GNR4LIFE
Well-known member
Looks like Buzz is taking the attitude of if you can't beat em, join em.
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NSW are struggling to find a great halfback and hooker for the must-win State of Origin game in Melbourne on June 17.
We’ve lost Robbie Farah through injury and Trent Hodkinson has been in poor form all year.
So why can’t we pick Isaac Luke at hooker and Kieren Foran at halfback or five-eighth?
Why can’t we also pick Penrith’s Dallin Watene-Zelezniak on the left wing instead of Daniel Tupou, remembering this is supposed to be the game’s ultimate footy contest?
Obviously because the selection eligibility rules won’t allow us to.
The trouble is these rules were put in place 35 years ago, apart from a few recent changes.
Foran (Asquith Magpies), Luke (Bulldogs, Jersey Flegg) and Watene-Zelezniak (St Clair Comets) all played their junior football in our state. Yet they can’t play Origin.
At the same time Tyson Frizell, with his Tongan heritage, has played for Wales but IS available for the Blues.
Yet Martin Taupau, the blockbusting Wests Tigers back-rower who is a Greenacre Tigers/Padstow Panthers junior, can’t. How does this make sense?
When Origin first started in 1980 we had few Polynesian players in the competition.
Now they make up more than 38 per cent of players in the NRL.
What that means is Origin is no longer a contest between the best 34 players in the competition. It’s the best of about 60 per cent of the NRL. Next year it will be 58 per cent of the competition and it will keep dropping every year.
It’s one of the reasons we had only one linebreak in 80 minutes last Wednesday night. (Plus the abysmal policing of the 10 metres).
It’s one of the reasons Game II with a 6-4 scoreline last year at ANZ was such a snooze.
I worry about the future of Origin in the next 10 years.
What will the Queensland side be like when once in a generation players Greg Inglis, Johnathan Thurston, Cooper Cronk, Billy Slater and Cameron Smith all retire?
Yes, they’ll have Daly Cherry-Evans but who else?
Why can’t the world’s most explosive forward Jason Taumalolo play for the Maroons? He is a Townsville junior.
Surely he has more right to be in a Queensland jersey than Macksville-born, bred and raised Greg Inglis.
Why hasn’t Benji Marshall ever been allowed to play Origin having come from Keebra Park High school on the Gold Coast while other Maroons like Tonie Carroll and Brad Thorn have also played for New Zealand?
We have also had the outrageous situation where players like the great Sonny Bill Williams have worn the Blues jersey at school and junior level yet are banned from Origin.
It’s one of the reasons he left our game.
Rugby league, like everything else, needs to move with the times. Origin is no exception.
http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/buzzwords/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/state_of_origin_2015_kieran_foran_and_issac_luke_should_be_able_to_play_for/
….....................................................................................................
NSW are struggling to find a great halfback and hooker for the must-win State of Origin game in Melbourne on June 17.
We’ve lost Robbie Farah through injury and Trent Hodkinson has been in poor form all year.
So why can’t we pick Isaac Luke at hooker and Kieren Foran at halfback or five-eighth?
Why can’t we also pick Penrith’s Dallin Watene-Zelezniak on the left wing instead of Daniel Tupou, remembering this is supposed to be the game’s ultimate footy contest?
Obviously because the selection eligibility rules won’t allow us to.
The trouble is these rules were put in place 35 years ago, apart from a few recent changes.
Foran (Asquith Magpies), Luke (Bulldogs, Jersey Flegg) and Watene-Zelezniak (St Clair Comets) all played their junior football in our state. Yet they can’t play Origin.
At the same time Tyson Frizell, with his Tongan heritage, has played for Wales but IS available for the Blues.
Yet Martin Taupau, the blockbusting Wests Tigers back-rower who is a Greenacre Tigers/Padstow Panthers junior, can’t. How does this make sense?
When Origin first started in 1980 we had few Polynesian players in the competition.
Now they make up more than 38 per cent of players in the NRL.
What that means is Origin is no longer a contest between the best 34 players in the competition. It’s the best of about 60 per cent of the NRL. Next year it will be 58 per cent of the competition and it will keep dropping every year.
It’s one of the reasons we had only one linebreak in 80 minutes last Wednesday night. (Plus the abysmal policing of the 10 metres).
It’s one of the reasons Game II with a 6-4 scoreline last year at ANZ was such a snooze.
I worry about the future of Origin in the next 10 years.
What will the Queensland side be like when once in a generation players Greg Inglis, Johnathan Thurston, Cooper Cronk, Billy Slater and Cameron Smith all retire?
Yes, they’ll have Daly Cherry-Evans but who else?
Why can’t the world’s most explosive forward Jason Taumalolo play for the Maroons? He is a Townsville junior.
Surely he has more right to be in a Queensland jersey than Macksville-born, bred and raised Greg Inglis.
Why hasn’t Benji Marshall ever been allowed to play Origin having come from Keebra Park High school on the Gold Coast while other Maroons like Tonie Carroll and Brad Thorn have also played for New Zealand?
We have also had the outrageous situation where players like the great Sonny Bill Williams have worn the Blues jersey at school and junior level yet are banned from Origin.
It’s one of the reasons he left our game.
Rugby league, like everything else, needs to move with the times. Origin is no exception.
http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/buzzwords/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/state_of_origin_2015_kieran_foran_and_issac_luke_should_be_able_to_play_for/
