Melbourne is reportedly interested in signing Mitch Inman for 2012

[tic]

I hate this view. James O'Connor was shot down by something like 4 teams over east telling him he was too small to make it in professional rugby, union and league. And John Mitchell gave him a shot. The rest, yeah we took from you. But everyone missed their opportunity with James O'Connor, the Force knew a good thing when they saw it

Marto pisses me off every game with some snide remark about us nicking him from QLD. All wrong!

Fair enough on JO'C - replace him on my list with Brendan Cannon (slightly stale Red at the time).

And don't you go hating on Marto. He's just organised 20000 people to head out to Ballymore tomorrow night for a classic Wallabies v. classic All Blacks fundraiser for the people of Christchurch.

It will be steamed live here, tomorrow night (Qld time) - http://www.triplem.com.au/brisbane

[travelling_gerry]

What sort of car do you drive Tic?

[James]

You would've held on to Digby Ioane if you hadn't pissed about with Wendell Sailor. Lesson one: Don't piss about trying to sign bogans. Besides, he only improved his handling and became worth having when he signed with the Reds. No real loss.

Would Dave Pocock seen game time at the Reds way back then anyway? I couldn't see him getting a run over David Croft.

How long had it been since Brendan Cannon had played for the Reds before he signed with the Force?

[travelling_gerry]

I've alluded to this before but I'll go through it again.

In Australia we have 2 major car manufacturers - Ford (Blue) and Holden (Red)
In Australia we have 2 major rugby factories - NSW (Blue) and QLD (Red)

Ford USA and GM USA get these guys to make cars.
ARU pay these guys to make Rugby players.

We can talk all we want about Toyota and Fiat but they are playing for the Rebels.

But the quintessential Australian will buy either Red or Blue (Ford or Holden)

The quintessential Australian Rugby Franchise will buy either Red or Blue ( NSW or QLD)

Once they buy their Car/Player, its theirs, they own it, and while it may still be a Holden or a Ford, but its now owned by either the Force, Reds, Brumbies, Tahs or Rebels.

These franchises then tune up their players, mould them in their own design, put fats on, polish them up, mag them up.

They race them each week in the season, tend to their breakdowns, polish them lovingly and put them up for public display - because they are theirs!

But sometimes they find they are not to their liking, or don't fit in with the rest of the stable and they are traded, sent to Japan, sent to France or sometimes, unfortunately scrapped.

But each year, as new models run off the line, they are acquired and replaced, modified and moulded into each franchises preferences.

Some old models are put up and polished year after year (Sharpie) and continue to give good service.

So at the end of the day all Aussies Rugby player are either Ford or Holden, Blue or Red, Qld or NSW, with a smattering of foreign models like Fiat (Cipriani) just to make a nice mix.

There endeth the lesson.

[tic]

You would've held on to Digby Ioane if you hadn't pissed about with Wendell Sailor. Lesson one: Don't piss about trying to sign bogans. Besides, he only improved his handling and became worth having when he signed with the Reds. No real loss.

Would Dave Pocock seen game time at the Reds way back then anyway? I couldn't see him getting a run over David Croft.

How long had it been since Brendan Cannon had played for the Reds before he signed with the Force?

Para 1 - agree

Para 2 - agree

Para 3 - 2 years ???? (That's why I called him stale red)

[Burgs]

Seem to recall the Wagga Wagga raised Sharpe being the only player from the 05 Reds first pick 22.
Mitchell came a year later and was only just hitting his straps, Ioane I think was a Squad Member and Bam and JO'C were in short pants.
And we did you a favour with Canno by taking him away from your arch rivals, by that token you probably want to count Fava too...
The bulk of players the Force "poached" would really not have started surfacing in the Reds until 08 after a few key retirements.

But you can give Higginbotham and Wallace-Harrison back if you want to keep things fair

[WF1964]

Western Force centre Mitch Inman will join the Melbourne Rebels next season after turning down an offer to extend his contract in Perth.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/spo...o-join-rebels/

[Burgs]

Ah well, they can pay for his rehab...

[GIGS20]

Good luck getting onto the park in six weeks Mitch! By then, the season will be more than half done, we'll either have found a replacement who is doing the job,and you'll ride the pines, or we'll be out of the running and you'll be 'succession planned' out

[GIGS20]

Wow, that sounded a bit bitchy....for the record, I still think he's a future wallaby, disappointed to be losing him.

He's def no gits

[Burgs]

He's def no gits

And to clarify even more, that is meant as a compliment

[GIGS20]

I didn't think that needed clarifying after some of the posts I've made in the last four or so years

[Burgs]

Nor did I until we had a new fella a couple of days ago

[James]

I don't think he'll be a future Wallaby. No offense to Mitch but he just isn't fast enough and can't match a guy like Adam Ashley-Cooper or Digby Ioane in tackle busts or linebreaks. He might make it if he moves in one to 12, but even then he is a bit too one-dimensional.

[shasta]

Like has been said, lets just hope that the potential some of us see in Cullett is fulfilled. This Saturday is as good a time as any to start on that road.