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Where to for quality Rugby journalism???

Athilnaur

Athilnaur

Arch Winning (36)
I actually enjoyed Marto's efforts tonight, pretty positive and light hearted, his main reason for not wanting Benji was hilarious 'makes errors, no defense, well, we've already got one of those!'. He also almost choked on the Reds Crusaders tip. I actually think he has made a genuine effort to be more engaging and open minded lately after all the heat he has been copping.

Personally I like the commentary to have some humour and he can be quite good at keeping straight shooters like Cannon Kafer and Sharpe, even McArdle, light. Same for Kearns. Not sold on either of them as game commentators though, about the only good one there is Sharpe and Cannon makes my eyes bleed, esp his post match Qs. Dumbass.
 
Bruce Ross

Bruce Ross

Ken Catchpole (46)
Each Sunday morning I sally forth to purchase The Sun-Herald. Historically the Fairfax publications used to cater for the sentence-forming section of the Sydney population, but alas no more. So I buy the paper basically for its TV Guide. But I always make a point of devouring the latest outpourings from the thinking person's rugby journalist, Matthew "I played Super Rugby and you didn't" Burke.

Imagine my excitement this AM when there on the back page I spied the teaser, "Matthew Burke: With 781 days until the World Cup, the Wallabies coaches need to plan ahead"

Wow! Run-of-the-mill journos might have waited until they could announce, "With exactly two years until the World Cup" or "With just 700 days until the World Cup", but Matthew has intrigued us and perplexed us in trying to decipher the significance of "781 days". I seem to recall some mention a couple of decades ago that there was a small but flourishing Numerology Club at Joey's which had a lot of commonality of membership with the Lightning Chess group at the College, so my guess is that Matthew would have been a leading light among them.

Be that as it may, Matthew's experience of Super Rugby means that his injunction that "the Wallabies coaches need to plan ahead" has to be treated with particular gravitas. The fact that he has gone public with this suggests that he has forgiven Ewen for spearing him from the 'Tahs, but I can't help thinking that had Matthew issued the same advice to Robbie 781 days before the last World Cup, our then-coach might have been spared the embarrassment of saying, "Oh, just play what's in front of you", when caught on the hop by players asking for instructions.

Notwithstanding the fact that the essence of Matt's article is perfectly encapsulated in just those 13 words on the back page, there are still some gems embedded in it:

"Yes, there is the immediate goal of Bledisloe success, but to claim a third World Cup would be something special." Write it down, boys, and pin to the back of the dunny door. That's going to be our mantra for 2015: "To claim a third World Cup would be something special."

"The Wallabies announced their 40-man squad on Friday and I did like that incoming coach Ewen McKenzie included some new blood." That's real lateral thinking by Link; 40 of the buggers and Link came up with the idea of including a few who hadn't already been capped. Now I know we're on the right path.
 
Bruce Ross

Bruce Ross

Ken Catchpole (46)
And one more pearler:

"The new coach spoke of combining talent and attitude. The latter for me is the most important because everyone at that level has about the same amount of talent."

Exactly the same thought occurred to me three decades ago watching Mark Ella in a Test. I reflected, "I wonder how many people realise that all those blokes out there have the same amount of talent as Mark."
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Dan54

Dan54

David Wilson (68)
Bruce Ross said:
And one more pearler:

"The new coach spoke of combining talent and attitude. The latter for me is the most important because everyone at that level has about the same amount of talent."

Exactly the same thought occurred to me three decades ago watching Mark Ella in a Test. I reflected, "I wonder how many people realise that all those blokes out there have the same amount of talent as Mark."
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That is very very good Bruce, I think perhaps all the rest were just to shy to show all the remarkable skills and talent that Ella had!!
 
Pfitzy

Pfitzy

Nathan Sharpe (72)
Nice to see some things haven't changed: Growden is still a "journalist" by virtue of sitting on his arse, browsing the internet, and making shit up.

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I hate autocorrect ...
 
cyclopath

cyclopath

George Smith (75)
Staff member
Pfitzy said:
Nice to see some things haven't changed: Growden is still a "journalist" by virtue of sitting on his arse, browsing the internet, and making shit up.

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I hate autocorrect .
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Shit! I'm a journalist too! Must update my LinkedIn profile.
 
Braveheart81

Braveheart81

Will Genia (78)
Staff member
JSRF10

JSRF10

Dick Tooth (41)
Does Growdens article mean that Cheika is just going back to Europe to see some old mates and will be signing an indefinite contract extension at the Tahs on his return?

Oh and Inside Shoulder congrats on the fame! Did you run over that blokes dog or something?
 
Cat_A

Cat_A

Arch Winning (36)
Braveheart81 said:
This is awesome!

Although it might become confusing if we're discussing what Growden is writing about and he's writing about what we're discussing.

It's like a dog chasing its tail. Or a Growden chasing a pie or something.
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I think the young ones today describe it as "meta" (not to be confused with meat - as in pie - Grumbles, if you're reading)
 
Bruce Ross

Bruce Ross

Ken Catchpole (46)
Our man Scoop is really putting in long hours piecing together his weekly column - long hours with scissors and paste, that is. This week he pads out his contribution with almost 200 words lifted from Richard Loe's newspaper column, then 120+ words from a program interview with Quade Cooper. He hardly has room for his own "viscous rants" when he has to fit in all his guest contributors.

"Viscous rants" - I think he might have just given himself a new nickname.
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Inside Shoulder

Inside Shoulder

Nathan Sharpe (72)
If he meant viscous rants then I'm hurt.
I'm giving myself 10/10 for achieving my aim, assuming of course that Grumbles is correct when he says "the rugby underworld, including some very irritated heavy hitters". I am a bit pissed off that it took so long.
Frankly, revealing all will be something of an anti climax - anyone who cares has worked out what my real name is.
 
Cat_A

Cat_A

Arch Winning (36)
You're Radio, right Inside Shoulder?

Bruce Ross when it comes to incisive commentary about our great game, I don't think we can do any better than Viscous Growden quoting a New Zealand commentator spouting questionable 'news'.

Loe was in Sydney last week.
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Well he must know all then.


"Look at James O'Connor, Kurtley Beale and others. They leave you with the deep suspicion that the only reason they changed franchises was money."
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Arguably Messrs O'Connor and Beale changed/are changing franchises because their old one didn't want them, but ok. I admire your loyalty, Richard, for staying with your original employer - the stock agency firm Pyne Gould Guinness - despite numerous better offers, including some from the media. Oh, hang on... Seems changing jobs for the money happens more often than you'd think.

"Cooper was part of the so-called Three Amigos: and none of those guys give you confidence they are part of a team. The Aussies told me that Eddie Jones, when he was coach, had similar [but lesser problems] with players like Matt Henjak and Matt Giteau. Puts Robbie Deans' problems with Cooper into context, doesn't it?"
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Kurtley Beale punched his teammate (captain) in South Africa, with no resulting injuries. Matt Henjak punched his teammate and broke his jaw. And there was the out-of-court $16000 settlement for the altercation in South Africa. Richard, with all due respect, how the actual f**k was Henjak a 'lesser problem' than KB (Kurtley Beale)?

And JOC (James O'Connor) was lauded as every team's valuable player, the face of rugby and the darling of the media until the Rebels let him go. And then he wasn't and the media went to town on him because he was no longer protected by a franchise. If Giteau had been let go under the same conditions, are we absolutely positive that the same treatment wouldn't have been dished out to him? Or to put it another way - are you 100% confident that JOC (James O'Connor) is more of a problem than Giteau is/was?

And what has this got to do with Cooper anyway? Has he appeared anywhere alongside either JOC (James O'Connor) or KB (Kurtley Beale) this year in a social capacity in 2013? How do the antics of O'Connor and Beale reflect on Cooper? The only context it adds is that Deans doesn't appear to be very good at people management, and I don't think that's the point you (Richard) are trying to make.


Dear Viscous Growden - if you're going to phone it in and lift large parts of your column, subscribe to the Green and Gold Rugby Daily news email. It contains quality news.
 
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