www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/ ... 6094252391 Might be a good idea.

www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/ ... 6094252391 Might be a good idea.

Maybe they could have a quota for Fijians, Tongans and PNGians too to stop them being poached from their nation?

yeah i wonder if the player contracts asks them to elect a nation?...if not why not

I don't normally have time for that idiot League Freak, but he did make a couple of decent comments regarding Origin selection [size=80(he was ranting about some Meninga article saying the ARL is out to get Queensland, the only reason I ended up on his sorry site)[/size.


The ockers have long made a mockery of representative player qualification. Anyone who thinks the Home Nations argument is a sham should take a look at SoO and the Kangaroos.

the rule that stipulates that to play Origin you have to be eligible for australia is absolutely strangling the growth of the game....theres dozens & dozens of players who while good enough to gain the odd origin selection but a million miles away from ever getting a kangaroos jersey...

I'm sorry, but many of these 'islander' players who represent the Kangaroos may have been born overseas however immigrated to Australia as kids. The vast majority of them learnt their trade in junior Australian clubs and trained by NRL clubs junior set ups. They are Australian citizens! Stop judging them on their skin colour, name or heritage! Why don't they have the right to play for the Kangaroos? Its not as if the ARL head of on scouting missions to find these kids and tear them away from their home lands!

Unfortunately playing for the Kangaroos is going to bring greater rewards to them then playing for their place of heritage or birth. The only way that you are going to get them playing for the places of birth or heritage is through regular test footy.

Its not like the situations you find with the RFU (and ECB) where players are turning their back on home nations after a few years of playing professionally in another country.

Wind your neck in. I simply repeated something LF had posted which hit home regarding SoO selection. As for the Kangaroos - well, of course they have the right to play for them according to the existing RLIF rules & regs. But that doesn't mean everyone has to agree - I for one would rather see some of the Pacific Islanders encouraged to represent and strengthen their nation of birth where possible. Australia already has a massive pool of players to choose from and yet they still dangle SoO and Kangaroo selection in front of Pacific Islanders to poach their talent.

edited for accuracy

Good idea

It does seem pretty hypocritical for the ARL to be arguing that a born and raised Fijian like Akuila Uate should be able to represent NSW because he has elected to describe himself now as an Australian, but Greg Inglis shouldnt be able to elect to describe himself as a Queenslander.
I couldnt agree more.

i did just actually stand up and clap!!!

To be fair hindy, you don't actually know they are. The requirement is that you only have to be a resident, and they all were.

The Willie Mason episode highlighted that several years ago.