NRL 2023 Season Chat

[XD351]

Only time will tell🤞🤞.

Funny game Rugby league, the teams that are flying high can flog everyone in the first half of the season then plateau and those sitting half way up the ladder find something in the last half and end up winning . My dark horse is Manly especially if turbo stays injury free - maybe a Manly Parra grand final ?

[noelm]

The most consistently successful clubs have a good junior system, to win over time, you need player "depth" Injuries are big part in the game, a couple of "superstars" get injured long term, then unless you have other "good" players to replace them, you're going to sink fast. Teams like Roosters, Melbourne, Penrith all have a great player "system" someone gets sidelined, the replacement is always a "name" and the team just adapt on the run.

[mrsswordfisherman]

16 hours ago, noelm said:

I kind of don't like the Dragons and the Mark Gasnier thing, he left the club, looking for big money in Union, was a dud at that, then just wandered back after half the season was done, and the hard work been completed and claims a premiership........they should have not allowed him back, or any other player for that matter, you leave, they change the front door lock...see you later, Jarrod Hayne was the same, pissed off, expecting big dollars, failed and just walked back in! No way in my book.

It is all about money these days isn't it. Gone are the good old days where players came up through the local ranks. That happened in both league and union. I grew up in Coogee watching Randwick Rugby and the recruits from Matraville High and the Ellas play at Coogee Oval. I later lived in Fitzgerald Ave Maroubra looking onto Heffron Park where the new Souths Sydney Club burrow has just opened. 

Players can always be bought now for the right price - no more loyalty. Social media shows us the really dark side of the players these days. Phone call transcripts and nasty allegations of poor behaviours by players is increasing. 

Fun facts - my family is related to the Gasniers on my father's side. We always barracked for Souths then St George
My father and another family member were involved with Randwick Rugby and Wallabies. 

[noelm]

Yep agree, I know it's a true professional sport, and finances play a big part in both players and clubs futures, but........there comes a time in any business where hard decisions need to be made, no "old boys" sentiment should enter into it, that's where a strong, knowledgeable board comes into it. Players have agents who want to get maximum dollars for them, so they make more money! Success starts right at the top, an example (in a way) is Brisbane, Ben Ikin went there and sorted out the top level, players were let go, senior board members were shown the door, and in a season, it started to "turn around" to where they are today, well managed and winning games. The tigers are in the same boat (and to an extent, St George) they need a strong leader at the top, sort out the mess, then it filters down to the players in the long term. Kind of like a ship, you can have the best boat made, the best motors, but, a bad Captain can still see you run aground!

Edited April 17, 2023 by noelm

[frankS]

Just my opinion but I recon The warriors should NOT be in the N R L it's National Rugby League NOT International rugby league.

They are doing well this year and I wish them all the success they can get BUT they should not be competing.

I am not as passionate about the game as I was before my team was forced to merge with another team which I loved to beat . sort of put a bit of a damper on my whole outlook for the game.

I played reserve grade in my younger days , never good enough to make first grade, Back then we had 2 reserves ( before inter change ) and once a player was replaced that was it for the entire game. Players were dedicated for the game NOT for the money involved. 

Frank

[noelm]

Things might get worse for you, the talk is the next team to be formed will be from either Tonga, Fiji, Samoa or a combination called "Pacific Nations" but, that is just gossip! My guess will be another State based team, not QLD though. These so called "mergers" rarely work, they are simply take overs and the two boards can/will never align. Manly and Norths was a take over, West's and Balmain, take over, St George and Illawarra is still a stand off, neither side will support the other, maybe the Steelers should have another go?

[frankS]

Noal. My only objection to having the Warriors in the N R L is the name National not International.

If teams from countries other than Australia want to join then the name should revert to what it was prior to Super League and that was Australasian Rugby League.

Then I would have no objection to Australasian countries competing.

Frank

[XD351]

I don’t know how they call it National as it is really a NSW/ QLD thing with a token Victorian team thrown in - they should just drop the National and Australian part off and just call it what everyone else does - Rugby league . I don’t know if there is a big enough player base to have a combined pacific island team and as Union is still the most popular game in most of those places ( probably not Papua Niugini ) many still have dreams of playing for the All Blacks.

I never liked any of the mergers or takeovers in my eyes it was just to make room for other teams with more money to give the ARL but it is I suppose better than disappearing like Newtown and Norths - South’s went out too but their supporters are a special bunch - they fought back !

[BaitDropper]

9 hours ago, frankS said:

Noal. My only objection to having the Warriors in the N R L is the name National not International.

If teams from countries other than Australia want to join then the name should revert to what it was prior to Super League and that was Australasian Rugby League.

Then I would have no objection to Australasian countries competing.

Frank

I hear what your saying, However, this has happened for some time now in a lot of other sports, in fact without NZ, most of our top sporting teams would definitely not be at the level they are now, we are too isolated from the rest of the world,  Hence, the super 8's rugby competition which started in the 90's, now of course much larger.  I'm definitely for the inclusion of the warriors, lets face it,  most NRL teams, are littered with Kiwis and NZ born pacific islanders, some even play state of origin and even represent Aussie, the Warriors have a half dozen or so Aussies and even the coach in the team.

The other reason I'm in favour, is that the northern hemisphere would have been the big winners if the warriors inclusion hadn't come about, the player drain from our region would have been huge, and only made their competition much much stronger. Now there's a pathway for in Australasians to stay in the region and mostly, the northern hemisphere only get " end of career " or younger players not up to the NRL grade, but it could have been a lot different if the Warriors weren't included...

Because of the relatively short distance between NZ and Aussie, it makes sense, we need to grow rugby league here in Aussie, the new franchises they created a few years back,  have long since collapsed and were a failure, this showed the need for the NRL to try and grow via the talent pool in NZ. I believe they are/were trying to get a papua new Guinian team into the league  ??    I think this too, would be a brilliant idea,, We need to grow the sport, not restrict it in these modern days.. I personally don't think the name has any bearing, but hear where your coming from,  I'm cool to call it the " super league " if that's what it takes,  it's got a nice ring to it..

Edited April 18, 2023 by BaitDropper

[XD351]

I believe there is a Papuan team in the lower grades in Queensland. It is mainly a feeder team which we need as it would be a bit of a culture shock coming here as a young player, having other players from their homeland would make this a bit easier .

[BaitDropper]

8 hours ago, XD351 said:

I believe there is a Papuan team in the lower grades in Queensland. It is mainly a feeder team which we need as it would be a bit of a culture shock coming here as a young player, having other players from their homeland would make this a bit easier .

Ahh, Ok,  I thought I read or heard that there was a push to actually enter an NRL team from the Papua.

I wonder now when you look back at things ( as was mentioned earlier )   All those mergers that happened, wests, norths, Illawarra and failed new franchises etc etc,  How many now think that this was a mistake ?  What if scenario...   I know one thing, League seems to be always chasing their tails with the AFl marketing machine, I think overall, league has missed many a boat over the journey. Having lived for a time in Victoria, I don't mind watching the odd AFL game, but as a league lover, it sometimes feels the NRL made some terrible decisions over the last 25 odd years..

[Rebel]

There is talk & only talk at the moment that the NRL wants 20 Teams. WA have put their hand up & guess who else North Sydney.

[XD351]

If the NRL had a brain they would approach those who wish to bring the bears back and see if they would be interested in changing the name from North Sydney Bears to Western bears , base them in Perth and they could have WA, SA and NT as bases to develop juniors and maybe even take some of the premiership  games to these places  - this would help grow the game all around Australia - especially in the indigenous communities , what we see now is just the tip of the iceberg in regards to the talent pool that is out there in those communities. I still believe that this should have been the Dolphins, we didn’t need another Brisbane based team  IMHO.

[BaitDropper]

25 minutes ago, XD351 said:

If the NRL had a brain they would approach those who wish to bring the bears back and see if they would be interested in changing the name from North Sydney Bears to Western bears , base them in Perth and they could have WA, SA and NT as bases to develop juniors and maybe even take some of the premiership  games to these places  - this would help grow the game all around Australia - especially in the indigenous communities , what we see now is just the tip of the iceberg in regards to the talent pool that is out there in those communities. I still believe that this should have been the Dolphins, we didn’t need another Brisbane based team  IMHO.

100% agree..

In all honesty, they should be copying what ever the Melbourne storm model was, because in my opinion, that Victorian option, would have been the hardest to set up of any location in Australia and get success as they have done, In a media biased AFL state, there's still not much in the way of junior leagues, or indeed a feeding ground as such to grow the sport  in Melbourne, and yet, there probably one of the most successful franchises in the last 20 odd years, go figure !.

Maybe I dwell to much, but I still miss the old merged teams that have long disappeared, Lets hope they never go down this path again...

[XD351]

What I would also like to see is the NRL to be able to put in place someone to oversee operations at a club ( for a period of time )that is having issues like Wests Tigers , Manly and the Dragons , this is not for player or coach evaluation but to sort out the board. What I see is these boards have  become fractured into various factions and are now nothing more than a mini self governing political parties whose only interest is keeping themselves in power . If this person ,who would report directly to the NRL says certain board members should resign then the NRL would have the power to enact financial penalties on that club until they do leave . The problem is with these boards is the people sitting on them have worked themselves into a position of power  where they can’t be removed - a bit like a dictatorship. Brisbane and the Bulldogs did this themselves with Ben Ikin and Gus Gould but there are some clubs that don’t want this because they know their jobs are gone if they do . The Circus that has been going on for 12 yrs at clubs like  the tigers can’t be good for the game , Can’t be good for crowds at games ( bums on seats =$$ and more memberships ) and can’t be good for junior development- kids don’t want to play for teams that always lose - they may stay until they get a run  in first grade but bail as soon as any cash is waved under their noses - Tedesco  and Moses are classic examples but far from the only stars the tigers have produced in the last two decades but they wouldn’t have reached the heights they have if they stayed at the tigers .

Anyhow we have some great games on this week !

P.S BaitDropper posted while I was writing this so not meant as a reply to the post above - more like part two of my previous post .

Edited April 19, 2023 by XD351

[XD351]

I remember a lot of people saying the Melbourne thing wouldn’t work - Oh how wrong they were ! 

[Bryant fish]

I was a bears supporter and have lost interest now i know most bear supporters would follow a central coast bears I wouldn’t follow a perth one. The area between north sydney to say Newcastle is huge a lot of juniors there,I’ve never really understood why the nrl is so against a comeback

[noelm]

2 hours ago, Bryant fish said:

I was a bears supporter and have lost interest now i know most bear supporters would follow a central coast bears I wouldn’t follow a perth one. The area between north sydney to say Newcastle is huge a lot of juniors there,I’ve never really understood why the nrl is so against a comeback

No different to Illawarra, there is a huge area from Wollongong to Melbourne.......or West's and Balmain, West's just vanished, even though commentators give the token "West Tigers" every month or so.

[Rebel]

There is a big push on for the Bears.

Time will tell.

[XD351]

It will come down to $$$ in the end and the NRL only wants more money. Plenty of junior teams already established  on the central coast - they should have one in the main game and if the Bears supporters are happy with the move up there then why not !

[BaitDropper]

Tuivasa sheck back to the warriors, just announced, Gee, there building a good roster ..

Bet there would have been a few other clubs interested in signing him.

Glad to see he's decided to return to the NRL, class act..

Edited April 20, 2023 by BaitDropper

[noelm]

There is a lot to a successful Rugby League team/club, it's complicated and very difficult to get a good handle on. Whenever you have a board of "old boys" it will never work (St George, Tigers, previous Bulldogs and a few others) the club has to be financially secure. Then there is the junior to reserve grade path. Add to that salary cap control and a decent coach who knows what a "team" is, a group of the best players will not always win, Wayne Bennett, Trent Robinson and Bellamy know how to manage people as well as coach a football team, it's a difficult job, not everyone is capable of achieving it. There is a dozen other parts to it, but that just kind if explains what it takes to be long term successful, winning once is not what it's all about.

[Rebel]

Penrith V  Souths  Friday.

Penrith not playing like they did in the last two years.

Souths win was a great Team effort.

[XD351]

Bunnies are getting their mojo back ! Always love watching Latrell play as I did with GI .

Tonights parra vs broncos game should be a ripper too.

[mrsswordfisherman]

2 hours ago, XD351 said:

Bunnies are getting their mojo back ! Always love watching Latrell play as I did with GI .

Tonights parra vs broncos game should be a ripper too.

I was on the edge of my seat at the last 5 mins of that game, mainly because I tipped Souths in our tipping comp.

I an a rabid Rabbitohs supporter too.