Country Origin Team 1.Gordon 2.Don 3.Aitken 4.Blair 5.Kelly 6.Walker 7.Roberts 8.Finucane 9.Cook 10.Vaughan 11.Aubusson (c) 12.Turner 13.De Belin 14.Watson 15.Prior 16.Sims 17.Elliot 18.Alvaro
City Origin Team 1.Moylan 2.Gutherson 3.Ross 4.Peachey 5.Addo-Carr 6.Cartwright 7.Townsend 8.Tamou 9.McInnes 10.Gallen (c) 11.SIronen 12.Gower 13.Sele 14.Paulo 15.Cleary 16.Pauli 17.Marketo
Don't know how coaches can just ban a rep team from picking their players. Greenturd comes out of it all looking like a real bitch. I would just fine the 3 clubs 20% of their yearly grant for failure to promote the game just to watch the miserable cunts whinge about in the media.
I'm a bit conflicted about City vs Country. I've always liked the game because I love rep football. There's something about seeing the best players, who don't usually play together, in one side. It's why I really love Test football and goes without saying, why I love Origin. And, like Gus, I think it does help players become better footballers. Though, I do understand where ardent club supporters are coming from, in not wanting their best to play in the match. In theory it's a great concept - best of the city boys against the best of the country boys (minus the incumbents), in a trial to see who makes the state side. There's no interest because everyone knows the NSWRL don't hold the performances given in the match, as particularly significant. And the reason they don't is because a.one match isn't that indicative. And b.it isn't indicative of anything when the teams aren't even close to full strength. Mind you, most fans want this game and 4 weeks of club form as grounds for selection which is equally as absurd. I think it still has a place, but I honestly believe the only way to legitimise it and give it credibility is to pick the incumbents as well. That doesn't mean Daley should therefore use it as the sole basis for selection but it would actually become useful as a tool for selection. Also, I think the players would be far less inclined to brush it off and if they did, they can't play that weekend's match. City 1.Moylan 2.Mansour 3.Jennings 4.Hayne 5.T.Trbojevic 6.Pearce 7.Reynolds 8.Woods 9.Farah 10.Gallen 11. 12.Graham 13.Klemmer 14.Peachey 15.Tamou 16.Fifita 17.Cartwright 18.D.Walker 19.J.Trbojevic 20.Leilua 21.Roberts Country 1.Bird 2.Ferguson 3.Dugan 4.J.Morris 5.B.Morris 6.C.Walker 7.Maloney 8.Vaughan 9.Cook 10.Boyd 11.Cordner 12.Frizell 13.Merrin 14. 15.Jackson 16.McLean 17. 18.Finucane 19.Sims 20. 21.Croker (lol got bored and cbf finishing it but you get the drift. ) If they picked sides like this every year, people would actually give a fuck, and it would actually mean something to make the sides. It would also be a significant insight into which players can handle the step up in class and speed. Handing out rep jerseys to players like Jake Marketo is not the fucking go.
You can't knock a concept on the head because it's useless and expect every one to back it one last time.
You can when that game makes up part of the TV deal that provides the clubs with several million dollars in funding every year. I don't agree that the concept is useless either, clubs blocking players and timing in the schedule have turned it into a bit of a farce but the concept is perfectlt fine.
Didn't the higher ups come out and pretty much call the game pointless as a reason for cancelling it earlier this season? I think Julian is saying you can't do that, but then go and punish teams who don't take it seriously. I agree with the fact that the concept was great. If instead of pissing it off they did in fact make it harder for clubs to withdraw their players/punish clubs that do so then it could have gotten back to it's former heights, which would have been a much better option imo.
I agree with MF essentially. If you keep it you play the Origin players bar maybe the 6-8 blokes that are walk up starts. But as it stands it's a joke, as is this rep weekend. We can't take a week off the NRL for fucking State of Origin but we can for a test that is historically pathetic, Pacific island tests and this 'rep' game.
