Letter to the nrl

[eddie]

There are a number of ways the competition can be 'manipulated' to improve the circumstances around which a team can play for the premiership. It doesn't mean the competition is completely rigged and stage managed but it can certainly help in making conditions for some teams more condusive for certain teams and vice versa.

.

Exactly.
It is not the nrl's agenda to create a level playing field.

[eddie]

You conspiracy theory idiots are unreal. The dragons choked away a thousand potential grand finals in the 90's and 2000's before they finally won it winning the minor premiership the season before. If the nrl was passing the trophy around how come the broncos haven't won for 10 years? How come Melbourne and Manly won in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2012? Then of all the farcken teams to break the stranglehold they gave it to Easts? We didn't get farcken close to saints in 3 games we played them in 2010, infact we didn't close to them in any game that Bennett coached them until we sacked half of the piss heads in 2011. They were the best team in 2009-2011 and they deserved their comp. Souths would have won in 2012 had Reynolds not pulled a hammy, why didn't the NRL just hand them the trophy in 2013 then? They had to TWO chances to give the world the greatest footy grand final match up of all time but they decided not to? They preferred having East v South in a preliminary final instead? Why didn't they hand out a premiership to Cronulla in 2008 then it would have been the dream final Sharks v Manly. Why did the Cowboys cop so many dud refereeing decisions for years in the finals series?
You can use all your fancy %'s all you like but the fact is Saints won a majority of games with Tony Archer because they were the best team and they won the majority of games he played and we won a farcken grand final with Ben Cummins as the referee. The Sharks almost won 19 in a row this year and people think it was a conspiracy theory that they won the grand final jeez.
Some of you clowns need to wake up to yourselves.

I ain't got no conspiracy theory.
Every point I wrote earlier is just a simple fact.
The nrl admits to re-training referees to be "game managers" and states quite clearly that they aim to have a different premier each season.
They even can't deny that the draw, the salary cap and the judiciary are inconsistent and unfair, but have consigned them to the too hard basket.

The real idiots are clowns like you who bury your head in the sand because you can't face facts.

[Mickie Lane]

There are a number of ways the competition can be 'manipulated' to improve the circumstances around which a team can play for the premiership. It doesn't mean the competition is completely rigged and stage managed but it can certainly help in making conditions for some teams more condusive for certain teams and vice versa.

The Broncos getting full weekly turnarounds almost every week is one. The fact they know they will play mostly on Thursday or Friday nights every week.

The fact the pathetic Third Party rules benefit a handful of clubs enormously and disadvantage a handful of clubs enormously is another.

The fact a lot of the rules now are open to the referee's interpretation and all the refs have their own refereeing style means that refereeing appointments can be used to advantage or disadvantage certain teams depending on whether that team plays well under a certain ref or generally gets hammered by a particular ref.

The draw can be used to favour or disadvantage a team. Teams don't play each other twice so the draw can be manipulated to ensure one team gets a tougher draw over another. The joke of the draw around SOO time is another way this is manipulated. We get to play the Warriors in New Zealand in the middle of SOO minus our star players when they have none or very few in SOO. The Raiders always get to play the Cowboys in CANBERRA during SOO minus all of the cowboys stars - in the middle of winter! How is that fair?

The integrity unit deciding when and if players will be suspended. Pearce is cracked down on straight away (not saying he shouldn't have been) and yet the souffs centre who admitted to bashing a woman gets to play in a Grand Final as does Fifita.

That could be applied to any competition.
I dont follow the AFL but Im sure all the teams in that comp dont play each other twice. In the A league Sydney FC, Melbourne Victory & Melbourne City have more of a financial gain than what the Central Coast Mariners do. You have a better chance of playing for Australia in cricket if you play for NSW. Anyone can find fault in any competition if you want to look at every scenario & scrutinise it.

[BUDDY]

Farck buddy's statistics. Like Gasnier made a difference in 2010 they spent 3/4 of the year in first place, they were so far ahead of everyone that wasn't cheating the salary cap it wasn't funny. Buddy left out Daniel Conn whacking Michael Weyman in the head and taking him out of the game their best front row forward.

Buddy conveniently left out that Cronulla conceded 199 penalties this year and 173 penalties last year.
Buddy conveniently left out that Canberra conceded 203 penalties this year and 163 penalties last year.
Buddy conveniently left out that Easts won a premiership receiving farck all penalties and conceding a farckton of penalties

All you have to do is go and check for yourself the penalty differentials and you'll see that the grand final winners and losers generally aren't the teams getting the highest differential.s

Yes Cocky these statistics are way beyond me, mostly because they're irrelevant statistics and only morons like you concern themselves with this crap.

I am truly sorry I don't share your views.

It amazes me why people resort to personal abuse when someone disagrees with them. It makes them sound like a petulant little kid.

We'll agree to disagree.

Your comment on Gaz is way off the mark. He is one of the best defensive centres in the last 20 years. A quality international at $50K was a rort. Funny how when the Eels tried to get Folau at $200K the NRL told them to F-OFF.

As for Conn, he gave him a love tap with his thumb. Weyman had a fcuked knee and couldn't play on. Him going down like that was a free interchange.

[mightyrooster]

That could be applied to any competition.
I dont follow the AFL but Im sure all the teams in that comp dont play each other twice. In the A league Sydney FC, Melbourne Victory & Melbourne City have more of a financial gain than what the Central Coast Mariners do. You have a better chance of playing for Australia in cricket if you play for NSW. Anyone can find fault in any competition if you want to look at every scenario & scrutinise it.

Fair point about the draw. But just because other competition draws are similar doesn't make it fair. Also do these other comps pull the guts out of the top teams during SOO and make them play minus their stars? Are the weaker teams handed 2 points on a platter when they get to play these weakened teams with every advantage?
Also would you agree the Third party rules create an unfair playing field especially where the Broncos are concerned? Would you agree the Broncos also have an unfair advantage with their match scheduling almost always being on a Thursday or Friday night?
I'm not saying the Premiers are pre-planned each year by the NRL. If I was then the Broncos would have won the past 2 years, but I am saying there are certain aspects of the game and draw which need to be addressed. The draw, especially around Origin, for instance seems like a deliberate ploy to even up the competition to make it closer.

[Mickie Lane]

Fair point about the draw. But just because other competition draws are similar doesn't make it fair. Also do these other comps pull the guts out of the top teams during SOO and make them play minus their stars? Are the weaker teams handed 2 points on a platter when they get to play these weakened teams with every advantage?
Also would you agree the Third party rules create an unfair playing field especially where the Broncos are concerned? Would you agree the Broncos also have an unfair advantage with their match scheduling almost always being on a Thursday or Friday night?
I'm not saying the Premiers are pre-planned each year by the NRL. If I was then the Broncos would have won the past 2 years, but I am saying there are certain aspects of the game and draw which need to be addressed. The draw, especially around Origin, for instance seems like a deliberate ploy to even up the competition to make it closer.

I have never liked the Broncos & I wish they weren't in the comp just as I wish the Warriors weren't in the comp either because yes I do agree they both do have an advantage over all the other clubs but there is no perfect competition. Whats wrong with teams who have no players or hardly any players involved in SOO playing teams that have all their origin players out, yes it does give the weaker team a chance & yes it does even the comp up but mate at the end of the year the best team will win the comp not the team that got the most penalties or the team that plays every Friday night.

[BUDDY]

Well overnight I took some happy tablets and put on those rosey coloured glasses that some on here have been using and I agree there is no corruption in the NRL. Fcuk I can't see why people think corruption is possible in any sport or even politics. Why would the leaders of any country down to the local governments even think of ripping off the people that vote them in?
I think Greenburg and Archer are doing an amazing job in upholding the integrity of the NRL and I worry about when they leave who we could possibly replace them with. Maybe Sepp Blatter can take over seeing he overlooked the biggest sport in the world for nearly 20 years and some of his cronies out of a job could look after the integrity commission.

[Kingsgrove-Loiner]

I have never liked the Broncos & I wish they weren't in the comp just as I wish the Warriors weren't in the comp either because yes I do agree they both do have an advantage over all the other clubs but there is no perfect competition. Whats wrong with teams who have no players or hardly any players involved in SOO playing teams that have all their origin players out, yes it does give the weaker team a chance & yes it does even the comp up but mate at the end of the year the best team will win the comp not the team that got the most penalties or the team that plays every Friday night.

You really think that happened in 2014?

[eddie]

Well overnight I took some happy tablets and put on those rosey coloured glasses that some on here have been using and I agree there is no corruption in the NRL. Fcuk I can't see why people think corruption is possible in any sport or even politics. Why would the leaders of any country down to the local governments even think of ripping off the people that vote them in?
I think Greenburg and Archer are doing an amazing job in upholding the integrity of the NRL and I worry about when they leave who we could possibly replace them with. Maybe Sepp Blatter can take over seeing he overlooked the biggest sport in the world for nearly 20 years and some of his cronies out of a job could look after the integrity commission.

Classic.
Perhaps the directors of the commonwealth bank would be good candidates as well.

[roosterproud]

Well overnight I took some happy tablets and put on those rosey coloured glasses that some on here have been using and I agree there is no corruption in the NRL. Fcuk I can't see why people think corruption is possible in any sport or even politics. Why would the leaders of any country down to the local governments even think of ripping off the people that vote them in?
I think Greenburg and Archer are doing an amazing job in upholding the integrity of the NRL and I worry about when they leave who we could possibly replace them with. Maybe Sepp Blatter can take over seeing he overlooked the biggest sport in the world for nearly 20 years and some of his cronies out of a job could look after the integrity commission.

Brian Canavan

[milanja]

You really think that happened in 2014?

I think it did. There was 1 game that separated the top 3 thatt year, with manly and us finishing equal 1st and souths one win away from finishing first. They played with more hunger and their big guys were the best pack by far. They did get a very favorable run with penalties, but i still think they had more determination than any other team that year.

Which team do you think played that much better than them?

[Mickie Lane]

You really think that happened in 2014?

I do. The Chooks & Manly were good but Souths were better unfortunately.
They out played us in the preliminary final & were superior to the Dogs in the GF IMO.

[eddie]

I don't think Souths win that year without the game managers "interpretations", they certainly wouldn't have finished the season proper as high on the table.
But that's just my opinion.
The truth is that we'll never know either way.

[BUDDY]

I do. The Chooks & Manly were good but Souths were better unfortunately.
They out played us in the preliminary final & were superior to the Dogs in the GF IMO.

For some reason I think your sentiments have changed to that semi final back in 2014.

The Roosters were far the better team that year and the NRL knew it. We came first with the highest points differential. This is despite having received only 135 penalties compared to Souths 219.

Someone explain to me how the most dominant team in the comp can receive the lowest number of penalties across 16 teams and about 40% less that the 3rd place team.

The penalties were down overall on the previous year yet Souths managed to increase theirs by over 30%. The highest in 25 years. They finished 2 points ahead of 5th place and if not for the monumental leg up would not have made the top 4.

In the semi against the Panthers we were severely rorted by Maxwell not going to the video ref for a fair Casty try and everyone in here knows that.

In the semi against Souths we were comfortably up 12-0 before a string of penalties, many back-to-back to get them back into the game. Final penalty count was 10-5. Again everybody knows that. Watch the replay and nearly every penalty they received Channel 9 refused to show a replay of why.

Let's not forget the high-5 between Smith and Greenburg after the game.

Burgess should have been suspended from the GF for that high shot on SBW. The ref saw it, didn't call the penalty and didn't bother checking after SBW got up gingerly. Not even mentioned after the game.

2014 was the biggest rort and the biggest cuumfest in NRL/ARL history.

[Mickie Lane]

I must admit BUDDY I do not have the memory or the recall that you have on all the past games. I have trouble remembering what my wife was saying to me last night, hehehe.
Now that you mention it I do remember the Casty no try against Penrith & I do remember at the time thinking that it was a far try but I dont remember much else of the game other than getting beaten by one of the Roosters bogey teams 19-18.

I dont have much recall of the Roosters v Cowboys game other than the Roosters being up 30 nil I think & then just winning 31-30 & thinking that the Roosters were not playing good enough to win the comp.

Then the preliminary final against Souths I just knew that we weren't going to win because I actually remember thinking that Souths were on fire & that there forwards were unstoppable. I didnt take much notice of penalty counts I just remember thinking that G Burgess, Teo, Sutton & especially Big Sammy boy were playing outstanding tough footy. I also thought Inglis, Reynolds, Walker & Johnson were killing it.

I just listened to the post match press conference with Robbo & Mini after that prelim & these were some of the things Robbo said
“we didn’t get our last plays right, ran it twice on the last”
“it was there for the taking but we were outplayed”
“they had low errors, I thought they tackled really well, tough night & they deserved to win
”Mini said
“we were happy with the score at half time we just didn’t execute well enough in the second half"’
“they were to good on the night & credit to them”

Comments like what Robbo & Mini said didn’t indicate they thought they were robbed they never mentioned the penalty count being lob sided.

The Rd 26 game I thought was a ripper & I thought the Roosters were better that night not just because they won I actually thought they were the better side.