The Pro Bowl is really dire though, they all go at half pace to avoid injury. Will just get the usual deal of players pulling out injured.
No to this, the game is here as a reconciliation match and that's what it should be, there just needs to be a scheduling rethink.
Non- Sydney v Sydney. Brisbane, Nth Qld, Gold Coast, Melbourne, Warriors, Newcastle, Canberra, St.George (I suppose) Our team would he hard to beat: 1. Slater 2. Yow Yeh 3. Hodges 4. Tate 5. Boyd 6. Thurston 7. Cronk 8. Scott 9. Smith 10. Civoniceva 11. Myles 12. Thaiday 13. Harrison 14. Mannering 15. Bird 16. TLL 17. Kidley Unstoppable.
They should simply change the timing. The game itself was quite good tbh. And the fact whitey won kind of turns the the idea they don't care as much on it's head. Considering the talent the coons had at their disposal.
I'd just have a 7's tournament or maybe even a 9's w.e doesn't really matter. Have two Indigenous teams One Maori team One NZ team One Islanders team One Sydney City side One Sydney Country side One Brisbane City side One Brisbane Country side One PNG Side etc. Fans can still vote on sides, hold the tournament on the same day out at Homebush. There's like 3 grounds out there capable of holding the games, just open it all up with food stalls and shit, fans can choose which games they want to watch... would be epic.
I think the best way to get it set is scrap the one off 'anzac' test and get the rep shit sorted. A weekend of City v Country and some form of QLD residents V non residence (or Brissy v non Brissy or something) with full strength teams. To fill out the TV slots you could chuck in some under 20's reps of the same districts. NSW V QLD S.O.O, get a NSW cup rep side v Q cup as well and televise it. Probably look have them all on stand alone weekends. Meaning 4 weekends without footy for some players. You'd scrap the 2 byes a year which at least takes care of two of them. Ideally England would want a 3 game series against NZ or there'd be a valid NZ origin but they both seem pretty unlikely. Over the 4 weekends you could possibly run a Quad series between PNG, Samoa, Tonga and Fiji. Play each other once then the top 2 play a final, could be good for development as players who miss origin/city country would be eligible. rounds 1-8 Rep W/E City Country, QLD Residents V non residents, NZ 1 v NZ 2, Round 1 of PNG/Fiji/Tonga/Samoa rounds 9,10 Rep W/E S.O.O 1, Round 2 PNG/Fiji/Tonga/Samoa, NSW cup v QLD cup Rounds 11,12 Rep W/E S.O.O 2, Round 3 PNG/Fiji/Tonga/Samoa, Under 20's S.O.O, One off test NZ V GB? Rounds 13,14,15 S.O.O 3, Pacific Cup final, Rest of season
My only other idea is to have NZ and PNG automatically qualify for the 'Pacific Cup' and have the other 3 (Fiji, Samoa, Tonga) play it out for the other 2 spots in pre season. Scrapping the NZ-GB test and also the NZ1 v NZ2. Makes a bit more sense than a weird one off test against against GB but I imagine NZ would demolish the minnows. An NZ origin would make it run almost too smoothly.
