I can think of better things to do then shutting down the massive money spinner the NRL has become to rush through a WORLD CUP!
I think people need to realise there is the ideal way....and then there is the realistic way.
In an ideal world the World Cup would be played after the club season.
It would be played by 16 nations with teams made up or people that were actually born in the countries they are playing for.
It would have millions spent on promotion, the small crowds would be over 30,000 and it would get the international attention it deserves.
The reality is....
Its between 2-3 club season away and not a single thing has been confirmed.
There are no eligability rules in place at all and greed will see every NRL player getting a call up from some coach asking "Do you have Grandparents with a Russian, Irish, Scotish, Welsh, French, Samoan, Tongan or Fijian passport?".
There will be more spent on promoting the WEts Tigers vs Melbourne Storm at Campbelltown Stadium in round seven of the 2005 NRL season then will be spent on the entire World Cup.
Many people wont know its on and the few that do will realise the farce it has turned into as Pat Richards runs out for Ireland and you have interviews with Russian player with Aussie accents.
The venues will be poorly picked, the kickoff times will be shocking and times to fit in before the 6 o'clock news or after the gardening show and before nightline.
The lineups for the final will be named about 20 minutes before kickoff because we have no ruloes in place and no governing body.
If the game is a draw after extra time no one would have any idea what to do because the people running the damn thing only think 5 minutes ahead of time.
It will make a profit before a ball is kicked off an end up losing millions.
It will set back International Rugby League ANOTHER 10 years.
AND.....
We can now see Jim Beam cup teams being able to run out 3 "International" players who got to play for some nation they havent even visited.
Guess what.....I believe in the ARL! :lol:
