Josh Papalii pledges allegiance to Australia

Junior11

Junior11

Danny 'Bedsy' Buderus
Josh Papalli has officially chosen to represent Queensland/Australia over New Zealand. He said he has lived in Australia for almost all his life and he would be proud to play in the Maroon and Green & Gold.

Thoughts??
 
I have nothing against it. If I was born overseas but grew up in Newcastle all my life like have, I'd easily still wanna represent Newcastle & Australia.
 
Completely agree, I have no problem whatsoever with it and I also have no problem with majority of these cases.

I reckon Mal could talk his way into getting Taylor Swift into his bed btw.
 
That's one thing i don't like though. Mal Meninga. He's making Australia, Queensland & State of Origin look bad. Wish he would just **** off & let guys make their own choices instead of persuading them. Every month there's a new story about a player he is trying to get to play for QLD.
 
Absolutely ridiculous. It's no wonder State of Origin and Internationals are becoming a mockery. If you have the chance to play for a mockery of an International league where you can play for two teams and play State of Origin of course you're gonna choose Origin. There really needs to be tougher rules on selection, so people like James Tamou and Josh Papali, who played for the Junior Kiwis can't just choose the nation they play for. An absolute joke in my opinion, when is it gonna end?
 
It's not like he's ever going to play for Queensland or Australia so who cares.

But if a player wasn't born in Australia but has spent most of their life here, has come up through the ranks here and respect and honour Australia then I don't have a problem with it. Benji Marshall played for the Australian schoolboys and now he's the NZ captain so it goes both ways. You can't deny players the right to play for the country they've spent most their lives in because they were born somewhere else.

The problem I do have though is a case like Nathan Fien and Chris Heighington. They were born in Australia, never spent a day in NZ or England but because their great grandmother or something has ties to these country's they play for them.

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Josh Hill said:
That's one thing i don't like though. Mal Meninga. He's making Australia, Queensland & State of Origin look bad. Wish he would just **** off & let guys make their own choices instead of persuading them. Every month there's a new story about a player he is trying to get to play for QLD.
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To be fair Kearny and Kemp do just as much persuading, I agree a player should be able to make up his own mind but Mal definitely isn't the only one talking the only difference is it seems to be Mal who always wins. Both country representatives should have nothing to do with the decision process but that's never going to happen.
 
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Junior11 said:
The problem I do have though is a case like Nathan Fien and Chris Heighington. They were born in Australia, never spent a day in NZ or England but because their great grandmother or something has ties to these country's they play for them.
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That's rubbish about Fien, he qualified for NZ through residency!

Papalii has obviously just switched over to replresent Queensland and Australia for the money, he said it himself a few days ago. He's exactly the same as Tamou. And Uate. Anyone who doesn't think this doesn't cheapen Origin is kidding themselves.

People don't say they wanna play for NZ, sign letters of intent to do so, play for the junior sides and then just change their mind, unless someone is constantly in their ear and waving a wad of cash at them.

Perhaps they should rename State of Origin, State of Where I Lived for a Few Years, at One Stage of My Life, Several Years Ago.

Junior11 said:
To be fair Kearny and Kemp do just as much persuading, I agree a player should be able to make up his own mind but Mal definitely isn't the only one talking the only difference is it seems to be Mal who always wins.
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I think the chequebook wins.
 
jamesgould said:
People don't say they wanna play for NZ, sign letters of intent to do so, play for the junior sides and then just change their mind, unless someone is constantly in their ear and waving a wad of cash at them.
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Couldn't be truer. He already made up his mind & even played for the Junior Kiwis, so he shouldn't be allowed to change. I don't have a problem with him being eligible from living here for most of his life but i do have a problem with him suddenly changing when his decision was already NZ.
 
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Alot of the Kiwi players played for the Australian schoolboys, does that mean that they must play for Australia for the rest of their careers? This has been going on for years.

Unless someone has a solution to this problem I don't see the point of just whinging about it. I agree it's not perfect but I just can't see a better alternative.

The only thing I'd suggest is that a player must pledge to their chosen country when they sign their FIRST professional contract whether it be NYC, NSW/QLD Cup or NRL and they must stick to it.
 
Junior11 said:
The only thing I'd suggest is that a player must pledge to their chosen country when they sign their FIRST professional contract whether it be NYC, NSW/QLD Cup or NRL and they must stick to it.
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There's pros & cons both ways. It seems like the most sensible thing to do, it would stop all this bullsh*t. The con would be that it would weaken all the small nations in the World Cup because every Aussie kid with Islander or European descent will take the chance that they may make the Australian team one day & choose them instead of accepting they will never make it for Australia.

For the 2013 WC it'd be nice to see players that don't make the Aussie, NZ or England squad can go & play for weaker nations. Like Hayne & the Sims bros could play for Fiji if not picked Australia & stuff like that.
 
Yeah I definitely agree with that. It's all well and good to stop Kiwis playing for Australia and Australians playing for NZ but then if you do that then surely it'll have to apply for the players from smaller nations or countries that don't play Rugby League which would create massive dramas imo.

It's too complicated for me to even think about anymore lol
 
Junior11 said:
Alot of the Kiwi players played for the Australian schoolboys, does that mean that they must play for Australia for the rest of their careers? This has been going on for years.
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No of course it doesn't, but this is a change-around within a matter of months ... Tamou was a matter of days. It's dollars, that's all it is ... and if you guys want players wearing the Australian and state jerseys for that reason then you're welcome to the losers.

Say what you will about the players who have come to NZ, they have done it because they have a passion for the jersey and the country. Because they got bugger all money for it.

I will just add that the Kiwis who play for Australian Schoolboys all live in Australia when selected, so it makes sense for them to play for that side (how would NZ Schoolboys selectors even know anything about them?). Papalii lived in Aus when chosen for the Junior Kiwis, going out of his way to represent them.
 
The Australians and others who want to play for NZ I wouldn't say are doing it for the passion and for the country. I'd say they're doing it because they know they'll never make the Australian rep sides so they want to at least get some sort of pay rise by playing international footy.

Guys like Tamou are no doubt doing it for the money but you can't sit there and tell me that even though Australia pays more that England's and NZ's paycheques have nothing to do with players like Heigington, Winterstein, Fien, Hoffman, Beale etc jumping ship
 
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Haha, that's ridiculous! The payment for the Kiwis until recently has been a very small amount per match ... the type of amount that you'd hold out and hope you got into Origin! Fien had already played for Queensland, And the way Meninga was after Hoffman you'd certainly think he would have been a big chance at some stage in his career.

I've also never heard a Kiwi player say they've come across to NZ for the money ... where-as Uate, Tamou and Papalii have all said that's their main motivation.

To play $tate of Origin, bro!
 
It's crazy to say all those players had no chance at Origin ... given they have overseas heritage, some might say going by recent selections, they are actually more likely to be selected than bona-fide Australians. You lot don't seem to be able to breed your own, anymore!
 
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