The view from Sydney
Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2017 10:43 pm
I have had to come over to Sydney on a family matter, and it has been an interesting experience. As we are playing out here next year I thought I would give my impressions...
- if you can visit here you should do so. It is an amazing city - beautiful, easy to get round, friendly people and obsessed with rugby league;
- they show SL games live and then repeated on Fox sports. Apparently they get more watching in NSW than we get in the UK for some games;
- they have been advertising Wigan's tour and pretty much every league fan I met was aware of the Hull game. Wigan is a name that everyone knows...
- I have watched all 4 of their top 8 play off games (3 live as they were at the SFS which is just down the road from us). The top team - the Storm - is a class above us but I think we could compete in that company. Certainly the Hull games recently were as high quality as a couple of the games this week end;
- that said, there are 3 main differences. They seem to have more huge players than we do in SL. There was one for the Cowboys - Taumalolo - who must be the biggest man in the world. And they are very effective. I have long since thought that we should get more naturally large players (like Scott Taylor). There really are loads to choose from. They show their reserve games on TV over here and there are loads who look every bit as big and athletic as Gelling/Fonua. It is just. a question of scouting.
Anyone who thinks that rugby league is not the game it was should get over here. This city of over 4 million people shows what can be done.
- if you can visit here you should do so. It is an amazing city - beautiful, easy to get round, friendly people and obsessed with rugby league;
- they show SL games live and then repeated on Fox sports. Apparently they get more watching in NSW than we get in the UK for some games;
- they have been advertising Wigan's tour and pretty much every league fan I met was aware of the Hull game. Wigan is a name that everyone knows...
- I have watched all 4 of their top 8 play off games (3 live as they were at the SFS which is just down the road from us). The top team - the Storm - is a class above us but I think we could compete in that company. Certainly the Hull games recently were as high quality as a couple of the games this week end;
- that said, there are 3 main differences. They seem to have more huge players than we do in SL. There was one for the Cowboys - Taumalolo - who must be the biggest man in the world. And they are very effective. I have long since thought that we should get more naturally large players (like Scott Taylor). There really are loads to choose from. They show their reserve games on TV over here and there are loads who look every bit as big and athletic as Gelling/Fonua. It is just. a question of scouting.
Anyone who thinks that rugby league is not the game it was should get over here. This city of over 4 million people shows what can be done.