I have seen stronger Australian sides in the past, the likes of Tate, Boyd, Bird & Scott don't particularly worry me too much.

But the spine of the team is very strong though...Slater, Thurston, Cronk & Smith are class and know each others game inside out via Queensland dominance .

Gallen is very good too but we could knock him off his game with some clever niggle.

Inglis in the centres is interesting...will playing full back all season at his club affect him?...I hope it does

I'm not sure why anyone is surprised how strong their team is.
They could have swapped a few players around and still had the same effect.

But ther is only 13 on the field at any one time same as us. We only need the 13 on the field to be better than theirs....that's all

I'm one of the most realistic fans you could meet, but let's see some positivity guys. As has been mentioned, our pack is as good as theirs. If we can utilise the pace we have on the flanks, we can score points. Hit them hard, hit them early, keep turning them round.

We'll sh*t 'em

Maybe, just maybe, this is because the Aussies trying to win the NRL aren’t actually that good

Looking at the NRL Grand Final, there were three outstanding wingers on display in Tupou, Tuivasa-Sheck and Taufua who are representing other nations in the world cup. I would take all three of these over the two wingers named for the Kangaroos. Only one of the four centres on show in the Grand Final (Jennings) was available for selection for Australia, Lyon retired from representative football years ago and Kenny-Dowall and Matai are Kiwis

In the pack it is even more telling. Probably only Souths have come close to the Roosters in dominating up front this year and the Roosters key men in the Grand Final were Waerea-Hargreaves, Moa and Sonny Bill Williams

I remember the time when the Kangaroo touring team was dominated by the two Grand Final teams and a winning run to the Grand Final was a key selection metric. Not this year though because clearly the best players in the NRL are not actually Australian

Our discipline has to be spot on because usually if they get in our 20 they score. If we cut out the cheap yards and make them actually earn their way up field then that will go a long way towards getting the result. I've seen us be ahead or close so many times and then give away a few penalties and be 18 points down and game over. It's easy to say I know but we need to stay calm. I think a lot of the mistakes we make are down to not knowing how to control our emotions against them.

I take your point and agree to some extent but you missed out the spine of 1,6,7 and 9.In Slater,Thurston,Cronk and Smith they have clearly the best players in their positions in the World.As long as players in the other positions are up to a good standard it will more often than not be enough to get them over the line against any team.

Ok, I'm guessing he's on the totalrl one then.

He's another one who doesn't rate sundry Australian players like Tate & Co in comparison to England's wonderful array of star players. Like others of a similar mindset, he is perplexed when England get their @rses handed to them by all those very ordinary and average Australian players he'd not been rating very highly.

Still... if it makes them feel better.

Glass half full and all that.

Can always blame the ref, the southern hemisphere rule interpretations, the ball, McNamara... anything but the England players who weren't ever good enough in the first place.

The sum of any Australian team is usually much greater than it's parts.

This.

As always

That’s a reasonable point – but 3 of that spine of 4 all play for one club with some decent players around them and they didn’t get to the Grand Final this year so are clearly beatable

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Smith, Inglis, Cronk, Thurston and Slater are all considered the best in their position in the World (Inglis wherever he is played)
Not sure what your point is only SBW from the Kiwis is up there, which English players beside TGWITW Hall is up there?