Agree – I wouldn’t have Luai or HY, but I just wouldn’t write them off because of character, I just think you have better options in both their position. If you want a 6, and want talent and character that you can count on being deployed in Origin; someone who could turn the tide if Cleary goes missing, as he can in Origin, I’d be talking to Wighton. He’s been on fire and one of the only spots of brightness in otherwise bleak Souths.

This article seems to confuse character with behaviour. Its right re Mitchell; at moment he’s incapable of putting the team before his ego. He’s also mentally weak and susceptible to being provoked; every contact seems to be a reason to dish dirt. Some players can niggle effectively, as they can control themselves when the slap back comes. Mitchell can’t. Until he grows up his output for $cost bargain is never going to be enough. On the other side of the coin you have Api. He might have offended off the field, but anyone that watches him grind out excellence in a badly losing team week after week knows he’s got the character Maguire needs. I don’t like Luai but he’s similar. He might be a tool but for Penrith he digs it in and plays for the team week in week out, although it probably helps he’s in a team with a number of better players. Hudson-Young is a work in progress character wise. He’s is a loose canon and gets too fired up, however he’s wants to be there for the team. In future he just needs to understand if he really wants to be team-first he needs to learn to be on the right side of the redline more often.

Come on – PK telling us how to manage break-ups would be highly amusing.

Whatever the comparative level of ability of LM and PG is irrelevant to the validity of PG’s point, which I thought was the one of the first wise things that has been said about LM in ages. I suspect that PG would say that LM has far more natural talent than he did. He did describe him as a player of unprecedented quality. He was making the point though that unless that talent is applied its meaningless. For players with huge natural ability like LM the challenge is always desire and application; the mental challenge of walking the talk. LM is facing that, and at the moment is failing. I think it’s therefore fair to say he doesn’t want success in league enough to make the most of his talent. He has not been mentored by leaders experienced and wise enough to allow him to get the most out of himself. His reliance on talent and not application has been indulged to HIS detriment. For example, should he be playing FB? I have long thought Souths looks better with AJ at FB. Right or wrong the modern game relies on the back 3 (or even 5) doing more heavy lifting. Souths can’t compete with LM. Look at how Manu contributes at centre. No reason LM can’t impact the game. This is a come to jesus moment for LM and perhaps in his way PG is trying to gently prod him through his comment to think about whether he want to use or squander his immense sporting talent.

Mary – Its a fascinating idea to have players banned until they all paid their civil debts to their debtors satisfaction; including honouring any matrimonial settlements. The ex-WAGS would love the additional leverage. Also NRL 360 would be a whole lot more interesting each week, discussing the various ins and outs for the weeks team-sheet ‘outs’. I’m sure Paul Kent would be excellent guiding us through those matters with his usual even-handed wisdom.

To win a premiership and then a GF Lattrell needs to be your nice to have not your need to have. He can win you games sure, but at the moment he’s too flakey to win you a season (like Reynolds did for Brisbane). They will hope Wighton can get him to harden up.

Everyone criticised Gus Gould for saying last year that the South’s stars had issues putting runs on the board (and to be fair that did conveniently divert attention from the Bulldogs woes), but another article picking over the entrails of another underwhelming South’s season proves him right. Souths can’t solely rely on the vagaries of talent and motivation coinciding and need to find a Plan B based around grit, determination and a singular focus on winning (not distracted by niggly rubbish Mitchell and Walker can’t currently stop getting drawn into). I assume South’s know that and are hoping that Wighton can sort out their culture issues. The way he played in some of those Origin games (particularly the losing ones), and post his announced departure from Canberra, showed a mental strength Souths could do with. However, relegating him to a centre role and the last two weeks court revelations hardly inspire confidence that rather than make Souths better, Souths will make him worse.

Maybe there is a difference between coach of a limited rep series and getting through an entire season. It seems like he relies on a few leading players uses them to drive the teams cultural DNA. While I suspect its always going to be a bit easier with the Kiwis (the underdog, allowing players to back to their Kiwi vibe), the big problem with the Blues has been getting buy in to a ‘Blues’ culture with the same consistency as Qld. Maybe his NRL coaching not as relevant as his Kiwi experience.

I don’t really understand the point this article is making – a CEO of a corporate has a duty to promote that – the US is a big sports market, but a few game in Vegas is hardly a worldwide expansion and is not being done at the expense of ARL. I’m sure he hasn’t mentioned ARL. To the extent there is Aust. Govt. presence in the US that seems pretty minimal. A politician will turn up to any Aust. Industry initiative, cause again that is there job . There is a difference in PNG where they are obviously pushing NRL in the Pacific because that is what the Pacific is interested in and its a genius way to spend less for soft-power influence to counter China’s billions.

Bottom line is that despite the cards NZ had a chance to win the game but we couldn’t. We played a tactically naive game, spending too much time at our own end and with the ball, kicking for the corners, our line out struggled, and didn’t kick our goals in the pressure moments (x2) despite having 3 test match kickers on the field. We also have a poor disciplinary record and have not defended as well as the other top teams for years. None of this is new stuff, the team has had this issue for a while, and none of its new at the world cup. They are always TMO and ref heavy. It goes without saying high tackles are not going to get less policed in any contact sport so no point in doing anything other than planning for the strictest interpretations on that. Does any of this reffing make for an entertaining game…of course not. Who wants to see the ref as the center of every play, but that is RWC game and we didn’t have the composure to ice the chances we had to win that game. SA held their nerve and did. Good on them, that is the difference between a great tournament team and a great rugby team.

..because that was what the card was for. It was not for a neck roll. There was no mention of a neck roll by the ref or TMO. The ref explained that (at length) twice. When it was issued and then when not turned red. That is why there is a query, as most people haven’t seen an accidental and incidental fall on the leg like that called as a penalty let alone a card. It wasn’t a hip drop as he was not by then engaged in a tackle or maul. He was just knocked on his arse by a SA clean out (which did seem to involve a shoulder to his head) and landed on the leg. Commentators might have assumed a neck roll but that was not what TMO saw.

Agree. Despite being down 14 ABs had chances to win (when by rights they shouldn’t have) but didn’t. Poor positional and goal kicking, ill-discipline, too many unforced errors and a lack of composure in set-piece (here strangely line outs). These were the flaws that have dogged the team for a while now and they popped up again. Look at the simple stuff, winning RWC usually involve goal kicking of the highest accuracy, but despite having at least 3 kickers on the field we couldn’t achieve that, so fair play to SA who stuck to their plan and had the composure to execute it.

I have some sympathy for this view (perhaps for obvious reasons). One does need to be careful not to limit the ability for different styles of play with fundamental rule changes, but that is not really what you are proposing. In the end you are just saying that there should be less option to protect the big boys from getting too tired (speed up game and less forwards). I agree. The stoppages on the weekend were NFL level. Obviously if both teams want a slow game, hard to stop, but we can’t have a situation where the tired side can stop the momentum by having a prop lie down everytime. The game just becomes a scrum penalty lottery.

Cheers. Always loves some maths, even if I’m not sure what the point of it is. Not a cheap shot at Aussie, but perhaps one at an Aussie. The article suggests that a whole bunch of Kiwis , who are in Aust. paying taxes and so are contributing as much as anyone and more than most (according to your Govt. they have higher work place participation than the average Aussie), might be made more of given they are there anyway. If more was made of them that would earn the Australian owned and operated competition more money more cheaply than options more favourable to NZ, like playing a SoO in NZ or having a second franchise, bot of which have been suggested by Australian pundits. But hey if you think suggesting a way to make more money for the NRL/Nine/ Fox by investing less in NZ is entitlement then all power to you cobber.

the other solution of course is to Cut the Cheese?

Gold 😂 A minister of foreign affairs in waiting in any future Pauline Hanson Govt perhaps?

Good to see the famed Aussie sense of humour alive and well in NZ’s East Island

Whatever! – We got one in the Sth Island and TWO in the North, all with remotes too!

Does that mean you are paying dummy half & ball playing skills money for defence and big runs product. If the prices for the first is far higher than for the latter you have an issue.

Agree with you, and that’s why the piece says to be wary of cameos, however the underling question the article asks is whether Sandson revealed the weakness the Storm felt he had. Is Brandon going to cut the mustard if the Roosters want a GF win as opposed to a courageous 5/6th place

No – they in fact opened it up for free so people could watch the Warriors on a big screen – Walker picked right – Mt Smart is where the Wah’s fan base is and they were well and truely repaid for years of dross.

Like the one suggested in the article?

😂 particularly when Wahs sucked, which was a lot

Whinging? Where’s the whinging. It’s a suggestion to strengthen the game and Australian median position cheaper than the NRLs current MORE kiwi favourable ideas. SoO in Auckland or another expansion team in NZ.

Completely agree, its about clicks. My point is that there is an untapped NSW based market for more you can get on the cheap.