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ali13ali13

Listed below are comments made by ali13ali13 between Thursday, 23rd October 2008 and Wednesday, 31st December 2008.

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The downer Down Under 12:30pm on 31 Dec 2008 Definitely not a great year for Australian sport but I have still enjoyed watching our teams in action. The Kangaroos played some wonderful Rugby League at the World Cup, and are still by far the best rugby team in the world of either code. NZ played brilliantly in the final, and needed all the 50-50 calls to go their way to get the win.

As for the cricket, well it's obvious we are not the side we used to be. All great teams have to come to an end at one point, and we need to unearth some great bowlers. I can see us being off the top spot for a few years now, probably hovering in the top 4 or so nations. However, I look forward to enjoying more competitive matches and a return of the days where I was desperate to see us win. In fairness, in recent years I have attended most cricket matches with the hope of seeing a close contest, not necessarily an Aussie win.

And as for football, I thought the article was a bit harsh. We are currently going very well in World Cup qualifiers, and I'm sure I read recently have reached our highest ever World ranking. Only a major stumble can stop us getting to South Africa from here!

As for all other sports and especially rugby union (just thought I'd mention this as the BBC spends far too much time obsessing over this very boring sport), who cares!
How the World Cup's final flourish silenced its critics 12:43pm on 24 Nov 2008 I don’t believe the problem is imports. The players coming over are on the whole of a pretty good quality. At least far better than their predecessors of the late 1990s. This is dragging up the standard of Super League, to what I believe as an Aussie is a very similar standard to the NRL.

However I would like to see a few less imports, and the RFL are working to bring this about from next season. It would be nice to see a slight increase in the number of English Rugby League players who are full-time pros. At the same time though, you can’t kick out all the imports as the standard of the competition would drop dramatically.

On the World Cup, I really enjoyed it. It was well worth the wait. I really enjoyed watching the unknown players from the Fijian and PNG domestic competitions. It looks like about half a dozen of these guys will be getting professional contracts in Australia, so that is yet another positive to come out of this tournament.
What is the point of the rugby league World Cup? 2:19pm on 23 Oct 2008 I can’t wait for the World Cup to start on Saturday. For mine we need to develop the International dimension of Rugby League if the sport is to thrive in the 21st Centruy. The organisers have got a lot of things right about this World Cup. Tickets sales, sponsorship and government support are all strong.

Yes the nation swapping rule is strange and unique to Rugby League. But on the positive, this has created 2 wonderfully strong Pacific Island teams in Samoa and Tonga. I think Samoa will reach the semi finals, and when there could easily cause an upset.

And lastly to whoever said Union and League were the equal in Australia, you’ve obviously never been to Australia. It probably wont come across in this World Cup due to infighting and the insular NRL centric view of the World held by many Aussie Rugby League fans, but Rugby League in Australia is about 5 times the size of Union. Look at any measure, playing numbers, overall number of spectators attending games, TV ratings, column inches. Rugby League in Aus leaves Union for dead. I know as I am from Sydney!

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