Re: Pop........ The Tongan bubble is done. : Sun Jun 23, 2019 5:24 pm  

roopy wrote:

Nothing has gone wrong at the PNG Hunters.
From day one they have been happy to release any player who gets an offer from an NRL, ESL or Qld cup side, and as they have trained up players, they have lost good players by the dozens.
Only 5 current PNG Hunters played for PNG yesterday - the rest were contracted to NRL or Qld cup sides, and if they had been able to fly in ESL players, there's a fair chance it would have been about 2 Hunters in the side.
That is success. They are getting guys up to a standard where rich clubs offer them good money, and off they go to improve themselves.
The current Hunters side is basically stacked full of kids who are training fulltime and trying to get a contract somewhere else.

Cheers didn’t realise the dynamics just saw them at the top then a bit lower down the following season until this year when they seem to be struggling do they still get good crowds

Re: Pop........ The Tongan bubble is done. : Sun Jun 23, 2019 8:31 pm  

Psychedelic Casual wrote:

The location of the hospital bed where you popped out of your Mother’s vagina isn’t that important. Your family history (heritage) and ethnicity and what you identify yourself as, is. If you are Tongan by heritage, ethnicity and identity, then you are Tongan. Even if you were born and live in New Zealand.

Romantic ideals I am sure, but your place of birth is where you are from. Clasping to heritage sides as if they are the saviour of International RL is a tad pathetic in my eyes. I believe the figure at the 2017 RLWC was 78% of the players were born in either France, PNG, England, Australia or NZ.......that's only 45 of the other 207 players in the 9 other squads were representing the country of their birth.
I know other sports have heritage players......the England Cricket captain an obvious one, but we really do grasp at straws trying to make ourselves seem global when we really aren't.

BTW.......South Auckland contains more people of Tongan Heritage than Tonga has Tongans......When they play in South Auckland or Hamilton, an hours drive away, they are well supported......when they pay in Christchurch then are not (see 2017 RLWC statistics). Then there's the thorny issue of the likes of Jason Taumalolo and Andrew Fifita, playing for another country after already representing the countries of their birth........not really a good look and in my eyes and a great deal of other sports fans, it does make us look a little tin pot.

Re: Pop........ The Tongan bubble is done. : Sun Jun 23, 2019 9:28 pm  

Superted wrote: Surely the success of the international game is about having more competitive nations, not just about winning every game? I look at the current ICC World Cup and wonder why it is that we feel the need to have 14 or more sides in our world cup, with players taken from 4 competitions in the main, when Cricket does the opposite? Cricket is the National Sport of Australia and Indian....it is held in high regard in Pakistan, South Africa, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, New Zealand......the Caribbean Island see it as a great sport and in England, international cricket is still well attended......so only Afghanistan could be cited as a "made up team"....and yet they have 6 first class professional sides in their domestic competition, from which they take the majority of their players for the national side. The IPL TV deal dwarfls the NRL.........yes, there's a few more indians than Ockers, but still.......and the ECB signed a deal with The BBC & Sky worth......£1 Billion.........did I really read that https://www.reuters.com/article/cricket-england-tv/cricket-ecb-announces-new-five-year-broadcasting-deal-with-sky-sports-and-bbc-idUSL3N1JR48X But yeah. Playing a Tongan game in south Auckland where there are more heritage Tongans than Tongans in Tonga and charging $12.50 a ticket (£6) and getting 23,000 fans is proof of how MASSIVE RL is in Tonga, which only has 12 amateur teams, is the future of International RL. France and PNG is where we should be investing our time and effort.....both countries have domestic comps and field domestic players in their international sides......I'd rather have Tonga, Fiji, Samoa and the Cooks play regularly, with home born players and leave the 2nd tier Aussie/NZ players to rot rather than weaken our game.

Superted wrote: Surely the success of the international game is about having more competitive nations, not just about winning every game? I look at the current ICC World Cup and wonder why it is that we feel the need to have 14 or more sides in our world cup, with players taken from 4 competitions in the main, when Cricket does the opposite? Cricket is the National Sport of Australia and Indian....it is held in high regard in Pakistan, South Africa, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, New Zealand......the Caribbean Island see it as a great sport and in England, international cricket is still well attended......so only Afghanistan could be cited as a "made up team"....and yet they have 6 first class professional sides in their domestic competition, from which they take the majority of their players for the national side. The IPL TV deal dwarfls the NRL.........yes, there's a few more indians than Ockers, but still.......and the ECB signed a deal with The BBC & Sky worth......£1 Billion.........did I really read that https://www.reuters.com/article/cricket-england-tv/cricket-ecb-announces-new-five-year-broadcasting-deal-with-sky-sports-and-bbc-idUSL3N1JR48X But yeah. Playing a Tongan game in south Auckland where there are more heritage Tongans than Tongans in Tonga and charging $12.50 a ticket (£6) and getting 23,000 fans is proof of how MASSIVE RL is in Tonga, which only has 12 amateur teams, is the future of International RL. France and PNG is where we should be investing our time and effort.....both countries have domestic comps and field domestic players in their international sides......I'd rather have Tonga, Fiji, Samoa and the Cooks play regularly, with home born players and leave the 2nd tier Aussie/NZ players to rot rather than weaken our game.

Re: Pop........ The Tongan bubble is done. : Sun Jun 23, 2019 10:03 pm  

fun time frankie wrote:

Cheers didn’t realise the dynamics just saw them at the top then a bit lower down the following season until this year when they seem to be struggling do they still get good crowds

They still get good crowds.
There are only 6 players from their 2017 winning squad still at the club. A few retired after the World cup, but most of the others got offers from elsewhere and snapped them up, with the blessings of all PNG league fans, who love nothing more than seeing their players do well in professional clubs.

Re: Pop........ The Tongan bubble is done. : Mon Jun 24, 2019 8:53 pm  

Call Me God wrote:

Romantic ideals I am sure, but your place of birth is where you are from. Clasping to heritage sides as if they are the saviour of International RL is a tad pathetic in my eyes. I believe the figure at the 2017 RLWC was 78% of the players were born in either France, PNG, England, Australia or NZ.......that's only 45 of the other 207 players in the 9 other squads were representing the country of their birth.
I know other sports have heritage players......the England Cricket captain an obvious one, but we really do grasp at straws trying to make ourselves seem global when we really aren't.

BTW.......South Auckland contains more people of Tongan Heritage than Tonga has Tongans......When they play in South Auckland or Hamilton, an hours drive away, they are well supported......when they pay in Christchurch then are not (see 2017 RLWC statistics). Then there's the thorny issue of the likes of Jason Taumalolo and Andrew Fifita, playing for another country after already representing the countries of their birth........not really a good look and in my eyes and a great deal of other sports fans, it does make us look a little tin pot.

Where you are born is where you are from but it doesn’t mean that is your nationality. Mo Farah was born in Mogadishu, Somalia. However he is British and runs for Great Britain. Look at loads of footballers, born in one place but represent another. Happens all the time. Football fans never mention it. Owen Hargreaves never lived in England at all i his life until he moved to Manchester United aged 26 yet played for Wales U19s and then England from age 20.

Don’t think it’s ever crossed my mind to say these examples shouldn’t happen.

And if I were ever good enough in any sport I would love to be able to represent Great Britain AND Poland. Maybe start off with GB and end an international career with Poland as I have both British and Polish blood. Why should I have to be stamped into one or the other?

I think that rule of only ever being allowed to play for one country is daft for those with mixed heritage.

Re: Pop........ The Tongan bubble is done. : Mon Jun 24, 2019 9:09 pm  

Psychedelic Casual wrote:

I think that rule of only ever being allowed to play for one country is daft for those with mixed heritage.

was born at the QEII hospital in Welwyn Garden City....My 2 Sisters. Brother, Mother and Father were all born in Ireland......I played GAA for Wicklow and was selected for the Irish Schoolboy Football team in 1981 and can categorically say that if England were playing Mongolia at Tiddlywinx, I'd apply for a Mongolian passport......I get what you are saying, I really do, but this is the point......The Republic of Ireland made the European Championships in 1988.......Ray Houghton born in Glasgow headed the winner v England.......we also went to Italia 90 and USA 94, we were coached by a Yorkshire legend and packed with heritage players, BUT AT NO TIME DID WE CLAIM THAT THE SUCCESS OF THAT TEAM WAS PROOF OF THE VEIN OF TALENT AND SUCCESS OF THE GAME IN IRELAND.........and at no time did Frank Stapleton or Liam Brady decide they wanted to play for England.....which they could do as their grandparents would have been born during the period of British Rule........you choose your country and you stick with it....something alien to RL players.

Re: Pop........ The Tongan bubble is done. : Tue Jun 25, 2019 7:49 am  

Psychedelic Casual wrote:

Yet they’re all ethnically Tongan and proud of it!

In fact, ethnically, New Zealand must have the fewest ethnically local people playing for them than any other nation as most of them are Tongan or Samoan or European.

This is something I’ve always wondered about New Zealander’s as there’s a lot of European/Islanders playing for them, who are the native Kiwis that play for NZ, the ones with the ancestral NZ heritage and nothing else.

Re: Pop........ The Tongan bubble is done. : Wed Jun 26, 2019 8:12 pm  

Call Me God wrote:

More than give it a second thought in the Gold Coast, Cronulla, Illawarra, Penrith, Townsville, Canberra, Manly, South Sydney and West Sydney if their average attendance figures are anything to go by....even more so given that 5 of those teams sit above them on the ladder.
Rugby League is the 2nd code in NZ and therefore will struggle for attention, but there are a great many number of fans who watch all sports.....

It could very well be that there's a very good argument from taking one of the Sydney sides to Perth...Cronulla average just 12k.......and they were champions only 2 seasons ago....shocking gates for a champion side!

There were more Tongan fans than NZ fans LOL.

No one cares about RL in NZ. It’s a rugby country not a league country

Re: Pop........ The Tongan bubble is done. : Wed Jun 26, 2019 8:49 pm  

Ruune Rebellion wrote:

There were more Tongan fans than NZ fans LOL.

No one cares about RL in NZ. It’s a rugby country not a league country

No......New Zealand is a "sports" country. I know plenty of Kiwis who follow both codes, as well as Golf, Rowing, Netball, Sailing (the americas cup is a huge thing here), Cricket (loss to Pakistan today was headline news), soccer, softball, basketball......so long as it encourages kids to get out and play, Kiwis get behind the sport.
My 5 Year old plays Union...he started when he was 3. He also attends League lessons, soccer and swimming classes....it is a very Kiwi thing for Parents to give up most of their Saturdays for their Kids "hobbies"......only a few Schools offer sports sides, the majority is done through clubs, with mainly "catholic boys schools" being the predominant Union comp.
My mate's 14 year old lad is on a scholarship to heavyweight school, but has already attracted interests from NRL scouts, of whom there are 3 full tie here in Wellington that I know of.

At the risk of steering this back on topic, Tonga are due to play GB and Australia later this year.......neither test is being played more than a bus ride from South Auckland.......why do you think that is? In case you are in any doubt, it is because Tonga are not the draw some would have you believe...they are NZ B and like the Auckland 9's, they were here, they made some news....and then everyone moved on!