Kiwis 2007

[LeagueNut]

Can you ask them why they never return my calls??!!?

LeagueNut - posted
Jesbass - work in progress
Robster - work in progress
[furrycat] - work in progress
byrne_rovelli_fan82 - work in progress
Locky_Jr - work in progress
Mixmasterreece - work in progress

Looking good guys!!

 

[Mixmasterreece]

First draft. I need to do some editing
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Extreme Makeover – Warriors Edition.

I woke up one morning and realised the club I once loved was gone.

My love affair with the Warriors didn't start in 1995, far from it. I'd watch a warriors game on a sunday if I had nothing else to do, but I didn't have any attachment to the club. It wasn't until late in the 1990's, at a time when the Warriors carved out a niche as 'Razzle Dazzle' footballers, that they captured the hearts and minds of casual fans like myself.

The team grew on me, like they were a colony of E. coli and I was room-temperature prime English beef.

For the next six years I was delighted to see the team get their act together, and produce the type of football I'd miss my own wedding to watch. They were the golden years, when our success peaked in 2002 it gave us all a taste of what could of been.

The Warriors of 2006 lost their charm. The failings of 2004 and 2005 could be stomached, their performances weren't meeting the expectations of fans, but at least they showed creativity in the face of defeat. Twelve points down with ten minutes to go - you still couldn't write the Warriors off.

But that fleeting hope of glory in 2002, and the resulting dissapointments since, saw one of the greatest over reactions in the history of New Zealand rugby league. In the eyes of the club's stakeholders, if we weren't winning premierships, we weren't worth the investment. The solution to an under performing club was to completely remodel it – or so we thought. The management demanded a team more clinical in it's execution, and there was only one way to achieve that.

In what could be considered a U-Turn of club policy in the pursuit of obtaining consistent results, the Warrior's management began to radically revise the 'Warriors forumla'.

The first stage of this was to recruit 'Australian football brains', both on and off the field. Smart? Yes. Enthralling viewing? No. The thought process behind it seemed to centre around the success of Kevin Campion at the club. I admit that Campion was a revelation, but he worked due to the club finding the right 'mix' between smarts and flair. Recruiting 6 Campions, wasn't going to, and didn't, work.

Percentage football and 'champagne rugby league' unfortunately do not go hand in hand. If you've recruited a number of players who play by the book, you have to remove the elements from the game plan that conflict with this. That has been the consequence of the Warriors recruitment strategy. To fit with the style of the players now on the club's books, the coaching staff had to cut out 'risk taking' from the game plan.

The consequences of this shift in strategy have been enormous. Gone are the trademarks of Rugby League's South Pacific entertainers, and those elements remaining are being smothered under an oppressive game plan.

When you break it down, the Warriors are not an exciting prospect to watch on a Sunday afternoon. It's not because we aren't performing, it's the fact that even if we were to perform, it wouldn't be on the back of entertaining football.

It's like strolling down to the corner dairy and picking up a copy of 'Hustler', only to get it home and find someones scribbled out the girl's privates with a black marker - you know the goodies are there, it's just that they've been cruely hidden from you.

With this new breed of Warrior, it's difficult to predict where the club will be five years down the road. Top 8 finishes may be obtainable, but a premiership would seem out of our reach. That 'X factor' does not exist within the Warrior's current playing roster.

It will not be an easy task to reverse the damage done to the essence of this club. The Warriors need to go back to the recruitment drawing board. Looking back at 2002 it should be obvious what worked. Our club reached the dizzing heights of finals footy through producing local talent, and giving them a license to use the gifts god gave them.

A team full of Ali Lauititi's won't be on song every week, so this needs to be counteracted with a few hard working australian grafters - not seven or eight. We as fans can accept that our team won't win every game, but not when that team is stacked with under performing foriegners, playing a bland style of football.

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748 words according to the official word counter

Ok ? sh*t ? What do you guys reckon ?

 

[Hallatia]

Locky_Jr liked it, it was fascinating for me, because I found my 2004 footy card album today and I noticed that not a single one of the Warriors players which had cards were still with the Warriors, not even the coach

 

[Mixmasterreece]

Locky_Jr liked it, it was fascinating for me, because I found my 2004 footy card album today and I noticed that not a single one of the Warriors players which had cards were still with the Warriors, not even the coach

Yeah it's completelt f**ked. Talk about getting rid of the players that made the warriors such a pleasure to watch!

Cheers for the feedback

 

[griffo346]

First draft. I need to do some editing
__________________________________________


Extreme Makeover – Warriors Edition.

I woke up one morning and realised the club I once loved was gone.

My love affair with the Warriors didn't start in 1995, far from it. I'd watch a warriors game on a sunday if I had nothing else to do, but I didn't have any attachment to the club. It wasn't until late in the 1990's, at a time when the Warriors carved out a niche as 'Razzle Dazzle' footballers, that they captured the hearts and minds of casual fans like myself.

The team grew on me, like they were a colony of E. coli and I was room-temperature prime English beef.

For the next six years I was delighted to see the team get their act together, and produce the type of football I'd miss my own wedding to watch. They were the golden years, when our success peaked in 2002 it gave us all a taste of what could of been.

The Warriors of 2006 lost their charm. The failings of 2004 and 2005 could be stomached, their performances weren't meeting the expectations of fans, but at least they showed creativity in the face of defeat. Twelve points down with ten minutes to go - you still couldn't write the Warriors off.

But that fleeting hope of glory in 2002, and the resulting dissapointments since, saw one of the greatest over reactions in the history of New Zealand rugby league. In the eyes of the club's stakeholders, if we weren't winning premierships, we weren't worth the investment. The solution to an under performing club was to completely remodel it – or so we thought. The management demanded a team more clinical in it's execution, and there was only one way to achieve that.

In what could be considered a U-Turn of club policy in the pursuit of obtaining consistent results, the Warrior's management began to radically revise the 'Warriors forumla'.

The first stage of this was to recruit 'Australian football brains', both on and off the field. Smart? Yes. Enthralling viewing? No. The thought process behind it seemed to centre around the success of Kevin Campion at the club. I admit that Campion was a revelation, but he worked due to the club finding the right 'mix' between smarts and flair. Recruiting 6 Campions, wasn't going to, and didn't, work.

Percentage football and 'champagne rugby league' unfortunately do not go hand in hand. If you've recruited a number of players who play by the book, you have to remove the elements from the game plan that conflict with this. That has been the consequence of the Warriors recruitment strategy. To fit with the style of the players now on the club's books, the coaching staff had to cut out 'risk taking' from the game plan.

The consequences of this shift in strategy have been enormous. Gone are the trademarks of Rugby League's South Pacific entertainers, and those elements remaining are being smothered under an oppressive game plan.

When you break it down, the Warriors are not an exciting prospect to watch on a Sunday afternoon. It's not because we aren't performing, it's the fact that even if we were to perform, it wouldn't be on the back of entertaining football.

It's like strolling down to the corner dairy and picking up a copy of 'Hustler', only to get it home and find someones scribbled out the girl's privates with a black marker - you know the goodies are there, it's just that they've been cruely hidden from you.

With this new breed of Warrior, it's difficult to predict where the club will be five years down the road. Top 8 finishes may be obtainable, but a premiership would seem out of our reach. That 'X factor' does not exist within the Warrior's current playing roster.

It will not be an easy task to reverse the damage done to the essence of this club. The Warriors need to go back to the recruitment drawing board. Looking back at 2002 it should be obvious what worked. Our club reached the dizzing heights of finals footy through producing local talent, and giving them a license to use the gifts god gave them.

A team full of Ali Lauititi's won't be on song every week, so this needs to be counteracted with a few hard working australian grafters - not seven or eight. We as fans can accept that our team won't win every game, but not when that team is stacked with under performing foriegners, playing a bland style of football.

________________________________
748 words according to the official word counter

Ok ? sh*t ? What do you guys reckon ?

Top read mate bring it home for the KIWIS lets go have roo stew

 

[Hallatia]

the forum7s website is acting up on my computer, I need to know because I forget, do footnotes count in the word count?

 

[Willow]

the forum7s website is acting up on my computer, I need to know because I forget, do footnotes count in the word count?

More info required Locky_Jnr.

What do you mean by 'acting up on my computer' ?

 

[Hallatia]

the pages will not load at all, the front page loaded once, but when I would click on something it would not open, it might work tomorrow, my computer plays up sometimes

 

[LeagueNut]

Mixmasterreece - looks bloody good mate! :thumb

Locky_Jr - do footnotes count in the word count? - Yes (as far as I know). References don't though. Willow might be able to answer this one better - even though it grates me to see Australian team members loafing around in our thread ... :crazy:

 

[Jesbass]

I'm probably about 65% done, and confident of getting it in on time.

 

[Hallatia]

mine is almost done, a few parts I feel need a bit of work and I am cross checking my footnotes, it will definately be in today

 

[Mixmasterreece]

Full time is wednesday yeah ?

 

[Hallatia]

yes it is

could anybody help me find a proper source with the exact eligibility criteria to play for New Zealand? I am struggling to find a proper source

 

[griffo346]

Hey Locky have u tried looking in the international league section on this forum i found this on there but there could be more

http://forums.leagueunlimited.com/showthread.php?t=169783

 

[Hallatia]

thankyou so much for that Griffo, much appreciated, my article is almost done now

 

[Hallatia]

here is what I ahve done, Iam not very confident about it, so I would appreciate any feedback and at this point I am willing to change anything

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Allegiance​

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In 1908, following the induction season of Rugby League in Australia, one of Australia’s all time greats left the country to tour Great Britain with his trans-Tasman cousins. Messenger played in the rebel series against a professional New Zealand team, the ‘All Golds’ as they were referred to , and was invited to tour England with the New Zealand professional side. It remains unclear whether this was a result of the form he showed in the series or if it was agreed as part of his sign-on fee with the new code. Dally Messenger had played internationally for Australia in Union and after that went on to don the Green and Gold in international Rugby League becoming one of Australia’s all time best.

100 years later a Kiwi team shall again tour Great Britain to commemorate the century of league that has since past. Coming into this centenary year Andrew Johns; arguably Australian Rugby League’s greatest ever son; had vowed to don the great Black and White jersey so he too could be a participant in such a momentous tour. As a result of his impending retirement this simply was not to be.

Now that it has become impossible for Andrew Johns to take part in the tour, the call is put out to Brad Fittler and Darren Lockyer to play the part, which Joey now cannothttp://forums.leagueunlimited.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=3354122#_edn1. Brad Fittler, Andrew Johns and Darren Lockyer are three of the greatest Rugby League players ever not just to wear the Australian jersey, but to captain the team and each have been offered selection for a traditional rival they meet absolutely no eligibility criteria for.

Andrew Johns, Darren Lockyer and Brad Fittler are three of Rugby League’s greatest ever players. Nobody would dare stand in the way of either touring with New Zealand, despite the allegiance each have to Australia, the countless Green and Gold jerseys both have worn along with the captaincy each had of the team and the fact that not one of them shall ever be called a New Zealander. Johns, Lockyer and Fittler when fit would each be welcomed to play for any one team without fulfilling any eligibility criteria.


In the 2006 Tri Nations series; New Zealand fielded an Australian born player who had spent his second year living in New Zealand, had ancestral links to the country and had never represented Australia. The eligibility rules state that one must either be born in the country, have at least a third generation connection to the country or spent at least 3 years living there without having represented another nation for the past two years and if eligible to play for more than one country he is to elect one and stick with it until the end of the next world cup, or the expiry period of 2 years[ii].

Nathan Fein fulfilled none of these criterions, but claimed to have, thus started the “granny gate saga”. He and the New Zealand Rugby League were ostracized for the “granny gate saga” by the Rugby League community. It is true that there was some dishonesty through out the saga but were the results fair?

In Rugby League; players neglecting their origins are often seen, for whatever reason a player may choose to represent one side rather than another and they are often allowed. The eligibility has become so open that one can easily meet the criteria and represent one place when the public may believe that perhaps they should be representing another.

The case Karmichael Hunt was particularly notable as there was much written about it. Much debate surrounded his case although; Hunt playing for Australia was well with in the perhaps farcical eligibility rules. Hunt’s is not the only case though, this sort of thing happens very often, and with so many variations, there is no law about who should play where, if the likes of Hunt; who moved to Australia as a 14 year old play for Australia it is bizarre that within the same rule system, the Cayless brothers, born in Sydney choose to respect their heritage and don the black and white for life.

The lines are blurry and if it is so easy to become eligible for a country why not just allow a player to align himself with the country of his choice?

http://forums.leagueunlimited.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=3354122#_ednref1 Daily Telegraph 23rd April 2007
http://www.news.com.au/sundaytelegraph/story/0,22049,21602782-5006066,00.html

[ii] eligibility for international rugby league – courtesy of greekrugbyleague.com
http://greekrugbyleague.com/eligibility.php

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738 words according to forum7s word count

 

[LeagueNut]

Locky - I reckon you're definitely on the right track. International Eligibility rules are pretty much a joke these days and I've managed to get my fair share of F7's ideas out of them as well.

BUT the references to the All Golds tour confused me a bit ... as I understand it, the tour is solely for Kiwis but they're inviting an Australian to play in one match only to commemorate the All Golds games - it's a publicity thing I guess. I'm pretty sure they're not thinking about awarding Brad Fittler (for example) full Kiwi test status or anything like that.

Is someone else able to confirm that for us please??

 

[madunit]

In 1911 a combined Australia and New Zealand side toured england under the Australian team name. Arthur Francis, George Gillott, Charlie Savory, Frank Woodward and in 1921-22, Bert Laing. Those Players are classified as Australian Test Players.

the reason as I believe for the inclusion of the Kiwi's in the 1911 tour, was to compensate for the loss of players from the NSWRL after the 1908-09 tour went broke and a lot of players couldn't afford to get back home for some years.

Bert's inclusion in 1921-22 I believe (may be wrong, I am looking into it now though, was due to a lack of players in his position. Unfortunately, I think he got injured and never got to play a test.

I'll get more info for you, if you like.

 

[madunit]

Messenger did indeed play for the New Zealand All Golds, but it was purely to help promote the game's formation in the south, possibly to try and lure some big name British players to Australia to participate in their new comp, set to begin the year after the all golds tour.

It did create a lot of excitement, and was inadvertantly, the catalyst for J J Giltinan to agree to a massive tour of england for 1908-09. As the tour wore on, gate receipts kept getting lower and lower, until it got to the stage that players weren't getting paid to play, and the funds required to get the boat home, had eventually been chewed up.

 

[griffo346]

(needs title)

The ANZACS and rugby league players have some things that are common within each other these are listed below:
• They fight for each other
• They represent their country

Hence why the National Rugby League has held this test in and around ANZAC Day for 7 of the last 10 years where Australia and New Zealand have competed in this emotional Match.

When the first match was introduced to the annual schedule it was known as the ANZAC test “The ANZAC Test was controversial for its use of the term 'ANZAC' (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) and its perceived comparison of professional sportsmen with soldiers.”

The first of these matches was in 1997 in the “Super League era” with Australia defeating New Zealand 34-22.

This League match has been going since the league started way back in 1908 and will celebrate its centenary next season.

During these 99 years we have seen legends play our fine game.

Every man to pull on the Kangaroo’s jersey was the pick of the crop; Masters of their art... although some men have made so much more of an impact to the game, men of the caliber of Reg Gasiner, Clive Churchill to Brad Fittler and Andrew Johns, I understand that there a fair bit of a gap between these great players but I haven’t the word count to list every player to don the representative Jersey.

With these players in our history of the game is the reason the game is where it is now, and why we go on to remember these guys with the induction to the Immortal hall of fames and with some players having medals after them like the great Clive Churchill whom played for the might of the South Sydney through there glory days.

In each game there has been a great player a great team effort but generally they don’t over shadow the great plays that the players pull off with in this great game it could be from anywhere from a chip kick to the cut out pass to find the winger in space down the touch line treating pressapes.

There are a few memorable moments I’ve have read about and they would have to be when the New Zealanders came to Sydney for the first time to help kick off the football as a professional movement.
Anther memorable moment I’ve read about is “Rugby League and World War 1” below is a quote I found very interesting when it came to league with in the army.

A recent example...

"History shows that league officials in Australia took advantage of the war to build their own game. Lest we forget, Michael McKernan, a leading authority on World War I, in 1979 wrote an essay called Sport, War and Society. McKernan disclosed that rugby league officials did little to support the war effort. McKernan noted that according to official records about 75% of the unmarried rugby league players called up in September 1916 somehow managed to avoid the draft."

Rugby News magazine (New Zealand) April 2005

These plays are also known to be pulled out of no where with the magical inside pass to find the gap in the defense of the opposition. These plays can often lead to the breaking of a side when pulled off it can inspire a team to go on with the game or it can make the side cocky and there for inspire the opposition.

Many of milestones have been reached within our fine game from players making their debut also being able to sing that national anthem for the first time, to a player playing his last game in the colours of his country.

Milestones do vary as mentioned above from players playing their debut too players playing their last game. There are many milestones within Rugby League these may include ones like most tackles in a game to most hit ups in a game. Milestones are not just game orientated they are also career orientated.

The career milestones can be anything from most points in a game to most try scorer for the country.

I will leave this article with my last quote below

“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.”

735 words
Including title according to the official word counter

References used

http://www.anzacday.org.au/education/tff/rememwords.html - Ode
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANZAC_Test - History Section
http://rl1908.com/articles/nz-1908.htm - My Memorable moment
http://rl1908.com/articles/war.htm

here is my article for a bench warmer what you guys think