Sam_the_man said:
At the end of the day Bender we obviously want the same thing and are both league fans....however the way in which we want to get there is poles apart.
agreed, and while i realise i am in the minority on this board, i am 100% convinced that i am correct on this point (with the provisos i argued above)
That team that played in the 2000 WC was a joke, how many players in it were from the IRL ? none.They were almost all aussie journeymen.
There were only about 4 or 5 aussie journeymen at the most. Admittedly there were a lot of Englishmen Journeymen, although the term journeyman might be a bit harsh, Ricketson and Campion achieved high honours and could play at any level. And the performance of the Irish team, particularly against England but also in the preliminary games was of the highest quality.
When you watched them play....you weren't left wondering "gee whos that player, he's good i wonder who he is" no you were left thinking "gee whys that guy that was dropped from the Bulldogs NRL side playing for Ireland"
You might have been, but most of the Irishmen who watched it were probably thinking wow look at that Irishmen who plays for the Bulldogs go, I would like to do that. Maybe with some work i will play in that side, like Brian Carney does.
And how can you play with passion for a nation you didn't know you had ties to until someone from the IRLF asked if your grand father was Irish. You can't.
Tell that to Ken Nagas when he represent NSW, or Australian Fulback Karmichael Hunt, or New Zealand Fulback Brent Webb. I mean even Nathan Fien played with plenty of passion for New Zealand and he had zero affiliation.
As for the millions watching on TV.....what sort of message was sent to them when they saw empty stands?
And banning those few players from playing in those games would have increased the crowds? I would guess that the message that most got was that the torrential rain that stopped the English public transport and grinded the country to a virtual stop had a massive effect on the crowd (that was the right world cup wasnt it?) Or they might have thought gees what a great game i will be at the next England vs Ireland game next time they play, shouldnt be hard to get a seat either! Of course the fact that the next game is 8 years and 10000 km away may mean that in all practicality few of them actually take up that option.
Sam, dont get me wrong, in the ideal world, these sides would all have strong domestic comps at that should be the long term aim, but it is impossible for these amateur sides to compete with the big 3. Not even NZ, Aus and Eng can compete with players from outside the Main competitions. For the lesser countries to get there, they need the big 3 to earn $$$ from the international game and to really want a successful world cup. In the short term, this could only happen if we have a competitive world cup right from the group stages. That is why we have less teams and that is why we are looking at the possibility of putting the big 3 in the one group. It sounds ridiculous but it may be in the long term benefit of all involved. Grass roots development is great but you need to build the World Cup into a money making juggernaut like the union world cup did. I think that this world cup has the potential to do that, it will depend on a number of things including:
an interesting format and scheduling being settled on,
Proper televising of the entire world cup (with knowlegeable commentators)
Positive media campain
And most of all, at least one stunning upset by one of the minnow countries.
If any of the minnows can spring an upset it would do wonders. A repeat of the 1996? results would be absolutely massive for the sport.
