Wigan Warriors • Interesting debate in Aus
There's an interesting debate going on in Australia at present, which pretty much underlines the very difficult problem we face with international Rugby League ... which is mainly that an awful lot of people in the world's top RL nation aren't bothered about it.
I know this will come as no shock, but while I've not been following the dispute at administrator and TV pundit level, so I don't know how it's playing out officially, I've been checking on Twitter and there's some pretty horrific stuff.
One of the best things in the modern game for me is the emergence of the Island nations as major RL powers. Tonga, Samoa, Papua etc are all chock full of NRL players, and will make any international competition into a very serious tournament. But all that seems to matter to a lot of Aussie punters is State of Origin.
I love SOO. It's the greatest RL comp on the planet at present, but in real terns hardly anyone outside Aus watches it, so it's not a massive benefit to the game overall.
But this still isn't an issue for a lot of Aussie fans. All that matters to them is SOO (which is somewhat anachronistic now, given how many players in the NRL come from neither Queensland nor NSW), and so any Islanders who want to play in SOO must also declare to play for Australia. They can't rep Tonga, NZ or any of the others and also play in the game's biggest domestic comp.
I suppose that makes sense at a superficial level. If you aren't a Queenslander, but a Tongan, you shouldn't be playing for Queensland. But the net result of insisting on this is that the Island nations will lose a lot of their stars.
Surely this can't be right? There has to be a middle way. Or do a shedload of Australian fans just want to guarantee the Kangaroos remain at the top by ensuring they get the pick of the Island nations players as well as those born in Q and NSW?
I know this will come as no shock, but while I've not been following the dispute at administrator and TV pundit level, so I don't know how it's playing out officially, I've been checking on Twitter and there's some pretty horrific stuff.
One of the best things in the modern game for me is the emergence of the Island nations as major RL powers. Tonga, Samoa, Papua etc are all chock full of NRL players, and will make any international competition into a very serious tournament. But all that seems to matter to a lot of Aussie punters is State of Origin.
I love SOO. It's the greatest RL comp on the planet at present, but in real terns hardly anyone outside Aus watches it, so it's not a massive benefit to the game overall.
But this still isn't an issue for a lot of Aussie fans. All that matters to them is SOO (which is somewhat anachronistic now, given how many players in the NRL come from neither Queensland nor NSW), and so any Islanders who want to play in SOO must also declare to play for Australia. They can't rep Tonga, NZ or any of the others and also play in the game's biggest domestic comp.
I suppose that makes sense at a superficial level. If you aren't a Queenslander, but a Tongan, you shouldn't be playing for Queensland. But the net result of insisting on this is that the Island nations will lose a lot of their stars.
Surely this can't be right? There has to be a middle way. Or do a shedload of Australian fans just want to guarantee the Kangaroos remain at the top by ensuring they get the pick of the Island nations players as well as those born in Q and NSW?
Statistics: Posted by Cruncher — Tue Jul 05, 2022 11:07 am