They have confirmed that they will be without Cooper Cronk, Ryan Tandy, John Kite and Brett White for when they come over for the World Club Challenge. This is added to the leavings of Dallas Johnson (Catalans), Steve Turner (Canterbury) and Will Chambers (QLD Reds). Dissappointed with this. www.sportinglife.com/rugbyleague ... ourne.html

They have confirmed that they will be without Cooper Cronk, Ryan Tandy, John Kite and Brett White for when they come over for the World Club Challenge. This is added to the leavings of Dallas Johnson (Catalans), Steve Turner (Canterbury) and Will Chambers (QLD Reds). Dissappointed with this. www.sportinglife.com/rugbyleague ... ourne.html

ryan tandy

Usual Aussie PR machine at work.

If they lose they can say its because they had no choice but to send a weakened team over and if they win yet more ammunition to confirm how bad Super League is compared to the NRL.

A win win situation for Melbourne and the NRL

It always seems the Australian way. You don't see whining from here about the late arrivals of our internationals or absence of Lee Smith.

True. It would really motivate me if i was a Rhinos player to go out there n smash em for the lack of respect. We all know the NRL is the best but show some class and show us some respect !!

We never mentioned the injuries last year or the lack of pre-season when manly beat us either!

Don't forget, this is essentially a pre-season game given the later start to the NRL season. There's absolutely no reason for them to rush players back from off-season surgery and jeopardise their potential to be ready for when the real games start.

If Leeds were in the same position they would be doing exactly the same thing, so can we drop the mock outrage?

Typical Aussie media stuff this
From the SportingLife article
[iMelbourne Storm will be severely under-strength for the Gillette World Club Challenge against Leeds Rhinos at Elland Road on February 28.[/i
Will they balls be severely under strength. They'll still have the core of their team with Slater, Smith etc.

[iThe Australian champions have four players undergoing close-season surgery while the late arrival of eight internationals also threatens to seriously disrupt their preparations for the 2010 campaign.[/i
We have 3 players who have had surgery (JJB, Senior and Kirke) and have Buderus, Delaney, Ali and Eastwood recovering from injuries. As for the international thing, thats just rubbish.

Are sporting life "Aussie media"?

Quote: Tony Soprano "Are sporting life "Aussie media"?'" Probably not, but I was meaning its obviously a press release from Melbourne themselves as the story is the same on several websites, SkySports for one. www.skysports.com/story/0,19528, ... 90,00.html

Quote: Tony Soprano "Are sporting life "Aussie media"?'" Probably not, but I was meaning its obviously a press release from Melbourne themselves as the story is the same on several websites, SkySports for one. www.skysports.com/story/0,19528, ... 90,00.html

The only players that really matter in terms of my interest are Smith and Inglis. If they come over they'll be very hard to beat.

And?

All of the above are likely to be available for the start of the SL and the World Club Challenge, so that's not newsworthy even on a slow day for the YEP.

If the WCC wasn't so massively weighted in favour of SL sides to give them a chance of even being competitive, this wouldn't be an issue. As it is, the timing and venue dictate that NRL sides will be under-prepared and will be missing players who have targetted the start of the NRL season when planning their recovery.

If you don't want the Aussies to have excuses for the WCC, lobby the NRL, RFL and RLIF to take it off our doorstep and play it on neutral territory in the middle of the season.

And if Melbourne are "severely" under strength having 4 players out, only 2 of which are remotely important then we are severely under strength too. Melbourne have the same amount of time to prepare for the WCC as we have. If Melbourne give the WCC a lower priority than the start of the NRL season then thats their problem but why come out with some utter bo11ocks about being severely under strength. And its amazing how the WCC wasnt such a low priority, meaningless game when Manly won it this year. The location is in England because the Aussies daren't play it in Australia in case they happen to lose, they still haven't got over Wigan beating Brisbane yet.
And surely the vastly superior NRL supermen will have no trouble overcoming such minor issues and still beat the inferior substandard teams of the Super League as they have consistently done over the last few years.