Anzac Test!! :D

Pretty sure the boys are gonna get a touch up on Friday -- 4 days preparation is such a joke and I don't know why they even bother with the Anzac Test if that's all the time the clubs are willing to concede tbh...

Anyways, the squad looks pretty solid and if they gel this week they could cause an upset.

Kiwis (2 to be omitted):

Gerard Beale (Broncos), Adam Blair (Storm), Lewis Brown (Warriors), Matt Duffie (Storm), Greg Eastwood (Bulldogs), Shaun Kenny-Dowall (Roosters), Nathan Fien (Dragons), Kieran Foran (Manly), Bronson Harrison (Canberra), Lance Hohaia (Warriors), Issac Luke (Souths), Sam McKendry (Penrith), Simon Mannering (Warriors), Benji Marshall (c, Tigers), Ben Matulino (Warriors), Fuifui Moimoi (Parramatta), Jason Nightingale (Dragons), Sam Rapira (Warriors), Jeremy Smith (Sharks).

Actually, did anyone see Eastwood on the field for the cowboys? WHO THE FUCK ATE ALL THE BRITISH PIES? I know he's always been chubby but he looked fkn obese out there... the commentators couldn't help but comment on how off the pace he was. Hopefully he's not in the 17...

Kangaroos:

Billy Slater, Brett Morris, Greg Inglis, Justin Hodges, Jharal Yow Yeh, Darren Lockyer (capt), Johnathan Thurston, Matt Scott, Cameron Smith, Petero Civoniceva, Sam Thaiday, Ben Creagh, Paul Gallen. Interchange: Cooper Cronk, Ben Hannant, Jamal Idris, David Shillington.

gonna carve us up out wide I imagine

Shillington out - Kade Snowden in.

Wouldn't be too worried about our defence out wide with SKD and Mannering in the centres mate! Should be a good game, but as usual I'm worried about the one off test. We just aren't able to click like the Aussies are.



gc.

Strange squad. Matulino is lucky to be there, same with Beale and Duffie.. Surprised not to see Steve Matai and Frank Pritchard in there too. See how we go I guess.

Matai is a liability.

Realy don't know why we are playing this Test, its a fucken shambless ... I have never seen us win one and most of the time we get a spanking.

Mannering got showed up a whole lot in a game he was playing centres recently I think it was the Manly game? He's a bit too slow for that position now I fear.

I'd have preferred Matai at left centre as well. He's a risky kinda player but I think you have to take some risks to win this test match. At the very least he might take that prick Slater's head off :>

Slater scores most of his points up the middle anyway. As they said on the tele last night it's a strong defensive team, and players like Pritchard & Matai probably don't fit into that picture. Agreed that Matulino is pretty lucky to be there, but if he smashes Slater or that other fuckwit Hodges I'll be happy.



gc.

Duffie sounds and looks like a homo IMO.
Inu for wing !
mannering in the centers smacks of trying to find a place for him sInce he can't cut it with the other second row options . Would much rather gave seen the in form matai playing. SInce he isn't it Looks like Luke may miss out which seems wrong

Agree with pretty much everything you said Maestro, but fuck you and your tagline imo

Why would Luke miss out?



gc.

Well I assume with manerring already playing centre that means we need cover there which means brown will play. So if he and Luke play that's two pretty small dudes on the bench.....not ideal for a test match

Luke will start at hooker and play 80 mins or close to it I'd say.

Fein will play hooker and Luke will come off the bench.

An outside bet might be Gerard Beale starting at fullback and Hohaia on the bench or missing out altogether.

Even though Hohaia has been playing fullback for sometime I still don't rate him as a "proper" fullback. I'd rather have one of the other guys play there.

Nightingale at fullback and Beale/Duffie on the wings then? Tough to pick really with so many utility types.

- Nightingale can play fullback or wing
- Beale can cover all 3 of the outside back positions
- Brown @ Centre / 2RF
- Hohaia at the back or any of the 3 half positions



gc.

Ya I guess its kind of pointless speculating until Kearny names his 17 today, so many possibilities! I got mega confused thinking them through but thats possibly because I assumed (not unreasonably becuse of his form) that Brown will be selected. But I forgot that he is actually uncapped

Anyway....if you leave out Brown and assume Lance is fullback and back up to the halves (in fact entire backline + hooker),....then it starts to get a little easier

Still a little dissapointedand perplexed that Matalino > my fav kiwi JWH, but Kearny watches for league than me.... so I will let it slide, unless we get pummeled in the forwards in which case I will raise his non selection again. I like kiwi packs to contain at least one enforcer!
.....................................................................^................

Kiwis: Lance Hohaia, Matt Duffie, Simon Mannering, Jason Nightingale, Benji Marshall (c), Kieran Foran; Sam Rapira, Nathan Fien, Sam Kendry, Adam Blair, Bronson Harrison, Jeremy Smith. Interchange: Issac Luke, Ben Matulino, Fuifui Moimoi, Greg Eastwood,

Lewis Brown (18th man)

Injury clouds over Blair and Fien, both should be okay though.

Very defensive orientated team. Our forwards look awesome. Solid but bar Marshall not a spectacular backline. We're gearing up for a streetfight. A brutal defensive shutdown of the more flamboyant Aussie side. Gonna be awesome, I sense an exciting game!

*buys beers*

If we were gearing up for a street fight we would have chosen Jared WH and Steve Matai

I think Kearney has gone for players we knows well and he can structure as much as possible, why else would Eastood get selected after less than 2 games back in the NRL and some guy whose name rhymes with fluffy get selected over Inu.

What he is saying is "I cant mould a firebrand team with this much time, so Im going with as solid a squad as possible"

Quiote frankly I dont like it...but I'll certainly be watching and hoping Im wrong

Fuck Inu.

He's had a couple of great games and now everyone thinks he's the fucking messiah? Admittedly he's excellent under the high ball, but his attitude and intensity still seems below what is needed for international footy. Duffie is a great future prospect - gaining strength, got some real wheels and safe hands. I think we're just as good, if not better than those 2 Aussie wingers.

Kearny has said publically that he is enjoying a stable selection policy, so picking players that he knows makes sense re: Eastwood.



gc.

I'm with you bro...not really my kind of Kiwi team.

Aside from us having maybe the best ever(?) Kiwis halves pairing of Foran/Marshall.

Are we that confident that we're going to start with 12 men?

Finally!

Ive always been an Inu fan fwiw, I LIKE his casual look-at-me-and-all-my time steez. Its amusing. Love a guy who backs himself with mad skills, and I dont mind if hes not_quite as good as he thinks he is either.

Thats why i love Carlos Spencer, The Situation and *Re-Action*

Hahahah... You can 'like' players, but that doesn't mean that you'd pick them in your team.

I 'like' a few cricketers, but that doesn't mean I'd want them in my international team!



gc.

Heh, true enough. I was stoned and about to crash when I wrote that, it doesn't really make sense to me either heh.

It *is* very defensive orientated tho. Personally I would like to have seen one more dude who can bend or break the line in there like Pritchard over another tackling machine in Matulino.

And I would have gone jor Junior Sau over Matai or Mannering at centre. He's been having a great year!

Yeah street fight was a poor choice of words heh, war of attrition is better perhaps. Agree on Sau...I really like the way he drives legs hard in the tackle

Yeah this is true dude,..but its clearly superseded by





Not only that...his name also rhymes with Buffy and almost rhymes with cuddly. I reckon he'll have a shocker


Looking forward to the game!

wow McIvor is so AWFUL as a live commentator, please just give us the Aussie and their bias

Aussies didn't win that game, Kiwis lost it. They played like shit (apart from only few selected individuals) against, what I thought, was an average performing Kangaroos side.

I wish we could listen to the Aussie commentators. Can't stand McIvor. Sky TV waste their money sending a team over there to cover the game when the Aussie coverage is clearly superior.

I wish they would broadcast the Aussie commentary on another channel.

Disappointing game. NZ looked dangerous at times, but pretty much spent the whole game defending due to their poor ball handling.

They do have alternative commentary (if you have MySky at least) but it's out of sync by a second or so which is kinda tilting :/

How does that work gummi?

*lockyear lollipops a simple catch to Nightingale with no green jerseys in sight*





League is exciting enough dude! You dont have to make stuff up!

Plus the amount of times he went to say "Kangaroos" and half said "kiwis" before correcting himself..and vice versa....honestly it just about ruined the whoel game for me, I muted it for quite a while but that was too weird

Not sure how it works bro -- I only haz peasant TV

But my mate often does it for these games at his place but it is out of sync which is even more annoying to watch. WIll ask him next time I see him though.

I have no idea why the fuck they don't get Dale Husband in there McIvor, and to lesser extent Halligan, are fucking atrocious!

Rattue on the money again re McIvor

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10724305

I think Halligan is worse tbh. He's a babbling idiot. But yeah I also hate McIvor - I think he's good as a front man for the various league shows, but as a live commentator he's a retard.

Alternative commentary is just done via the setup menu on MySky. We listened to Rabs and co on Fri night.



gc.

We tried to listen to the channel 9 commentary but the 1 second delay was fucking me off so had to switch back.

Ya having it out of sync is too unbearable. Pretty close between that and McIvor though!

Must be psychological lads - there were 8 of us at my place and nobody noticed a thing. I'm usually a psycho when it comes to that sort of thing too.

:>

gc.

It fucked me off because, for example, you would see a player kick the ball and then a second later, hear it. Plus big hits etc, the reaction was always delayed. We tried it for about 5 minutes but gave up...

Same reason why I can't watch bad quality avi's etc.

I can't watch a film or tv show with the sound sync off, but for some reason we didn't even notice it!



gc.