Think about all the centers NSW have though. Morris, Jennings and Lawrence are our 3 best centers at the moment and they are all left centers. The only right center we have is Idris and I wouldn’t choose him to mark Inglis. At the end of the day, having two left centers in your team who are playing very well is better than having one left center who is playing well and one right center who is playing badly.

This was 3 years ago though. Morris’ defence has improved significantly since then.

1. Jarryd Hayne (it will be Stewart but it should be Hayne)
2. B Morris
3. J Morris
4. Jennings
5. Uate
6. Carney
7. Pearce
8. Weyman
9. Buderus
10. Gallen (C)
11. Lewis
12. Bird
13. G Stewart
14. Gidley
15. Williams
16. Galloway
17. Watmough

That’s what the side should be. If Gidley is out then Ennis should be no 14. If Bird is out then Watmough will be 12 and Sims will come onto the bench. Same as if Stewart is out (except Watmough will be 13). If they are both out then Watmough will play lock, Ben Creagh will play on the left edge and T Sims will be the 17 (he is too inexperienced to start the game).

Jarryd Hayne is like Jonathan Thurston in many ways. They both carry their respective club teams, they are both game breakers and they are both suffering from form slumps. They both more often than not deliver at representative level (more so Thurston than Hayne) when they don’t have the added responsibility of having to carry their team. Hayne is at his best when he is not being looked to for attacking brilliance every single play. If you look at the make up of the NSW side that I named there are plenty of individuals and combinations that can provide spark for the Blues (apart from Hayne). You have the Carney-Pearce combo which was devastating at the back end of 2010. You have the Morris brothers on the left flank, Jennings on the right, Uate from kick returns, Glen Stewart and Gallen in the middle and T Rex off the bench. Hayne will play his best football as part of the above side because he is far more likely to produce the hail Mary play when NSW aren’t looking for him to produce it every single play.

I’m glad to see I’m not the only one who thinks this way. And good on you for still playing at age 42!

Paul – You call me a fool and you describe a 1 on 1 shoulder charge (in which both players are facing each other and trying to knock the other out of the way) as a “cowardly blindshot”. It’s not cowardly because Groat was running at Te’o and it’s not a blindshot because they were facing each other. A cowardly blindshot is the cannonball tackle or that tackle on Craig Wing a few years ago. Wing was being held by 2 players so he was defenseless (therefore the shot was cowardly) and he had his back to the tackler (therefore it was a blindshot). Like i said, if you don’t like the shoulder charge, go buy a skirt (if you don’t already have one – I’d be surprised if you didn’t) and make like step 5 of the harden up program.

what the hell is banning someone for 25 weeks going to do? If I was an NRL player and I got banned for 25 weeks I’d do a Sonny Bill and go out the back door to rugby (that is the only time I would ever advocate pulling a Sonny Bill).

Everyone seems to be very soft at the moment. I think we all need to harden up. Hardening up is a long and difficult process, which includes the following steps:
1. Visit your GP and get a prescription for some cement.
2. Go to the chemist and pick up your prescription.
3. Take your medicine as per the instructions on the package
4. Harden the **** up!
5. If symptoms persist, go play netball.

Seriously, this is rugby league. It is a fast paced collision sport. Many of you people want to ban the shoulder charge on the basis that it can cause serious injury if it goes wrong. By that logic we should be ban the sidestep too because they occasionally cause season ending ACL injuries when they go wrong. It’s never nice to see anyone get injured, and I acknowledge that concussions are very serious injuries. But at the end of the day, whether you ban the shoulder charge or not, accidents will still happen and injuries will still happen. That’s the nature of the beast. If you don’t like it, see step 5.

Why should Hayne and Williams not play for NSW? They’re both born and raised in Sydney. I agree Uate shouldn’t be playing, but Hayne and Williams are as Aussie as anyone (they have Pacific Islander heritage). And it’s not just NSW picking non Aussies. What about Jason Taumalolo and Sam Kasiano being eligible for QLD. Picking non-Aussies is like wrestling in the ruck. No one wants to see it, but both teams do it to keep up with the other.

Great article. It really is such a grey area. I don’t think there is one perfect solution to this problem. In certain situations, players need to be made to play for their country of birth. But there are other situations in which players should have the right to choose which country they play for (as long as they stick with that country for their entire career). Just this year we’ve had Sam Kasiano and Jason Taumalolo declare their eligibility for QLD, and as you pointed out, James Tamou declared his eligibility for NSW. Kasiano and Taumalolo are not QLDers and Tamou is not a New South Welshman. These three players all moved from NZ to Australia in their teens. They have no Aussie heritage, and therefore should not be playing for Australia or NSW or QLD. They are Kiwis. They should be made to play for the Kiwis, or not play at all. The same can be said for Aku Uate and Lote Tuqiri, both of whom came to Australia when they were 15. They also both represented Fiji before representing Australia, and therefore, they should never have represented Australia anyway. On the other side of the coin, you have a bloke like Petero Civoniceva. In his situation, I believe he has the right to choose between Fiji and Australia because he was born there and has Fijian heritage, but he came here as a 1 year old. Then you have a guy like Jason Nightingale, who was born and raised in Australia to NZ born parents. He has every right to choose between NZ and Australia. Same goes for Josh Hoffman.

International eligibility will never be perfect. The best way to handle it is to look at it on a case by case basis, and apply common sense to each case. Common sense says that Tamou, Taumalolo and Kasiano should all be playing for NZ

Great article. To completely do away with suburban grounds would be plain stupid. Shane Richardson should hang his head in shame for such a stupid idea. Maybe he could boost Souths’ crowds by playing at Moore Park rather than Homebush. It astounds me as to why Souths moved to ANZ when the SFS/Allianz Stadium is literally a 20 minute walk from Redfern.

It’s true that he was at his best during the first half of last year and the latter half of 2010 when he helped the Dragons win the comp. But I don’t think he’s been bad enough to warrant him being dropped from the NSW team. Nor do I think Campese or Maloney have been playing well enough to warrant either of them replacing Soward who is the incumbent five eighth. I’d say it’s a two horse race between Soward and Carney. Luckily, the Sharks play St George this Saturday night. Whoever’s team wins this match will be Blues five eighth (barring injury and suspension between this Saturday and Origin 1).

Explain to me how Soward is out of form. He’s steering his team around the park solidly at the moment. He’s been great in defence. He’s set up quite a few tries for St George. Peter Sterling described his kicking performance in the Manly game as one of the best he’d seen from a five-eighth in the modern game. Soward’s also missed only 6 tackles all season. That’s the best out of any NSW half in contention for the spot. It should be Carney at 7 and Soward at 6.

It is definitely a two horse race between Buderus and Ennis, but it is too early to say who is in the lead. If Sticky Stuart were to pick Farah it would require a huge shift in mentality from Stuart in terms of the game plan and tactics. Farah plays his best footy when a team is built around him. If you have too many guys like Hayne, Soward, Pearce and possibly Dugan (all of whom are the focal points of their respective club teams’ attack) then Farah just gets in the way.

I think Ennis should be given the benefit of the doubt on this one. He’s arguably a proven performer at Origin level and he is the incumbent hooker. And yes, obviously Buderus is a proven performer at Origin level too, but 4 years have passed since he last played Origin and in that time he has been playing half a game in the SuperLeague every week (a far cry from the 80 minutes he used to play week in week out in the NRL). He may not be up to Origin football physically anymore. Give him a shot at City vs Country though and we’ll find out.

Miley Cyrus? Jonas? Delta Goodrem? You’re kidding right? There must be something seriously wrong with you if you think any of these three would do a better job of promoting rugby league than Bon Jovi. I think you’ll find that the sort of people who are into Miley Cyrus or the Jonas Brothers are the same people who would not be caught dead at an NRL match. The NRL is not trying to reach out to little girls who spend all their time painting their nails, looking at dress patterns and arguing about which member of One Direction is the best looking. The NRL is a tough game. Somehow, I don’t think that Miley Cyrus or the Jonas Brothers fit the NRL’s tough image.

“Many NRL fans the young fans would not know about Bon Jovi at all”. Are you serious? Everyone knows Bon Jovi. As a 17 year old I think I qualify as a “young fan” and I’m pretty sure that myself and most people my age know most of his all time greatest hits. You’ll be hard pressed to find ANYONE who has never heard of Bon Jovi.

We also had an abysmal failure of a Sydney based merger (Northern Eagles). Mergers come about out of necessity – they cannot be forced. Northern Eagles failed because Norths needed Manly, but Manly didn’t need Norths. St George Illawarra and Wests Tigers are successful because each entity needs the other to survive. St George needs the Illawarra’s juniors while the Illawarra needs St George’s money. I would assume there is a similar situation with Wests Tigers. What I do know for sure is that neither Wests, Balmain, St George or Illawarra could stand on their own in the NRL. That is what makes these mergers successful.

So, bearing that in mind, which possible mergers could succeed? The first option that comes to mind is an obvious one: Souths and Easts. Logistically this makes sense as the two clubs are located almost next to one another. The Souths junior clubs also play in a league with the Easts junior clubs. 100+ years of intense rivalry between these two foundation clubs might be seen as a barrier to them working together in harmony. However, the success of Wests Tigers has shown that 100+ years of rivalry can be put aside for the greater good. Regardless of all of this, I think that we can rule out a Souths-Easts merger because both clubs currently are more than capable of surviving on their own in the NRL.

I can’t see Cronulla merging with anyone as they simply don’t bring much to the table. Any merger with the Sharks would be just like the Northern Eagles. I honestly can’t see any other Sydney club being in a situation in which merging with Cronulla would guarantee their existence – just like Manly weren’t in a position where merging with Norths would benefit them.

This leaves us with the three western Sydney clubs: Bulldogs, Eels and Panthers. If there were a merger between two of these three teams, I think one of the teams would definitely be Penrith. The Panthers have a huge amount of juniors, but not much money. In this sense, they are like “Illawarra” in merging terms, and either the Eels or Bulldogs are like St George. I would not rule out this merger in the future, but for the time being, these three clubs are capable of standing alone.

Bottom line – you can’t call for teams to merge just because we’ve had successful mergers in the past. The two teams need to be the ones driving the merger, otherwise it won’t succeed and you will end up with another Northern Eagles fiasco.

Relocation doesn’t work. Perth don’t want the Sharks. They want the Reds. And Adelaide want the Rams, not the Sea Eagles

Yeah mate. I think you should have read your post twice before you pressed “add comment”. A person who advocates a Roosters-Sharks merger has no right to call anyone elses’ ideas terrible.

I live in Sydney. There is plenty of validity about the Bears’ bid. They already have over 5000 members and they haven’t even gained entry into the NRL. Whenever other clubs take games to Bluetounge they always get a good crowd. On top of that, the Central Coast is a heartland area for rugby league. Part of expansion is protecting our heartland. Admitting the Bears into the competition will also bring back the North Sydney fans who became Swans and Tahs fans when their club was killed off.

I am like you in that i support my team (St George) 2nd, rugby league first. If St George were kicked out of the comp tomorrow, I would absolutely still follow the NRL. But I’d go to less games, I wouldn’t become a member of another team and I certainly wouldn’t purchase any other team’s merchandise. I’d wager that most people in our category (RL 1st, club 2nd) would be the same. So even though people like you and I would still be fans of the game, the game and the clubs aren’t receiving as much (if any) income from us as they would be if our teams were still in the competition.

Firstly, Wollongong already has a fulltime NRL team – St George Illawarra. The Illawarra half of the merger needs St George for money and the St George half needs the Illawarra for juniors. Neither Illawarra or St George can or will stand alone again in the NRL. The merger has been embraced by the majority of Dragons and Steelers fans, and the few that haven’t should learn to like it because they are not going to unmerge.

Obviously Perth, Central Coast and Brisbane 2 are all no brainers. The only thing with the second Brisbane team is that it cannot be called the Brisbane Bombers. I think people have misunderstood the concept of a second Brisbane team. We need a second team IN Brisbane. Not a second team CALLED Brisbane. If there is nothing to separate the Broncos and the Bombers we have a situation in which people are forced to choose between a team that they’ve supported avidly for 20+ years and a team that’s only just come in, and they have to make this choice based purely on personal preference (e.g. choosing between the Sydney Sixers and the Sydney Thunder, or Melbourne Victory and Melbourne Heart). Naturally the majority of fans will stick with the Broncos, making it extremely difficult for the Bombers to succeed. The second Brisbane team should be the Ipswich Jets. They already have a strong supporter base for a QLD cup team, and they will not be constantly fighting to get out of the Broncos’ shadow. Central Coast Bears, Perth Reds and Ipswich Jets should all get an NRL license in 2015.

You propose an 18 team competition with only 3 Sydney teams. I agree we need less Sydney teams, but 3??? Sydney is the historical home of rugby league in Australia. Easts, Souths, St George, Wests, Balmain, Manly, Parramatta, Penrith and Cronulla have 700+ years of history between them and you want to destroy that? To reduce the amount of Sydney teams, we must let Sydney teams die of natural causes. We can’t cull teams because that alienates fans. We can’t relocate teams because Perth and Adelaide and other places want their own teams – not a team that couldn’t survive in Sydney. Merging is a possibility, but both teams involved must be fully in favour of the merger, otherwise (as seen with Northern Eagles) it will fail. At this point in time, despite poor financial results, every Sydney team’s future (except perhaps Cronulla) is pretty much guaranteed as club grants are set to increase significantly. Cronulla’s future rests with the success or failure of their proposal to develop the land around Shark Park. If this fails, the IC must decide if the situation in the Shire is sustainable or not, and if not, they must either get rid of Cronulla while they still have their dignity, or let them die a natural death.

Speaking as a St George Illawarra supporter, I know for a fact that this is not the case. The only reason in recent years that there has not been an even split in home games for the Dragons (6 at Kogarah and 6 at Wollongong) is because one of those stadiums is under construction. Add to that the fact that the Dragons train 100% of the time in Wollongong. Look, we can argue about whether or not the Illawarra is adequately represented in the NRL till the cows come home. The bottom line is that neither St George or Illawarra can survive on their own. They need each other, so this merger is here to stay. Over a decade of hard work has been put into making St George Illawarra a success. It would be stupid and pointless to split them up now.

“Wollongong’s current representation in the NRL is an involvement in a team that doesn’t use their traditional strip or logo but to keep locals engaged in the sport they’re thrown a few Dragon’s home games each year. This isn’t good enough for a city the size of the ‘Gong”.

That is not true. The traditional Illawarra strip is always used for home games at WIN Stadium. And the reason there was only a few home games at WIN Stadium at the end of last year was because the stadium was being renovated for the whole season. In the Dragons’ first grade squad there are 3 high profile St George juniors: Jason Nightingale, Chase and Kyle Stanley. This is compared to the captain and vice captain (Ben Hornby and Dean Young), Matt Cooper, Ben Creagh, Brett Morris, Dan Hunt and Mitch Rein, who are all Illawarra juniors. Not to mention the fact that before Nightingale and the Stanley boys came along, Mark Gasnier was the only St George junior in a team full of Illawarra juniors. The Illawarra is represented more than adequately in the NRL, as is the St George district. St George don’t have the juniors to survive and Illawarra don’t have the money to survive by itself. They won’t be unmerging in the immediate future.

I personally am not a fan of a conference system. I think in terms of competition structure, the one that we have now is fine. The only flaw in the current structure is that some teams play each other twice, while some only play once. We need to get to a stage where each team plays each other team once in the regular season. Obviously this can’t happen with 16 teams – the season would be too short. We should be aiming for a 20 team competition within the next 10-15 years. Ideally, all the current 16 clubs would survive and we would add Perth, Central Coast, Ipswich/Brisbane Bombers and Wellington. Should 1 or 2 clubs go bust (e.g. Cronulla if their property development deal gets rejected) they could be replaced by Adelaide or a central QLD team (e.g. Rockhampton). Then we could cut the season back to 19 weeks + the finals series. This would then allow time for State of Origin to be played in the month following the grand final (or for a month of standalone rep footy during the regular season), followed by the usual Four Nations or World Cup.

1. And through his poor running of the NRL, he is partially (not completely) responsible for rugby league being held back in this country. With the exception of the creation of the Gold Coast Titans, nothing has been done under Gallop’s leadership to move the game forward.
2. Of course the AFL is a threat to rugby league. But GWS is not a threat to rugby league in Western Sydney. The way to counter the threat of the AFL is to expand to the Central Coast, Perth and Brisbane – not to be over protective of our Western Sydney Clubs. They are already protected by the fact that rugby league is embedded into Western Sydney culture, and while we can’t take our monopoly on Sydney’s West for granted, it is certainly not threatened by GWS.
3. I understand there is cultural difference and rivalry between all Sydney clubs (and yes, I do live in Sydney). Of the three joint ventures (St George Illawarra, Wests Tigers and Northern Eagles), two have been hugely successful, and one hugely unsuccessful. People say that the Northern Eagles failed because of the fierce rivalry between Manly and North Sydney. But there was nearly 100 years of rivalry between Wests and Balmain at the time of their merger, and now Wests Tigers are one of the most successful clubs in the NRL, both on and off the field. There was also significant rivalry between St George and Illawarra. For 60+ years, St George had unlimited access to Illawarra juniors. Some of St George’s greats like Langlands, Young, Morris and many others all came from the Illawarra. Then, along come the Steelers, and that ends St George’s association with the Illawarra juniors. All of a sudden, St George’s junior stocks are significantly less, all because of the Steelers. But Wests and Balmain, and St George and Illawarra were able to put cultural difference and rivalry aside for one thing: survival. The reason the Northern Eagles failed was because Norths needed Manly, but Manly didn’t need Norths. If two clubs need to merge for survival, then they will do it successfully.

That’s the most ridiculous idea I’ve ever heard. Why force Greg Bird, Jamie Soward, Greg Inglis, Justin Hodges, Third Man Thaiday, Jonathan Thurston and many others to choose between their states and their heritage? And allowing them to represent their state in the final should “The Locals” (a stupid team name) not make the final is even more ridiculous. Give yourself an uppercut son