Originally Posted by
GIGS20
Absolutely not
I return the question for any team in the comp. The instant you mention Islander players, you pretty much destroyed any Australian team's chance of competing on the world stage.
For example, the Reds have
Daugunu
Tupou
Salakaia-Loto
Mafi
Paenga-Amosa
Feauai-Sautia
Speight
Paisami
Petaia
JP Smith (OK he's South African, but still ineligible)
Sorovi
on their books, if I tried to make a team of Reds with Australian born players (coz I can't really identify who is actually a Qld product) it would look like this (apologies, I might mix up tightheads and looseheads etc, but Props in prop etc
1 Harry Hoopert
2 Sean Farrell (benefit of the doubt, I think he might be a foreigner)
3 Josh Nasser
4 Angus Blyth
5 Michael Wood
6 Fraser McReight
7 Liam Wright
8 Harry Wilson
9 Tate McDermott
10 James O'Connor
11 Jack Hardy
12 Carter Gordon
13 Bryce Hegarty
14 Hamish Stewart
15 Jock Campbell
16 Nobody
17 Nobody
18 Nobody
19 Angus Scott-Young
20 Tom Kibble
21 Nobody
22 Nobody
23 Nobody
In comparison, the Force team would include (trying my best to use the same selection criteria and ignore the fact that I know a helluva lot more about the players)
1 Greg Holmes
2 Andrew Ready
3 Kieran Longbottom
4 Ben Grant
5 Ollie Atkins
6 Tevin Ferris
7 Fergus Lee Warner
8 Ollie Callan
9 Ian Prior
10 Jono Lance
11 Jonah Placid
12 Kyle Godwin
13 Brad Lacey
14 Byron Ralston
15 Jack McGregor
16 Dom Hardman
17 Heath Tessman
18 Victor Harris
19 Jackson Pugh
20 Nobody
21 Nick Frisby
22 Jake Strachan
23 Jordan Luke
To explain my methodology, I worked on the premise that if they were a big name, regular starter and the Commentators identified them as not Australian born I excluded them.
I used the current list, ended up not worrying about state-developed players because I really didn't know that about many of the Qld players, hence I picked Bryce Hegarty.
If a player had a foreign-sounding name or "looked a bit foreign" I didn't include them, hence Kane Koteka was excluded even though his development is significantly WA, same Nick Jooste, who I would include as a WA developed player.
I used the listed positions from the team list as much as I could, I made exceptions where I was aware of a player having lined up in a different role than they were listed.
I tried to put a reasonable split on the bench and tried to pick the specialist positions as best I could (2 Props, a hooker a scrumhalf, at least one lock or lock/backrow etc) where there was no option that I hadn't eliminated either in a specialist role, then I wrote Nobody.
The Force could probably name a bench with a 4-4 split, but that will never happen in a game, so I didn't do it.
Disclaimer, I would assume that most of the Islander boys in the Reds are Qld developed, but that wasn't the question.
Based upon this survey, I would suggest that the Force team is a helluva lot closer to being a representation of WA rugby than the Reds and therefore I would suggest that the result might be closer than everybody thinks.
The naysayers would tell me to take out Holmes, Ready, Prior, Lance, Placid, Ralston and Frisby, but that would not be a consistent test, since I don't know the background of every Qld player.
It is what it is, but the point is that no Aussie team can exist as an island, so this rubbish about the non-heartland states not being able to compete is a bit of a fabrication.
A far better discussion would be to compare the number of state juniors from each state in the entirety of Aussie professional rugby. I know WA wouldn't compete with Qld or NSW, but there's a good chance we'll be third