Yeah that was pretty cool. I dunno, I seem to care about soccer only at the national level. I think its a good sport that kind of unites the country in a way that cricket never will.Quote:
Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime
Printable View
Yeah that was pretty cool. I dunno, I seem to care about soccer only at the national level. I think its a good sport that kind of unites the country in a way that cricket never will.Quote:
Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime
I'm over League.
Storm & Easts get away with a _lot_ (I'm not just referring to grapple, but that's part of it), due to the politics of the game. How is is that Perth get axed because of the money they're losing (during the Superleague war), yet Melbourne lose that same amount year in and year out? There's an agenda there which disgusts me. St George always fail to inspire but get their players in rep teams anyway. Purely because they're St George. If their players were really that good, St George would actually be deep into the finals every year. Honest clubs who develop juniors (Penrith, Canberra, Tigers) get no favours because it's not politically convenient. At least the Bulldogs with the SBW saga are finally starting to learn to stop defending their players no matter what.
How the ***** are Paul Gallen & Willy Mason picked for the national team? One's a morally bankrupt thug and the other is a manchild who embarrasses the sport on a regular basis. There are plenty of forwards which can do the job, without promoting the message to youngsters that players can carry on like brats without consequences.
I like the sport but detest the way it's being run. It's risking irrelevance anyway, as long as it's wasting all it's effort developing TV markets it'll never win over instead of actually supporting the sport in its heartland. Not that the Central Coast Mariners & South Coast United are complaining!
The AFL doesn't fear League, and it doesn't have to. It fears football, and rightly so. The RLWC is a joke, and no matter how many goals Qatar might ship, the Socceroos provide something that neither AFL or League can possibly hope to offer. The Socceroos _qualifying_ for the World Cup Finals is a bigger deal that then Kangaroos winning the RLWC - they're the only ones in the race, whereas the Socceroos face actual competition.
AFL will always be secure in Victoria, but it's aware that the Socceroos (and, in time, the A-League) is capable of overwhelming it outside of the city on the Yarra. The NRL continues to live in the bubble of TV markets while its junior numbers hemorrhage (mostly to football).
I'm an A-League season ticket holder, and I have to say I find the games far more satisfying than watching Storm niggle their opponents into submission, St George's "stars" play to their actual potential or Easts' mercenaries all give up when their soulless clubs falls behind (Luke Ricketson & Craig Fitzgibbon aside).
I agree with you on a few things there, but I still enjoy the game for the game, and try to ignore the fact that its poorly run and administrated.. The AFL not being scared of NRL, very true... Australia being the only team in the race for the RLWC, unless a huge upset occurs (although I still enjoy it because I enjoy the game).. and Mason being pretty much a big useless joke haha...
2 things you may enjoy though:
1. Mason did his ACL and will take no part in the RLWC.. Which is good because I hate him, and it means the selectors can't pick him which for some reason they seem to feel that they have to do :confused:
2. There are no St George players in the squad
Just thought they might brighten up your day as you seem a little angry up there ^^ haha :D
Yeah I know about that. It'll lift the maturity of the squad, at least. The fact is I don't care at all about the RLWC.Quote:
Originally Posted by jacksplatt11
Gasnier has chased the €s and gone (and done a really bad job of denying it, too), otherwise he'd be there. Cooper is injured. But it is a nice change, I guess :)Quote:
Originally Posted by jacksplatt11
Nah, I'm not angry. I'm dissillusioned. The sport - which I still love - is heading for disaster in the medium-long term, if major changes aren't brought in during the next couple of years. The damage is already done in Gosford and Wollongong's next.Quote:
Originally Posted by jacksplatt11
I'm past the point of being angry about it, because I'd rather watch the well-run A-League than witness the NRL slowly destroy Rugby League.
I wasn't surprised about the World Cup qualifier result. Qatar could have (and should have) scored 2 goals, but botched them good.
What really surprised me was the amazing quality of the pitch, and it's drainage, it was under 2 inches of water, half an hour later looked much drier than the Olympic Stadium at Homebush ever does.
League is a niche sport at best, it's homes are in NSW/QLD and the north of England, with some growing support in the Pacific thanks to Rugby Union treating them like crap (although League is doing similar things by letting all the Fijians and Tongans play for Aus and NZ). One of the big problems the NRL has is it has too many sub-committees and organisations, NSWRL, QRL, Country League, ARL etc etc.
It also didny stamp out the crap when it was formed, allowing Easts to do whatever they want, and not doing enough with the various scandals over the years. The Bulldogs should have be removed from the comp 4 years ago when they were on their 4th "last straw". Easts removing their teams from SG Ball and the Harodl Matthews Cups is disgusting, it frees up more money for Easts to buy Tigers, Penrith and Newcastle juniors, how it helps League by letting Easts stop developing their own juniors is beyond me.
I see the Bulldogs are interested in Greg Bird. I think He'd fit right in there:p
Haha, I heard he's been talking to the Roosters? Who knows... Last I heard he was drunk in Cronulla getting into random peoples cars, then flew over to USA to be with the girlfriend he allegedly bashed, thus breaking the AVO she had on him... Just a stupid thugQuote:
Originally Posted by Bartrim
On AFL terms, looks like Barry Hall is seriously considering leaving the Swans to become a boxer, but of course any small rumour can be magnified by the media.. Danny Green says he's been talking to him though..
There is something seriously wrong with any club that wants to hire any player with a record like Bird or Carney. You know what they are going to do, and all you are doing is wasting your money and losing supporters.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bartrim
While I do think Kimmorley is over-rated he might be the boring old fart the club needs to steer it's younger players in the right direction (both on and off the field).
I wonder how B. Cousins will go at St Kilda...
slightly off topic, but the Aussie U-17 football team just missed world cup qualification by losing to yemen 3-2 in the asian cup quarters. its a big disappointment because my dad manages a 15yr old ethiopian kid in the starting eleven (who is a gun i assure you) who now will miss out on playing on the big stage in fron of all the big scouts...
George
Certaintly not off topic Borge, soccer is a football of all sorts last time I checked :D sucks for that kid, hopefully he can still make it big somehow..
And Trunks, gotta agree with you there. I find it hard to believe that some clubs, of any sport, think that a player who has a history of alcohol, violence etc, will just suddenly be a changed person at a new club. Especially in this case since Bird will be moving to a club in the same state, he can still keep contact with the kind of people he was with in Cronulla, so he will still be up to the same old stupid stuff. To be honest though I think Bird is beyond help, some people are just born stupid.
Cousins will be interesting, it was him and Michael Gardiner who got up to trouble over in Perth just a few years back, and now perhaps they will be at the same club again? Recipe for disaster me thinks.. While I'm all for his rehabilitation from drugs and return to footy, as he hasn't caused any violence etc like some other players and it'll be a good story, I don't think St Kilda will be the right fit for him with Gardiner there..
oh it definately is (the true footbal really :D), i just meant slightly off the current topic of conversation...Quote:
Originally Posted by jacksplatt11
but yeah, he was trialling in portugal prior to this cup, possible links to porto there, but not sure yet
George
Wallace in trouble.
Not as bad as Bird, and really not that bad at all, but it might be the kick up the bum the young fella needs.
Yeah not really that bad at all, unfortunately for him he plays for the Broncos and all other stuff that has happened there recently has really made the media magnify it a lot..Quote:
Originally Posted by i_amtrunks
On another note, teams for the AUS vs NZ match were announced:
New Zealand
Lance Hohaia, Sam Perrett, Steve Matai, Jerome Ropati, Manu Vatuvei, Benji Marshall, Thomas Leuluai, Nathan Cayless (capt), Nathan Fien, Adam Blair, Simon Mannering, Sika Manu, Jeremy Smith.
Interchange: Dene Halatau, Greg Eastwood, Setaimata Sa, Sam Rapira.
Australia
Billy Slater, Joel Monaghan, Greg Inglis, Israel Folau, Brent Tate, Darren Lockyer (capt), Jonathan Thurston, Petero Civoniceva, Cameron Smith, Steve Price, Glenn Stewart, Anthony Laffranchi, Paul Gallen. Interchange: Brent Kite, Josh Perry, Anthony Tupou, Kurt Gidley.
We look pretty strong as you would expect, no great surprises...
NZ on the other hand, no Issac Luke or Krisnan Inu? Must be injured because you would think they would be a certainty to play..
The dumb thing was she was happy enough to violate the AVO - the police slapped the AVO on him. Says as much about her as the scandal does about him :rolleyes:Quote:
Originally Posted by jacksplatt11
Lets not get started on the Girlfriend of Bird, she has some serious issues to want to stay with a guy that glassed her in the face. The gf (who did her degree is psychology) told me the clinical name for those who stand by their abusers but I've plain forgot it.
World Cup seems to be struggling a fair bit to get enough media attention, the cricket, horse racing and all the off field stuff (Broncos, Hagan quitting etc) seems to be getting more press than the WC.
And If I was a general league fan and I scanned those two teams I'd be barracking for NZ, thats a good strong side with few wankers in it. I'll be cheering for the Aussies, purely for Price, Gidley and Civoniceva though.
Personally I hate Steve Price. He's a dirty underhanded player. I'm going for the NewZealand in the opening ceremony for 2 reasons.
1. The farce that is the Australian team. A team should be picked on form not incumbuncy (is that a word?) Prince should be halfback not Thurston in my opinion. Also I'm peeved that so many Manly players were picked but when the Tigers won in 05 they only picked Prince (and that selection felt like it was only out of obligation asthey only let him play against France)
2. The arrogance Australia develop when they get good at a sport. They need to be brought down a level.
Come on Marshall carve 'em up!!!
You just know this sham for a "World Cup" is gonna be such a let down... :rolleyes:
It's pretty much a given that the Aussies will rack up a cricket score against the Kiwis on Sunday & that will just about sum up the whole tournament...
Atleast there'll be some competitive games between the 2nd/3rd-tier nations... :)
Yeah the Samoa/Tonga game should be a cracker.Quote:
Originally Posted by Pulse
Who cares about cricket scores (in all honesty as an ex-winger come 5/8 I prefer games with plenty of tries) I'm getting revved up to be swamped with a heap of League over the next fortnight... (Mind you the missus aint too thrilled)
I missed seeing the Tongan Royal Family last night :(
The Royal Family and the League team were in my area to open the snazzy new Tongan church and I couldn't hang around till they arrived as I had to go play broomball.
But now the Tongan Royal Family is involved in trying to get Fuifui Moimoi and Taniela Tuiaki to play for Tonga in the world cup. :)
Watched the International Rules game. It was actually pretty good but the care factor was pretty close to zero so hence I watched an episode of Scrubs during the 3rd quarter and just watched the last which was a nailbiter. I like the hybrid game. It'd suit Asians a lot better with the speed and agility involved (which takes out our shortness as a weakness) and the smaller field means more collisions which I'd absolutely love.
Yeah I thought it was pretty good game, it really got good during the last quarter when we caught up, and to lose by 1 point is a bit of a shame but there is still next week.. I wouldn't say I'm becoming a fan of the concept, but at least it was competitive and I haven't watched any AFL in a month so it was good to see something pretty similar...
While I agree that it does suit the smaller, faster and more agile players, I think we should have brought in a taller, stronger marking player like Roughhead, Hale, Minson, someone similar to that to just play a FF type of role. A few times we just bombed it in, and the Irish killed us by just letting their goalkeeper mark it, if we had a taller player their they could have at least made a contest of it..
Apart from Petrie who I saw a few times down there in the forward half, it seemed like all our forward line was about 6ft or smaller, and unless it came to the ground we couldn't compete..
That's just what I thought while watching the match anyway
I caught the A-League game in Melbourne today w/ friends today. Brought back memories since hte last time I went was with Dirge. Ironically it was also with friends from Sydney this time. This could become an annual thing. Can't say Melbourne deserved their top of the ladder standing coming into the game, I don't know much about girl's football (oops I meant soccer) but it wasn't attractive. Sydney played very well though for a team supposedly decimated with injuries.
Haha don't let soccer fans hear you say that... I don't watch any of the A-League apart from what I see on Sports-Tonight, I only watch Premier League when I can and the World Cup of course..Quote:
Originally Posted by STL
Onto another footy code, Rugby League, and I'm currently watching the ENG vs PNG match.. A pretty good game, PNG are a pretty passionate bunch, don't have the same amount of money put into them as teams like AUS, NZ, ENG etc but they still play their hearts out.. The result wasn't unexpected, but I thought ENG would win by more...
Final result was ENG 32 - PNG 22
David Moore looks to be a player of the future, plays for the Gold Coast, played in the Toyota Cup this year where I saw a little bit of him, tonight was the first full game I've seen of him, and he looks to a certain starter for first grade next year...
Stanley Gene is a pretty handy player, considering his age is unknown but is rumored to be between 32 and 58 :S haha
PNG wuz robbed! :p
Nice to see that NRL standard referees are being used in an international competition... this is going to be a messy tournie.
Seriously though PNG really surprised the Pommies, and I expect them to challenge the Aussies too. If England do not improve greatly they will be going home after the opening round.
It's too bad that channel 9 are being such dolts with the airing of matches, not only do we have an hour or so delay for most matches so 9 can air all mayches at 8.30, we also miss out on the Dream Team vs. Maori game that will precede the AUS vs. NZ, whicdh I think may end up being one of the best games of the whole World Cup.
Ahhh... the way we was! :DQuote:
Originally Posted by STL
The game wasn't the best purely because Melbourne, despite trying hard, could never get going. For all of Sydney's injuries, we still had players who could make the difference. Last night showed just how much of Melbourne's winning is down to Archie Thompson - one of the best goalpoachers Australia has produced. If Archie was playing, I doubt Sydney would have won...Quote:
Originally Posted by STL
I felt sorry for PNG. They have a couple of outstanding young players. David Moore was good so was their number 13 who's name I believe was Griffin:D (Strange he didn't look like he was from PNG when we met:eek::p)
I too am annoyed that we miss the indigineous vs maori game yet Channel have to make us endure the over the top stereotypical and cliched opening ceremony before we can watch Benji carve them up.
Also no real shock in the France/Scotland game.
Haha I wouldn't have picked a few of those guys as being from PNG.. But I guess it does go back to your grandparents or something to be eligible to play for that country, something like that I think anyway..Quote:
Originally Posted by Bartrim
Yeah I would've loved to see the Indigenous vs Maori game, I heard we were getting the highlights before the AUS vs NZ game? As far as I remember I didn't see them... Oh well
Haven't seen much of Benji so far :p I am a huge fan of him as well though..
it was on channel 9 in sydney at 4pm today i caught the last 30 minutes of the game whilst flicking through the channelsQuote:
Originally Posted by jacksplatt11
I know, I remembered us sitting in the sun last time and so was conscious of avoiding it this time (tho we did get there slightly late).Quote:
Originally Posted by dirge
My Sydney friends who'd come down though were estatic and somewhat frustrated I could not see the brilliance of the game. Course this is only the ever 2nd game of soccer I've seen live. I have to say though that the stadium had a lot of life (and pissed off Melbourne supporters). Some "Cisse" guy copped a lot of crap from my section of the crowd. I just shrugged cos well soccer doesn't do much for me though I can appreciate some skilful foot skills.Quote:
Originally Posted by dirge
Ahh well there you go, must have just been us Victorians that missed out, we had Malcolm in the Middle at 4 today from memoryQuote:
Originally Posted by Rampage
Hrm... wasn't much of a win by the Aussies in the Rugby League "World Cup". This series is going to be a walk over it'd appear. :rolleyes:
That was pitiful by NZ. Lelulai shouldn't even be playing. He's got no creativity. For NZ to go any good they need this set up
1. Hohaia
6. Fien
7. Marshall
9. Luke
and Halatau needs to be in 13. Yes use him as your secondary hooker but wearing 13 is where he is best because he can jump in and catch teams unaware. Coming off the bench the opposition know he'll be playing dummy half.
Australia should win this world cup but none of the big 3 have really impressed me so far.
PNG will wipe the floor with the Kiwi's if the kiwi's don't improve ten fold.
Who was their halfback, and what did he do??? Benji didnt do much either, but at least he didnt injure himself.
Matai is a grub, he and Gallen should go camping somewhere and disappear forever more.
Slater should be sin-binned everytime he slides in to save a try feet first until he learns not to do it, it's just too dangerous not only to opposition players, but also to himself, if a player lands on his foot wrong, he could snap tendons in the ankle. This is rugby league, not baseball.
Thomas Leuluai is barely a 1st grader let alone a test player i have nfi why NZ insist on picking him at No.7Quote:
Originally Posted by i_amtrunks
i agree with bartrim's line up for NZ but with Marshall still at #6, Fien at #7, Luke at #9 & Halatau at #13
was glad to see Matai nail Gallen i hate that tosser shame he couldn't line up Billy Cheater for a bit of the same:D
RLWC.... <bites tongue>
It could be Australia vs Rest of World and the Australians would still wipe the floor. What's the point?
Give me the real World Cup any day. At least when Australia wins a game it's actually an achievement.
(I'm not knocking the efforts of the other teams, just the futility of the tournament as a contest).
I think Mark Braybrook somed up the Ireland vs Tonga game perfectly "It's been such a long time since I've enjoyed a game of football as much as this". No it wasn't the best display of league but it was still an entertaining game to watch. Good to see that arrogant jerk Mateo get sin binned for dissent and I loved Patty Richards 90 drop kick:D
Just got home from AUS vs ENG...
Yeah, we thrashed them...
Yeah, it proves its a one horse race...
But by god, the stadium went off for every single try Billy and GI scored.. Especially the 90-odd metre run from Billy and then the 50-60 metre run from GI, which to be honest I thought looked like it could've been knocked on by Folau in the contest for it, but the Telstra Dome screens are too hard to see fine details in..
Anyways, was a really good atmosphere and a good night
Yeah, I heard the score but wasn't too interested. I think its bad that Rugby League outside Australia is so bad. The sport can only die if this happens. Other countries need a reason to play and keep the young 'uns interested.
In the A-League, the Victory won! :eek: My mate lost $100 on that and he was fuming Friday night. I got to his place and as my other mate opened the door all I could hear was a buncha expletives! And surprisingly, looking at the scoreboard, Sydney lost against the Mariners? :confused: But I think Adelaide's loss means little since they've got bigger fish to worry about.
Sydney drew 3-3.
My cousin is a Mariners supporter and when Sydney were 3-0 up he was going ballistic! :D Didnt calm down too much when the scores levelled out. I liek the high scoring games, much more entertaining when the goals come from general play, not penalties like the boring Adelaide vs. Melbourne game.Quote:
Originally Posted by dirge
As for the WC, I didnt even bother watching it. Channel 9 wants to treat us like crap and not air games live so we have to put up with Daley, Gould and their moronic commentary team instead of the radio call they can get stuffed.
Fiji's win over France was fantastic, and the Samoa Tonga game looked like it was a doozy, the atmosphere out at CUA was meant to be very hostile! :D
I hope PNG put up a better fight than NZ or England, but since they were steamrolled by NZ over the weekend they probably wont.