City-country

[typicalfan]

Not sure what NRL teams playing in these places has to do with development of players. They have scouts for that you know. Sounds like 2 different issues.

I've lived in Wagga Wagga, plenty of sporting greats come from the Riverina...Mark Taylor being one

I'm not sure how many Sheffield Shield games were played there though.

Scouts dont attract interest.

 

[BuderusIsaBeast]

For mine the biggest problem is it's played at a terrible time of the year. I hope the NRL takes more games to the country but I woundn't be holding my breath.

I can see a place for it in preseason. They can play the Indigenous All Stars on the friday night and the City vs Country on the sunday. Let the fans vote on who makes the teams and we can give the country a proper rep game they deserve.

City vs Country may be meanignless to many but for the Country people the Country jersey means alot. It's the same with the Indigenous All Stars game. Rugby League has a bad habit of killing things off because there to hard

 

[East Coast Tiger]

Not sure what NRL teams playing in these places has to do with development of players. They have scouts for that you know.

Jesus.

That'll f**kin do me.

 

[no name]

Not sure what NRL teams playing in these places has to do with development of players. They have scouts for that you know. Sounds like 2 different issues.

I've lived in Wagga Wagga, plenty of sporting greats come from the Riverina...Mark Taylor being one

I'm not sure how many Sheffield Shield games were played there though.

Are they sending scouts to watch the kids play soccer? AFL? Tennis?

 

[King hit]

Not sure what NRL teams playing in these places has to do with development of players. They have scouts for that you know. Sounds like 2 different issues.

I've lived in Wagga Wagga, plenty of sporting greats come from the Riverina...Mark Taylor being one

I'm not sure how many Sheffield Shield games were played there though.

I think they play 1 a year there these days, games have been taken there of late.

 

[Cumberland Throw]

Seems like a good idea to have game replaced by ..

The very best metro players from intrust super nsw cup v very best players from country based group teams ..

Like the old city firsts v country firsts

Play it on a Sunday live on fta .. would mean a lot to those blokes

 

[undertaker]

The NRL are affording City v Country all the respect they think it deserves and the clubs and players are behaving accordingly

The game is not a genuine trial for Origin - it's just a "rep" round for people not good enough to make Origin
Would you want to represent a team which basically says "nah tosser, you're not up to Origin"?

Reminds me of a similar farce at my old high school.

At end of year, there were 2 presentation ceremonies: celebration assembly and presentation night. Both were held on the same week: each garde's celebration assembly was during the day for those who either came first in their class for a subject (6 classes per grade 7-12) but who didn't come first in the grade (as well as other minor awards, like participation awards, perfect attendance, volunteering at the swimming/athletics carnival etc.), and then later in the week was the presentation night later for those who came first in the grade for a subject, outstanding sporting achievements at state level, students who got in top 1% in Australian Science/Maths comps etc. In other words, the cream of the crop. The presentation night was far more prestigious, as that was where all the teachers, mayor of the government area etc attended and received far more attention and publicity in the local media. You were only allowed to attend via invitation.

So, the celebration assembly was, in essence, nothing other than publicly being made to feel "congratulations, you did well, but you weren't good enough to be invited to the presentation night". And most of the award recipients felt that way on stage. In a typical "eeeeeeeeeeevery child's special" manner that the late George Carlin would've been proud of, my friends and I always joked about all the useless awards that were given out in the celebration assembly, almost as if the teachers felt so bad that they were trying to make up awards just to give them out to those who weren't invited to the presentation night. However, it should've been scrapped, complete waste of time to make all the students in the grade sit through 2-3 hours of that.

 

[Life's Good]

CvC was a good concept that unfortunately lost its relevance when it ceased to be a genuine trial for Origin(5-7 years ago??). I am not really sold on how it supports bush footy(eg.encouraging players to join bush comps)when it's almost like a hit & run type thing where the players run a few clinics and bugger off ASAP. From what I understand bush footy needs money so that's where the NRL/CRL/NSWRL need to focus in funding local clubs to support junior development(which may be what is happening but you don't hear much about it).

 

[undertaker]

I prefer it as a lower grades match cause at the moment it looks like it might as well be. Have the NSW Cup players playing for City and the Country players are players from the Country. Play it during Origin weekend. Whether the people in the bush will be interested, I don't know but it shouldn't be the only fixture played in the country.

The NRL should tell the clubs to go out there and take a game to the bush. At least Penrith has a deal with Bathurst, hopefully the others will follow.

But with no real plan, I cant see whats going to be done to the game in the bush.

Nothing surprises me.

I proposed a while back that clubs should take 1 home NRL game to a country/regional area, done over a 4 year cycle (i.e. 4 clubs each year taking 1 home game to country/regional area where either City-Country Origin has been played at in the past, or another area where it hasn't).

Those 4 games would be played during the Origin period (when average NRL crowds decline), with 3 of them being on the week before Origin (i.e. the shortened round with only 4 games).

So, for those rounds, the country game would be played on the Sunday arvo (which, according to this year's draw, would be the Sunday game in Rds 12/15/18, and the other designated game to be played in either Rds 13/14/16/17).

Of all the regional grounds, the facilities at Mudgee have been renovated and upgraded. I remember Parramatta took a home game there in 2013, which got a strong turnout on a nice sunny afternoon.

 

[undertaker]

CvC was a good concept that unfortunately lost its relevance when it ceased to be a genuine trial for Origin(5-7 years ago??).

2003 was the last year where full-strength teams took the field (largely attributed to the Aus vs NZ test being held after Origin, meaning the potential test representatives were eligible for City-Country Origin, such as Andrew Johns)

 

[Life's Good]

2003 was the last year where full-strength teams took the field (largely attributed to the Aus vs NZ test being held after Origin, meaning the potential test representatives were eligible for City-Country Origin, such as Andrew Johns)

Thanks for the pick up. Well that means the rot set in a long time ago and I haven't really paid attention other than the year Matt Cooper pulled out with injury only to play a few days later for the Dragons.

 

[PARRA_FAN]

I remember that year Cooper and Gasnier were named in both teams but pulled out through injury, however miraculously they played for the Dragons less than 24 hours after the City/Country. I think it was either Webster or Kent that kicked up a storm saying they shouldn't have played if they were ruled out by a doctor. That's when it started to die in the arse.

 

[PARRA_FAN]

Of all the regional grounds, the facilities at Mudgee have been renovated and upgraded. I remember Parramatta took a home game there in 2013, which got a strong turnout on a nice sunny afternoon.

I think Scully Park at Tamworth has had a recent upgrade.

With that Mudgee game it was good Parramatta decided to take a game to the bush, one of the first to do it in a while. During the week, players and officials went to the schools and spoke to a lot of people in the community, the build up was excellent. Not just Parramatta players but also Titans players.

Shame about the result, cause we were awful that day.

Then I think the next year, Penrith decided to take a game to Bathurst and have kept it going ever since.

 

[undertaker]

I remember that year Cooper and Gasnier were named in both teams but pulled out through injury, however miraculously they played for the Dragons less than 24 hours after the City/Country. I think it was either Webster or Kent that kicked up a storm saying they shouldn't have played if they were ruled out by a doctor. That's when it started to die in the arse.

I can't remember the exact year, but I know that by 2010, Country officials were calling on the NSW selectors to dump Cooper after having been ruled out of 5 times due to 'injury', on which 3 of those occasions he played less than 24 hours later:

http://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/dra...s/news-story/f1390e7effe3657c3b6c9d52c81d805c

Edit: 2004 for the last time Matt Cooper played City-Country Origin, so it was sometime during 2005-09 that the aforementioned incident you made reference to occurred.

 

[undertaker]

Thanks for the pick up. Well that means the rot set in a long time ago and I haven't really paid attention other than the year Matt Cooper pulled out with injury only to play a few days later for the Dragons.

Yep, just had a look at the team line-ups of past City-Country Origin matches, and yes, 2003 is correct. All the big stars at the time played: Johns, Buderus, Kennedy, Gasnier, Minichello etc. Also, no surprise it got nearly 18k in Gosford, one of the highest crowd attendances for the fixture since it moved away from Sydney:

http://www.rugbyleagueproject.org/matches/city-vs-country-2003/nsw-country-vs-nsw-city.html

 

[undertaker]

I think Scully Park at Tamworth has had a recent upgrade.

With that Mudgee game it was good Parramatta decided to take a game to the bush, one of the first to do it in a while. During the week, players and officials went to the schools and spoke to a lot of people in the community, the build up was excellent. Not just Parramatta players but also Titans players.

Shame about the result, cause we were awful that day.

Then I think the next year, Penrith decided to take a game to Bathurst and have kept it going ever since.

Towns in the past that have hosted City-Country Origin and would make prime candidates for hosting NRL matches in the future:

Mudgee, Tamworth, Wagga Wagga, Dubbo, Coffs Harbour, Albury, Port Macquarie, Orange, Lismore, Bathurst.

Just a few upgrades to make the capacity between 10-15k would be good as well.

 

[kdalymc]

Other obvious "pointlessness" aside, I think it's pointless playing it similar time/the same day as the test match- for example if the Aussie number 7 is from NSW, they 2 lads playing for halfback are doing it for fun...

 

[Rhino_NQ]

be interesting to see how many man of the match awards have gone to players that never got selected for origin

 

[myrrh ken]

When the teams are no stronger than a normal nrl side, it's time to give it away. Fittler had to go through 50 players who said no.

And fletch had a go at Gal for taking a spot from an up and comer!

Well done to those teams that put in. 6 dragons, 5 panthers, 4 sharks. Moylan and Tamou the only current blues.

 

[Rhino_NQ]

didn't realise nq had pulled the plug on this as well. Funny thing is apart from linnet who on form I wouldn't pick and coote who is still busted we don't really have anyone that is eligible?