JB Down Under wrote:NRL's said they won't contribute. Unless Parra can get a good 3rd party sponsor and use up all their marque player allowance on him can't see them affording him.
apparently the sponsors are lining up
its not just the $300,000 marquee player allowance, thats just for companies that are club sponsors
a player can earn unlimited funds from a company whose not a club sponsor
Joined: Apr 29 2004 Posts: 14082 Location: The Sunniest City in the World
lol at this:
When Australian Rugby Union honcho John O'Neill was asked last week about the possibility of Quade Cooper joining Parramatta, he looked as if he'd just found a prominent Wallaby in bed with his best mate's daughter.
'Why would he go to rugby league?' he spluttered. 'He's got the world at his feet in our game'.
Hmm. That all depends on how you define 'the world'.
Last year a Wallaby with a Super 14 club would see have played in New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland and Britain. In the same year, a Kangaroo with an NRL club would have played in Britain, France and New Zealand.
So an Australian union international would have visited precisely one more country than an Australian league international.
Hardly 'having the world at your feet' is it?
It's a common conceit in rugby union to believe that it is played across the entire planet, while league is restricted to a couple of housing estates in Sydney's outer west and a pit village in the north of England.
But compared to soccer, neither union nor league are 'world' games in any meaningful sense of the word.
The rugby codes are only seriously played in the former white settler 'Dominions' of the British Empire, plus France. Even Argentina was traditionally regarded as part of the 'informal' British Empire of close trading partners.
No amount of bluster about TV viewing figures or the number of teams in the rugby union world cup can alter the fact that union's world is pitifully small in comparison to soccer.
And it's shrinking too. Since the advent of professionalism, the chances of elite union players touring countries like Japan, Fiji or other second tier nations have evaporated under the endless grind of Tri-Nations, Six Nations and pointless summer tours.
And remember, only four countries have ever won the union world cup... just one more than has won the rugby league world cup.
If union is a 'world' game, it is the world of the 19th century British Empire. And who would want to be part of that?
When Australian Rugby Union honcho John O'Neill was asked last week about the possibility of Quade Cooper joining Parramatta, he looked as if he'd just found a prominent Wallaby in bed with his best mate's daughter.
'Why would he go to rugby league?' he spluttered. 'He's got the world at his feet in our game'.
Hmm. That all depends on how you define 'the world'.
Last year a Wallaby with a Super 14 club would see have played in New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland and Britain. In the same year, a Kangaroo with an NRL club would have played in Britain, France and New Zealand.
So an Australian union international would have visited precisely one more country than an Australian league international.
Hardly 'having the world at your feet' is it?
It's a common conceit in rugby union to believe that it is played across the entire planet, while league is restricted to a couple of housing estates in Sydney's outer west and a pit village in the north of England.
But compared to soccer, neither union nor league are 'world' games in any meaningful sense of the word.
The rugby codes are only seriously played in the former white settler 'Dominions' of the British Empire, plus France. Even Argentina was traditionally regarded as part of the 'informal' British Empire of close trading partners.
No amount of bluster about TV viewing figures or the number of teams in the rugby union world cup can alter the fact that union's world is pitifully small in comparison to soccer.
And it's shrinking too. Since the advent of professionalism, the chances of elite union players touring countries like Japan, Fiji or other second tier nations have evaporated under the endless grind of Tri-Nations, Six Nations and pointless summer tours.
And remember, only four countries have ever won the union world cup... just one more than has won the rugby league world cup.
If union is a 'world' game, it is the world of the 19th century British Empire. And who would want to be part of that?
Joined: May 17 2009 Posts: 4389 Location: From Hammersmith to the Shire to LA to the world!! Goodbye!
JB Down Under wrote:And remember, only four countries have ever won the union world cup... just one more than has won the rugby league world cup.
Australia is one of those countries.
And we have won it twice
Highly unlikley we will win it next year... but you never know!
Quade Cooper is a good player. He could make the difference.
'You put your Wendell in, You take your Brownie out, You put your Bennett in, And you make it to the 8, You do the Oki Chokie, And you get knocked out, Thats what St George are about'
dally messenger wrote:parra had no ball and still looked like scoring all the time
The Chief wrote:What a knob Barrie MacKenzie is.
gutterfax wrote:I like Bazza. He chose the name of a cross dressing Austalian institutions other persona.....and is your typical Aussie w@nker living in London whilst he tries to get some culture by visiting Prague to get pi55ed on Cheap Star, getting a fondle from a dodgy hooker in amsterdam and eating a snail for a bet when in paris. All of these things will make him a cultural icon when his visa runs out and he is sent the way of his great grandparents....alas, not in chains this time.
NEW COMPETITION COMING SOON!! YOU COULD BE THE NEXT BARRY McKENZIE!! WATCH THIS SPACE!!
Joined: Mar 11 2010 Posts: 2786 Location: St.Helens
Barry_McKenzie wrote:Australia is one of those countries.
And we have won it twice
Highly unlikley we will win it next year... but you never know!
Quade Cooper is a good player. He could make the difference.
I am not ar5ed who wins as long it's not England,the bull5h1t hype we would have to put up with would be unbearable. I remember when England won the yawnion WC in 2003 and THAT parade in London afterwards,all of a sudden the whole of England was yawnion mad.
Joined: Apr 29 2004 Posts: 14082 Location: The Sunniest City in the World
Time for league to pick the eyes out of vulnerable rival code, says Ben Elias
* Brent Read and Bret Harris * From: The Australian * August 20, 2010 12:00AM
THE NRL and its clubs have been urged to launch a Super League-style attack on rugby union while the rival code is at its most vulnerable.
With Wallabies star Quade Cooper still considering his future amid an approach from Parramatta, and the NRL expected to receive a significant cash injection via its next television deal (up to $1 billion), two of rugby league's greats yesterday encouraged the game to direct some of that money towards rugby union's best.
"The ARU is very vulnerable at the moment, absolutely vulnerable," former Balmain and NSW captain Ben Elias said.
"If they're fair dinkum, what they could do is a Super League on the ARU. They don't have to buy too many players. The NRL could do it on its ear.
"If the game of rugby league wanted to be ruthless, they could stand on union's throat and cherry-pick their best players. Tactically I would, behind the scenes, be very cleverly accumulating.
"Make a statement."
Dual international Ray Price added: "I agree with that. They pilfered our blokes. Dog eat dog."
Of the current Wallabies, only a handful would be in the sights of NRL clubs. Cooper is at the top of a list which includes former Brisbane Bronco Berrick Barnes, Waratahs centre Rob Horne and Queensland outside back Digby Ioane.
Sydney Roosters recruitment manager Peter O'Sullivan has been a long-time admirer of Horne and Ioane and believes both would be league stars.
"Horne is an absolutely natural league player," O'Sullivan said.
"He's tough, aggressive and a good defender. He would be an ideal league centre."
As for Ioane, O'Sullivan attempted to lure the Reds winger to the Melbourne Storm on more than one occasion.
"Rugby union players would be the exception rather than the norm. You would pick the eyes out of them."
Elias claimed union was heading down a dangerous path if it was using the World Cup to convince players to stay.
"They're not going to get the money like we are," Elias said.
"It only seems to be going one way at the moment. If they're putting their hopes and heart on the World Cup, well please."
At the same time, the ARU is tightening its belt.
While revenue from sponsorship and gate-takings have decreased, the ARU has to honour existing contracts, which means the national union is effectively spending several million dollars more on salaries than it budgeted for.
The ARU is expected to address the issue when the collective bargaining agreement is re-negotiated with the players union, but if it results in lower salaries, it would make rugby more vulnerable to a raid.
Time for league to pick the eyes out of vulnerable rival code, says Ben Elias
* Brent Read and Bret Harris * From: The Australian * August 20, 2010 12:00AM
THE NRL and its clubs have been urged to launch a Super League-style attack on rugby union while the rival code is at its most vulnerable.
With Wallabies star Quade Cooper still considering his future amid an approach from Parramatta, and the NRL expected to receive a significant cash injection via its next television deal (up to $1 billion), two of rugby league's greats yesterday encouraged the game to direct some of that money towards rugby union's best.
"The ARU is very vulnerable at the moment, absolutely vulnerable," former Balmain and NSW captain Ben Elias said.
"If they're fair dinkum, what they could do is a Super League on the ARU. They don't have to buy too many players. The NRL could do it on its ear.
"If the game of rugby league wanted to be ruthless, they could stand on union's throat and cherry-pick their best players. Tactically I would, behind the scenes, be very cleverly accumulating.
"Make a statement."
Dual international Ray Price added: "I agree with that. They pilfered our blokes. Dog eat dog."
Of the current Wallabies, only a handful would be in the sights of NRL clubs. Cooper is at the top of a list which includes former Brisbane Bronco Berrick Barnes, Waratahs centre Rob Horne and Queensland outside back Digby Ioane.
Sydney Roosters recruitment manager Peter O'Sullivan has been a long-time admirer of Horne and Ioane and believes both would be league stars.
"Horne is an absolutely natural league player," O'Sullivan said.
"He's tough, aggressive and a good defender. He would be an ideal league centre."
As for Ioane, O'Sullivan attempted to lure the Reds winger to the Melbourne Storm on more than one occasion.
"Rugby union players would be the exception rather than the norm. You would pick the eyes out of them."
Elias claimed union was heading down a dangerous path if it was using the World Cup to convince players to stay.
"They're not going to get the money like we are," Elias said.
"It only seems to be going one way at the moment. If they're putting their hopes and heart on the World Cup, well please."
At the same time, the ARU is tightening its belt.
While revenue from sponsorship and gate-takings have decreased, the ARU has to honour existing contracts, which means the national union is effectively spending several million dollars more on salaries than it budgeted for.
The ARU is expected to address the issue when the collective bargaining agreement is re-negotiated with the players union, but if it results in lower salaries, it would make rugby more vulnerable to a raid.
Joined: May 08 2002 Posts: 9565 Location: 10 mins walk from Suncorp Stadium
He's unlikely to jump with the World Cup next year. I understand that what annoyed him is when he found out he's been offered a lot less than some fringe Wallabies. The basic reason for that is down to the fact that up until about evn 2 years ago Union was throwing cash at all its players, but financial reality has hit very hard (and was behind them dumping Tuqiri who refused to take a pay cut).
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