NRL Fantasy 2023 Part 32 - All trade in's must have a full set of teeth

syn13 wrote:I was scared about running with no Rabbits guns to start this year, but outside of that Storm game I’ve been pretty lucky to escape with no major damage done, my rank going into freefall every time they play isn’t much fun though

Just on the Garner-Hosking news I spied a bit earlier, any ideas on when we’ll know what’s happening? have the funds to go Hosking to Hynes if he’s done his dash but Sharks are next game up

I've had Murray from the start and brought in Cook this week so I'm vibing

Regulator wrote:

People always talk up another NZ team, but reality is

- NZ domestic system is shit
- School system is shit (Union is everything)
- The Warriors struggle with recruitment because they have to pay overs to get Aussies to come to NZ. And that's to come to Auckland. No Australian wants to move to fucking Christchurch.
- Due to these factors, and others, the Warriors have struggled to sustain a competitive team. How many top NRL players have the Warriors produced in the last decade? They've made the 8 once in the last 12 years.

If you can't make a team work consistently in Auckland, which is also easily the biggest League area in the country, what hope is there for another team?

***am a NZer.

Are there many NRL players from the South Island? I seem to recall that Simon Mannering was pretty much the only South Islander of note in the comp when he was playing

SoylentGreen wrote:

I believe that the Bears are very financial.

Shout out to Les Kiss Fan Club!

Anyway, good chats. Bed for me and perhaps emptying my own Jupiter Icy Moons. Night.

Mulvy wrote:

Shout out to Les Kiss Fan Club!

I would be so happy if the Bears made a return to first grade

syn13 wrote:I was scared about running with no Rabbits guns to start this year, but outside of that Storm game I’ve been pretty lucky to escape with no major damage done, my rank going into freefall every time they play isn’t much fun though

Just on the Garner-Hosking news I spied a bit earlier, any ideas on when we’ll know what’s happening? have the funds to go Hosking to Hynes if he’s done his dash but Sharks are next game up

Panthers cut to 19 will be 30 minutes before the Sharks game, so you should know in time if prepared.

GarethEllisismyDad wrote:

are most of the islander players aussie and NZ born? like does setting up a pasifika team mean more tongan, samoan and fijian grassroots development?

I am interested to know

I personally would love a PNG team in the NRL, i am aware this is very hard to make work, but the abundance of players, passion and the proximity would make it awesome,

Yes most are.

This is always the big bullshit yarn the North try to spin about the All Blacks and how they just steal players from the Islands. Most of these islanders are born in NZ, Auckland is the largest Polynesian city in the world. Go to Auckland, especially South, big Polynesian populations. Or, many move here when they are younger because families move to NZ for a better life.

It is true that schools recruit kids from the islands on rugby scholarships as well though.

And then, in the same way poly families move to NZ for a better life, progressively more hop to Australia, or from NZ to Australia (like many Kiwis of all varieties do).

There's large island populations in Auckland for generations because effectively the government made immigration easy so they could come over as cheap labour (and then fucked them afterwards but I won't go too far down that)

SoylentGreen wrote:

I would be so happy if the Bears made a return to first grade

I had plenty of footy cards and Scanlens chewing gum back in the day.

GarethEllisismyDad wrote:

are most of the islander players aussie and NZ born? like does setting up a pasifika team mean more tongan, samoan and fijian grassroots development?

I am interested to know

I personally would love a PNG team in the NRL, i am aware this is very hard to make work, but the abundance of players, passion and the proximity would make it awesome,

There wouldn't be enough money to support an NRL level team in PNG, Fiji, Tonga etc.
Better option to develop Pasifika players would be to subsidise the international game.
NRL (and NZ & Australian team systems) should be providing more funding for players who want to represent their nations / culture rather than selfishly picking players for our nations.
Then, support PNG, Fiji, Tonga, Samoan teams in the feeder comps.

Financially, Perth is the next logical team. But, I'd love to see a Central Coast Bears team reinstated. Central Coast has a huge population, league heartland and no team. Gosford already has an NRL standard stadium as well.

The Bludger#2 wrote:

There wouldn't be enough money to support an NRL level team in PNG, Fiji, Tonga etc.
Better option to develop Pasifika players would be to subsidise the international game.
NRL (and NZ & Australian team systems) should be providing more funding for players who want to represent their nations / culture rather than selfishly picking players for our nations.
Then, support PNG, Fiji, Tonga, Samoan teams in the feeder comps.

Financially, Perth is the next logical team. But, I'd love to see a Central Coast Bears team reinstated. Central Coast has a huge population, league heartland and no team. Gosford already has an NRL standard stadium as well.

The next 3 teams should just be Central Coast Bears, a Perth team and another Brisbane team (maybe Ipswich?)

NZ 2 isn't really viable, they can barely support one team.

my tv broke wrote:

How many Greg Florimo cards did you have

Ah yeah, The Flo.
Good player.

I also had a Mario card when he played for the Bears.
I remember having mates who were from North Sydney, they would support the Bears "and whoever was playing Manly".
That was true hatred. Then the NRL forced those two teams into an unholy marriage.
Totally stuffed the Bears.

Bethany_B wrote:

The next 3 teams should just be Central Coast Bears, a Perth team and another Brisbane team (maybe Ipswich?)

NZ 2 isn't really viable, they can barely support one team.

Yep.

The Bludger#2 wrote:

There wouldn't be enough money to support an NRL level team in PNG, Fiji, Tonga etc.
Better option to develop Pasifika players would be to subsidise the international game.
NRL (and NZ & Australian team systems) should be providing more funding for players who want to represent their nations / culture rather than selfishly picking players for our nations.
Then, support PNG, Fiji, Tonga, Samoan teams in the feeder comps.

Financially, Perth is the next logical team. But, I'd love to see a Central Coast Bears team reinstated. Central Coast has a huge population, league heartland and no team. Gosford already has an NRL standard stadium as well.

The Australian government would pour large amounts of money into it. The fed gov has very different priorities to the states which the nrl deal with now

SoylentGreen wrote:

Are there many NRL players from the South Island? I seem to recall that Simon Mannering was pretty much the only South Islander of note in the comp when he was playing

and he was from Nelson I think? (top of the South island).

I think we've had a few. Lewis Brown from Chch. Tevaga and Isaako the only current players I can think of off the top of my head from Chch.

Reckon there are more from Wellington. Tana Umaga (former ABs captain) played league in high school before he switched.

SoylentGreen wrote:

Are there many NRL players from the South Island? I seem to recall that Simon Mannering was pretty much the only South Islander of note in the comp when he was playing

Mannering is actually from Hawkes Bay but moved to the south island when he was younger, and was playing union at school.

There's not many. Isaako and Jazz are from Christchurch. So was Lewis Brown.

There'd be more players from the middle of the North Island.

Keeping in mind Christchurch is Crusaders country and is arguably the best union development area in the world for the last like 30 years. So if you're a real talent there, you're playing union.

And that no Aussie is going to want to move there haha.

The Bludger#2 wrote:

Ah yeah, The Flo.
Good player.

I also had a Mario card when he played for the Bears.
I remember having mates who were from North Sydney, they would support the Bears "and whoever was playing Manly".
That was true hatred. Then the NRL forced those two teams into an unholy marriage.
Totally stuffed the Bears.

I worked for a bloke who was a bears fan then through all that ended up a manly fan. Confused me to no end.

filthridden wrote:

and he was from Nelson I think? (top of the South island).

I think we've had a few. Lewis Brown from Chch. Tevaga and Isaako the only current players I can think of off the top of my head from Chch.

Reckon there are more from Wellington. Tana Umaga (former ABs captain) played league in high school before he switched.

who’s the best ever kiwi now? Imagine if we’d kept him.

filthridden wrote:

and he was from Nelson I think? (top of the South island).

I think we've had a few. Lewis Brown from Chch. Tevaga and Isaako the only current players I can think of off the top of my head from Chch.

Reckon there are more from Wellington. Tana Umaga (former ABs captain) played league in high school before he switched.

Tana was actually signed to Newcastle as a teenager before playing union for Wellingtonbut then he bailed back to NZ after a couple of weeks

my tv broke wrote:

Perth is mainly a problem for TV due to timezone,  which is a problem for the NRL. The sport just isnt big enough and we have always been blessed with leaders who think far too short term

Perth is the right step if Vlandys and Abdo are serious about creating a national game, but considering the Victorian team is a pseudo-Sunshine Coast Falcons I'm guessing they're not. NZ2 lets you offload the shitter TV time slots (Fri 6pm, Saturday 3/5:30pm, Sunday 2/6pm) while also getting a bigger TV deal as there are 9 games per week.

Realistically both will be added when the comp inevitably moves to 20, it's just a matter of who goes when. I can see them chasing another Qld side (Ipswitch/western corridor seems to be thrown around a bit)