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Well, I'm a pretty serious NFL fan. I watch about half the games each week. So it's not a matter of not getting the nuances. But there is only about 30 minutes of actual action -- i.e. 10 seconds at the line of scrimmage through to completion of the play. About half the game time is used up by...

Fp, I'd stay with Shipperly. He's not done much wrong.

This one has been trotted out a bunch of times, so I'm not trying to picking on you, Lee. Sorry. Why is it so hard to see that there is a difference between Quade Cooper - a member of the Wallabies, who played in their last test, who played at the World Cup, who makes a significant proportion...

I thought Cheika said something to that effect it in one of his interviews or missives or whatever... But I could be wrong.

[insert obligatory Qld outrage at derisive suggestion that it would be fine if Quade left rugby] Oh. That was about Barnes? Carry on then. ;)

In addition to rugby, I watch a lot of NFL. Two years ago, my team -- the 49ers -- were one of the worst in football but did have very good players in a number of positions. Before last season, they brought in a new coach but very few new players. They went from the cellar to 13-3 and one game...

Tailgating is more fun than watching NFL live -- turns out all those ad breaks really suck when you're sitting in a freezing stadium. The only downside is that someone has to drive.

Thank God the Wallabies employ their own statistician and carefully cross-check and mine all the available data. Oh.

Which perhaps goes to the injury/recovery point. I can't imagine carrying that type of weight plus scrummaging is great on a rebuilt knee.

Agree with you about not waiting around for a perfect answer. Promotion/relegation could certainly evolve into the right kind of system. Finding a way to get the clubs to buy into any 3rd tier system is, as you say, essential. Your approach might solve that problem, as well as building in an...

Scott, it's a very interesting proposal. But isn't this more of a national club championship than a genuine third tier? Doesn't a third tier need to reduce the number of player positions available so that the quality of competition is higher? Or do you see the divisions as achieving this?

Agreed. But this is a thread about our future centres. Most people are talking about 6-12 months, players back from injury, etc. My point was that writing off Beale in that kind of window is silly.

Memories are short. Not long ago, Beale was one of the best players in the world and winning us games left and right. Since then he has suffered some injuries and developed some bad habits. If the bloke can get fit -- as in, shed the pounds -- he'll find form again. He needs the right support...

One minute Quade was starting, the next minute his knee was broken...

I think it's the likely choice too. But I'd prefer to see Beale at 10 -- we're a bigger threat to score tries that way and God knows we could use some try scoring.

Jesus. Devastating news for Cooper. The poor bastard. It really does make you wonder about rehab and conditioning in Australian rugby, given the enormous number of re-injuries and setbacks. As for the response, moving AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) is the last thing we need to do. I'd prefer to see Kurtley come in at...

You'd be surprised at how little that often is. While stars in the NFL make big bucks, most players do not. Career spans are considerably shorter -- I think the average career is something like 3 years. But I totally agree with your point.

I think that saying "Don't celebrate difference" is often another way of saying "Don't talk about difference". Both do the same thing: they bundle difference over the sideline and out of mind. For the majority, at any rate. Sure, administrators and coaches and so on need to up their game in...

I lived and worked in Canada for some years and it's like that there too. But in Australia some -- not all -- of the unions are staunchly Catholic and socially very conservative, even though they are pro-welfare state and pro-collective labour rights. A good example is the shop assistants union...

Shouldn't that be "interim coaching team"?