Y u no wanna win NSW Origin selectors?

Why is the NSW Origin team being sponsored by Victoria Bitter? ](*,)

Building for the future, for sure. Picking Soward should've been done last season.

Why is the NSW Origin team being sponsored by Victoria Bitter? ](*,)

I'm still trying to wrap my head around how they;ve picked Jennings ahead of basically any other NSW centre, and how Aiden Tolman hasn't made it is nothing short of an absolute fucking disgrace. What else does the bloke have to do to get picked.

Aside from Tolman, who else would you play at 4?

Honestly I'd play pretty much any centre at 4 ahead of Jennings this season. Obviously I'd want it to be Idris and I think his form this season was deserving but obviously they see something in Jennings, I just don't see it.

Fair enough - Idris warrants a call up. I'd play Cooper, but hey, I'm biased.

Why is the NSW Origin team being sponsored by Victoria Bitter? ](*,)

Fair enough - Idris warrants a call up. I'd play Cooper, but hey, I'm biased.

i would have matched the Morris brothers down the left side tbh, maybe that's bias but Ricky wanted working combinations, even thought their not in the same team they've got a fair idea about each others games

They did share a womb, you'd hope they knew about each other.

you'd assume that they have cordial relations

The only reason I can think that Jennings has been picked is because they want a guy who plays 4 for his club. Now imo that leaves 2 candidates who deserve to and have form good enough get picked, Cooper and Idris. Since Cooper ruled himself out I would have ad Idris there ahead of Jennings. It just doesn't make sense to me that a guy who hasn't scored a try all year gets into the origin team. That along with Tolman being overlooked are the only real major problems I have with the squad tbh.

One positive is at least they've got something right with picking a captain.

Again, my Dragons bias showing, but I'd pick Beau Scott at 4. Big, fast, strong, plays both sides of the ruck and is handy in the forwards as well.

Some things never change for NRL leaders Melbourne Storm

AAP From: Herald Sun June 21, 2011

IT seems that for Melbourne Storm the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Again the NRL frontrunner, again under fire for its tackling technique.

The Storm was expected to lose some sheen after a bevy of stars left after the exposure of its salary cap breaches.

But the new-look side has maintained its lofty standards and is again under scrutiny.

Wests Tigers' skipper Robbie Farah fumed about its tactics after the Storm's 12-4 win on Sunday, with bullocking forward Sika Manu singled out after being placed on report for a crusher tackle.

Defiant Storm forward Ryan Hinchcliffe said his side's tackling techniques were no different to any other club, and within the rules.

"As far as I'm concerned, we're not doing anything different to what any other NRL team is doing," Hinchcliffe said.

As well as the crusher tackle on Tigers' fullback Wade McKinnon in the second half, Manu was challenged by Farah for allegedly dropping his knees into Gareth Ellis's calves - a tactic designed to slow down the play-the-ball.

It was for that incident that Manu received a charge from the NRL judiciary yesterday, not the crusher tackle on McKinnon.

Farah said Melbourne was "all over the play-the-ball and get away with it".

Hinchcliffe denied it was a deliberate tactic.

"I don't think Sika would intentionally do any of those things," he said.

"The way we defend, it's no different to any other NRL team, week-in week-out. We play within the rules."

Asked whether it was a coincidence the scrutiny of its tackling techniques had heightened along with the ladder position, Hinchcliffe didn't think so.

But he said the Storm wasn't concerned if it was.

"We don't really listen to the criticism," he said.

"We just worry about what we've got to do and the match review committee can look after the other stuff.

"We worry about what we can control."

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/nrl/some-things-never-change-for-nrl-leaders-melbourne-storm/story-e6frfgbo-1226078743290

Again, my Dragons bias showing, but I'd pick Beau Scott at 4. Big, fast, strong, plays both sides of the ruck and is handy in the forwards as well.

Calling time out on an all male domain of NRL

CLAIRE HARVEY From: The Sunday Telegraph June 26, 2011

WOMEN should be able to referee and coach first-grade rugby league, says the most senior woman in the game, National Rugby League executive board member Katie Page.

Ms Page, the boss of retail giant Harvey Norman, believes the game has made "massive" progress in embracing female fans, in reforming players' bad behaviour and encouraging women as coaches, trainers and referees in lower grades.

But top-class rugby league has no good reason for refusing women roles as coaches and referees, Ms Page said.

"Why not? If you've got that skill set, why not?" Ms Page asked. "You're not there running and playing: this is strategic, this is a skill level - I don't see why not.

"That will be a big day when that happens. I'd love to meet the woman, I'd love to know what sort of woman (would do that)."

There are 1300 female coaches and 876 referees in junior rugby league. No woman has ever refereed in the first-grade Telstra Premiership and there is a single female interchange official in first grade.

However, an NRL spokeswoman said there was no rule preventing women from refereeing or being touch-judges in premiership matches.

Ms Page also has something to say about cheerleaders' outfits, suggesting they could be more modest. She was reluctant to criticise cheerleaders but said: "I'd like to see the skirts longer, obviously. (But) those girls really enjoy what they're doing, they're dancers, they're very proud of what they do."

She said she'd also like to know whether cheerleaders planned to take their careers to the athletic, professional level of the US cheer squads.

But in regard to giving any advice on the issue, Ms Page said she was "quite the libertarian at times" and did not want to run people's lives.

Ms Page's formal connection with the NRL will end when a new independent commission takes over the game in coming weeks. In 2005, she became the first woman director appointed to the governing body of a mainstream professional sport. She said players had to learn their private lives were open to scrutiny.

"Sorry, boys, but this is the brand," she said. "The brand dictates what the players do. The brand is everything. You will not bring that brand into disrepute: you have a responsibility to the fans."

Although the vast majority of players were "very good men, inspiring men", Ms Page said she had little sympathy for players who claimed they never asked to be role models.

She dismissed the suggestion that the NRL had no right to direct the behaviour of, for example, Wests Tigers star Benji Marshall, who is facing assault charges over a 3.30am scuffle outside a McDonald's restaurant in March.

"These boys know when they start playing, when they get to that level, these are the rules," she said.

Ms Page believes players should be banned from drinking alcohol during the season - but she said player misbehaviour may have been much worse in earlier decades.

"It was the code of secrecy, as in all (the football) codes," she said. "Maybe it was a lot worse. Today it happens, you know about it straightaway, it is being dealt with."

Ms Page said she strongly disagreed with "three-strikes-and-you're-out" policies, and added the AFL made a grave mistake in the handling of troubled player Ben Cousins, who remained in the game despite wild behaviour and addiction problems.

"I don't believe in the three knocks and then - the Ben Cousins (approach of saying) 'Yes, we know that you've got a problem but we're going to let you deal with it,' " she said.

Clubs also had to resist the temptation to cover up off-field misbehaviour just to keep talented players in the game.

The NRL employs seven senior female executives; NRL clubs employ 10 female directors and 50 female managers.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/calling-time-out-on-an-all-male-domain-of-nrl/story-e6freuy9-1226082149404

England will play at Wembley for the first time since the 1995 World Cup final as part of a double-header on 5 November during the Four Nations series, which will again be sponsored by Gillette.

After months of speculation, the Rugby Football League has persuaded Australia and New Zealand of the benefits to the profile of the tournament of staging games at the stadium, despite the financial risk. As a result, Wales will play New Zealand before England face Australia in a repeat of that 1995 World Cup final, which attracted a crowd of 66,540. The two matches will be the first rugby league internationals played at the redeveloped stadium.

Wembley was a regular and popular Test venue in the 1990s. Great Britain had memorable victories there over Australia in 1990 and 1994 and also beat New Zealand there in 1993, in a game that was notable for Jason Robinson scoring two tries on his debut. The stadium staged the first and last games of the 1995 World Cup, to mark the centenary of the Northern Union breakaway. England beat Australia in the opener but lost the final 16-8.

There was one more international, in 1997, between Great Britain and an Australia team drawn from the rebel Super League competition that was funded by Rupert Murdoch, when the crowd dropped to 41,116. But since a disastrous game at Twickenham set the tone for the 2000 World Cup, the national side have played home Tests in the north of England.

"Wembley Stadium is known around the world for staging some of the biggest and most important events in sport and we are delighted to be taking international rugby league back to one of the world's most iconic stadiums," said Nigel Wood, the RFL's chief executive. "With some of the world's best rugby players on show at Wembley we will undoubtedly raise the profile of the sport on the national and international stage. We hope that this fantastic event will help to bring the drama of the sport to a much wider audience, especially with the 2013 Rugby League World Cup only a few years away."

The Four Nations will begin with Australia facing New Zealand in Warrington on Friday 28 October, a game that should sell out the 13,000-capacity Halliwell Jones Stadium. England will play Wales at the Leigh Sports Village the following day – a fixture that should represent a major financial boost to the host club, who have been plunged into crisis by the resignation of their chairman.

After the Wembley double-header, England will play New Zealand at the KC Stadium in Hull on Saturday 12 November. Wales will play Australia in Wrexham the following night. The final will be at Elland Road on Saturday 19 November. Although television details have yet to be announced, the BBC is expected to show England's first two games. Sky will broadcast the New Zealand game and the final.

Gillette Four Nations Schedule:

Friday 28 Oct Australia v New Zealand, Halliwell Jones Stadium, Warrington (8pm)

Saturday 29 Oct England v Wales, Leigh Sports Village (2.30pm)

Saturday 5 Nov Wales v New Zealand, Wembley (1pm); England v Australia, Wembley (3.30pm)

Saturday 12 Nov England v New Zealand, KC Stadium, Hull (6pm)

Sunday 13 Nov Wales v Australia, Racecourse Ground, Wrexham (5.45pm)

Saturday 19 Nov Four Nations Final Elland Road, Leeds (6pm)