No Willie and co
It seems we can prepare ourselves for a host of form players to be overlooked for the Tri Nations tour if the train-on squad announced this week is any guide.
I know it's just a squad, but how did someone like Willie Mason get selected? Maybe Wayne Bennett and the selectors feel they owe the big bloke something after his injury suffered against the USA last December.
But how will that be fair to players like Glenn Morrison, Dean Widders, John Skandalis, Luke O'Donnell, Steve Southern, Lance Thompson, Dean Young, Ben Creagh or Paul Gallen?
An end of season tour should be reward for players for their form during the season, not as a follow-up to a series played almost 12 months earlier. That's the way the old Kangaroo tours used to work. Remember how the grand finalists used to end up with half a dozen players or more in the squad?
Now obviously the squad picked these days is a lot smaller, but if Dean Widders, Dean Young and Lance Thompson get selected ahead of the likes of incumbent Test players like Tonie Carroll, Craig Wing and Craig Fitzgibbon, you won't get any complaints from me.
What about PJ Marsh? I challenge anyone to argue with me the fact that he's had a far better season than Craig Wing. If PJ's form holds up during the finals series, or even Robbie Farah's, they should be picked ahead of Wing in my book.
Wayne Bennett has to realise the national coaching job is a custodian's role. It is not one to be abused by showing your own loyalties. Loyalty is admirable, but to deny someone who has earned the chance to wear the green and gold is an injustice.
:lol:
