Sydney people either live on the beach or overlook the beautiful harbour. Why would they leave such a place to watch a rugby league game?

Kris, next year there will be so many ex-Raiders playing for St George that surely the hoodoo must end. But I hope it doesn’t. And I hope Dugan isn’t injured, until the game that is.

Oikee, if you’ve given up, it follows that you won’t be posting any more. That’s a pity, as you make us all feel so much more intelligent.

It is a really good idea to promote the guys who play at the one club. We fans love our teams and emotionally it would help enormously if the team was made up of essentially the same players for a number of years at least. If they misbehave in order to get themselves sacked, which they wouldn’t risk unless they were very good players, don’t let them walk without severe punishment. If it’s handled more like when Perrett and Inu joined the Dogs, that’s OK as the situation obviously suited both parties. Although there must have been some problems, they weren’t acted out in the public eye and everyone seemed to act with respect.

Really good players will be lucky to put consecutive years together at the one club unless the NRL stands up to the likes of Dugan and Ferguson, who just walked away from their contracts. Maybe the NRL should test the intelligence of these guys, if they don’t get over a 100 IQ they don’t play and we are free of the behaviour of players like Dugan and Ferguson. That said, Dugan did “play” the NRL with the aplomb of a Mensa member – who else could act like he did and be rewarded for it?

I asked my sister, who has been in the USA since 1971, if she could nominate an NFL team for me to support given that I’m absolutely gutted about the NRL and the value of contracts after Dugan and Ferguson walked out on my club. She replied “My advice…stay with your Rugby. at the rate Americans are killing each other there may not be too many football players to choose from”. And then “There are a bunch of crazies here, no way around it.”

So maybe the NFL is a no-go for me, but if I’m to take my sisters’ advice, Ferguson had better be de-registered for at least half of next year (i.e. to Rd 14). At a minimum. I DO NOT WANT TO HEAR – THE BEST PLACE FOR BLAKE IS PLAYING FOOTY from the NRL. It’s obviously correct but he walked away from it. Why would the NRL suck up to this idiot, and would anyone care if he wasn’t a damned good footy player. No. Had they dealt with his Dumb and Dumber partner properly, he’d still be employed by the Raiders now. But we’d be waiting to see what hell he raises in Bali, or anywhere he happens to be.

No argument there. As adults we all make decisions. We gain or lose from each decision, but we have to live by that decision. An NRL contract is not like real life, where one can just up and leave when stuff doesn’t suit.

I hear there are 140 people working at the NRL – when we they DO SOMETHING in regard to making contracts as water tight as possible? A person can walk away from the contract, but it has to be at their cost and they don’t play or coach till the contract they signed is completed. There are of course “get-out” clauses, but they shouldn’t be allowed any more. It’s all in or all out. We fans really care about our clubs, and it seems obvious that we care a whole bunch more than most of the players.

Sam Ayoub was blasting the Raiders for not releasing Milford to the Broncos because his Dad was sick, as he has been for some time unfortunately. Said sickness is not as important now that Barba has beaten them to the punch in going to the Broncs, so maybe there’s not as much money to be had there now. I don’t think any team can afford to have two small, off the cuff, players on the field at the same time due to defence issues plus their teammates would have no idea what’s going on in attack. If one of them were shaped like GI, that’s a different matter.

There are only four teams that can win the title in the next few years: Roosters, Souths, Manly and Melbourne. The first two have many Internationals. The Storm have 3 of the best players of all time. Manly have Lyon/Foran/DCE who are “superstars” and the rest are just really good players. Manly seem to be a more grass roots team (and I have grown up hating them too) who the mug punter like myself can at least imagine is within the salary cap.

If Parra or the Raiders had Smith/Slater/Cronk they’d have to pay them each a million per season. The rest of the cap would be made up of NSW Cup quality players. How can Souths afford 4 Burgess brothers, Luke, GI, Reynolds, Sutton? The Roosters: SBW, RTS, SKD, JWH, Jennings, the NSW halves etc.

If you’re a fan of the other 12 teams, you’re in it for the love of the game. The Broncos and Dogs will win the odd title, but where will any one else’s glory come from in the forseeable future?

Parra co-signed a contract that allowed Stuart to leave at any time. It was there because the administration is a basket case, with all the in-fighting and lack of commitment to one goal (i.e. winning games). I’m pretty sure he would have been sacked by Parra within 6 months, so he got out when he had a better opportunity.

The NRL needs teams like Parra to be competitive. Parra no doubt use all of their salary cap on their players. Maybe the NRL should be asking, how come Parra have only one star (and why are there rumours he’ll leave?), while other teams have multiple Internationals – all under the same cap? If it’s not hard enough to believe that their current group of stars can fit into the cap, how is it that these teams with multiple International players get to recruit any new star that comes along? Is Ferguson going to go to Parramatta, no, he’ll go to a team that already has a great roster. The salary cap in theory is great but in reality it’s a joke. It’s just not an even playing field.

So you are John Ribot, I thought so! Nah, couldn’t be – I’m sure Ribot can spell.

There will be mistakes in every game. The refs have a hard job, as do the players, and they will make the odd error. One team can get away with holding down the guy playing the ball for 4 seconds, yet the next time a tackled player kicks out after being tackled is given a penalty after being held for 2 seconds. There is no conspiracy, but there is definitely a bias at play where certain players and clubs will get away with things that other clubs who are more likely to be outside the 8, or have lower profiles, just wont get away with. Next year, I hope that no players are allowed to talk to the refs. Ennis is annoying and I’m sure his constant bickering backfires on his side. On the other hand, Cam Smith and Lyons manipulate the refs, making them think about the repercussions of penalising their team. Shillington is as forceful as a summer breeze, so he’s got no influence on the refs, and (hypothetically) who cares if the Raiders get some really, really bad decisions that led to a couple of tries? Through the adversity, they’ll probably lose by 13 anyway, so the bad decisions were irrelevant, surely? No.

The way footy is played these days, most teams struggle big time to defend their tryline after a penalty. If said penalty was rubbish, it’s even harder to defend. Yes, the players should man-up and get over it, but they’re not all super human. Until the last couple of games in a year, when every player should be “up”, emotion/intensity will govern the result of many games. So getting a poor refereeing decision at any time before the result is settled is a major influence on the result. I’d sack the video refs forever as they had the benefit of being able to sit there and watch the game without having to run around and they have no responsibility to rule on things until asked by the on field refs to do so. Hence they should be watching as though they are on the field and tip the on-field guys on things like: tackle counts, high or late tackles, offside players after kicks, persistently offside players, the length of time each team is laying on the ruck etc. While I’m sure they currently have a role to tip on some of these things, they can’t be doing it consistently given the lack of consistent rulings by the on field refs.

john bs – what did little Johnny do wrong? He was a great leader. I think you were trying to say triumvirate, although triumphant is a word commonly used when talking about Rupert, Howard and Ricky..

not interested in cricket anymore, I used to love it.

no.

If Milford stays, the Raiders are certainties to make the 8. We were in 7th place when the wheels fell off due to the idiot’s sellfishness (and thanks to the NRL for not dealing with the other idiot more strongly). We had no chance of winning this year, with the worst spine of all time allowed to play for week after week (Buttriss, McCrone and Robinson). Macca is a really good player, but he needs to be playing in a position where he doesn’t have to think too quickly, and never, ever kick. Robbo’s commitment to tackling is similar to Sticky’s commitment to Parra in 2014 & 2015. The most important positions on the field, and we had guys who just weren’t up to it, and never will be.

We haven’t “won” anything for a while.

I fear he was selected to go to Canberra by the CEO’s of all the other clubs. I loved Sticky as a player, just as I did Dave Furner. Maybe too many head high tackles?

I fear he was selected to go to Canberra by the CEO’s of all the other clubs. I loved Sticky as a player, just as I did Dave Furner. Maybe to many head high tackles?

Bugger off. If the Broncos had a salary cap, surely they wouldn’t both fit? Most teams would need over a million a season to secure those two (but don’t worry since it’s the Broncos they’ll probably only be on $125,000 contracts as far as the cap is concerned).

Didn’t you hear that they’re both drunks? Apparently after eating a Rum & Raisin icecream in NZ, they were both pissed. Now who would want them?

What about what Wests have done for Cronulla this year?

I’d like Price to stay at Saints. It’s REALLY easy to dislike them with him at the helm given his love for the bogan. Saints are the new Manly, except they’re no good.

2013 has been the worst year ever for the Raiders. Maybe Ricky will bring the players that are left together. I hope he can identify any Dugan’s or Fergo’s and get rid off them asap.

And many of the players on this kind of money seem as though they would have a bunch of trouble getting a tenth of that amount in the “real-world” if the way they speak is any indication.

Mind you, some round ball kicker just signed up for $450k per week. Imagine his ego, it could be bigger than SBW’s!

I wonder if he picked up on the incorrect spelling of your first word Ryan, which I’m sure you did on purpose. You will need to be more blunt, I fear.

If Dugan and Fergo carried on with some of these acts, would it have effected their chances of being picked up by another club? Not in this lifetime. If you can play really well, you can do anything!!!

If you’re not brilliant, you had better behave or you will be treated (punished) like a normal person.

What these guys do in the privacy of their own homes is their business, poor Monnas was a victim of technology!

When will the NRL come out with a decision on Fergo? Does it matter if the Minor Premiers suggest that he play country footy for a year, then come back to the fold on half a million a year? Not to me, as they don’t need him because they have so many good players already. Why not give him to the wooden spooners, or make it mandatory that he goes to one of the teams that filled positions 13th through 16th in the previous season?

Now it’s a fact that many decent footy players, rather than retire, choose to go to England to earn the big bucks in their twilight years, and that the weather is much, much colder than in Canberra, Melbourne or Auckland. So, if these guys act like idiots over a period, and they want to get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to play a SPORT, they can live and play anywhere that the NRL has a team. It is the dickhead that put himself in this predicament, no one else. Surely it’s better that a struggling club benefit from having a good player for once?

The Dugan precedent provided for the rewarding of continued poor behaviour with a 4 week holiday, an increase in salary and rep honours. If the NRL doesn’t come down very hard on Fergo, fans won’t be able to count on their stars being around at their club for very long. Please put the respect back into the game by making players accountable for their actions. If they go off the rails big-time, make sure it costs them heaps as we want this type of thing to stop, forever. It is really sickening to watch these idiots be rewarded for pissing on their clubs and fans, and have to read rubbish about the heroism involved in them working for $20 an hour for ONE day. PS – I’d be astounded if Dugan actually worked 8 hours as a painter, wouldn’t you?