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François, I admire the irrepressible optimism of someone who can start a sentence with "I believe Deans has great plans ..." and then find a flow of words to finish it. I can still dimly remember when I might have been able to finish such a sentence myself.

I'm finding it hard to get my head around the relentless sneering at Wests. I think they're a great club who've been knocking on the door of serious success for quite a few years. I hope it comes to them soon.

Perhaps in the present discussion Voltaire's Candide is more appropriate. Among our membership are more than a few who would echo Dr Pangloss's mantra that "All is for the best in this best of all possible worlds." Meanwhile John O'Neill, playing the principal role - what else - of Candide...

Karl, I think our code offers inadequate pathways for "good/great club players". The principal official pathway to the professional level is via the National Talent Squad (NTS). Under this scheme "80+ players aged 15 - 18" from all around Australia are involved in intensive skill and...

We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I will say: It is to wage war, by having a committee which will interview those who got us into this mess and then spend three long months...

This has got be a generational thing. Let me see if I've got it right. The young bloke, totally bare-arsed and accompanied by a quintet of vestal virgins, arrives at a bar and goes inside while the young ladies dutifully wait outside. Having committed a degree of mayhem for which he showed...

A great analogy, Hawko. Very apt.

Diligence is not one of the national selectors' KPIs, LG, as you probably realise. I love that Jack Gibson quote which I've not previously come across. Great wisdom expressed in his unique style. While we're focussed on enigmatic utterances I remember Greg Harris telling me about his First...

I have a mental image of them all adjusting their boxes while the ball was in flight, LG. Certainly there was imperceptible bat movement. Not to worry, I write to amuse myself.

Obviously you're excluding the player whose card has been marked never-to-be-picked or even considered.

If you really wanted to attract thirsty homesick Aussies what about "The Dead Dingo's Donger"?

Clearly "succinct" has an alternative meaning I'm unfamiliar with.

All good ocker pub names.

I understand that Randwick for example have begun implementing a similar scheme, IS. It's not something that can be done instantaneously. The system at Sydney Uni has been developing for quite a number of years. My initial post in this thread recognised the reality that most clubs cannot...

What I advocated, fp, was "to have specialist coaches travel to the Sydney and Brisbane Premiership Clubs to provide high standard training to a select group of committed Grade and Colts players." That doesn't seem to allow much latitude for "letting club land get their mitts in on it". Further...

I'll back you to outlast them, wj.

We have to be very careful to avoid player burnout.

Right on, Braveheart. Even the most deluded Deans slater should realise that our national coach-for-life would never have three half backs in a squad. It would be almost as absurd as having only one No. 7 in a squad, or - to use an even more ridiculous example - playing a 35-year-old 197cm 117kg...

Langthorne, your suggestion is the logical way forward. The new National Academy system involves plucking players out of their clubs and paying them to train in the Sydney and Brisbane academies. The amounts they are being paid would probably not recompense most of them for the time and cost of...

Other than on Mardi Gras weekend, Hawko.