It’s definitely adds an extra element to Manchester derby these days which from a neutral perspective is great.

I wrote about this subject a little over a year ago for Inside Sport and I’ve followed it pretty closely ever since. It’s pretty fair to say there’s a bit more to it than English football being burdened by a mountain of debt. For starters it’s unlikely that EPL television rights are going to be undersold any time in the near future, in fact they’re still commanding even bigger sums as more and more countries around the world (particularly in Asia) jump aboard the bandwagon. Add to that the insatiable desire from multi-nationals to sponsor teams and the problem isn’t for lack of money coming in – the problem is with how that money is managed.

The problems faced by Portsmouth, Man United, Liverpool, West Ham and Leeds of years gone by are due to financial mismanagement at board level rather than outside forces such as the recession. Arsenal are not so much in a predicament that doesn’t allow them to sign big names as opposed to having made a clear decision some years back to build a new stadium that would ensure their long term viability. A decision vindicated by the fact that their match day revenue is the highest going, sure they’ve had a few trophy-less seasons but they aren’t saddled with leveraged debt and are widely considered to be looking good to become real force again, if they aren’t already. Everton are another case in point for solid financial planning. Rather than breaking the bank on expensive signings a la Spurs they’ve put together a decent and competitive squad while they prepare to build a new stadium. Obviously it’s a long bow to draw but which club would you rather was yours in a few years time?

In short there may well be some casualties but the EPL isn’t slowing down just yet, it’s just too popular. La Liga will keep going strong but they need to address the fact that clubs negotiate their own media deals as the difference between what Real and Barca command compared to the rest is disgusting (We’re talking nearly 100 million Euro difference here). If anything the German model is the one to follow, Bundesliga teams can be docked points for not meeting financial requirements and the club itself must keep a majority stake so as to stop it being completely sold and keeping the playing field relatively level.

That’s where the A-League should be looking towards for pointers.

I can’t see Bellamy taking Wallace off at half time unless things are going terribly, mind you he has made some obstinate decisions in the past. ie. leaving Stewart on the bench until well into the second half. If the selectors are making contingency plans for a poorly performing half back that they picked then they need to be replaced asap.

I think they should have picked the experienced Kimmorley to guide the younger, more dynamic Blues around the park, look how well he’s doing it for the Bulldogs this year.

Mushi. you’ve hit the nail on the head – Origin is about go forward far more than club football. I think they’ll regret not picking another prop.

Right you are Brett, wasn’t far off. But then the side does pretty much jump out at you when you look into it, so no surprises.

Spiro, I think having the underdog status for big games was justifiably perceived as advantage by coaches in the past. What better way to get a team playing freely than by taking some of the burden of expectation away from them? But these days when most sides have some sort of in-house sports psychologist on hand it probably doesn’t matter as much anyway.

Should be a great series.

Thanks for pointing that out Horry, should be sorted now. Don’t know what I was thinking!

The Answer – The problem is that the good guys don’t sell papers. I reckon the Roosters halves haven’t been helped by their forward pack in all fairness, that’s not to say I don’t think Fittler spending more one on one time with them wouldn’t help but they need to address their go forward over the whole 80 mins.

“It was almost not to be, but for a marvellous strike from Andrew Iniesta…” And who is this Andrew Iniesta that he refers to Jimbo!? I’ll pay him the histrionics point but only because Drogba more than makes up for some of his more subdued team mates.

Are there any objective fans that really believe Chelsea should have been awarded 3 or 4 penalties?

Sledgeross, I did also say that Ben Creagh had a case for selection over Watmough in the next sentence after Waterhouse/Gallen one. On form over the course of this season, yes I do think there are other back rowers ahead of Gallen in the pecking order. I’m not saying he’s not there or thereabouts, I’m just saying there are players in better form than him right now.

Stats are fine but they don’t always tell the whole story. For example a player might only give away one penalty during a match but stats can’t tell us what context that penalty had on the game. Did the opposition score from the next set or did they kick a goal to win the game etc? So one player didn’t take as many hit ups one week, but perhaps his coach had given him instructions not to take as many hit ups that week? There are some things in all sports that are simply unquantifiable and for that reason stats might not lie but that doesn’t mean they’re always telling the truth.

Sledgeross, the difference between now and three years ago for Gallen is that these days he seems to be a shoo-in whenever the rep sides are picked. Sure his discipline might have improved a touch but it could definitely still be better, you just said it yourself – “like Gallen, gives away silly, aggression riddled penalties.” That’s not good enough for a bloke who’s playing at the highest level.

He’ll probably still do the job but that doesn’t mean Waterhouse shouldn’t feel hard done by considering the form he’s been in and that his team are actually winning some matches.

I agree Chop, if the back row was picked on form it would look a lot different.

In any case it was pretty exciting stuff: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HeSUscHIHg&feature=player_embedded

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.

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.

Wesser would obviously need to shift to the wing don’t forget he has played for QLD as a winger. You’d have to think moving Wesser to the wing would be far less disruptive to the young halves and hooker combinations that they’ve been working on.

I hope they stick with Sandow as he’s a truly exciting player to watch but I can’t help but feel he’s destined for a stint in the lower grades the second his form drops off…

Too true oikee, there’s nothing better than a sell-out to get the buzz going – all of a sudden you’ll have people packing into pubs to watch games as well. Now that’s an advertisement for the game! The only better advertisement is the first two rounds and as you said this weekend is shaping up deliver the goods again.

Not a bad idea about Concord Worlds Biggest – I’d discounted it based on the parking situation but when you brought it up it occurred to me that there are quite a number of ovals and fields within walking distance of there so maybe they could use them in a similar way that they do at the SFS and SCG although there could be issues with ruining local playing fields. Mind you they always seem to manage with parking when they play at Leichhardt so I’m sure they could figure something out if they really wanted to.

I doubt Lidcombe will ever get a look in for an NRL game Albert but it would be great if they could play a trial there at some stage.

I don’t doubt it Westy! My all rounder comment was just a tongue in cheek reference to the ‘all round’ student that these schools are so famed for producing. For mine the weakened state of rugby at SBHS and the lack of equipment for your boys is a similar issue. When you get down to it they’re resource issues that the administrators of the game should have been addressing for some time now. For instance funds could have been spent developing the game at club and schoolboy level instead of making big name signings from league.

Ironically of they’d put more into development the threat of losing even more of our top players the northern hemisphere wouldn’t be so concerning.

As a SBHS old boy it’s very disheartening to see that it finally happened, but to be honest the writing has been on the wall since I was there in late 90s and in my opinion the school didn’t do nearly enough to ensure it remained competitive on the field. I only played rugby for two season but I remember being on the wrong end of 100+ score lines. Oddly in my final years in the football team we were always serious contenders for the title so it wasn’t sport on the whole that suffered. Just the big ones like rugby and rowing the other GPS schools spend extraordinary amounts of money on to stay competitive.

What I do hope is that this can be a catalyst for the powers that be to finally realise that a change needs to come. For too long GPS, CAS and ISA schools have been competing in their own tiny and lopsided competitions. These organisations all come under the Combined Independent Schools (CIS) banner and it’s time they formed a divisional system (as Sheek and Rah Rah have suggested) for the winter season. They can compete in divisions determined how they fared across all codes the previous season. While it would be nice to include the state schools (CHS) it’s hard to see it working as they’ll be faced with the same problem as SBHS have faced over the years, they can’t make it compulsory as the private schools can and do. If it doesn’t happen the gap will only widen and it won’t be long until Grammar take the same route as SBHS and focus on doing what they do best – getting top academic results. Hopefully the lure of even competition would encourage schools to offer an all encompassing education, because it really is a privilege that not enough students get to experience. And who knows? Australian cricket might get that all rounder they’ve been looking for!

Overall the power brokers at the NSWRU and the ARU are the ones who need to sit up and take notice now, before it’s too late. These competitions have been their exclusive breeding ground for representative players (That’s not to say the CHS system hasn’t been either, it’s just that the CHS has a strong league system too) for so long that if they don’t take an active interest in its weakening then they’ll be the ones to suffer in the long run. Lets not forget that they’re already in bad financial shape without losing what makes their game great – players.

It would have been great to see Suncorp full for a big ACL clash.