Blake Ferguson’s decision to pull out of the Australian Prime Minister’s XIII game on the morning of the team flight has cost the Parramatta winger a Kangaroos recall. Ferguson had originally been selected in the Australian Test squad for the games against New Zealand and Tonga, however he was scratched on Monday morning after he pulled out of the PM’s game citing a leg injury. https://www.nrl.com/news/2019/10/10/how-blake-ferguson-cost-himself-an-australian-jersey/
The last time we had a disrupted pre season as a consequence to representative matches we didnt go all that well. Very little leadership/coaching change since then so im hoping greater experience and maturity we improve our chances.
To be fair, it’s one game in Fiji and a weekend of 9s as we don’t have any Kangaroos. Only Jennings should be in the Tongan side for the tour matches. That’s very different from an entire World Cup. Most rep players should return to preseason at the same time or close to the rest of the squad.
The only player I wouldn’t mind rested from rep is Mahoney (playing in Fiji / 23’s match), had a pretty big season and probably needs a good break. However I am sure the eels brain trust have assessed him as being ok to play.
A fair arguement but it is Parramatta. It took 2 years to get Kane Evans fit after. Kafusi has had few chances since. Fingers crossed.
I doubt it was the rep stuff itself that affected our preseason. More the attitude from finishing 4th in 2017. Got to trust that they’ve learnt from that embarrassment and look to put in the hardest preseason ever
So we have Gutho Moses Mahoney Brown D Brown Sivo Blake Junior Jenko Taka Ma’u Tepai All involved in rep games (bottom 4 despite not having re-signed or signed elsewhere are still ours until Nov 1) 11-12 from our top 17 isn’t bad
