This was a baffling, moronic and misguided multi-pronged attack by someone with an obvious anger management problem. I can't belive I have to defend so many separate unrelated issues when all I did was try to play down the hopes of these people who were questioning if Sebastien Amiges could stand out in premier league to the point he would be considered for selection in South Sydney's first grade team.
Firstly - "you may change your opinion if toulouse star players seb raguin, damien couturier, james wynne & slyvain houles played in your comp".
No idiot I would not change my opinion that one player (Sebastien Amigas) could make it in the NRL if the following players played in our comp, regardless of how well those other players went. It is an insulting claim which has zero intellectual merit. How many longnecks did it take to come up with that howler? Or are you talking about Dapto's ability to beat Toulouse? I'd still back the Canaries featuring Matt Rieck, Adrian Rainey, Jason Kent and Justin Holbrook. The respective history and strengths of the two comps is totally irrelevant. How a throwaway line could arouse so much hatred has not only myself, but everyone I've shown absolutely flabbergasted.
As builder of the XIII Actif site, I am well aware of the state of rugby league in France and why it is clinging to a handful of southern French cities. I don't see how the popularity of Toulouse rugby league has in any way to do with the ability of any player to play NRL.
"Geoff Blinkhorn former Limoux coach & ex Orange Hawks coach told me that talent wise there was some super talent, but the gap between super & sh*t was about nrl to country rugby league & that the top clubs could be competitve in superleague."
Again a bewildering paragragh of irrelevance. For the record, my cousin (former Warrington and current AIS coach) Brian Johnson just came back from another 4 match tour of England and France and gave me a complete run down of the state of the game at the family xmas bbq on Saturday. I am quite aware of the situation - it has nothing whatsoever to do with my post.
But the stupidity of the tirade of diatribe above looks like the work of Einstein compared to your final spray.
"While you may think illawarra is the ants pants, the western divsion boys always have your measure because they are tougher in the divsional champs (crl), tell me is curry puff mark duncan still getting about, jeez he set the world on fire when out in group 10"
The whole point of my post was not to say that the Illawarra is the 'ants pants' but to put in perspective how well a player has to go in our league to step up to premier league, let alone NRL. To do so, a player has to be an absolute stand out like Aaron Beath or Donny Tweddle. Amiges was solid but did not grab anyone's attention on the field. This is acknowledging the position of the Illawarra league, relevant to premier league and NRL. And to end it with a slanderous attack on Mark Duncan, who was a far superior player to Amiges in our league, and would be regarded as such by anyone who watched both players perform. How you can slip the boot into Duncan while answering as to whether Amigas can play NRL?
That is the epitome of "bagging a player out", calling him a cream puff. I didn't bag Amigas at all, I was just trying to stop these readers from getting too excited about this blokes prospects. The team he played with here (Collegians) are one of the most professionally run clubs outside of the NRL, they spend well over 200k on football alone and have a solid infrastructure in place. He was popular with women, he is very big and playing in a third division comp. Therefore he had everything going for him. Despite all of this he did not set the world on fire and in fact started in reserve grade a few times. Therefore, to suddenly step up to NRL level will need a massive jump in form.
So big is that jump, it is hard to see it happening. This does not mean I don't to want to see it happen. I would love to see him and Delpoux rise to NRL standard. I did not at any time bag this guy. I am a huge fan of second division rugby league and there are many greatly talented players playing all over the place outside the NRL. Just because Amigas is not NRL standard does not mean I think he is a bad player. He is just not at that level. Someone came on and asked what his chances were. I told them and was backed up by another post. Not only that but local journalists and even a team mate expressed shock he had been picked up by the Bears.
Then I had to read this vitriol. If you are going to engage in ridiculous attacks on people like Mark Duncan, at least have the backbone to put your name online 'Eddie'. Unlike yourself who his hiding behind a nickname with only a christian name on profile, I have my name, photo and mobile number online.
