Redneck Redfaces 2

[Cloudsurfer]

Well there you go, the tossers who blame coaches and players for wrestling will be truly f**king amazed . . . imagine the Pommie ref not allowing it.

England won on their own wet track as they should, an understrength NZ did better than expected and once again Pommie refs are proven the best, which they shouldn't be

Did we watch the same game? I'd trade some of the flow for consistency when it counts.
A neutral should have reffed both sides as fairly as possible. If you penalise one side for slowing down the ruck, penalise the other when they do it.
A few dubious penalties against the Kiwis showed an uneven playing field created by the ref at times BUT the Kiwis didn't rise above it enough to win...sorely needed some halves with the play only opening up for them when Harris took over & created some space.
Not having good halves meant RTS was a headless chook trying to create something with no brain...needs someone to do the thinking to be at his best.
About to watch again because I'm a beggar for punishment...

 

[POPEYE]

Did we watch the same game? I'd trade some of the flow for consistency when it counts.
A neutral should have reffed both sides as fairly as possible. If you penalise one side for slowing down the ruck, penalise the other when they do it.
A few dubious penalties against the Kiwis showed an uneven playing field created by the ref at times BUT the Kiwis didn't rise above it enough to win...sorely needed some halves with the play only opening up for them when Harris took over & created some space.
Not having good halves meant RTS was a headless chook trying to create something with no brain...needs someone to do the thinking to be at his best.
About to watch again because I'm a beggar for punishment...

That's the problem with watching a game you want to see a particular side win ol' mate. I wanted the Poms to win for League's sake but not enough to death ride the Kiwis . . . I thought the ref had a great game.

 

[POPEYE]

I never peruse anything written in the Telegraph, not because I'm too tight to pay but because their headlines are enough to bear in one sitting, even their 'latest videos' highlights Manly practicing the wrestle and Matai grabbing his neck in pain as usual for the camera

One headline says Walker is getting closer to signing for the Seagles, could mean he went for a swim at Manly or they at least saw him on the ferry but the bloke would do his career a world of good if he did actually make the move . . . providing the culture hasn't left with Toovey. If ever a bloke could take advantage of 'one for all, all for one' it's Walker

I have a feeling the Seagles are going to hit the ground running and continue the pace if Turbo Jake stays healthy, been a while since I've been enthused by a standout forward as much as I have this fella. The two biggest blights on the Premiership are Origin and injuries, let's hope Manly avoid both

 

[POPEYE]

Dammit Janet, no matter how much I dislike footy shows/pre game talks of any kind not only will I make an effort to search for Fletch & Hindy in recordings but I'll have to give NITV's 'League Nation Live' a shot. Not sure how Hodges will go as host but there's something surreal about the way NITV goes about League that I like

Crikey I detest specialist centres being wasted at fullback, it's been the ruination of Inglis and now there's talk of playing Ferguson at the back, the last thing he needs is that sort of responsibility. These dynamic players should be aimed at people who don't make tackling a living, running at players of their own ilk

Fullbacks have to run at everybody and need to be elusive, great at positional play and organising defence, mumbling through a game and running a gauntlet are not what you want your game breakers doing

 

[POPEYE]

What else is there to do but take the piss and how easy is it where Rugby League is concerned. I see Buzz's mob still find the 'Dump Grant' agenda as the leading money spinner, not that I donate anything to their cause by reading it but I still need a headline to wind up. The Tele like to be the freshest piece of shit on the lawn, keep the blowies attacking the screens that Rugby League is trying it's best to keep shut

Who really thinks that Taylor wants Farah to go elsewhere, fair suck of the sav, the bloke might be a gremlin but he's still a necessary evil and I reckon Jason's done a magnificent job of putting the bloke in his place. Nothing has changed except that Robbie can't afford any tantrums, Taylor has merely swapped places in the guillotine line, now standing behind instead of in front of his biggest threat

The 'legendary', as loosely thrown away as 'love, Benny Elias, has slammed the Tigers for not tying up Brooks and Moses. If he means tie them up to the bench and give someone else a go I agree, if he means the Tigers should sign up more players of as yet doubtful quality to long term contracts I disagree. Imo the halves are walking the same tightrope Robbie is

SMH says talks with Grant are 'positive', if I ever pay for a newspaper I reckon it'd be that mob

 

[POPEYE]

So what's new without actually having to sift through garbage, appears Roberts wasn't asked to sign an addendum to his contract but whether or not it makes a difference could be left in the hands of Manly. Depends how badly the Seagles want another centre with a dubious mindset now Walker is not walking

Then we have Laurie The Omnipresent Daley, still filled with delusions of grandeur even after he had to give Cronk back the broken arm he borrowed to stand on. Laurie thinks he now has the right of veto or approval on what Mal does for a living . . . the monkey swapping places with the organ grinder if you like

Big Willie is taking his persona to Catalans, there's a bad luck joke there somewhere but not appropriate given what France is going through at the moment

 

[POPEYE]

Starting from 2011 we've had Thurston, bullshit, Thurston, bullshit and finished in '15 with Thurston so if any lengths possible are to be taken to keep 'The World' at the end of 'Best In' we should be happy to take Golden Boot seriously in the world of Rugby League

Makes you wonder why Smith walked away doesn't it, how could he reject a position with an outfit that cherishes a mid season 3 game competition that f**ks the working man's 26 game comp. Allows the media to separate a handful of players from hundreds of equally important so magazines can be sold and encourages weak teams to remain weak by way of wage restrictions

I won't mention satisfying the media, the least appreciative of the game itself, who are allowed to have 50% of the competitors in the 'finals' to win a cup tainted by exhaustion and injuries that were foreseen

Not all doom and gloom fellas, we now know thanks to a select group of experts that Johnathon Thurston has finally eclipsed the on field exploits of Andy Johns, off field never in contention, 3 Golden Boots to 2 added to the stats

 

[POPEYE]

Kevin Gordon pursuing an acting career is a great idea, down under six packs are all the rage in Hollywood so why not. Ian Roberts has put bread on the table doing it, after watching Hoppa with Fletch & Hindy I'm confident he could adapt to playing a tough guy on the big screen and Matai's already a member of Actors' Equity

Players who are envious of 'Hayne In America' could take their physiques there and make a bigger dollar if they can read and remember their lines . . . maybe Jarryd is not a good example. Bound to be a glut of Yank movies about the Middle East for years to come, Robbie could take his scowl to Hollywood and make a motza. Manipulating is not that far removed from acting

 

[POPEYE]

Whilst some of us are concentrating on staying alive long enough to see the start of next season there are many more keen on making the in between as f**king miserable as possible. Miserable makes more money than happy expectations it seems, the media couldn't survive without it

Appears Tigers supporters have to live with the proposition that Moses & Brooks may leave after '16 when the pair should really be concentrating on improving enough to make it worthwhile keeping them. Makes you wonder which players in every club use discontent as a crutch to disguise below par performances

How many top coaches, who have been given the right of veto by way of autonomy, would put up with players even hinting at using disgruntlement as leverage. The M & B law firm would never get an office in any of the Storm, Bronco, Cowboy, Rooster, Seagle high rises until they learned to walk up the stairs

 

[POPEYE]

Appears Hagan is finally done and dusted, Mrs Brown is sweeping the joint clean of any possible contaminants, makes you wonder if the bigger Gidley could be next. Maybe not, being overrated as a centre in his playing days has nothing to do with what he does now

'Bird hopeful Roberts remains a Titan', crikey, that's a f**king revelation if ever there was one. Roberts is certainly a key to the Titans' fortunes but getting rid of Bird is a necessity if the team hopes to emulate the Sharks/Cowboys . . . the bloke is a paddle pop to an Eskimo

All this talk about 'Sunday footy' being sacrosanct and Monday night footy unnecessary means sfa to all us old codgers who have finished creating mayhem on weekends and contributing to the work force. There are many like me who want their Saturday nights chockabloc with footy and reckon MNF is the best game of the week . . . f**k ruining an afternoon when every day is a Sunday

Almost forgot, if there's another team interested in a 'home away from home' similar to what the Eels are doing in Darwin they should take a look at Mudgee which has an excellent footy arena. Happens to be located in an area where there are thousands of youngsters that actually care about the game . . . and the climate is not a deterrent

 

[POPEYE]

When Souths last won the cup no-one wanted it more than I and ditto for the Cowboys, this time round my fingers are crossed for the Sharks, of course providing Melbourne do well in the Shield as usual. What I don't like to see happen is teams that made it to the top struggle to stay in the ball park, getting beaten is one thing, demoralised is entirely different

Great to see Burgess back where he belongs but don't lose sight of the fact that a Graham inspired resurgence in the '14 final was sabotaged by T'eo. Forget the fact that the rest of the Souths players will have to again learn to rally behind Sammy they still have to find another T'eo and resurrect a fullback playing in the wrong position

No skin off my nose if the Rabbitohs don't win the cup again in the Burgess career but they must regain the fear factor they fought hard to achieve. No orchestra is frightened of a one man band, one sour note and he will be booed out of Australia as quickly as he was England through no fault of his own

 

[POPEYE]

I imagine very few people are in the position to emulate, nor would they wish to, my tv viewing habits. If everyone did there would be no television broadcasts. Takes me about 15 minutes each morning to record everything I watch for the day, now an expert with the ff button any ads or unwanted material watched on Fox or FTA are accidental.

My wife and I watch our favourite tv whenever it suits us, I'm more selective, no reality shows but every game of footy. For instance everything of interest on X Factor takes a 20 minute sitting, the time it takes songs to be sung, even the judges get the flick. We work everything around spare time, I even do something else in the live footy half time break

What's this got to do with RL you say, sfa except that if I can embrace technology anyone can, trouble is the type of technology that is embracing the younger generation is taking them away from footy bums on seats. All this euphoria about TV deals combined with modern mindset could lead to large stadiums becoming white elephants

If I'm going to pay for Fox you can bet your arse I'm not going to watch any bits that don't interest me and anything, especially footy, I have no choice but to watch on FTA will be skinned to the bone. So Nine imagining they put anything over Fox is a furphy but not in the too distant future streaming may bring them both undone

Oh, and it amuses me the discussion surrounding the draw for '16. I wonder if the mindset of players who are allowed to have an agenda by way of their irreplaceable value to rep games has been factored into the equation

 

[ANTiLAG]

Starting from 2011 we've had Thurston, bullshit, Thurston, bullshit and finished in '15 with Thurston so if any lengths possible are to be taken to keep 'The World' at the end of 'Best In' we should be happy to take Golden Boot seriously in the world of Rugby League

Makes you wonder why Smith walked away doesn't it, how could he reject a position with an outfit that cherishes a mid season 3 game competition that f**ks the working man's 26 game comp. Allows the media to separate a handful of players from hundreds of equally important so magazines can be sold and encourages weak teams to remain weak by way of wage restrictions

I won't mention satisfying the media, the least appreciative of the game itself, who are allowed to have 50% of the competitors in the 'finals' to win a cup tainted by exhaustion and injuries that were foreseen

Not all doom and gloom fellas, we now know thanks to a select group of experts that Johnathon Thurston has finally eclipsed the on field exploits of Andy Johns, off field never in contention, 3 Golden Boots to 2 added to the stats

Are you suggesting that the salary cap keeps weak clubs weak?

 

[POPEYE]

Are you suggesting that the salary cap keeps weak clubs weak?

Exactly, Melbourne doesn't need to rob teams of players they need to keep because they build their own champions. Hand feed clubs like Parramatta that couldn't bother putting the cart before the horse by establishing a coaching regime capable of creating anything and they rely on the cap to bring others to their level

The Cowboys won because they're coached properly, not because they've got the best player on the planet. The cap is not a restraint, it's a carcinogenic crutch that weak teams lean on. Barrett is probably costing Manly a fraction of what Bellamy's now worth, if he turns out to be a dud the Seagles will spend most of their money looking for another Supercoach in the making . . . they are not a weakling club

You may remember the Seagles beating Melbourne 40-0 in a cup final, they didn't whinge that the Storm was packed with players everyone wanted to poach. There's no reason other than laziness stopping every club doing exactly what Melbourne and Manly do . . . show some f**king enterprise and man up

 

[POPEYE]

Warriors now owned by one man with his managing director Jim Doyle, the bloke everyone wants to CEO the NRL. This mob need to cultivate a winning 'culture' more than they need to win the cup, with interests now narrowed down it should be full steam ahead in the search for an on-field brain to create a triumvirate

In theory it's the Warriors who should have Melbourne's forwards, they're only one step away from creating a team that are perennial winners who have all the best players clamouring for a run. That one step is find halves that can manifest cohesion, in other words a player that can scheme SJ around the paddock

I'm positive most Kiwis and Warriors supporters don't realise how significant a change in direction would be, they're colorful people but rose coloured glasses don't suit them. Providing the coach is up to polishing the finished product all this mob need to have supporters of every other team crying foul is a clone of James Maloney

 

[POPEYE]

I'd like nothing better than to see the top 34 players that virtually know they've got a spot in the Origin teams use burnout as a reason to coast their way through the premiership. Origin is bullshit in more ways than one, players don't need to play a full season to prove their form warrants inclusion, they are selected on what they did 12 months ago if they won or could have done 12 months ago if they lost

I don't mind if all the Qld players fake niggling injuries on short turnaround game days, the clubs will figure the best players missing in early games will result in fresh champions when it counts . . . after all a club has only to be in the top 50% near year's end. So why not f**k the early part of the premiership as well as the latter with the best players choosing which games they play all year

Imo the best way to send Origin to where it belongs, after the premiership is decided, is to finally make supporters realise the whole season is a f**king joke, what better way than for them to think their team has a chance of winning only to have absenteeism and coasting by the players they pay to see. That would be the easiest way for key players to take action against Toddy's Mob

 

[POPEYE]

Call it what you like but this 'Platinum League' could be the saviour of RL. All the caterwauling about 'owning juniors', even though every club is supposed to contribute to their nurturing somewhere, could come to an end

We could have an NRL competition with 16 clubs that have no excuses, all they have to do is search through the pool of players in the Platinum League, or anywhere outside their sphere, coach and train them to play top grade footy . . . every NRL club an entity separate from anything that happens below them

The second tier should be distinctly removed from the top tier, that way every previously ignored League development area like the central west and hopefully Pacific nations get their chance. Affiliation between the top tier and 'juniors' has been a f**king bad joke for years, no-one owns players of any age or has the right to whinge when opposition clubs 'use their juniors'

Let's see which NRL clubs are capable of getting on with the business of taking second tier players and turning them into first tier. Doesn't matter a tuppenny f**k which second tier teams NRL teams farm their out of form or recuperating players to. What matters is that the second tier is as strong a comp as humanly possible so that EVERY NRL team has no f**king excuses for mediocrity

 

[Cloudsurfer]

Think the Storm saw this coming? The moves to Sunshine coast weren't just pulled out of someone's proverbial perhaps....

Would have been visionary to invest in "Platinum League' across the country but I guess if they can sort the NSW traffic jam its a start.

NZ & Pasifika could do with a similar outlook, the 2nd tier comp here has a way to go anyway but it would open up things for a second NRL team - be a shame just having the Warriors as sole beneficiary of the regions

 

[POPEYE]

Why is the NRL persevering with this Greenberg f**kwit, there's enough carcinogenic distractions for the game without him orchestrating more that are unnecessary. The bloke is selling flyswatters instead of erecting screen doors, any mug can earn his money being reactive, we want proactive people running the game

How f**king hard is it to ask all concerned parties their opinion instead of only those he thinks may further his miserable career. Do the NRL really believe the media, who are the equivalent of ISIS with pens instead of guns, rule the fortunes of the game.

So much time is spent trying to appease the wrong people that the right people, players and supporters are badly done by. Maybe we the supporters, most of who have scant idea of what it takes to be a top grade footballer, should revolt alongside the players, get off our arses and make our presence felt . . . social media is stronger than the pretend shit

 

[POPEYE]

Mal Meninga as 'coach' of Qld will be recorded as possibly the greatest cockamamie in RL history, no player donated to his cause ever needed his mentoring, those that made the difference between Qld and NSW already came better prepared on the field than he was off it

In fact, if Mal was ever to attempt changing Slater's leadership in defensive positioning, the Thurston/Lockyer/Cronk attack or the impeccable Cam Smith he would be no better regarded than Sticky is atm. The only team Big Mal is capable of 'coaching' to victory other than Qld is Australia, all it needs is a dose of his camaraderie medicine

Imo the next best in line to take charge of Qld would be Kevin Walters, he's not dumb enough to interfere with anything that happens on the field between the Combo That Counts, even though he does have enough smarts to make Hagan obsolete if the odd game plan tune up is necessary.

Most importantly Kevvie is like Mal, one of the boys, as long as he concentrates on just topping up the Qld broth to counteract the NSW chookyard selections everything will remain hunky dory