Give this a read... it’s a bit long but I really think it will put NZ’s league into perspective and shows how good we are actually going and how corrupt the nrl are.
Every England supporters excuse is about how they had injured players not available. They say that like NZ didn’t.
Roger Tuivasa-Sheck (Dally M player + would of been golden boot with his form) , Isaac Luke(awesome form this year), Kieren Foran, Jordan rapana, Martin tapau,
tohu Harris, dean whare ( regarded as the best defensive centre in the game and praised from Inglis about how Whare was all over him) , Nelson A-S, Corey H-N etc (I’m sure there were more I didn’t mention).
Plus the retirements of Simon mannering, Russell packer (who was pathetically 28 years old), Ben matulino ( who was 29), lost respect from matulino and packer for jumping off the sinking ship like that. I don’t recall players from Aus/Eng doing that which would be like josh Hodgson or whitehead or Cordner retiring now. However Australia and NZ just has their big loss of players. Next will be England with o’Laughlin and graham etc
Not to mention the nearly dozen players that changed allegiances less than a year ago. Such as taumalolo,
fusitua,
Addin Fonua-Blake, manu Mau, taukeiaho, lolohea, Kata, hurrell etc. I’m not debating their switch just merely pointing out that a tier 1 nation had the biggest hit to their roster in any nations history. Imagine if that many players left England or Australia. Imagine if England lost massive name players to Scotland or Australia lost as many as NZ to Tonga ( and not just Fifita who’s best days are behind him) It wouldn’t be as bad if taumalolo played for NZ til 30 and we got his best years out of him. So aus didn’t lose much with Fifita
Also having one of our biggest stars Sonny bill williams leave the sport he had been apart of for a long time. That’s like Greg Inglis or Sam Burgess leaving for Aus/Eng ( I know burgess left for a short time but he came back and hasn’t been shifting from codes his whole career like SBW so hasn’t been the a big loss.
Also having players be constantly poached like Ponga, Valentine Holmes ( even after verbally agreeing to Stephan
Kearney), Tamou, Papalii( who played junior kiwis) , Jordan Maclean etc. I say that NZ rugby league is doing very well considering league is the second rugby code by a mile in nz which Australia definitely doesn’t have that problem with the wallabies being so bad and Australians growing up with 15 NRL clubs to dream of playing for rather than just 1. NZ loses tonnes of players to union which just doesn’t happen in Australia.
The whole nrl is biased to Aus and having the whole comp revolve around Aus despite them supposed to be a neutral organisation. They only want Aus to be good. God knows why they are heavily involved in the international football, there is an international rugby league organisation for that. That’s like Super rugby or the super league announcing and organising international games lol it’s laughable how bias it is. They cut NZs international funding so they only get $5000 now instead of the around $20,000. Did they cut Australia’s funding? NO, why not if they are cutting the funding for one international side which is represented by the nrl. Why are they only funding Aus?? They denied Vunivalu’s request to play for NZ. Despite him spending his teen years/schooled in NZ and being developed in NZ, but then you think of when they bent the rules to have semi Radradra fast tracked for the trans Tasman test and eligible for Aus, which he had only been there for 2 years. How has this not been brought up by a NZRL representative??? The NRL funds origin with the $30,000 game bonus which is another massive incentive for players to pick Australia over NZ. Origin is supposed to be a representative fixture for Australia selection. Would they fund $30,000 per player per game for a North island v South Island to help pick the NZ team? No chance. Then they introduced the Maori all stars v aboriginal allstars. Great concept but hate the idea when you think about how many more kiwis they will poach now as AUS now can use the monetary incentive plus the fact that kiwis can still represent their culture with the maori All stars. I guarantee they used it to lure Ponga to play for Aus. Also Aus had to play the 1st against game against Tonga, there’s no way they would let NZ thrive from having that honour, they had to steal the glory even though 99.9% of supporters would of much preferred to see a Tonga/NZ game and the game being held in NZ, makes perfect sense for a NZ /Tonga game. So for players, the possible $90,000 per year for origin plus the $15,000-$20,000 per game for Aus is too big to sacrifice especially when they can now represent their culture with the Maori all stars now too. Which the origin/aus rep brings larger endorsement deals also as they are higher profile stars with all of the publicity which means even more money. The supporters would also love a state of origin style 3 way match for Tonga v NZ. Will that ever happen? NO. It would be a good draw card to level the playing field so kiwis weren’t lost to Aus. Even though it would improve Tonga and NZ rugby through the Polynesian young kids who will want to be a part of that contest rather than the all blacks or Australia. Think of the Polynesian growth. But still, this will never happen, and even if it did there would be no chance the NRL would fund it so the match payments would be $5k for NZ and a lot less for Tonga. Pathetic. But the NRL talk about growing the game. Perfect opportunity which will go begging. Australia and the nrl hated the idea of the Denver game for NZ, then reported a month later that they are really considering the AUS/Tonga game in New York. Todd Greenberg came out and reported that he wishes to get Israel Folau back and personally wanted to have a discussion with him and then they made an NRL war chest based around him which why it’s known as the Israel Folau war chest. Same as the Josh Hodgson rule for salary cap exemptions for injuries. And sad they could use it for him in getting Folau back in the game which again would be perfect for Aus rugby league. He he ever said that about getting SBW back despite him being a bigger name and draw card? NO ( depots is making more sense but thinking about it would be perfect for NZ but of course can’t have that).
Blatantly bias, and no one brings up these indiscretions in NZ league. I can just imagine these old fat white men in leading Aus league and the NRL, rubbing their hands together and making these plans to keep Aus league strong and to ruin NZ as they know NZ is the massive threat in league. Around 2015/2016 the kiwis had a mini 4 game winning streak and dominated Aus with Thurston, slater, smith, Cronk all being in their prime. Really shows how strong my rugby is and was especially with SBW, Foran,
Roger Tuivasa-Sheck,
Johnson, Taumalolo, etc filling the kiwi team back then. But since the NRL has changed that massivly through the reasons above. All of this above happened after the kiwi domination with al of those stars beating Aus with their legends. Perfect timing for aus to try to break NZ rugby down. They made Kieren Foran jump through hoops to get back into the NRL like cutting ties with a dodgy bloke despite many other players having a close relationship with the same bloke to this day also and despite the fact that he never committed any crime or anything the Nrl just picked him and not the other players to cut ties, also they made it so hard for him with his mental health, but I don’t recall them making it that hard for Greg Inglis or anyone else. I still remember waiting anxiously for days as the nrl deliberated about letting him sign with the warriors. I’ve never seen them like that with any other player. Then compare that to
Matt Lodge with his New York rampage and assault. They NRL let him sign an nrl contact even before the court case was settled and there was no payment plan set up for him to pay his debt. Which is totally unfair when Foran had numerous programs and reporting + had to prove everything to the nrl. Inconsistent and once again bias
So the next time an Australian or English supporter wants to complain about their squad they really need to think about New Zealand’s recent history, it really puts it into perspective. I would love to see Eng or Aus to go through player loss like that and try to be as good as New Zealand.
Thanks for reading and let me know what you think of this
