State of Origin + New Zealand Tournament

[Tasmaniac]

Well first of all congratulations to all of the Tassie Boys. We are certainly small but not so insignificant when it comes to pride of State and Winning. Unfortunately I was not there last night as this illness I have has gotten the better of me and I simply could not fly back. I am hoping the boys party hard!

Time now for me to make comment on the Tournament itself. This thing is seriously lacking any intensity and respect from the players. There are issues which need to be solved or else it will die. Certainly in its present form it is dead.

1. Australian State of Origin does not mean allow any team from any country in if they can get a team up. New Zealand should be dumped. It has nothing to do with Australia.

2. Selection. There has to be a process. This time round we saw Joe Cabret and another non Kiwi suit up for the Kiwis. We saw 2 South Australians Curly Seal and David Stiecke suit up for Victoria. Victoria should be ashamed. I do not know if there were any other ring ins in any other team. This simply makes a mockery and a joke out the whole team concept. Rules need to be put in place so that a standard can be met in order to qualify to play for a team. Why should teams make an effort to comply with the concept when others are making phone calls 5 min before the event in order to get a team and then they bring players who are not from their state.

3. The multi game table has to have something riding on it otherwise people have no reason to play. This aided us this year but it is wrong. There should be some money hanging on this table also.

4. Format should be changed to where every team is represented on the final table. The chips should be pooled as we go through with the minimum chips left at the final table seat for those teams who lose all their chips. I have other thoughts as well about the format but too long to go into on here. Suffice to say I would be happy to discuss with Crown and others and draw up a set of rules specific to this State of Origin concept.

I am of the view that with regards to New Zealand that is not negotiable as this is an Australian State of Origin concept. If you allow New Zealand in then so be it but then it is something else and the State of Origin Tournament is non existent and can be pronounced dead.


cheers

gm

[TassieDevil]

Lots of good thoughts here George and I have plenty of feedback to give at some stage, but for now, I just want to reply to this point...

3. The multi game table has to have something riding on it otherwise people have no reason to play. This aided us this year but it is wrong. There should be some money hanging on this table also.

The statement that this format "aided us" I think is unfair to both our team and NSW, SA and the others. I didn't see the early stages of the table, but when three-handed I was surprised to see our opponents were NSW and SA - the two teams who were out of the running, and in my mind, most likely to have well and truly punted off their stacks by that stage with nothing riding on it.

The fact they were still alive was proof enough that it was game on!

When it got to heads up, there was some tongue-in-cheek discussion of bribery. Unfortunately the format opens it up to this situation. However nothing went down from any team, and NSW are full of integrity, as Grant proved last year and again this year. Sure they were having some drinks and having plenty of fun, but they were certainly playing us 100% with so much riding on it for both us and the Vics.

I just want to make that clear so that nothing is misinterpreted. We won this off our own bat.

[Strong Play]

Agree with the above, and congrats to Tassie for taking this down.

I was actually surprised how well the 7game thing worked, I think it should be retained in the format going forward (if indeed the event survives).

[Phat Sydney]

Agree with the above, and congrats to Tassie for taking this down.

I was actually surprised how well the 7game thing worked, I think it should be retained in the format going forward (if indeed the event survives).

LolOfOrigin pleaze mate.. What a fucken joke!! you need 6 teams of absolute poker degens (yes yes i am 1) to abide by a set of "rules" for which there are no rulz (or the host casino can change at last min)... There is no PRIDE in this game.. State or Origin is about PRIDE!! If you dont instate some Pride then it will never work...
I think we need an open format.. Anyone that can put together a team should be able to enter, of-course they must meet the criteria for State of Origin which means Ben Delaney would have to seek out his Birth Parents but other than that only TEAMS that would want to play for their state would!!