Sports Prophet

Dale Finucane announces his immediate retirement whilst Wally Lewis calls on national government to fund $18m CTE research. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-23/dale-finucane-retirement-wally-lewis-cte-investment-plea/103758830

No doubt that £7.5k of Go Fund me dosh was put to a credible use.

I feel like such a list should prompt some sort of conversation. For me… I still like the idea of a Fijian NRL side. It’s the most prosperous nation of the smaller pacific isles and certainly produces the most talent and most of all, there would be far more likelihood of non Fijians moving to play there than non Papuans moving to Moresby. Alas, I think there are other destinations a bigger priority than Fiji. Be great to see them in the NSW Cup soon.

Another great watch.

You guys would make terrible commanders for accepting such insubordination. If it was me, that rendition of the last post would have had me sending him to the Eastern Front immediately.

Yeah, I am pretty happy for Kyle. I think he has been made a cheap scapegoat at his last two clubs. I love that he has stayed determined and just got up each time he has been knocked down. He’s by no means the best half in the comp, but I am pleased he has been given another chance and he is giving it a real good crack.

No, I am not denying it was an Ashes, it probably was, I’m just saying that other programme doesn’t confirm it. It’s a moot point with no real significance to this thread anyway.

I’m not sure there is anything more that the recent drastically improved performances can be put down to other than getting a glowingly evident, fantastic coach. What do you reckon @The Rocket?

I couldn’t quite hear, but there were two ex-soldiers disabled from conflicts presenting the match ball.

Don’t know. 1937 maybe

You may be right but I see no mention of “The Ashes” on that programme.

To get in there first, there’s a few on this forum who should have a go at their Last Post too

I just turned on the replay of Leeds v Huddersfield match and the bugle player absolutely murdered that Last Post. It was a disgrace to the uniform! Fortunately there will be some mighty ANZAC versions over the course of every NRL fixture next weekend to show you Brit’s what a real Last Post sounds like.

I haven’t read through all the comments of this thread yet, but these back to back posts from page one tends to be the recurring themes for promoters and detractors. I place myself in the promoters basket. As a youngster, SOO was very important to me. I am far less invested in SOO than I once was. I even have some less than favourable feelings around the series due to selection criteria. Nevertheless, I still watch the SOO every year for the spectacle and high quality fixture that it is, rather than having any highs or lows based on the performance of NSW. Another point detractors always bring up is that the WOTR wasn’t successful before. Neither were all rockets to the moon and neither were NSW v Qld fixtures. Origin was a concept devised (copied) in the early eighties to change the annual state v state fixture and it worked. I don’t see a better opportunity to give a wider number of elite English players a quality high stakes annual representative fixture/s than WOTR. To me, it’s not a case of can it work, it’s more a case of making it work. I think that starts with how @Bedfordshire Bronco put it, fish where the fishes are. To me, that means making the WOTR series an unmissable fixture for any RL enthusiast.

I’m pretty sure I’ve already said that I think a GB&I tour should encompass the wider Australasian nations. They certainly have toured without playing Australia more than once. So I don’t think anything is set in stone. This however is England competing in their first Ashes series (I think) and in any case, I stand by my position. I think the Ashes should be a tour exclusively against Australian teams. Especially with this being a proposed “An Ashes Tour Itinerary For A New Era”.