Possibly the most sensible Damo post I have ever read, has someone hacked your account?



I think your spot on, there are a few teams who look like they could compete but they are the same teams who look like they could compete most seasons and yet rarely do!

Are Australia in that much trouble then

Warrington been hyped up so much last season was laughable.

Shenton should certainly be a contender if he repeats the fine form he showed last season.

There have always been cliques within GB/England squads.
In Paul Newlove's autobiography, he said that often Wigan, Saints and Leeds players would simply revert back to what they did at club level if things didn't go their way.

I'm sure the English lads at Wakefield, Castleford and Hull FC/KR would be a bit willing to put club cliques to one side for five weeks a year.

That would be a good try - But can’t see it happen unfortunately for reasons that Gat mentioned abover - players been picked because there’s no one as good as them.

How’s your application for Linekers strip bar going?

Sleeping arrangements, eating arrangements and bonding sessions could have been better managed by the tours big cheeses to ensure this this kind of thing didn't happen and ensure every player felt comfortable and a friendly atmosphere was achieved.

Maybe they did, maybe Senior was nipping in Peacocks room for a sneaky bedtime story and a cuddle at lights out.

I'm not buying into that at all.
Fair play, individually, most Leeds players are better than most Cas players, but in England's world cup squad was only worth the sum of its parts, whereas squads like NZ, PNG and the Ireland squad were worth more than the sum of its parts.

wello and jammer said the sameas senior, they said smith was partly to blame.most days he had is leeds hat on.he was no help whats so ever.

Well at least our most media savvy person has got this out in the open and hopefully it will ring changes for the whole GB set up come later on this year. I don’t think any of the players that get picked want to see a dubbing like that by Australia ever again.

It was no secret, even before the PNG game, that there were problems with cliques and integration.

Leeds players were roomed with Leeds players and Sts with Sts.
During free time there were very few occasions when players from the two clubs mixed.

IMO Tony Smith is at fault for allowing this to happen, he apparently left no stone unturned in his ore tournement prep yet he made a ridiculously poor mistake in not gelling his players.

Has anyone noted where this info actually came from...the man who would sell his own Grandma if there was money to be made.....nuff said

What, so because he's addicted to ebay you don't believe him?

Why can't players just put aside their club rivalries - like the fans do (or try to atleast) theyre supposed to be representing England and have nothing to do with their super league clubs when on international duty!

do fans ever truly put aside club loyalities though?

As well as I want England to do I always find myself more concerned with the saints players in the sense of what they are doing and any injuries they may pick up and I would imagine that I am not the only one who inadvertently does that

If i was in Australia playing for my country I think I'd manage it better than sat on the sofa watching it on TV!

I don't think it's anything to do with rivalries,

Mates who work, train and socialise together the rest of the year are going to stick together rather than mingle with passing acquaintances.

I don't think this is the players fault.

Smith out etc then

They'll have been a fair number of backroom staff on the trip, not sure who was directly responsible for team bonding ect, but maybe somebody has not done their job efficiency.

Peter Stringfellow?

Allowing players to choose their own roommates was just dumb. There are plenty of examples from other sports and previous tours etc to show how bonding can be made to happen. Doing this would probably have made little or no difference to the results however.

We stayed in the team hotel for 2 days at Newcastle (the Executive Inn) and it was obvious to us in that short time that there was a problem with Saints and Leeds players not mixing. However, Richard Lewis and Nigel Wood and other RFL officials were with the players throughout the tour and if they couldn't see what was happening then they should be sacked.

You can't really FORCE testosterone filled young men to interact if they really really don't want to.

Knob 'em off and get Shenton, Hudson, Westerman, Deacon, Yeaman, etc in for the four nations.