I Just Don't Get NRL

[townsendcalling]

Billy Slater is possibly one knock on his shoulder away from being out for the rest of the year but chooses to play in a match that, in terms of his club season, means nothing.

Who doesn't get it, us or them???

[cimm1979]

Billy Slater is possibly one knock on his shoulder away from being out for the rest of the year but chooses to play in a match that, in terms of his club season, means nothing.

Who doesn't get it, us or them???

Us.

We let the clubs devalue the SOO concept .

Mick Malthouse put the final nail in the coffin.

[Lods]

Billy Slater is possibly one knock on his shoulder away from being out for the rest of the year but chooses to play in a match that, in terms of his club season, means nothing.

Who doesn't get it, us or them???

We both get it
It's just different.
The difference is to us interstate games (when we bother to play them) are basically exhibition matches.

To the league followers they mean almost as much as a premiership...to some of the poorer sides they mean more to the supporter because while there's little chance their side will win a premiership they can always have the thrill of their state winning.
The players no doubt feel the same and embrace it in a away our guys never did (apart from perhaps a period when Teddy Whitten was giving it a boost)

You could never get that passion amongst AFL supporters.... the flag will always mean more.....as it should.

(plus we have three strong states so you'd never get that us vs them thing that exists between NSW and QLD)

[Mantis]

Going from VFL to AFL killed the state of origin in Aussie rules football. I loved the games Vic vs WA and Vic vs SA years ago. When Sticks was a Navy Blue and Played for SA in the interstate games.

[cimm1979]

Great game tonight.

[cookie2]

Great game to night.

Don't normally watch NRL but tonight was good with a great atmosphere.

[ElwoodBlues1]

Don't normally watch NRL but tonight was good with a great atmosphere.

Agree...found myself barracking for Qld.....the Inglis run and disallowed Try had me fired up and some of the NSW thuggery had me wanting the Maroons to hit back.
NSW have some big units though and I thought in the end their brute strength won out.....entertaining game...

[ItsOurTime]

The zombies are back as talk of AFL resurrecting state of origin has again started.

[flyboy77]

Anything looks half decent after Carlton's no show this year.

[Lods]

Anything looks half decent after Carlton's no show this year.

That kind of fits in with the point I was making before.
Carlton supporters would probably be quite happy to see a State game at the moment.
It would be nice to be watching and getting behind a competitive state side.

If we were looking at a top 4 spot though it would be the last thing we would want to see.

I actually used to enjoy the old State games but the problems for me now are....

-When do you play them?
-How do you involve three strong states?
-How do you get clubs and players to support them?
-What selection criteria do you use?