Official Aussie NRL Thread

good

 

I think realistically Farah needs a dominate half like Benji to help him guide the team around, i dont think he can do it alone, a young half wont cut it at the tigpies

 

What is it? If Bill Harrigan is involved I'm sure it is. Bill Harrigan is the biggest Emperor's New Clothes **** to ever officiate the game. He was and is a shithouse ref. Seriously. The only thing he had in his favour is that he was fitter than any ref had been. I sometimes wonder if they were transfixed by his looks or something, those that ranked him as a ref. He was ****. He made so many bad decisions in his career. If a stupid decision was made it was usually by this ****. **** him. **** Bill Harrigan. **** him til eternity. Lock him up with Ivan Milat

 

Shoulder charges are banned, so unless you attempt to tackle with your arms you will be penalised.

 

Man that sucks. Was looking forward to see if SBW still had it in him after all those years in union.

 

They're still legal aren't they?
I just thought that they now have a zero tolerance for ones that make contact with the head.

 

Which almost all of them do. Thurston stayed down to milk the penalty and now has made it even easier for Doctors, Refs and ARL to ban it.

 

If Benji left and Robbie stayed you would finish dead last in 2013.

 

We'll be left with netball at this rate. What will SBW do when he comes back to league. That was his thing.

 

Does anyone think any of the bottom 4 finals teams have a chance to win with the new format? If you win, you still get an away game against a top 4 loser. Tough road.

 

I think it's a good format. Teams like Canberra shouldn't deserve 2 home games in the finals.
If the old format were still in place, we'd hqve...

Dogs v Brisbane
Melbourne v sharks
Souths v raiders
Manly v cowboys.

That'd be pretty dull, and I'm glad they've changed the format.

 

I agree it's a good change. Apparently the AFL havent had a team win it with this format since its inception in 2000.

 

I did like the impact other games had in the old format though. The nervous wait you had if your team lost from 5th or 6th hoping that 7th and 8th didnt pull upsets and you were knocked out. This is fairer though.

 

how is this for insane... my mate SJ used to be right into water skiing and said he used to ski with Miss Eagle... said she was an epic bogan. He has an old VHS video of when they were both about 15 or 16 and she says to the camera "im busting for a **** im going up the front" and then proceeds to pull her bikini bottom down and **** off the front into the water :rofl :rofl

his two flatmates told me they have seen it... what do you think would happen if it made its way onto youtube? :rofl

i am not being a dick, this actually exists

 

RL is undergoing a cultural cringe.

it has a problem. 1% of the population (pacific islanders) are now making up over 45% of the NRL under 20s squads. this will expand into the NRL 1st grade as well.

the problem is; the other 99% of parents interested in RL, can not see their child having a future playing against those athletes. what do those parents do? even if the dad played RL as a kid or adult, he and mum will still act in the interest of his child. he will change sports for his childs welfare.

the effect that has is that whatever code that child goes to (soccer or AFL), the child becomes interested in that code. when in 20 years that kid has kids, his kids will play the new code, and RL will lose its market share in both juniors and in the market place.

it is happening now. it has just started. its only in the last 5 seasons the effect of pacific island kids in such numbers in the NRL have become so noticeable. it is only now the NRL realise they have a huge problem.

what do they do? its not like america where gridiron has a simmilar racial lopsidedness. gridiron was so entrenched as the national footy code that there is no real rival. soccer is only now making ground over there.

here in Aus, we DO have a rival code. it is a pure Aus code, is established, less contact, 100% of the population can compete, it is national and it is looking to take over sydney and queensland. it is AFL.

the NRL are out of answers. they cant change the rules, but they can try and stop some of the contact. first to go is the shoulder charge. whats next? the interchange? make these bigger players run for longer to give smaller men a chance of beating big, tired players?

des hasler suggested bigger fields. thats impractical as youd have to move grandstands etc. the other option is less players....more running= smaller players.

the NRL have a problem that their demographics have shifted in such a short period. they have a game that suits the body type of a minority of people. the AFL on the other hand has players from 174cm to 2m. from 70kg, to 110. but they barely clash, and small players can survive.

the AFL is more attractive now to parents. that is the NRL's problem.