Andrew Fifita

[Bowside]

Everyone knows the tahs are the undeserving golden child of Australian Rugby. Still at uni doing a masters in fine arts whilst the his two brothers Queensland and ACT are off winning championships in the real world.

 

[Ash]

Tuqiri is the only one that chose the Waratahs, probably down to the success of the Reds/Waratahs are the time.

Actually, the story goes that Tuqiri's first choice was the Reds, but they refused to guarantee him a spot ahead of their starting wingers (I believe they were Sailor and a young Peter Hynes at the time). The Reds told Tuqiri that he would have to earn his starting spot, and that they were happy with their current set of wingers.

The Waratahs in turn guaranteed Tuqiri a starting position on the wing.

Current success, or lack thereof of either team, had little to nothing to do with it, it was claimed. This makes sense, as the Reds made the semis in 2001, and were one spot from the semis in 2002. The Tahs were lower mid-table in 2001, and second (on the table, knocked out in the semis) in 2002. Performance wise, both teams would've been attractive at that point in time. 2003, the year Lote started rugby, was actually the year that the Reds really started their decline in earnest.

No doubt some other factors were involved, but that's the story that I heard on the grapevine.

Personally, if I was a convert, I'd take the starting guaranteed spot if I knew it'd take time to learn the game.

 

[boyo]

Having lived in Melbourne for the past four years...

Who is Andrew Fifita?

You don't have live only there to ask that.

 

[suckerforred]

What was in it for the ARU to pay to keep him at the Reds when he was going to be playing for another franchise that realistically needed to recruit better players?

And this is a problem I have with the 'apparent' influence that the ARU is having over where players play. If they want to then it should be out in the open & above board through a draft or some other such mechanism. Not fucking around behind the scenes with contracts.

 

[suckerforred]

Maybe it's a case of the Waratahs historically looking for options from rugby league that they know will put bums on seats and then going to the ARU to help out with the deal knowing that the ARU may well be interested because star power helps them out as well?

Maybe the Reds should do the same and if they find the right high profile recruit the ARU will help them out also?

....

I think it is unfair to paint this as ARU favouritism towards the Waratahs without knowing that other franchises have tried similar things and been told by the ARU that they weren't interested in paying some of the cash.

Did the ARU give Foley extra money to stay in Sydney? No.

If Jono Lance wanted to move to Sydney to play for the Tahs, why should anyone stand in his way? The Reds recruited a player from the Tahs who is still only 26 with much better pedigree albeit with two heavily injury plagued seasons behind him.
....

Maybe the Reds prefer to take a long term view in recruiting young players in a hope to demonstrate that they do not have to move codes to be considered for a place.

I will take your word on the Foley thing. Will did the same thing with considering goin to the Force but them putting stuff other than money to the fore to stay in Queensland. I don't take the view that the ARU is terribly bias towards the Tahs but I do take the view that they use their top-up contracts to manipulate where players play.

As for Turner. We had to sign him after Lance & Morahan departed to get experience in the back 3.

 

[Dan54]

Having lived in Melbourne for the past four years...

Who is Andrew Fifita?

Afraid I live in Brisbane and still have to ask same question Slim, the only thing that made me look at his name is I knew a family of Fifitas where I from in NZ. I have to get someone to updat me on league players at some stage.

 

[Dan54]

But no, I not interested enough to find out who plays the game, so guess I'll stay ignorant!!

 

[emuarse]

Maybe it's a case of the Waratahs historically looking for options from rugby league that they know will put bums on seats and then going to the ARU to help out with the deal knowing that the ARU may well be interested because star power helps them out as well?

Maybe the Reds should do the same and if they find the right high profile recruit the ARU will help them out also?

Reds fans in general on this forum seem less keen to try and sign stars from other franchises or recruiting marquee players (whether from the NRL or from overseas) than some of the other franchises' fans in my opinion. There seems to be a very strong push that Reds fans would always prefer to blood a young local than recruit someone from elsewhere.

I think it is unfair to paint this as ARU favouritism towards the Waratahs without knowing that other franchises have tried similar things and been told by the ARU that they weren't interested in paying some of the cash.

We are Red
We are Red
We've made Lauchie Turner an honerary one, but one a year of foreigners is all we allow ourselves to absorb.

 

[Train Without a Station]

Wasn't Turner unwanted by the Waratahs anyway?

 

[fatprop]

He looks alright

 

[Braveheart81]

Everyone knows the tahs are the undeserving golden child of Australian Rugby. Still at uni doing a masters in fine arts whilst the his two brothers Queensland and ACT are off winning championships in the real world.

If you want to catch this New South Welshman, you're going to need a bigger boat.

Sent from my HTC One XL using Tapatalk

 

[Jets]

He looks alright

I'll admit that made me a little hard. Think he'd be a great pick up for rugby.

 

[#1 Tah]

Open your eyes everyone, clearly the ARU and the Waratahs are the same entity.

Thanks to the ARU it's now also so convenient to get from St Leonards to Moore Park, there's never any traffic on the M1 and the Harbour tunnel.

Thanks to the ARU, the Waratahs have now payed top dollar to poach Jono Lance while the Queensland Reds have to settle for Lachie Turner, who almost has as many Wallaby caps as Lance has Super Rugby caps.

Thanks to the ARU, the Waratahs have been able to retain all of their talent, including Kurtley Beale, Rocky Elsom, Ben Mowen, Drew Mitchell and Luke Burgess

Thanks to the ARU, the Waratahs were able to poach Digby Ioane when he left the Force in 2008 due to a desire to live in Brisbane Sydney.

And thanks to the ARU, the Waratahs were able to keep home grown coach Ewen McKenzie after he led the team to the grand final in 2008.

We really do get special treatment.

 

[fatprop]

 

[RugbyReg]

Well that was an odd little rant.

 

[Sandpit Fan]

Open your eyes everyone, clearly the ARU and the Waratahs are the same entity.

We really do get special treatment.

They say that acknowledging you've got a problem is the first step in addressing it Good to see you Waratahs fans starting the process

We really need that fishing icon from the old forum software!

 

[gel]

Most of those players listed were let go by the tahs as they did not feature in their plans.

Put it however you want, the circumstantial evidence is circumstantially overwhelming, I tells ya!!!!

 

[Penguin]

Not to mention Mitchell & Mowen & Elsom came from Queensland stock and Link is more Brumbie than Tah...... but whatever. We've had our share of league converts. Schifofski, Sailor & McLinden.... Willie Carne back in the day. If they want to come here, great, if they'd rather underachieve let em!

 

[Ash]

Carne, oh yes, and what a success he was!

 

[Mr Wobbly]

He looks alright

The mungo game looks alright - when you only watch the highlights