Rnd 1: 4 NATIONS 2010: Lions v Kangaroos

[Willow]

Forum 7s - 4 Nations - 2010
GREAT BRITAIN & IRELAND LIONS v AUSTRALIA KANGAROOS

-v-

Big Mick (c)---------Non Terminator (c)​

Game Thread:
* Please note - This is a game thread only, therefore only game posts can be made here (Teams, Articles).
* Any other posts may result in loss of points and is at the discretion of the referee
* Only original articles, not used in previous games, will be marked by referees.​

Naming Teams (F7s 4 Nations conditions):
* 3v3 (+ 2 reserves for each team)
* No 'TBA' or changing players named
* Captains must stick with original teams named​

FULL TIME (F7s 4 Nations Conditions): Saturday 30 October 2010 at 9pm (Syd time)​

REFEREE: gorilla​

Venue: Croke Park​

 

[Non Terminator]

Australia name the line-up. Literally.

Starting:
Non Terminator (Roosters)
Griffo346 (Rabbitohs)
Azkatro (Panthers)

Bench:
Dubopov (Dragons)
DragonPunk (Dragons)

 

[Big Mick]

Lions team:

Starting:
Big Mick (Panthers)
Hallatia (Parramatta)
Broncoman (Panthers)

Bench:
Noone

 

[Non Terminator]

Non Terminator for the Australian Kangaroos. Playing in his seventh match for the Kangaroos, equalling fourth highest in history, he hopes he won't drop the first ball.


716 words.

You Tool

"Don't buy the Grand Final shirt. If we lose, you'll look like a tool."

I probably should've listened to the words of experienced forummer, adamkungl. However, after remembering that I own the last three Grand Final shirts that the Roosters participated in, I decided to fork out the $30 necessary and buy the shirt. In hindsight at the time, I was thinking I should've probably bought two. The excitement was so big I didn't want to take this one off. However when someone in Westfield Tuggerah (the scene of the purchase literally days earlier) comments in a negative fashion, then I well and truly know the shirt needs a wash. The excitement was well and truly building up for me. Not only that, my confidence and cockiness was also overpowering me.

Grand Final day came, and I went to watch the game with my mother. As a gift she decorated the house in red, white and blue. I made sure that the blue all remained intact. Although in the same mind, if the white went it would be a Knightmare, and if the red disappeared it would be a kennel. When the first blue balloon popped, I nearly lost it then and there. As I do with every match day, I decided to wear my 2004 training shirt. It had seen the Grand Final once before, I thought it deserved some sort of premiership success (by it, I mean me). I could remember just twelve months earlier the house was covered in my mother's beloved blue and gold. Guess she didn't need to buy any blue this year. I could remember the pain of winning the wooden spoon, wondering when we'd see the big one again. I never realised it would be so soon. Hell, nobody did.

The day was spent distracting my mind (and most importantly, my nerves). The two lower grade Grand Finals played out quite slowly for me, while we played a game of Trivial Pursuit (when I play, it does drag on for a few hours...). The big one finally came, the excitement was there. I had seen the highs and lows of a Grand Final before, and I knew that my mood for the next few days would be decided in the next eighty or so minutes. The first half went quick. As you could imagine, the second half went longer for me than the Roosters-Tigers match, hell, it probably went longer than the whole finals series. I remember yelling one extremely loud profanity as soon as Fien scored a try. Have you ever noticed the doors of every single neighbour opening, just in case some sort of violence was about to occur? My poor mother had to quickly apologise.

Before I knew it, the game had ended, and I was sh*tty. I was told I didn't move a single muscle for the entire second half. I just sat there with a blank stare. I didn't remember most of what happened. I felt like I was on the end of that Todd Carney preliminary final tackle. I had to ask my girlfriend on the drive home if I behaved well. She said yes. I had to double check. Bar the loud "f************************ck" I was well behaved.

All I know is, in the end, I still made the decision to spend that $30 on a constant reminder of losing the Grand Final. The most painful moment a Rugby League supporter can go through (yes, I would rate it higher than winning a wooden spoon).

A few days later I decided to brave myself and wear the 2010 Grand Final shirt. I went to the scene of the purchase, Westfield Tuggerah. I kid you not, the first person I walked by took a quick glance at me. I did the same, and f*ck me, it was a Dragons fan. He only spoke two words to me.

"You tool."

As soon as I went inside, every local Dragons fan had their gear on. There are more Roosters fans on the Coast, there are a fair few Dragons fans however. I knew I was in for an intriguing, yet painful day.

To buy a Grand Final shirt in the future or not. A question I possibly won't ask myself again.

 

[Big Mick]

Big Mick hits the turf for the Lions
​

International Rugby League: A Second Thought?​

While the majority of blame for the mass exodus of our stars to union, AFL or Super League over recent years has rested with the salary cap, one has to beg the question, is it purely just the money? In reality, it is the attraction of the international game that secures talent overseas as they want to showcase their skills on a world stage. This is something professional rugby league administrators have abandoned for far too long. But how can we strengthen our international presence?

Every year we have media publications about how good it would be to have a thriving international game to rival union, however, in the same breathe we also have statements proclaiming there is too much strain on the player’s and we cannot have an extended representative season. How after all this can these struggling developing nations continue to develop?

Throughout the world, rugby league is finally starting to have a presence thanks to very determined people risking all to start up a game in a foreign land. According to RLIF, League now has 45 affiliated countries. In recent years we’ve seen the remarkable development in emerging nations such as Malta, Holland, Lebanon, Serbia, United States, Cook Islands, Russia, Samoa to name a few and more recently with Latvia. Rugby league is quickly becoming a strongly contested game in these regions, but what can our professional ranks within England, Australia and New Zealand do to help these nations develop even further?

The answer is not purely money or grants, the answer also lies in experience and training. The NRL and ESL are required to combine in a collaborative effort to developing structures within these upstart competitions. One way would be to take on a nation’s development, taking the nations best players under their training regime at the start of the off-season.

Through the off-season the members of this national team, both coaches and players, will shadow an NRL club. The Nation’s representatives would see how a professional club operates and train’s to make them the elite professionals they are. The will learn about nutrition, tactics and the physical barriers these players push through on a yearly basis. During this time it will provide emerging players with great experience and the ability to better their games and improve their potential as players. But some may ask what the clubs get out of this?

The clubs would get grants from the NRL with the new TV rights to enable them to facilitate these countries development, but should one of these emerging nations’ players be good enough, and up to rigorous standards of first grade, then that player will be exempt from the salary cap. For example, should Samoa merge with Penrith Panthers and the Panthers discover a player with enormous potential and believe he may have the ability to play in the NRL, that player will be exempt. Only then will we see clubs opening their doors and taking a gamble on these emerging nations’ players as it will bear minimal risk for a potentially maximum pay off.

While it appears like a salary cap loophole, an NRL club would be limited to 4 players, all of which must be born in that country, played in their local systems and must continue to represent that country in International Fixtures. If the player chooses to change affiliates to Australia etc, that player would be charged at 150% of their value to the salary cap. This would encourage not only development of the player, but also of the National teams of these emerging nations.

The development of the international game is our duty. The NRL, ESL, ARL and NZRL must band together and help the international game develop. By offering developing nations an opportunity to train in a professional environment and play competitively year round is a stepping stone to something better, something that we have long craved for, an international competition that rivals rugby union.

These developments will help retain our stars along with unearthing and exposing an entirely new catchment of potential stars to the sport as the game develops internationally. The responsibility is on us to help these nations and in the end our efforts will be rewarded by having a competitive International game that we can be proud of. It’s time that International Rugby League becomes more than a second thought; it should be a priority to take our game to the next level.

744 words

 

[Azkatro]

Azkatro for the Kangaroos.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Twenty Tweets

As an increasing number of public figures have jumped onto the Twitter bandwagon, it's no surprise that there have been quite a few embarrassing gaffes in 2010. Arguably the worst example of an Australian athlete letting a few loose words slip out to an audience of billions was Stephanie Rice, with some unfortunate use of the other "f" word.

It just goes show us that professional sport athletes are people too. For every random thought that comes to fruition as a "tweet", there must be thousands of similar ones that go unpublished. It got me wondering - what might we see if Twitter was wired into the brains of players?

Without further ado, I've conjured up twenty (completely hypothetical) tweets that we might have seen from NRL players in 2010.

@Robbie_Farah
I had a good game tonight. No idea what the score was, but I'm pretty sure I got 3 Dally M points. If not then the judge is a moron. Get that up ya, @Cam_Smith!

@Todd_Carney
Good night tonight, we smashed the Tigers 44-32. @Robbie_Farah hasn't changed since I played, telling everyone how good he is. Did my tats look good on TV?

@Darius_Boyd
Tired from studying. Run to the left, do paper/scissors/rock in my head, paper is cutout, scissors is run it, rock is kick. #toomuchtoremember

@Terry_Campese
My @uncleDavid has just been telling me how awesome I am. He thinks I'm above Lockyer and should play for Australia! Although he said I'm not as good as him..

@Sam_Burgess
Fookin' tough day today lads. Had to meet sponsors and put on the accent again. Now Russell's here and won't stop yapping about how big my hands are.

@Mark_Gasnier
Looks like I'm coming back to the Dragons! Can't wait, I'm sick to death of playing with this f**got mob in pink. Talk about being toey ... F*** me, fire up!!!

@Greg_Inglis
Good start to the year, scored a try and we beat Cronulla. Might take the boat out tomorrow for a little celebration. Storm back-to-back in 2010 for sure, baby!

@Luke_Burt
Not happy.. @coach_Anderson said he's making @Fatarse co-captain! It's not fair, I'm better! I'll show them .. I'll win us games with my accurate goalkicking >:-D

@Luke_Covell
Well I did it, recovered from an ACL tear in half a season. They said being slow was a weakness. Well HA HA, JOKE'S ON YOU, LOSERS! COVELL RULES! #pleasekillme

@Jason_Nightingale
I've had a gutful of being sledged about how funny I look doing the Haka. What else am I supposed to do? I can't just stand there, they'll bloody rip me apart!

@Ryan_Tandy
Just put 100 on Minichiello to win the Dally M, 5000 on Souths to win the comp, and 3000 on the Cowboys to score a penal... actually, forget that last one! #oops

@Braith_Anasta
I am so mad! F***ing @Brian_Smith, wants to play me at lock. It won't work! Screw it, I'll just run at little blokes and he'll quickly see how I'm wasted there.

@Micheal_Luck
Got a little cut on my leg today and @Mannering almost gagged when he saw it! What a weakling. Pissed off that I couldn't keep playing, it was nothing!

@Luke_ODonnell
ARGH! I hate traffic! I am going to f***ing RIP someone's head off! And now my dinner's a bit cold. F***EVERYTHING! Gotta fire up for Origin next week! F***!!!!!

@Paul_Gallen
I just learnt some new moves from our wrestling coach, I can now stop someone breathing through a pressure point in their arm. Awesome! Man, I need to piss!

@Brent_Tate
As if it isn't bad enough wearing this thing on my neck, this facial hair thing is ridiculous! I can't wait to get to Townsville in '11 so I can shave!

@Timana_Tahu
Life is SO unfair. Seriously. I didn't get time to fix my hair this morning and @Fatarse goes "nice hair Timana!" OMG, I am still bawling my eyes out

@Cam_Smith
Well we're busted. They're announcing it after the game against Manly. I can keep it together though. Just hope they don't find my other 4 contracts!

@Anthony_Watmough
Just appeared on the Footy show. I think it went well. Sterlo is smart but I held up well next to him. I'm glad they didn't rib me about the '07 grand final!

@Johnathan_Thurston
F***, we lost again tonight, now we're out of the finals for sure. Time to hit the piss. I wonder if I can play the rest of the season without sobering up?

---------------------------------------------------------------

747 words. Liftoff!

DISCLAIMER: None of the "tweets" in the above article are real, nor do they represent the actual views of the players mentioned.

 

[Willow]

Better late than never.

 

[gorilla]

Bongiorno, bin out all day.


Kangaroos

Non Terminator

You Tool
The little things of a big match day brought out, with an amusing finish to the loser’s lament. The opening rushes through but the rest of the post strings together
81

Azkatro

Twenty Tweets
Great attempt with a laugh in almost all the tweets, hard to be topical and work the characters into the piece.
86


Lions


Big Mick

International Rugby League: A Second Thought?
Well reasoned case for an approach to improve the game across the world, with a solid structure and good processes.
80


Australia Kangaoos (167) def. Great Britain & Ireland Lions(80)
PotM: Azkatro (86)

 

[Non Terminator]

I wasn't too happy with the piece, so not fussed about 81. Thank you Gorilla, and thank you Britain. Bad luck regarding time, good luck for the tournament. To Australia, ride on.