Kangaroos train-on squad named

Yeah, I dobt any ESL players will be included ... unless their teams are out of the finals already.
 
Stuart to 'never pick' Grothe again

By GLENN JACKSON - SMH | Thursday, 27 September 2007

ON THE NOSE: Kangaroos coach Ricky Stuart wants nothing to do with Eric Grothe after the Eels wing pulled a no-show to a team session.

Eric Grothe's representative future is in serious doubt after the Parramatta winger missed a training session with the Kangaroos yesterday, attracting a stinging rebuke from coach Ricky Stuart.
Stuart suggested Grothe would never be picked for Australia while he was coach after Grothe's second no-show for a representative training session.
Grothe had been out drinking with Eels teammates on Tuesday night but players contacted yesterday by the Herald claimed to be unaware of his whereabouts.
Yesterday's session involved 20 players from the Kangaroos' train-on squad.
Stuart made no effort to hide his disappointment. "I'm not going to lie, he didn't lob," he said. "He knew about it, and he'll be no longer in our plans. And I hope the selectors and the ARL understand that's only my decision, but I hope they take it on board.
"A person who's not going to respect the jumper, as I said from day one when I got this job, he won't be in my plans this year and/or in the future."
Asked how he felt over his stand, Stuart said: "Satisfied, actually. He gives me great evidence today in regards to where his indications lie, and that's obviously to have a drink with his mates."
The dramatic development follows a similar no-show by the 27-year-old last year for a City Origin camp. He later claimed to have slept in after losing his mobile telephone during a night out. On that occasion, Grothe turned up two-and-a-half hours late for the SCG session.
There may be a similar excuse this time. Grothe was out with Eels teammates on Tuesday night, continuing Mad Monday celebrations following their exit from the competition at the hands of Melbourne last Sunday, with Daniel Wagon telling the Herald: "I was with him yesterday morning. His phone died on Tuesday night. He dropped it after the game and his battery cracked. He hasn't got a new one yet. I've been trying to ring him myself."
Stuart said he had not heard from Grothe as the squad was put through an hour-long session at the Sydney Football Stadium.
The fact that Grothe has effectively been black-balled from Australian calculations could also have dire consequences for his State of Origin aspirations.
His manager Andrew Purcell said he had been unable to contact Grothe yesterday. "I've left a message with him, but I'm not sure where he is," he said.
"I'll endeavour to catch up with him in the next day or so ? [but] there could be a legitimate reason."
Still, the fact that two players had travelled from Townsville to attend the session will make Grothe's no-show even more difficult to explain.
Cowboys enforcer Carl Webb turned up to be ruled out of the Test with a calf tear, while fullback Matt Bowen joined him on the sidelines at the training session, as Stuart had excused the players involved in preliminary finals from training.
The other absentees were Scott Prince, whose flight from the Gold Coast was delayed, and Warriors prop Steve Price, who was not required to travel from Auckland.
Meanwhile, Sharks lock Paul Gallen is also expected to be ruled out of the side. It seems likely he will require a shoulder reconstruction which would also impact on the start of next season.
Gallen will see a shoulder specialist tomorrow, but admitted after medical staff had studied scans of his shoulder that "it doesn't look too good".
Gallen hurt his shoulder in the Prime Minister XIII's 28-28 draw with Papua New Guinea last weekend.
"I'm a little bit worried about it at the moment but, fingers crossed, it'll be all right," he said.
Stuart, foreshadowing a changing of the guard "in a few positions", also suggested Bulldogs forward Willie Mason was facing an uphill battle to be picked for the clash.
Asked about the recent speculation that Mason might miss out, Stuart said: "I think it's fair comment. I think you'll find a few new faces in this 18 on Monday. If you spoke to Willie about it, I think he would agree with me in regards to the comment."
Stuart handed the inside running for the contentious halfback spot to Sunday's grand finalists - Manly's Matt Orford and Melbourne's Cooper Cronk.
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Grothe yet to contact ARL after no-show

Thursday, September 27, 2007 - 5:01 PM

Eric Grothe is on his own, according to his club and manager, while the Australian Rugby League has backed the stinging rebuke delivered by Test coach Ricky Stuart after the Parramatta winger failed to show up to Kangaroos training.

Manager Andrew Purcell was the only party to have successfully contacted Grothe after the 27-year-old's no-show at the Australian train-on squad's run at the Sydney Football Stadium on Wednesday.

"I imagine that in his own time Eric might provide an explanation to Sticky (Stuart)," Purcell told AAP.

"He's his own person and he's just finished off a pretty hectic year and he's just going to sit back, I think he's due to go away, so I think he's more concentrating on that sort of stuff.

"Eric doesn't necessarily want to inflame the situation any further so there's nothing to report ... he's just going to move on basically.

"He's given me nothing to go on and I'm not going to make any representations on his behalf at all so he doesn't really want to make a comment.

"He's his own person and he lives his own life."

Parramatta officials said they had still not heard from Grothe and the ball was now in his court.

"It's up to Eric," chief executive Denis Fitzgerald said.

ARL boss Geoff Carr said he'd been briefed by Kangaroos staff and he supported calls from Stuart to bar Grothe from selection for the Test against New Zealand in Wellington on October 14.

"(Our people) notified Parramatta and Parramatta haven't been able to confirm one way or the other what he's doing so I think Ricky made it clear," Carr said.

"(Stuart's) not a selector but he'll be notifying the selectors he doesn't want him considered so my guess is that's what will happen.

"If a player doesn't turn up to those sorts of things it makes it very difficult for them to be considered.

"So as far as our point of view is concerned we will back the coach and he won't be considered for this particular game."

Asked if the ban would extend to State of Origin games, Carr said: "That would be a board decision down the track."

But the ARL chief executive is not holding his breath for a reply from Grothe.

"I don't know what to expect from Eric and that's going to be up to him," he said.

Meanwhile, Eels great Ray Price, a former teammate of Grothe's father Eric senior, sprang to the defence of Eric junior.

"Story has it he told them he didn't want to play," Price wrote on a News Limited website.

"He's a very unassuming person, quiet, (keeps) to himself. He likes his band.

"I know he told selectors he wouldn't be there because they need people who want to be there.

"And I work with his father and brother and they've got no need to tell porkies."
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jamesgould said:
Haha, the guy's a legend! Seabass is distraught, however.
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Yeah im not even wasting my time going to Wellington anymore :D . its a very sad day indeed. Ricky Stuart is being a knob regarding this. LEAVE ERIC ALONE!
 
Haha yeah I actually would love to go regardless of who is playing. Its just a matter of cost. I have to choose between the league in Wellington or skiing up the mountain! Its a tough one.
 
" The 2008 Rugby League World Cup will be the 13th World Cup, an international tournament for rugby league, that is scheduled to take place between 25 October and 22 November 2008 in Australia. It will be the fourth time that the tournament has been held in Australia with its first holding there in 1957. "

 
I'm planning to go to the final, and maybe a semi. If I can afford to go (which I might not be able to).
 
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