to pretender status.
Des seems to be getting the Titans on board as well, they get better every week.So Cronulla stay top, but no one considers them a threat any more.
Penrith are now 2nd, and seriously, who is stopping them winning a 4th straight? No one has worked out how to beat their linespeed, and they have attacking athletes everywhere. Brisbane did everything in that GF last year and still lost. They continue to lose players, and yet their standards are still the highest in the comp. When the whips are cracking in September i don't know who beats them.
Melbourne will finish top 4, but their spine players just can't stay fit.
The Roosters look the biggest danger, but only a week ago lost to the Sharks.
Everyone else is much of a muchness. -
Origin teams are coming out.
NSW have had a complete overhaul. Teddy is gone.
Sua'ali'i gets a centre spot. Zac Lomax gets a jersey!
Nicho Hynes gets picked even with a dodgy calf
Jurbo skipper.
Cam McInnis the lock!
Interesting bench, interesting emergencies.
Mitch Barnett gets a squad spot -
Queensland's has just come out
Reece Walsh holds the 1 jersey despite a shithouse year
Dearden gets a justified 6 jumper
Cotter will play prop
Slater picks the 1/2 hooker combo of Hunt and Grant
What the fuck? Jaydn Su'A over David Fifita????Hopgood on the bench? Cobbo on the bench??
This is some cooked shit Billy
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@mariner4life said in NRL 2024:
Queensland's has just come out
Reece Walsh holds the 1 jersey despite a shithouse year
Dearden gets a justified 6 jumper
Cotter will play prop
Slater picks the 1/2 hooker combo of Hunt and Grant
What the fuck? Jaydn Su'A over David Fifita????Hopgood on the bench? Cobbo on the bench??
This is some cooked shit Billy
Cobbo on the bench and Fafita completely missing out is interesting one. I can understand some of the other ones, but no DFafita? wow. Sua is in the best form of his career currently, albeit at the dragons, I wouldn't have picked him ahead of Fafita though
Hopgood is a tacklebot, ironically the only one making them for Parramatta
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@mariner4life Big bench in size except for McInnes (but he makes 50 tackles a game), clearly going for more of a hard edge, but won't have the same speedy little guys that Qld will
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2024 rugby league is all about footspeed in teh middle. And SoO is faster than NRL, so Slater obviously has a way he wants to play. Looks like Madge does as well, should be fun.
I still can't wrap my head around not picking the most dangerous edge forward in teh game. Fifita and Nanai on either side is a nightmare to defend.
I wonder if Cobbo is there because Billy has seen what happens to an edge if you lose a back during the game?
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I suspect that is the reason for Cobbo, plays wing, fullback and centre with ease and probably even though unconventional five eight at a pinch. Will add impact wherever he goes
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when politics interferes with sport
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this is just a terrible idea
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I mean, lets break this down.
It is no exaggeration to say PNG is a lawless wasteland. Corruption and murder are rife. Workers over there live in secure compounds with armed guards. And that still doesn't stop them getting robbed.
Who is going to move to PNG to love in a gated compound for 9 months of the year?
No one, that's who.
And you can't just over pay them because that will make a bigger target.You can't get talent to move to Auckland, how the fuck are you getting them to Port Moresby?
So you are left with essentially elevating thr Hunters from Q-Cup to NRL. Endless spoons.
But hey, we stopped china aye?
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@mariner4life Meh, the Tigers have been a wasteland for years, I'm sure this PNG team can't be any worse.
Maybe they could end up being similar the Drua in Super Rugby?
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well $60m a year over 10 years to the NRL. How much goes to PNG of that no one knows lol? Some will go but surely there will have to be exemption in the salary cap even to entice them. Or an Uncle Nick style 3rd party agreement where once contract completed a free house in your choice of state
But you're right, I can't see how this will actually work, are they going to provide extra security for touring teams and refs as well?
There was talk initially that they would play their games in Darwin, but that obviously didn't get over the line either.
If Port Moresby was safe then it would be a different story and actually an interesting expansion opportunity, however it is notSo much operationally for them to get their head around before this kicks off ..
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The PM XIII go up there every year and get welcomed like rockstars, they also have countless amount of international matches up there every year and there haven't been any problems.
What is actually the big deal here with giving an NRL side to a country where Rugby League is the only sport in the world where the game is the number 1 sport in?
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Living in PNG all year round, not just for a week.
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They'll be made up of mostly locals anyway.
As I said earlier, it'll be similar to the Drua in Super Rugby and if anything, we'll probably see more PNG talent discovered as a result, it's not like they're gonna chase guys like Cam Munster lol.
I still don't see what the big deal with this all is.
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@African-Monkey yeah, I don't see it as the same as the Drua, they will have to have some imports as the NRL try to keep it competitive and there is already a Drua equivalent in QRL. So for me it won't be just PNG and therefore logistics/safety will have an important role.
The PM X111 play a once off which is relatively easy to police, longer term its not so easy, but for 60m a year, maybe it might be
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@African-Monkey said in NRL 2024:
I still don't see what the big deal with this all is.
Port Moresby is rated as the 12th most dangerous city in the world, with a murder rate of 54 people per 100k
Fiji's is 2 per 100k
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South Africa then? People seem fine with their teams playing in professional rugby union comps. Hardly the safest country in the world either, far from it infact.
In teems of competitiveness @bayimports we've had plenty of dud teams over the years. The Cowboys were a complete joke for many of their early years but got persisted with, the Tigers have been awful for a long time now (last finals appearance in 2011), Souths when they came back in 2002 were absolutely terrible for a good 5 seasons before slowly turning the corner, I don't see how this new PNG side will be any worse than those examples (and many more that haven't been mentioned)
I'm not arguing that PNG isn't safe and that they won't be competitive to start off with, but the place is crazy about rugby league and opposition teams will have to go up there once a year max, omg how terrible! And as i said, most players will be local based with many more talent to be discovered as a result of this.
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@African-Monkey said in NRL 2024:
The PM XIII go up there every year and get welcomed like rockstars, they also have countless amount of international matches up there every year and there haven't been any problems.
What is actually the big deal here with giving an NRL side to a country where Rugby League is the only sport in the world where the game is the number 1 sport in?
The security I've seen for games across the road from the yacht club says they can do it. But as nice as staying at The Airways can be, not sure I'd want to do that permanently, especially with a family.
