Is SOO turning into a joke

http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/nrl/maroons-may-pick-kiwi-born-sam-kasiano-to-replace-dave-taylor-for-origin-iii/story-e6frepbx-1226398065418

Farcical really, but for any young kiwi kid it’s a simple matter of finance....you get $50k to play at the highest level.....or stuff all to play for your country.

It’s not State of Origin, it’s State-where-you-first-played-league-in-Australia...just look at the Inglis farce.

Sadly, the Australians see this as the pinnacle of the sport so to hell with the international game. No wonder Intl league is a joke....

It has been a joke for a while now in terms of the selection and its mainly Queensland that have turned it into a joke.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbgShiaal6E

New Zealands attitude on this one is somewhat precious,Kasiano left Auckland when he was a teenager, and has never played senior football in NZ.

By New Zealand letting Nathan Fien play for the Kiwis, we gave up our right to criticise. Since when has Mount Isa been in New zealand?

aucklandlaurie wrote: New Zealands attitude on this one is somewhat precious,Kasiano left Auckland when he was a teenager, and has never played senior football in NZ.

By New Zealand letting Nathan Fien play for the Kiwis, we gave up our right to criticise. Since when has Mount Isa been in New zealand?

Yes and no. Yes NZ have double standards in that we actively search the Australian scene for players wityh kiwi connections. I know some of the families, and know that some of the Australian born players have very strong kiwi roots, and given the movement accross the tasman it's not surprising our team will contain Australian born and raised players.

The real issue for me is that playing for state of origin effectively sets the seal on national representation. League is too small a sport for this to happen. It's one of the things league does that holds back the sport as whole. If I was the ARL I'd be thinking how can we expand our market, how can we generate more income, how can we be more successful. This isn't it.

League needs to do two things to expand in Australia. To generate more interest within the existing hot beds and expand across Australia it needs to widen it's interest. To do this it ultimately needs to expand the interest beyond Queensland and NSW. The two most obvious ways beyond, the club expansions are tying into state and national fervour. they need a strategy for the gradual introduction of states (even if it starts as a rest of Australasia team and includes Melbourne, Perth and warriors based players), and a genuine competition above SO, ie. test rugby. NZ are the best option for this.

I'm not saying that any the Australian team should leave any player with kiwi connections to NZ. But I think recognizing that NZ is in the Australian market and that Australian clubs target and move NZ players to Australia into their high school feeder schools and clubs would be a start. A level playing field in terms of the international game is only going to benefit everyone in the long run.