Four Nations 2010

With so many good players to choose from, it's going to be hard to pick the final squad.

Kiwis train-on squad: Alex Glenn, Antonio Winterstein (Brisbane Broncos); Bryson Goodwin, Ben Roberts (Canterbury Bankstown); Bronson Harrison (Canberra Raiders); Greg Eastwood (Leeds Rhinos); Kieran Foran, Steve Matai, Tony Williams (Manly); Adam Blair, Sika Manu (Melbourne Storm); Junior Sa'u, Zeb Taia (Newcastle Knights); Krisnan Inu, Fuifui Moimoi (Parramatta); Sam McKendry, Frank Pritchard (Penrith); Nathan Fien, Jason Nightingale, Jeremy Smith (St George Illawarra); Roy Asotasi, Issac Luke, Eddy Pettybourne, Fetuli Talanoa (South Sydney); Shaun Kenny-Dowall, Joseph Leilua, Mose Masoe, Frank-Paul Nuuausala, Sam Perrett, Jared Waerea-Hargreaves (Sydney Roosters); Lewis Brown, Aaron Heremaia, Lance Hohaia, Kevin Locke, Simon Mannering, Ben Matulino, Russell Packer, Sam Rapira, Jerome Ropati, Ukuma Ta'ai, Manu Vatuvei (New Zealand Warriors); Benji Marshall (Wests Tigers); Thomas Leuluai (Wigan Warriors).

We are going to smash the Aussies!

Very much looking forward to this

Matai (the fkn idiot) is likely to get a 7 match ban apparently I haven't seen incident but was it really that bad?

I also reckon double header at Eden Park will be fucking mean!

Matai smoked a dude in the face off the ball. Retard!

How many players are in the final squad? I can see a few names in there that I don't rate for final selection. Great to see lots of Warriors back in the mix!



gc.

Such a sick squad this year! Some really good players are going to miss out.. I reckon this year it might look less like the Warriors than the Kiwis team can do at times. Kiwi players from the Aussie teams have been ripping shit up this year..

here is the Matai hit (at 3min)...

FUCK HE'S A TOOL!

<3 Matai

Such a stats weapon in Fantasy league, despite the constant infringements

Did the referees not even see it? How did he not get sent off? It's as bad an offence as I've seen in years.

Late
High
Deliberate

they didnt see it

I heard Inglis is going to have surgery and will be unavail which is awesome news for us

And... 7 weeks it is.



gc.

Good news for the warriors then.

Gee, I don't think the kiwis side has had a distinctly warriors look about them for a long time. This year there's more warriors players in the train on squad than there's been for ages!

I dunno bro.. the only new Warrior in this side is Ukuma Tai, isn't it? And last time Fien was a Warrior too...

...and Russell Packer, Lewis Brown and Ropati hasn't been in the side since 08.

I'm not usually one for trainspotting but I'm sure Lewis Brown and Ropati both played the Anzac test this year mate.. Pretty sure anyway...

Skepties bro...

edit: only 4 warriors in kiwis squad for anzac test:

Aaron Heremaia, Lance Hohaia, Ben Matulino, Sam Rapira.

Edit - right:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_ANZAC_Test

This calls for super smarmy winky guy!


There have been injuries as well that have affected the number of Warriors in the Kiwis, Mannering for example was injured this years Anzac test but also the Warriors were quite shit last year so there weren't that many selected.

Kiwis have a great shot of getting over this lot:

Kangaroos squad: Darren Lockyer (c), Sam Thaiday, Tom Learoyd-Lahrs, David Shillington, Paul Gallen, Greg Bird, Anthony Watmough, Cooper Cronk, Billy Slater, Cameron Smith, Kurt Gidley, Matthew Scott, Willie Tonga, Jarryd Hayne, Petero Civoniceva, Luke Lewis, Darius Boyd, Brett Morris, Dean Young, Todd Carney, Nate Myles, Brent Tate, Robbie Farah, Chris Lawrence

and the kiwi squad:

ADAM BLAIR (Melbourne Storm)
LEWIS BROWN ( Warriors)
GREG EASTWOOD (Leeds Rhinos)
NATHAN FIEN (St George Illawarra Dragons)
BRONSON HARRISON (Canberra Raiders)
LANCE HOHAIA (Warriors)
SHAUN KENNY-DOWALL (Sydney Roosters)
THOMAS LEULUAI (Wigan Warriors)
ISSAC LUKE (South Sydney Rabbitohs)
SIMON MANNERING (Warriors)
SIKA MANU (Melbourne)
BENJI MARSHALL - Captain (Wests Tigers)
BEN MATULINO (Warriors)
FUIFUI MOIMOI (Parramatta Eels)
JASON NIGHTINGALE (St George Illawarra Dragons)
FRANK-PAUL NUUAUSALA (Sydney Roosters)
SAM PERRETT (Sydney Roosters)
FRANK PRITCHARD (Penrith Panthers)
JUNIOR SA'U (Newcastle Knights)
JEREMY SMITH (St George Illawarra Dragons)
MANU VATUVEI (Warriors)
JARED WAEREA-HARGREAVES (Sydney Roosters)
ANTONIO WINTERSTEIN (Brisbane Broncos)

Fkn crazy that Asotasi can't even make that squad...

Surely he is injured


Sua and SKD for the centres. No Inglis this season so I expect those two to hold their own there. Centres/Halfs is so crucial in Kiwi/Roo tests so Im much happier going in than usual.

nah i assumed so as well bro and Kearney just said he was one of the really unlucky ones... pretty fkn weird eh? :/

Picking on form then? Asotasi hasn't been at his best this season.

No he hasnt, but he was captain not long ago. Pretty amazing call and I would question Winterstiens selection ahead of him if I didnt have literally no idea how Witherstien has been travelling

Guess thats the end for big Roy, bigass props dont tend to make it back once dumped :/

That notion is a myth in just about every sport. Players are picked on reputation, combinations, gameplan, as well as form. It's an expression which really annoys me because it's blatantly not true in 99% of scenarios.

I thought Frank Pritchard was injured?

Ya Well didnt he miss the Panthers Finals campaign?

That's only as true as any generalisation can be true. Each case is different, some are picked on form, some are picked on rep. There's no hard rule about this.

And to be fair, Asotasi has not been performing as well as the props picked in this squad, who are definitely among the form forwards of the comp.

I just got really annoyed with it leading up to the World Cup when countless pundits always loved to say how certain managers picked on form when even ignoring the problems I outlined with the statement, they blatantly didn't. It's some sort of throw away phrase among pundits which ignores a bunch of players in any team who clearly aren't there because of recent form.

Who's gonna head to double header at Eden Park?

Me and the lads are going - I think there will be 10 of us!



gc.

A dozen of us from work are going.

Got my ticket, will be there with a group of 8.

damn....am I missing something? Why is my man JHG not being selected? We could use an enforcer imo

Who the hell is JHG?



gc.

Jared Waerea-Hargreaves???

LOL- TXTSPK THRZ FCKUP?

MST BE LOL!



gc.

Ozzies don't have Thurston. Kiwis by 13 +

ya tht ws awfly rshd post sry

Wee we probably should hazve seen that cmoning really, Kiwis favourites at the TAB, game at Eden Park etc

SURELY JWH for the final, we were totally dominated in the mongrel dept by Gallen and Bird. Id play Bronson Harrison as well

I got sick of telling everybody that there is no such thing as a weak Aussies side. They are favourites ALWAYS!

I even had a fukll on argument with someone eho told me they were so disappointed by the inevitable one sided result that he wasn't sure if he was going to go and take his boy anymore. I couldn't resist sending him a "I warned you!" text after the game.

Basically, we were caught off guard by the speed of the Aussies defense and were out mongreled in the play the ball. A few players had shockers but a lot of it was due to the pressure the Aussies were putting on us. It's a wake up call, hopefully the boys can get up for it next week...

Yeah it was weird how media kept calling the Roos line up "2nd string", when resting Lockyear and swapping Slater for Darius braely makes a ripple on the sides strength. There was money to be made there

Kearney has named a large bench with the idea of trimming it for the game. I'd like to see Bronson Harrison get a run, the Kiwis could do with his offloading ability out wide. As much as i like Matulino, he's too defensive orientated, we need to score points to win, we're not going to hold them out...

Holy fuck that was epic

Woooooooooooooo fuck you Australia!!!!

(possibly still drunk)

I am thankful that I got home to a tv in time to see most of the game. Would have been pissed if I missed out on seeing that epic win.

so glad I saw that live

Jeremy Smith was incredible. If an opponent is running a different line to where he is at he just sticks an arm out and stops them in their tracks when he has no right to stop them at all, let alone make a dominate tackle.

Must admit when the Roos scored that 1st try from a player being in touch on the back of an awful penatly I didnt think it would be our day at all. Changed my mind when Lewis was nobbeled and then losing Tate was huge so we really got a bit lucky there. He was involved in that half time stoush too I wonder if thats how he did his ACL