Where now for Tonga?

[Burns]

You just know the powers-that-be are hoping Samoa manages to knock off Fiji so they get an NZ-Tonga-Samoa series next year.

Totally.

I mean, how are they even going to run Group B next year which will include the Cook Islands and PNG? Play all games in PNG? Financial disaster inbound.

That said

NZ/Samoa/Tonga would be immense.Would probably play the whole thing Townsville or Wollongong though.

 

[adamkungl]

Totally.

I mean, how are they even going to run Group B next year which will include the Cook Islands and PNG? Play all games in PNG? Financial disaster inbound.

That said

NZ/Samoa/Tonga would be immense.Would probably play the whole thing Townsville or Wollongong though.

Group B will be all curtain raisers (lazy) or played in PNG (good)

 

[Hawkins]

They could take Lebanon.

And probably the Gold Coast Titans.

 

[titoelcolombiano]

They need halves. They remind me a lot of NZ in the 90's. Could pull out brilliant performances, but quite often couldn't quite hang in there against Australia. They are on the right track, they have a committed player base and a proper international calendar. They need to focus on development of a squad that are committed to Tonga and start the process of domestic development that Fiji and PNG are much further down the road with.

 

[roughyedspud]

What now for Queensland? They got bummed yesterday surely they'll never play again???

 

[yakstorm]

In 2017 Tonga played Fiji, Italy, Scotland and Samoa before playing New Zealand.

Whilst JT and Fifita didn't join until the Italy match and there were changes in the team each game, time together helped the squad gel and become a more cohesive unit

You could see on Saturday, and especially last year against the Kangaroos, the team looked like it needed a hit out before facing one of the big three.

Tonga will be better come the Kangaroos match simply because of the Lions and Kiwi games. A plus against GB will be the Lions will not have played together for 12 months, so that game could be quite competitive.

If possible they should try and organise a hit out before that game though.

Anyway, refreshing the game has said the Oceania Cup will be happening in 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024. There is an opportunity for Tonga (and all the Pacific nations) to grow... A lot of new talent will also be unearthed in that time, let's hope there are a few Tongan halves in there.

 

[Burns]

What now for Queensland? They got bummed yesterday surely they'll never play again???

Boooooo your comment is bad

You all know what I was getting at

Tonga need to put in a better showing against GB and/or Australia. Their fans (which are the only real reason we even have an Oceanic Cub tbh) won't keep turning up.

 

[adamkungl]

Anyway, refreshing the game has said the Oceania Cup will be happening in 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024. There is an opportunity for Tonga (and all the Pacific nations) to grow... A lot of new talent will also be unearthed in that time, let's hope there are a few Tongan halves in there.

Still concerned about this 2023 business.

The RLIF said the Continental Cup is still on the table.
The RLIF also said the Oceania Cup will be played 3 of every 4 years.

There's no way the major southern hemisphere teams play 2 tournaments in one year, currently we're hard up getting Aus to participate in 1 tournament.

When is England meant to play anyone decent outside a World Cup if Australia will only play Tonga and NZ now?

 

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

Still concerned about this 2023 business.

The RLIF said the Continental Cup is still on the table.
The RLIF also said the Oceania Cup will be played 3 of every 4 years.

There's no way the major southern hemisphere teams play 2 tournaments in one year, currently we're hard up getting Aus to participate in 1 tournament.

When is England meant to play anyone decent outside a World Cup if Australia will only play Tonga and NZ now?

What does the continental cup involve?

I though it was only a Europe or Europe/US tournament.

 

[adamkungl]

What does the continental cup involve?

I though it was only a Europe or Europe/US tournament.

Hard to say really.
The implication is, from the "Continental" name thats penciled in, that the best nations from each continent would participate.
However given the massive skew in talent towards the Pacific and Europe, this might be not the best way forward or even realistic.

My preferred way forward is:
In year 2 of the cycle, you can divide nations into pretty clear buckets
1 teams that have qualified for the next World Cup
2 teams that haven't and are still in the running
3 teams that have dropped out of the running

The teams that haven't will be focused on their qualifying tournaments, so exclude all of them.

Take the 8-12 teams that have already qualified and divide them into 2 or 3 tournaments seeded by rankings. Basically it would be an expanded 4-Nations.

If we ran it this year it would look like this

The Championship:
Australia (hosts) (1)
England (2)
New Zealand (3)
Tonga (4)

The Cup:
Fiji (hosts) (5)
France (6)
Samoa (7)
Lebanon (9)

The Shield:
PNG (hosts) (10)
Wales (11)
Jamaica (14)

Euro Qualifiers:
Scotland, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Russia, Greece

Repechage Qualifiers:
USA, Cook Islands, South Africa

Bi-lateral tests/tours:
Malta
Serbia
Norway
Czechia
Germany
Ukraine
Canada
Chile

 

[Bobby DIGital]

I hate to say I told you so, but I've said previously that 2017 was a fluke. It was the perfect storm against us which caused our loss to them. Now Tonga have been proven to be the flash in the pan I always knew they would be. I pointed out long ago that they can't produce halves, and I'd been looking forward to revenge for almost 2 years now. It tasted very sweet on Saturday night.

They're as good now as they ever will be. You can see the fans had really pumped up their egos to the point that they thought they could actually compete with us. Their coach is a wanker and a blight on the international game. They're not a real international team, and they never will be as long as they keep playing the emotional family card to lure young NZ talent (and they will).

Like I said before, they're nothing more than the NZ B team. And I hope the NZRL forces OUR players to declare for NZ at the junior level or be barred from all NZ junior rep teams. We've got to take our soil back. I'm sick of our country being responsible for producing talent for 3 international teams (NZ/Tonga(nzb)/Samoa(nzc) instead of 1.

 

[adamkungl]

I'd have no issue with NZ taking internal steps to protect their 'turf'.

At the same time, I'm still very supportive of dual-eligibility as a broad concept.

 

[Burns]

The whole Tonga and Pacific island thing will effect Australia as well.

Well, you would think so.

 

[titoelcolombiano]

#bringbackthefournations (#makeitsixifyouhaveto)

 

[adamkungl]

#bringbackthefournations (#makeitsixifyouhaveto)

Aus+NZ+Eng+4th should be played in the odd non-WC year (2023!)

 

[shinobi]

Well looks like the wheels are falling off:
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/sport/league/tongan-advisory-council-hit-exploitation-fans-after-kiwis-test?fbclid=IwAR1rq7F3I_SCO1ih6-vSzQFMPJqsAvv47TzmRVPC7LriERo0t62KosIScSs

Funny now they're blaming NZ and saying we're exploiting them.

The Chair of the Tonga Advisory Council says it's exploitation that Tongan fans continue to bring huge profits to New Zealand Rugby League while Tonga's National Rugby League walk away with nothing.

NZRL is in a dire state as it is why should they be helping out another country and their players? I hope NZRL does start prioritising and developing players that are dedicated to the black jersey.

looks like the warm fuzzy feelings are fading, wonder how it will be end of year if they get smashed by GB and the Kangaroos again.

 

[deluded pom?]

If the article in shinobi’s post above is to be believed who do the NZRL think they are by threatening Tonga with a Kangaroo no show if they (Tonga) don’t agree with the piss poor terms of any profit split? Tonga should have asked Australia if it’s true and either get it out in the open or call the NZRL’s bluff.

 

[adamkungl]

If the article in shinobi’s post above is to be believed who do the NZRL think they are by threatening Tonga with a Kangaroo no show if they (Tonga) don’t agree with the piss poor terms of any profit split? Tonga should have asked Australia if it’s true and either get it out in the open or call the NZRL’s bluff.

I think that was in regards to last year's game. If Tonga didn't agree to the profit split, Aus wouldn't play.

I don't think the profit split of this year's series is covered in the article. Obviously it is financially backed by the NRL and promoters, so a large chunk of the profit will go there, but the NZRL and Tonga should get a fair split i would hope.

Tonga needing sponsorships should be considered normal operations.

If nations (Aus included) can't afford to play games they shouldn't be paying players so much per game. International footy has this the wrong way around. This sport never has a view to saving or investing in itself, we make more money and still live week to week.

 

[Burns]

That article just made me even more sad

 

[roughyedspud]

.the Tongan players were paid $2500 each by the Rugby League International Federation

f**k off!!!!

It's not the RLIFs job or f**king place to pay players match fees!!

The NZRL and tongan RL should have sat down weeks ago and worked how the money was to be split between them and from that decide how much you can afford to give the players...who the f**k is running this shitshow!!!