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[The 18th Man]

I am a NSW fan though I have to ask, why shouldn't the current Australian team be full of Queenslanders Parra Guru and others? They have been the dominant state for the past five years and their players deserve the right to dominate team selection for Australia.

 

[Timmah]

I am a NSW fan though I have to ask, why shouldn't the current Australian team be full of Queenslanders Parra Guru and others? They have been the dominant state for the past five years and their players deserve the right to dominate team selection for Australia.

I don't think she's arguing who/why selections take place, as (unfortunately) many of the players selected are the best in their positions. There could've been some better backline choices though.

 

[Timmah]

You'd think in a city of 4 million people that has 10 NRL clubs and his supposed to be the rugby league capital of the world (Sydney people think so anyway) they could get more than 11,000 to the only Australian game in the state of NSW this year.

And what's more embarrassing is that the crowd was actually smaller than 11k. That figure included all the Tongans and Samoans who came for the curtain raiser and promtly left before the main game. And therein lies a huge part of the problem. You can't expect huge support for Australia in Sydney when the only "Australians" who live there are about as Australian as Akuila Uate or Karmichael Hunt. Should have been played somewhere like the Gold Coast or even Gosford. Canberra might have been an option but I notice they had MX at Canberra Stadium on the weekend.

What's embarrassing is the complete lack of facts and thick lathering of emotion people like yourself like to lay on when it comes to anything Sydney.

For the record I would've loved to see a test at Bluetongue Stadium but it is being returfed at the moment and won't be playable til November 21, well after the tournament ends.

The rest of your remarks make it sound like it was a top quality match with two of the worlds best sides, a beautiful fine day and a team full of New South Welshmen, all of which was heavily promoted in the media.

None of that took place unfortunately.

 

[East Coast Tiger]

But Sydney has always got sh*t crowds. They got a sh*t crowd in 2006 to BOTH games, they couldn't sell out the World Cup opening game, got a sh*t crowd for the WC semi and regularly can't sell out any mid-season Tests they get. These are all against good opposition and most were played in fine weather. It's just that this time there's a few excuses like the weather. What sh*ts me most is I drove more than five hours to be there and lazy Sydney wankers can't travel an hour or less. They should never get a Test again and when Brisbane and Melbourne and others get all the internationals and Sydney tossers whinge about it they can look back at days like yesterday and realise why.

 

[Parra Guru]

I am a NSW fan though I have to ask, why shouldn't the current Australian team be full of Queenslanders Parra Guru and others? They have been the dominant state for the past five years and their players deserve the right to dominate team selection for Australia.

Not disputing their selection (except maybe Tuqiri). Just saying when you look at it being played in the heart of Sydney's west, it's a team dominated by QLDers, with 2 Penrith players, 1 Tiger, no Bulldogs, No Eels taking the field. I hate the Storm and I hate QLD, which is also why I won't pay the ridiculous price asked for a below par game of footy.

Also, as it's a game against minnows, it should have been taken to somewhere like Townsville, just like Cricket tests against Bangladesh are taken to Tassie and Darwin etc.

 

[Parra Guru]

But Sydney has always got sh*t crowds. They got a sh*t crowd in 2006 to BOTH games, they couldn't sell out the World Cup opening game, got a sh*t crowd for the WC semi and regularly can't sell out any mid-season Tests they get. These are all against good opposition and most were played in fine weather. It's just that this time there's a few excuses like the weather. What sh*ts me most is I drove more than five hours to be there and lazy Sydney wankers can't travel an hour or less. They should never get a Test again and when Brisbane and Melbourne and others get all the internationals and Sydney tossers whinge about it they can look back at days like yesterday and realise why.

I agree with you. Even Gosford would have been a better option than Parra.

 

[Timmah]

But Sydney has always got sh*t crowds. They got a sh*t crowd in 2006 to BOTH games, they couldn't sell out the World Cup opening game, got a sh*t crowd for the WC semi and regularly can't sell out any mid-season Tests they get. These are all against good opposition and most were played in fine weather. It's just that this time there's a few excuses like the weather. What sh*ts me most is I drove more than five hours to be there and lazy Sydney wankers can't travel an hour or less. They should never get a Test again and when Brisbane and Melbourne and others get all the internationals and Sydney tossers whinge about it they can look back at days like yesterday and realise why.

2006?

24k and 27k aren't terrible crowds given what we saw yesterday. Especially given NZ only served up crowds of 20, 16 and 17k respectively, in grounds that held much much more.

WC semi was vs Fiji. "Couldn't sell-out the opener" is pathetic :lol:, forgetting the fact there were more than 34k for it?

"All against good opposition"?

WC semi was vs Fiji, I'm positive I just said that. Good opposition? Like PNG they try hard but they're no match for Australia.

I love the blanket statement "lazy Sydney wankers can't travel an hour or less". I live an hour from Parramatta and travelled that hour to get there. Even then I nearly ended up with pneumonia due to the atrocious weather before, during and after the game. The fact you keep overlooking that to lay the boot into Sydney is alarming.

Should never get a Test again? f**k off, idiot.

 

[East Coast Tiger]

You think sub 30,000 crowds for games against Great Britain and New Zealand (the Tri-Nations final no less) are good crowds in a city of 4 million people where rugby league is the number one sport and the Australian team features the best players in the sport? Brisbane, a city half the size, gets 40,000 plus for these same games. Does that help answer the question? Or is the maths just too hard? And you think comparing to non rugby league cities in NZ is justification? Who's the idiot? Sydney is pathetic and should not get another Test. If the RLIF (and ARL) wasn't run by two proven incompetent f..k-wits from Sydney I'm sure it never would. The NSWRL is the worst rugby league organisation on the planet yet these same morons who run it run international RL. We need to look no further for what is wrong with IRL. The CRL would do a better job of running the game.

 

[Fast Eddie]

Sydney got something like 26k for the 2006 Tri Nations Final(correct be if I'm wrong) which is disgraceful especially when we were reigning champs so it wasn't like it wasn't going to be a good game either.

 

[ParraEelsNRL]

Yup. Would be no different, if not worse. Can you imagine some of the toffs dragging the 4WD out to *gosh* Parramatta? For a game Australia would win easy? lol



Did. Don't anymore, and will never happen again.

France MAY, just MAY be able to get back to being mildly competitive but will never beat Australia.

PNG, as much as we'd all love them too, are never going to be able to get the training into their players neccesary, from the right age to ever be competitive. Let them play these sorts of games against Tonga/Samoa/Fiji etc. Having them get thumped by Australia does no one any good whatsover. It's demoralising for the players involved in the loss, no one cares enough to turn up and a thumping doesn't make for a good TV product.

Make it Tri Nations.

Liverpool or the Australia PNG game at 1am this morning? Easy choice for me. No interest whatsoever. Tonga v PNG though? Would watch that in a heartbeat.

What rot.

SL now has 3 nations involved, give the Welsh and the French 4-6 years playing in the comp and the local players will start coming through in ever increasing numbers.

NZ for years got bashed from pillar to post by Australia, they had some good times and some really bad ones just like Wales and France are going through now.

Yet since the Warriors have been in the ARL/NRL, look how they have improved, they are the current World champs.

France for a start has a way better set up than the Kiwis, the only reason the French haven't got better as quickly as the Kiwis is because Australia and England haven't bothered to raid their young players and give them a shot at the big time, but this is slowly changing.

If Toulouse end up getting a SL team soon, it will not take very long at all for France to get back to where they were when they were beating everyone.

As for Wales, have a look at all their rep junior teams, they are champions, the only thing that was stopping them producing at the top level is the fact they had no SL team to aspire too and the years where RU was payed $$$$ in boots instead of bank accounts.

They do now and they will be very competitive within the decade.

If PNG had a team in the NRL, they'd eventually start belting everyone.

Things don't happen over night, it takes time so how about giving them some.

 

[East Coast Tiger]

Sydney got something like 26k for the 2006 Tri Nations Final(correct be if I'm wrong) which is disgraceful especially when we were reigning champs so it wasn't like it wasn't going to be a good game either.

And it proved to be one of the all-time great Tests. But Sydney people just won't come unless it's, you know, like a really big game. Like one western Sydney sh*t hole suburb versus another western Sydney sh*t hole suburb in the Sydney first grade, sometimes known as the NRL.

 

[Timmah]

You think sub 30,000 crowds for games against Great Britain and New Zealand (the Tri-Nations final no less) are good crowds in a city of 4 million people where rugby league is the number one sport and the Australian team features the best players in the sport? Brisbane, a city half the size, gets 40,000 plus for these same games. Does that help answer the question? Or is the maths just too hard? And you think comparing to non rugby league cities in NZ is justification? Who's the idiot? Sydney is pathetic and should not get another Test. If the RLIF (and ARL) wasn't run by two proven incompetent f..k-wits from Sydney I'm sure it never would. The NSWRL is the worst rugby league organisation on the planet yet these same morons who run it run international RL. We need to look no further for what is wrong with IRL. The CRL would do a better job of running the game.

:lol: if your anti-Sydney bias wasn't glaringly obvious before it sure is now.

I'm still trying to reconcile your "don't give Sydney another test" rant.

Do you honestly believe the best outcome is in taking all representative international rugby league from the city in which the sport was born in Australia? Or is it just a cleverly disguised way of saying you think the administration is sh*t? What about people like myself who actually did bother to go to Parramatta Stadium yesterday (despite the disgraceful weather - thought you might miss that so I put it in big letters - you're yet to address that point)... should those of us who do love our league and get out there be robbed of any future international footy because you have an agenda against the NSWRL/ARL, or is it really just an anti-Sydney chip on the shoulder?

As for your remarks about the NRL, could you get any more bitter? Like it or not, it's the #1 rugby league competition in the world. Having a dig at the competition that actually does draw crowds in Sydney? :lol: dumb.

 

[Bluebags1908]

I love all these Sydney-haters that just want to bash Sydney at every oppportunity. Get a grip people! The facts are that it was pissing down raining not only on Sunday but all Saturday night (heavily) as well as all day on Sunday.

And when I mean all day Sunday I don't mean just a few scattered showers in the morning or a bit of rain at kick-off - it rained from the time anyone woke up in the morning and just did not stop all day.

10,000 or so tickets were pre-sold and anyone with half a brain would of known that this game was going to rely heavily on a walk-up crowd. The constant rain killed off any chance of any sort of decent walk-up crowd turning up. If it were a pleasant sunny day I don't think it would be unreasonable to assume an extra 4-5,000 would have turned up. That would have made it a 15,000 crowd which would have looked great at Parramatta Stadium and everyone would have been going on about what a great crowd and festival atmosphere it was.

And this year teams link Canterbury (despite their slide down the ladder), Parramatta, Souths, Tigers, Dragons and even the Roosters got better season average crowds than places like Canberra, Newcastle (stadium redevelopment, fair enough), Townsville and Auckland.

And Gold Coast - despite their stellar season has had a reduction in crowds from 2009 and are on par with many Sydney teams.

 

[Timmah]

Bluebags, don't talk any sense, Sydney is the evil rotting core of rugby league and Queenslanders say so! There are no facts! Just opinions :crazy:

 

[Eels Dude]

I couldn't really care less if Sydney don't get as many test matches, if we're going to play rubbish sides like PNG may as well take them elsewhere to areas that don't get rugby league games. Let's face it, Sydneysiders get 100 + NRL matches they can go to every season. Why would they fork out big bucks to watch a 40 nil thrashing? Internationals against minnow teams just aren't interesting. Even against England and New Zealand we win 90% of the time so there's very little interest in forking out big cash for games when you can watch em on tv. A rivalry between Australia and NZ in international rugby league just isn't anywhere near as strong as it is in RU nor is it anywhere near as strong as what NSW and QLD. I see the NZ rugby league team as like our little brother rather than a rival.

 

[Timmah]

I couldn't really care less if Sydney don't get as many test matches, if we're going to play rubbish sides like PNG may as well take them elsewhere to areas that don't get rugby league games. Let's face it, Sydneysiders get 100 + NRL matches they can go to every season. Why would they fork out big bucks to watch a 40 nil thrashing? Internationals against minnow teams just aren't interesting. Even against England and New Zealand we win 90% of the time so there's very little interest in forking out big cash for games when you can watch em on tv. A rivalry between Australia and NZ in international rugby league just isn't anywhere near as strong as it is in RU nor is it anywhere near as strong as what NSW and QLD. I see the NZ rugby league team as like our little brother rather than a rival.

See, I'll happily agree that the people marketing and planning the international game need to heed these sorts of attitudes as real and prevalent in Sydney, find a way to harness it, change the attitudes and build attendances. Bland, uninspiring advertising is far too commonplace for NSWRL/ARL these days, and even the NRL are pretty basic when it comes to making sure people know a game is on.

The quality of opposition is another issue as well, when the result is a seemingly forgone conclusion it's not exactly an enticement to attend...

 

[East Coast Tiger]

Sydney has chance after chance after chance to support IRL and has FAILED miserably. Just because Sydney people think they own the game and that the whole world revolves around that festering cancer on the Australian landscape does not mean they have a God given right to host Tests. They can't get a crowd so take the games somwhere else. And if the Sydney wankers who run the ARL still don't get it then they need to be shown the door ASAP. The Qld and Vic governments are not only paying to host games but get good crowds. Sydney does neither. The facts speak for themselves. There were less than 10,000 people in that stadium when the Aussies ran out. In a city of 4,000,000 people, and with plenty of that 10,000 coming from outside Sydney in any case, it's obvious Sydney people don't want IRL so they can get f...ed. Take it somewhere else and let the self-important tossers in Sydney drool over their club football. The facts are Sydney is becoming less and less relevent in rugby league. Just look at where the players come from these days. The CRL produces more top players than Sydney with a smaller population. In fact if that game had been played in the bush it would have got a bigger crowd. You could take that game to a place with 50,000 population and it would have drawn more. Sydney has had its chance and everyone else's.

 

[Fast Eddie]

I hate this sh*t about us not being a rival. In end of season tournaments since 05, we win the 05 tri nations smashing you, lose in golden point in 06, win the World Cup and then drew with you last year. People have to stop basing everything of a middle of the year test match jammed into an NRL round....and even in those we are getting closer and can see us winning one int he next couple of years especially since its played in NZ next year.

 

[Timmah]

Sydney has chance after chance after chance to support IRL and has FAILED miserably. Just because Sydney people think they own the game and that the whole world revolves around that festering cancer on the Australian landscape does not mean they have a God given right to host Tests. They can't get a crowd so take the games somwhere else. And if the Sydney wankers who run the ARL still don't get it then they need to be shown the door ASAP. The Qld and Vic governments are not only paying to host games but get good crowds. Sydney does neither. The facts speak for themselves. There were less than 10,000 people in that stadium when the Aussies ran out. In a city of 4,000,000 people, and with plenty of that 10,000 coming from outside Sydney in any case, it's obvious Sydney people don't want IRL so they can get f...ed. Take it somewhere else and let the self-important tossers in Sydney drool over their club football. The facts are Sydney is becoming less and less relevent in rugby league. Just look at where the players come from these days. The CRL produces more top players than Sydney with a smaller population. In fact if that game had been played in the bush it would have got a bigger crowd. You could take that game to a place with 50,000 population and it would have drawn more. Sydney has had its chance and everyone else's.

Good to see you address all the points I covered in my previous post.

You have shown yourself to be nothing but an abusive, anti-Sydney whinger.



The fact you went yesterday and sat in the weather makes me even more stunned that you don't understand why the crowd was so low.


And if you think that hosting an "international" vs a struggling PNG side at one of the least covered stadiums in the city is "giving Sydney a chance to support IRL", then you're more delusional than I thought.

 

[East Coast Tiger]

Good to see you address all the points I covered in my previous post.

You have shown yourself to be nothing but an abusive, anti-Sydney whinger.



The fact you went yesterday and sat in the weather makes me even more stunned that you don't understand why the crowd was so low.


And if you think that hosting an "international" vs a struggling PNG side at one of the least covered stadiums in the city is "giving Sydney a chance to support IRL", then you're more delusional than I thought.

There were about 5,000 covered seats EMPTY yesterday. So the Sydney soft c**ks not only can't come to a game when it's wet they can't even sit under a grandstand roof when it's raining outside.

Oh and they couldn't sit under the roof at the SFS for the WC semi either. Or for the 2006 Tri-Nations final, even against a NZ side that would wipe the floor with any NRL club side.

The excuses are piss poor. It's too wet. The opposition is not good enough. We already have too many games. There's too many Queenslanders in the Australian side. Timmah has his period. Every excuse under the sun. The facts still speak for themselves. In a city of 4 MILLION people less than 10,000 watched the best players in Australia play for the national team in what is supposed to be the most popular sport in the city. That is utterly pathetic by any measure. Utterly pathetic.