Latest / Death by Multimedia / Episode 173: The Joy of International Rugby League

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Episode 173: The Joy of International Rugby League · Death by Multimedia

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  This is thoughts from the metal cabin, where only one opinion
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  matters, and it's not yours. Good ID has your day been
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  mine's. Probably been the same.
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  But seeing as you have bothered to go to your podcast provider
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  and choose this podcast to listen to, I guess I better
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  expand on the day and hand. So this is what I found
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  interesting in the last day or so, this is the almanac report
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  on thoughts, from the middle cabin.
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  You know, there and welcome to today's episode of the almanac
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  report. What a great name for a podcast
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  episode. Now usually, this time of year,
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  I get annoyed. Certainly did last year when we
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  had a whole weekend set, free for one game of rugby league,
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  which was the state of origin game, which took place on Sunday
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  night And once again, makes it impossible for most normal
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  people to watch the game. They had all day Saturday, or
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  Saturday night or Sunday afternoon to play state of
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  origin game and they chose to play it on Sunday night, which
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  is just continues to be bloody ridiculous.
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  However, this year, they've added any number of site of
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  Origin Games, the girls and boys, under-19s state of origin
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  game and the women's state of origin game.
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  So they've all been played as well.
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  The best part about it is been the international games have
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  come back. So it's been a while since we've
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  had International Rugby League. Certainly over the last two
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  years with covid, we've had zero and before that I'm trying to
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  remember when was the last time I watched the game of
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  International Rugby League? Because most of those games have
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  taken place after the season concludes, which is in October
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  and then November, and to be honest, by the time we get to
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  October most of us and certainly myself, I completely over rugby
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  league, not interested in seeing any more regularly once we get
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  to the end of the Grand Final in recent years, haven't really
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  cared about watching the Grand Final too much either.
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  So, anything that happens in that, October November time, I
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  don't watch, I was lucky to watch the origin series that was
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  at the end of the Grand Final couple of years ago.
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  So you don't see so much. Now last year, of course, the
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  end of the year was supposed to be the World Cup which was
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  postponed to the end of this year because both Australia, New
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  Zealand chickened out of flying over to England and feeling as
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  though covid-19 to be a bit too much for them, which seems a bit
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  Rich. But once again, Australia seems
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  to run rugby league. So, whatever they say goes, But
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  the great part now about this break in the middle of the
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  season and having International Rugby League playing played, is
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  that we've been able to change or work out what the eligibility
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  is for players to represent the Pacific Nations.
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  And as such, we have a much bigger.
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  A lot of countries to play rugby league, International Rugby,
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  League, and to do it competitively, which is the most
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  important part as well. So, of course, before covid, hit
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  Tonga famously, beat both Australia and New Zealand in the
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  Test match for the first time, which was terrific for the
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  sport. And we've seen the rise of Samoa
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  as well. And not only that, but we have
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  Pub in New Guinea who have been a force for a number of years.
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  But are continuing their eyes and then we have lots of Other
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  countries coming into that now and the Cook Islands is another
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  one of those who ended up playing this this weekend.
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  So, it was great to sit down on Saturday and which three tests
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  back-to-back and Australia weren't involved, which is fine,
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  because the three games all had something about them that you
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  really wanted to see. And it was strange that probably
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  the games that I thought would be the most competitive, we're
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  in completely the wrong order, maybe that's not strange.
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  Given that I thought that would be one way, and it turned out to
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  be completely the opposite. What a surprise.
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  So, the first test that was playing.
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  Yes. Yesterday afternoon was between
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  New Zealand and Tonga. Now to me, I thought this was
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  going to be possibly the game of the year in any form of rugby
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  league. You just felt that New Zealand
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  whose side is absolutely stacked up against Tonga who they had a
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  grudge against for booting them a few years ago and the time in
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  team who also had some pretty handy players playing for them.
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  And I thought this game was going to really Colada be a
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  terrific game to watch. Well, it wasn't as such it was
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  it was interesting enough, but Target never really seemed to
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  get into the match. The kiwis seem to have their
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  foot on the throat almost from the very start and they never
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  really let up and they eventually ran away to win by 26
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  points to 6. And that's not to say that there
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  wasn't things to come out of the match.
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  Their tongues defense was terrific especially in that
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  second half. Half after the lead that New
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  Zealand got away to in the by halftime, their attack was
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  missing something, and that's pretty much where the problem
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  was is there halves we're not quite up to the task of an
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  international match and but they'll grow into it.
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  And as they get older, they're going to be both very good
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  players. And they will lead to longer
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  around for some years to come. When would suspect, but I think
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  the good things for Tonga is that they've seen this Now, at
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  this point. So they've now got what is it
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  four months before the World Cup starts to try and find a way to
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  compete against the big guns, when it comes to trying to score
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  points? The defense showed yesterday
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  that they probably good enough to hold teams out but they need
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  to find a way to score points. On the other hand userland who
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  won comfortably. Just felt as though, that they
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  Didn't get out of second gear, third gear I guess I expected
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  more from them with the players who are in that team and I came
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  away from the end of that game thinking that against the full
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  strict Australian team. They probably aren't going to
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  really trouble Australia. If on that performance, that's
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  not to say that they won't play harder or faster or any of that
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  kind of stuff when we get to the World Cup.
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  But on that performance was over filled with soft.
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  Well, You dig Australia, should be able to comfortably defeat
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  what they showed, which obviously being exactly.
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  The opposite means, I'll probably thump, Australia and
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  win the World Cup. It'll be interesting to see
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  though, going forward, how that goes, the two other games.
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  That game was played in New Zealand.
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  The other two guys are played out there, a camel town and the
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  first of those games was by Samoa against the Cook Islands.
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  Samoa one. This comfortably 4212.
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  That was a bit of a blow out towards the end cook.
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  And actually scored, I think today.
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  But, you know, back to 3212 with about 10 minutes to go.
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  So that was still in with an outside chance.
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  If they could have found a way to score three converted tries
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  to even up, but no, I thought that Samoan played Will and the
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  Cook Islands showed a lot of heart in the whole game and the
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  game was entertaining. The crowd was a good crowd out
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  there at Campbelltown and I were allowed and no happy.
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  And I had a terrific time and there's plenty of stuff.
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  They're certainly the Samoan side, which has a lot of the
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  penrith flavor fighting for them.
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  Like I was like Target Island May for it's a couple North
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  illuma scored, four tries probably could have good five or
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  six if his teammates had helped him out a little bit.
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  But that was a good game for Samoa to show what they could
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  do. And for the Cook Islands, who
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  are ranked a fair bit lower, I think than Samoa and everyone
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  else, but it was good for them to get a run, so they know where
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  they're at. Going into the World Cup.
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  The Entity so that was could go. The final game was a beauty and
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  maybe surprisingly. So the Papua New Guinea team
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  we're taking on Fuji and look at both sides.
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  I guess that player wise I sort of thought that probably Fuji
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  we're going to be the better of the two sides as it turns out.
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  New Guinea on winning this game last night have now won 8 of
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  their past eleven test matches. So their form has been fantastic
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  and they did it with Not much bull Fuji ended up having, I
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  think about 56 to 58 percent of the ball in the first half and
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  yet they were down 12 6 at halftime and that was a real
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  surprise and the way that the PNG team continued to fight and
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  defend and then find their way to get through and score.
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  Those couple of tries before half-time was really exciting
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  and they did the same in the second half.
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  So that eventually Fuji I think one the position right 56 to 44.
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  And yet were defeated and in the long run fairly comfortably.
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  Now, the Fugees, I probably made too many mistakes and one of the
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  things with the Fuji to my Affair was amazing.
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  Was that there to, Wingers were rather Lara from the dragons and
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  Myka Myka, tsavo sleeve. Oh sorry, from Parramatta.
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  And you just thought from the very start, if you are going to
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  be an attacking team, then you would think you would be
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  throwing the ball to the wings and giving it to you Wingers.
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  And you're saying Do the job that you do for your clubs,
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  getting there in school, big hard fast Wingers, but I really
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  got the ball on their wing in an attacking situation.
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  Super, I think ran for some ridiculous amount of yards.
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  You ran for about 220 230 meters.
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  And did a lot of good, things like that, but just didn't get
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  the ball in the right place at the right time to be able to
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  score points. And I'm sure that the Samoan
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  coach will be looking at that. Going forward to the World Cup
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  because There he's two prized assets there on the wing.
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  He wants them to get the ball a lot more than they did and be
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  able to score more points but for Papua New Guinea they are
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  terrific. I thought Lachlan lamb at
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  halfback had a really good game, just an olive in the Sinners was
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  terrific. And Alex Johnson, I think there
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  was a captain again at fullback had another terrific game both
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  fullbacks, in fact had to refer games so they were both really
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  good competitive games and bus. All three would good competitor.
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  Go Games were enrolled worth watching and just showing that
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  International Rugby League should be here to stay and we
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  should be seeing more of it. But guess what?
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  We're going to see less of it. Can you believe this?
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  Can you believe that next year? Because we're bringing the 17th
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  time. The Red Cliff dolphins are
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  coming in so there's going to have to be a buyer in the NRL
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  and because there's going to be a by in the NRL that's point one
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  and two the TV rights holders have decreed that There will be
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  no more Origins on weekends because that's not good for
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  their ratings. They get all going to go back to
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  midweek games. So because of that next year,
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  there's been no weekend set aside for International Rugby
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  League after the success of this year's three games here and
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  everything else. That's happened.
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  This weekend. The NRL are just going to let
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  that fall flat and have no more games.
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  It's just ludicrous. Just such a stupid decision.
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  When you've pushed this hard to I've something to make this
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  weekend worthwhile rather than just having one game, which is
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  what was when it was first brought in.
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  That was just the origin game on a Sunday night and they lost the
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  rest of the weekend to the AFL. And every other sport that was
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  being played to grab. All the people who want to watch
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  sport, suddenly, you've found something that has worked with
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  under 19's and women's and now that the men's test matches and
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  now, we're just going to completely forget about all that
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  and go back to how we usually have, which is just the NRL It's
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  just Madness. It makes no sense that they are
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  carrying this next year. And surely after yesterday,
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  people in the NRL and Peter, volantis have to find a way to
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  make this work. Because if you look at those
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  three men's test matches yesterday, and the fact that
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  every game, both teams did their Ward answers before the game.
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  So we had the anthems and then we had the war cries, it was
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  fantastic theater. It's something that Australia
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  doesn't have in their regulator because we don't have that and
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  surely strayed. Has to find a way to do that, to
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  make it more interesting and the crowds that turned up what?
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  Full House there at Mount smart Stadium.
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  For the first game there in three years and a good crowd out
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  at Campbelltown. I'm not sure what it actually
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  ended up being, but every time you looked at the crowd, it
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  looked like it was full and they were definitely loud.
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  Why would you not carry forward with that going for?
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  I the NRL does some stupid things and they'll say, oh but
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  it's yeah, we have to have this way. we have two other one, you
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  don't, you don't have to have 25 rounds of NRL every year, you
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  can cut that down to it. There's 17 teams, you played
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  each other once that makes up 17 weeks and then play, three extra
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  games. And that's it, it's 20 rounds
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  and then you've got say to free weekends in there where you
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  could do this. Not just once, but twice,
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  imagine having two separate sections for these
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  Internationals every year, and surely went Australia going to
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  play test match. I mean, we would everyone so
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  worried about get making sure. The origin gets played.
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  What about Australia being seen to play?
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  Test matches in the middle of year again?
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  We used to play three test matches a year, whether it was
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  against England or Great Britain, or New Zealand or
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  friends would come over, whatever it was when I was a
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  kid. That's what happened every year
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  and we don't see that anymore, we don't see Australia playing
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  anymore. It's more, we're more worried
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  about New South Wales and Queensland.
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  And to be honest, Shirley We need to as a nation.
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  Need to have an Australian team rather than just be worrying
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  about this origin stuff. Because I know, especially after
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  you said, I'm less interested in origin than I am about seeing
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  International Rugby League again.
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  So, that's a real shame that this is, what's the end result
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  of what has been a terrific weekend of football before we
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  even get to the origin. I don't care about the origin
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  tonight. Couldn't care less.
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  So we need International Rugby League and we need to find a way
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  to harness that passion, that was shown with the introductory
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  in war dances at all of those three games because they were
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  all fantastically done. And that was a great thing for
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  rugby league. That was the best thing that's
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  happened for Rugby League this season, and over recent Seasons.
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  Don't let anyone fool? You don't let Channel 9 fool you
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  into believing that state of origin is the most important
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  thing yesterday. Proved that National Rugby
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  League is the most important thing for rugby league.
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  That's all for today's edition of the almanaque report.
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  Thanks for tuning in and I hope you'll come back and check out
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  further episodes down the track right here on the podcast.
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  Thoughts for the middle cabin, you have been listening to a
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  metal Cavern production. you have been listening to a metal
• 16:04
  Cavern production.