By Gabriel Knowles
April 16th 2009 @ 3:40am
Related coverage
City Vs Country must stay
Brett Finch with the ball during Representative Rugby League, Country v City match at WIN Stadium, Friday, May 2, 2008.AAP Image/Action Photograhics, Grant Trouville
Yesterday over on a News Limited website, there was a interesting debate going on. Well, to be fair, the topic was probably more interesting than the actual debating that occurred.
In this debate, chaired by a certain “executive sports editor,” the pros and cons of the City Vs Country game came in for some treatment.
Our “executive sports editor” rather fairly kicked things off by stating that the game is not a selection trial for State Of Origin anymore and it had become “rugby league’s most boring game.”
He then suggested that the games’ elite players are already playing too much, before contributing that from 2004 through 2006, the man of the match from each game failed to make the New South Wales squad.
Another fair point raised, even if it does stretch back a bit far. And it’s hard to argue against the game being degenerated this year as a result of being played merely as a curtain raiser to a Test match.
But surely there’s a place still for this match in the rugby league calendar.
There’s nothing wrong with the concept behind the match that’s just shy of reaching 100 years old. The problem is that the powers-that-be have pandered to Channel 9’s need to broadcast two games on a Friday night and cheapened the match by stripping it of the Origin contenders that are playing in the Test on the same night this year.
It’s not to say there haven’t been bolters come from the match for the Blues in recent years. But the recent trend of leaving out players deemed automatic selections hasn’t exactly paid dividends for them recently.
The other problem is that the match needs to go back to the days when it was a fully-fledged selection match that’s promoted and marketed accordingly.
With all the talk that the codes need to consolidate and expand their places in the crowded market, rugby league needs to take advantage of this point of difference and regain a strong foothold in rural NSW.
Administrators from any other sport in the world would probably kill for the chance to stage a match that features a pretty good slice of their best players competing for higher honours.
In fact, while they’re at it, they should take the concept further and do the same in Queensland, and then they’ll still have two games to show on a Friday night.
And if that’s not good enough, then perhaps the ARL could push for ONE, or one of the commercial stations, to put in a decent bid to show the matches or even bundle them as part of an Origin or representative package once the current deal expires in 2012.
We all know the NRL and Nine’s close relationship (arguably too close) has done its bit for the game, but in this case, they’re denying the fans a chance to see a truly top quality contest.
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oikee said | April 16th 2009 @ 8:52am | Report comment
Gabriel, Queensland already have a city country game, its been happening for years mate, just does not get reported.
As for the City Country game, yes we need the game to be played out west and i like this game every year, living in queensland i have watched the game with interest over the last few years. Good game. I think Campese played last year.?
Gabriel Knowles said | April 16th 2009 @ 9:44am | Report comment
Hi Oikee, that’s true but I’m talking about making it a fully fledged game with all their NRL stars playing rather than players from the QLD cup.
As for Campese he didn’t get a run at all last year. I’m not 100% but I’m assuming he’s a country boy seeing as he was born in Queanbeyan and they went with Finch at 7 and Carney at 6. It’s interesting to note that Peter Wallace was on the bench for City in that match before going on to start in Origin.
Gabriel Knowles said | April 16th 2009 @ 9:48am | Report comment
While we’re at it here’s the list of players they could choose from for a QLD City v Country match:
BRONCOS: Justin HODGES,Karmichael HUNT,Nick KENNY,Darren LOCKYER, PJ MARSH, Steve MICHAELS, Corey PARKER, David TAYLOR, Sam THAIDAY, Lagi SETU, Israel FOLAU
BULLDOGS: Ben HANNANT, David STAGG
CANBERRA: Scott LOGAN, David SHILLINGTON
CRONULLA: Kevin KINGSTON, Ben ROSS, Brett SEYMOUR
GOLD COAST: William ZILLMAN, Brenton BOWEN, Nathan FRIEND, Ashley HARRISON, Brad MEYERS, Luke O’DWYER, Scott PRINCE, Mat ROGERS, Chris WALKER
MANLY: Michael BANI, Matt BALLIN, Steve BELL, Luke WILLIAMSON
MELBOURNE, Scott ANDERSON, Will CHAMBERS, Cooper CRONK, Greg INGLIS, Dallas JOHNSON, Dane NIELSEN, Billy SLATER, Cameron SMITH
NORTH QUEENSLAND: Grant ROVELLI, Antonio KAUFUSI, Donald MALONE, Shannon HEGARTY, Willie TONGA, Clint AMOS, Scott BOLTON, Matthew BOWEN, Travis BURNS, Sam FAUST, Ashley GRAHAM, Aaron PAYNE, Matt SCOTT, Johnathan THURSTON, Shane TRONC, Anthony WATTS, Carl WEBB, Ty WILLIAMS
PARRAMATTA: Daniel WAGON, Anthony MITCHELL
PENRITH: Matt BELL, Maurice BLAIR, Petero CIVONICEVA, Gavin COOPER
ST GEORGE ILLAWARRA: Nick EMMETT, Kirk REYNOLDSON, Darius BOYD, Neville COSTIGAN
SOUTH SYDNEY: Chris SANDOW, Jamie SIMPSON, Ben LOWE, Jaiman LOWE, Rhys WESSER
SYDNEY ROOSTERS: Nate MYLES, Ben JONES
WARRIORS, Micheal LUCK, Steve PRICE, Brent TATE, Denan KEMP, Joel MOON, Jacob LILLYMAN
NEWCASTLE, WESTS TIGERS: No Queenslanders.
oikee said | April 16th 2009 @ 12:16pm | Report comment
I heard not long ago Webke was also complaining about the city country game in Queensland not being taken to the outback towns where it would be appretiated more. I agrre with him on this subject.
As for having elete players , nah, the QLD cup players and country players are pretty good Gabriel. I watched a game last nite on fox, northern pride verses Burleigh and the standard and class of players is good. Let them have their time in the sun and we could concentrate on maybe some other type of fixture.
Aboriganals verses Maori’s or even a PNG veres aboriganal game. We need better promotion of what we have got without putting more pressure on our NRL stars. Last year i saw a good game between Tonga, Samoa, whats happening to promote another game like this one maybe.
Brett McKay said | April 16th 2009 @ 1:20pm | Report comment
Gabriel, I’ve long been of the belief that an equivalent QLD City-Country game be played, and am working through a season revamp to accomodate it. I’ll put it out in an artcile prior to City-Country..
Col the Bear said | April 16th 2009 @ 1:50pm | Report comment
Brett I’m under the inpression if the NRL ran this City/country game it would be promoted to the hilt…thats the differance, there’s nothing wrong with this annual game so why, the put down all the time in the press..it’s rediculous..look how they promote the Toyota cup since taking over the old jersey flegg competition…If they ran it ,it would be promoted as the great run up to state of origin…
oikee said | April 16th 2009 @ 4:18pm | Report comment
Either way, i watch the city country game here in queensland and enjoy the game. I love to see what NSW has to throw at queensland, last few years not much.
kingmarty45 said | April 22nd 2009 @ 12:57pm | Report comment
Newcaslte – No QLDers? No wonder I love them so much
)
Choppy said | April 28th 2009 @ 5:00pm | Report comment
The only problem with City Country is that the Kangaroo players do not play in it, which is why the Man of the Match does not usually get a run in Sky Blue.
The game is sort of a probables v possibles for the NSW positions where NSW eligible players are not playing for Australia.
This year more than even it may become relevant as the NSW influence in the Kangaroos will be at an all time low.
If you want to schedule a City/Country game for QLD put it on the same Friday night as the NSW one and play the ANZAC test match on the Saturday night with no NRL games for the weekend. Or make it a series, put on on the Friday night before a State of Origin on the Saturday night with no NRL games. If you removed the byes it would only add a week to the length of the competition.