Bush fury over plot to scrap City-Country

[VAI]

NEXT season's City-Country match in Mudgee is set to become a protest to save the historic fixture unless the independent commission rejects a recommendation from the NRL and clubs to scrap it in 2013.

The proposal, which was put to club chairmen and chief executives at Thursday's NRL conference, has caused outrage in the bush after Country Rugby League officials claimed they had not been consulted about plans to replace the annual clash with a premiership match each season.

Former ARL chairman Ken Arthurson and the Country coach, Laurie Daley, yesterday led calls for the independent commission to retain the match in some capacity.

''I would be very surprised if the independent commission would accept this recommendation to discard the City-Country match because the country area is so important to our game,'' Arthurson said. Daley, who has coached Country since 2008, said he agreed that something needed to be done to address the issue of player burnout but he believed a place on the representative calendar needed to be found for the match.

''It is a sad old day for the game when 100 years of tradition is thrown out the window like that,'' Daley said. ''I understand that some people might think it is a waste of time but for the Country players it is more than just a game - it is about representing where you come from.''

CRL boss Jock Colley said yesterday he had received a lot of support from people opposed to any move to scrap City-Country, including league greats Bob Fulton and Steve Roach. ''We took this year's game to Albury, which is more AFL territory, and we got a good crowd at the game and it rated well on TV,'' Colley said.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/...citycountry-20110722-1hsrr.html#ixzz1SufWifhN

 

[The-Game]

they shouldnt scrap city vs country, some ppl might not like it,but bein a country person, i rekon its great, specially when they play in towns that big football games aint played, great oppotunity for the fans to see their heros etc

 

[Parra_Power]

Scrapping the game would solve a few issues and to be honest, it is a useless fixture and seeing the commentators beefing it up as a State of Origin Trial when it really is just a run-around for fringe Representative players and nothing more is testament to its lack of necessity but should the NRL then simply for go a fixture which at least gives communities like Wagga Wagga, Dubbo, Orange, Coffs Harbor a taste of football they would otherwise need to travel to the City to watch live and up close??? It's a tough one.

 

[Rodzilla]

stfu country people and hurry up and farm the vegetables and food for the city people

we dont need any city-country distractions to get in the way of your work

 

[OTTO]

Why would Bush care? Obama dont even care.

 

[B-Train]

I still struggle to understand how this game ever gets approved in Modern football.

It's not a genuine Origin trial as half or so of the NSW team is playing the Test that same night. Also, Queensland don't get a State of Origin trial so why should NSW? Why would any club team release it's players and risk injury in a meaningless trial just so NSW can pick their Origin team? Again, Queensland don't need a trial to pick their 17 and they've won 6 series straight and are the more successful Origin team in it's 30 plus years.

Scrap the retarded game once and for all. Just play more preseason games in the bush and get teams to do clinics there. That'll do much more than any one stuupid City Country game ever would.

 

[The-Game]

Why would Bush care? Obama dont even care.

lol i dont think it means goerge "murderer" bush, i think it means, ppl from country who ppl say come from the bush are furious, and Roddzilla not eveyone from country are farmers,i dont live on a farm, just a country town, lol but its a sh*thole

 

[wigum]

Get rid of it or at least make it open to Queensland if they're gonna continue to call it an Origin trial.

 

[anfo]

tbh such a useless game by scrapping it, it prevents further injuries and player burn outs.. 9 rounds it more than enough trying to impress for origin

 

[Gladiator.]

Off season is the place for it.

 

[dogkat]

lol i dont think it means goerge "murderer" bush, i think it means, ppl from country who ppl say come from the bush are furious, and Roddzilla not eveyone from country are farmers,i dont live on a farm, just a country town, lol but its a sh*thole

Rodzilla and Punter are just joking.

I hate that the City-Country game is on the same night as the Test, but I think cancelling some form of City-Country altogether isn't fair to the hundreds of thousands of people who live in country NSW.

Maybe, as Btrain said, more pre-season games in the country, and clinics as well.

 

[suiker]

Having attended the trial at Tamworth this year, I can see how much the locals in the country love it when footy comes to town.

I agree with the idea of scrapping city v country. It's a waste of a game and honestly if one of our players got injured during that game I'd be very unhappy. Todd Greenberg said on OneHD that perhaps clubs could look to taking one of their regular NRL round matches out to the country. I wouldn't mind the road trip as a supporter. Beats taking a game to Adelaide.

 

[anfo]

They said on the footy show that there will be a round where all teams play in country nsw and qld

 

[bert]

Phuck off Daley, you're a dribbler !

 

[Nexus]

Scrapping the game would solve a few issues and to be honest, it is a useless fixture and seeing the commentators beefing it up as a State of Origin Trial when it really is just a run-around for fringe Representative players and nothing more is testament to its lack of necessity but should the NRL then simply for go a fixture which at least gives communities like Wagga Wagga, Dubbo, Orange, Coffs Harbor a taste of football they would othersie need to travl to the City to watch live and up close??? It's a tough one.

That was one of the hardest sentences to read in my life...

punctuation, its not a privelege, its a right....

 

[Parra_Power]

They said on the footy show that there will be a round where all teams play in country nsw and qld

Then the NRL will obviously have to foot the compensation for the clubs loosing revenue to go and play in front 3,000 when they could make so much more for playing in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne...