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The teams for the final City-Country clash haven’t even been named yet, and already the process of players abandoning the game has begun.
Only, this time it’s not the players pulling themselves out with hamstring niggles, calf tightness or a broken nail. This time, it’s the coaches telling their players straight up they aren’t playing in the fixture. Des Hasler and Ricky Stuart, hang your heads in shame.
Unfortunately, the City-Country fixture has descended into a farce over the last decade, but that doesn’t change the fact it’s a representative jersey and players enjoy the opportunity to get their name in lights.
The fact Paul Gallen has been brought out of representative retirement to captain City for the match tells you exactly what sort of time coaches Brad Fittler and Craig Fitzgibbon are having naming their respective sides. What it doesn’t change though, is the fact Hasler and Stuart have overstepped their coaching boundaries.
Stuart has called it an exhibition match and said he doesn’t want his players ‘used up’ while Hasler flatly withdrew his side before Round 9 even got underway, citing a four-day turnaround.
While the four-day turnaround bit is understandable, given how poorly the NRL have scheduled the following round’s fixtures, Hasler has no right to stop blokes like Josh Jackson running out for the Country.
Jackson said he understood his coach, but was still disappointed at the fact he couldn’t play in Mudgee, just down the road from where he grew up. How is that fair from Hasler? To stop a bloke who busts his gut for your club every week from playing in front of friends and family in what is just about his hometown.
The simple answer – it’s not.
The Country team, in particular have every right to be passionate about this match, particularly being the final one with the fixture being killed by the NRL under the new TV deal, which comes into effect from the beginning of 2018.
Jackson is just one example of a player who was going to give it everything representing Country rugby league. Hasler pulling his players out is essentially a big finger in the air to the NRL, telling them he doesn’t care in the slightest about their representative fixture.
No matter how much of a farce the match might be, the fact the NRL can’t stand in and do something about it – and it’s not the first time they should have stepped in over the years – is a joke, and probably tells you exactly why the fixture is being sent to the scrapheap next year.
As for the Raiders and Stuart, he has absolutely zero excuses to pull his players out of the match.
While the Bulldogs play on the following Thursday against the North Queensland Cowboys, who more than likely won’t have anyone in either squad, the Raiders don’t play against the Newcastle Knights until the following Sunday.
That’s a full week to turn it around and get ready to go again. A full week.
How Ricky Stuart can come up with any legitimate excuse to rob players like Joseph Leilua, Aiden Sezer and Blake Austin a chance to represent City or Country with a chance to push their Origin selection is beyond me.
Seven days. That’s more than most teams get week in and week out (unless you’re the Brisbane Broncos of course, who get six to eight days every week, and more often than not, seven).
And Stuart is worried about what? His players being used up? The question then must be asked Ricky – are you going to withdraw Josh Hodgson from the England squad to play Samoa on Saturday evening?
How about Jordan Rapana (selection pending) from the New Zealand squad to play Australia? Where does the madness of the excuse stop?
At this point, what’s to stop every coach in the NRL from pulling their players out of the Sunday afternoon fixture and leave the final City-Country match with a bunch of Holden Cup and Reserve Grade players running around?
Injuries and suspensions are a fickle thing, but there is just as much chance of players going down at training.
I get there are problems with the City-Country match, and they have been addressed in the article, and by the NRL who are throwing the match on the scrapheap, but what Hasler and Stuart have done to their teams is a massive over-abuse of power.
If players don’t want to play, then fine. No one can force them to. They aren’t being employed by City or Country, and their clubs who do employ them certainly aren’t going to argue with them.
At the end of the day though, if players want to play in a representative fixture which could – and not many are convinced – but could still help their charge at a potential New South Wales Blues jersey, then it’s not the job of their coaches to stop them.
Paul McGregor, coach of the St George Illawarra Dragons summed it up perfectly before last year’s fixture, telling his players it was a reward for form and hard work – and there is every chance he will hold the same stance this year.
If only every single one of the NRL’s coaches did the same, then maybe this fixture wouldn’t be dying.
Maybe we wouldn’t have gone through years of players pulling out with dodgy injuries, and this, as it was once upon a time would still be viewed as a genuine Origin trial for the fabled Blues jersey.
Alas, it’s not, but for coaches to throw a blanket ban over their players – especially ones with a seven-day turnaround to the next match – it’s not on and the NRL must take action before the final City-Country match becomes more forgettable than ever.