Well the Australian Rugby League finally got around to naming the Four Nations squad. It shouldn’t be too surprising they took so long to name the side considering it takes the Australian selectors 15 minutes before the end of the Grand Final to come up with the wrong player to give the Clive Churchill Medal to!
Its a bloody good squad, a lot of form players ion their, but I also get the feeling coach Tim Sheens picked a number of players looking towards the future.
Players like Farah, Jennings and Morris were always in line to play for Australia one day, its good to see them there now though.
A big story is the return of Nathan Hindmarsh, who selectors had over looked in recent years, and rightfully so in my opinions.
Then there are the St George/Illawarra Dragons, who didn’t get a single player in the squad. Good times!
The Official Australian Four Nations Squad is:
Petero Civoniceva (Penrith)
Cooper Cronk (Melbourne)
Robbie Farah (Wests Tigers)
Israel Folau (Brisbane)
Paul Gallen (Cronulla)
Kurt Gidley (Newcastle)
Ben Hannant (Bulldogs)
Jarryd Hayne (Parramatta)
Nathan Hindmarsh (Parramatta)
Justin Hodges (Brisbane)
Ryan Hoffman (Melbourne)
Greg Inglis (Melbourne)
Michael Jennings (Penrith)
Darren Lockyer (capt, Brisbane)
Luke Lewis (Penrith)
Josh Morris (Bulldogs)
David Shillington (Canberra)
Billy Slater (Melbourne)
Cameron Smith (Melbourne)
Sam Thaiday (Brisbane)
Johnathan Thurston (North Queensland)
Trent Waterhouse (Penrith)
Anthony Watmough (Manly)
Brett White (Melbourne)
And yes, I feel another League Freak lineup coming on!
League Freaks Prefered Australian Team:
1. Billy Slater
2. Jarryd Hayne
3. Greg Inglis
4. Justin Hodges
5. Irael Folau
6. Darren Lockyer
7. Jonathan Thurston
8. Ben Hannant
9. Cameron Smith
10. Petero Civoniceva
11. Anthony Watmough
12. Nathan Hindmarsh
13. Trent Waterhouse
14. Sam Thaiday
15. David Shillington
16. Ryan Hoffman
17. Kurt Gidley
I think Australia needs to take some lessons from the State Of Origin series. New South Wales has been so obsessed with picking players with mobility however in game three of this years series they went with sheer size as well and it got the job done.
Australia needs a good mix in their pack of size and mobility against New Zealand. One of the biggest mistakes made in the World Cup Final was going into the game and not replacing injured prop Steve Price with another prop.
Its an incredible squad named, I can’t wait for this lot to destroy England!
