Anyway, can we please move on as a country and stop this ongoing obsession with persecuting ourselves over the events of 240 years ago. Lets face it, there’s probably not a country or even territory on earth that hasn’t faced an invasion of some sort that hasn’t changed it’s history…and unless God himself (or another religious equivalent) put the aboriginal onto terra australis him or herself- then they too, are likely to have came from somewhere else. Everyone as a country needs to move on. Must move on. Everyone on both sides of the fence as well as the many sitting on it. The more I see events like this which choose to celebrate the aboriginal as something different to other Australians – just shows me how little we have really moved on.

Hayne showed some magic but two great tackles denied him. When he shifted to the wing, the NRL side lost a lot in attack.

The look on Corey Paterson’s face after he hit Gidley was a priceless “Oh, no. What have I done?” Hopefully, the injury to Gidley isn’t serious.

Bismark, the quarter time was more for the players as the conditions were warm and humid. While regular season games do not have a quarter time, during the early part of the season, most games will stop after 20 minutes for a drinks break if the weather is warm.

Not sure on the prices for games but I believe part of that is set by who own the ground as well as the clubs. I’d like to see ticket prices come down but not totally sure on the economics.

JT became the obvious man of the match from as far out as half time but other deserve mention – Campbell P, Yow Yeh J and Vatuvei M all had blinders while Sailor W delivered all sorts of comedy and, dare I say, fireworks whenever he touched the ball (which wasn’t very often).

I, for one, look forward to this tussle every year and hope it encourages the young indigenous player in some small way.

Two major changes to the rules: The quarter time and second try option.

Quarter and three quarter time. Not a big fan even though it presents more opportunity for nail-biters. League is a big hard game for big hard men who have been playing half for half for a hundred years – unclear as to why we want to change this now.

Question : Is this being adopted in the season proper?

Liked the second try option but can only see it being taken when it really counts. Once again, not really sure why we need to change what’s been working for many years but I guess we’d need to see it in action for a season or so to understand it’s use and application use fully.

I guess one way to look at all these changes is that there’s more opportunity for ref’s to make a mistake which cost somebody the game. EG: Any foul by the defending side costs a try which could easily turn the game over… I think we should be making the ref’s job easier by simplifying rules rather than introducing yet more reasons for people to hate them.

Anyhow, great to be back in front of the telly, even if I don’t have the beer any more, and looking forward to getting out to some matches any second now!

Question 2 : Will the proposed Independent Commission and/or the split from News Limited mean higher ticket prices?

BOM