He should never be allowed back.
Ban him for life.
We don’t want him anyway.
He won’t be missed.
Ah yes, you know what I’m talking about don’t you? No….not that incident I had at Bra’s N Things, which was blown way out of proportion by the way….I’m talking about players who go to Rugby Union.
I’ve always been for players earning as much money as they possibly can. Not because of some ridiculous sob story about short careers and all that. They should earn as much money as they can because, hell, everyone else is making money out of sport, and players shouldn’t be left behind!
When players sign to play for another sport, I believe that there should be a clause in their NRL contracts that the club is to release the players immediately. As soon as a player decides that they will be used by another sport as a marketing tool, thats fine. They can go and be a marketing tool for that sport. Just not on a Rugby League field.
Now when players have left, there have been people saying they should never be allowed back.
What a load of rubbish!
In this day and age, if you have talent, you can do what ever the hell you want, and people will always forgive you. Ask Todd Carney!
If a player leaves to go and play Rugby Union, and then decides to come back and play Rugby League, clubs line up for them and don’t give a stuff what they have been up to lately.
So when Lote Tuqiri decided he wanted to come back to Rugby League (After being sacked by the ARU for breaches of its code of conduct….meaning he was costing them a lot of money and they had a way to get out of paying him so they finally decided to enforce a behaviour clause in a player contract), clubs lines up for his services.
The West Tigers won the race.
I said at the time that the Tigers were mad for spending $400,000 on a winger when they desperately needed some decent forwards. At the end of the day, and as usual, I was spot on.
Damn, I’m good!
So Tuqiri had an alright season. Nothing spectacular in my opinion, he was just one of a few players in the Tigers side that went alright. He wasn’t good enough to break into the Queensland State Of Origin side, which is fair enough, its a tough side to break into.
So, how the hell does Tuqiri go from not playing State Of Origin and find himself walking into the Kangaroos squad when Jarryd Hayne was rules out with injury?
Its likely that Tuqiri finds himself in the Australian side for two major reasons. First of all, his combination with Chris Lawrence, who is likely to be one of the starting centers for Australia, it worked well at club level. The second reason? Tim Sheens, Tuqiri’s club coach, knows what he’s getting.
Has Lote Tuqiri done enough in one season back in the NRL to find himself back in the Australian Test team?
No.
If you were picking a winger on form, I’d have to have gone with Michael Gordon. He is a specialist winger, a good defender, he is reliable and a top class goal kicker, which I think Australia could have used to be honest.
As I said, Tuqiri played OK this season, but not nearly good enough to be selected to play for the Kangaroos.
As for the people that have said players who return from Rugby Union should get no favors….well, this is bad new for you lot!
