mxyzptlk
Colin Windon (37)
Nobody should take any notice of anything Tallis says.He could hardly string 2 words together in his playing days,so it has always amazed me how he is still being paid as a "commentator".
Having said that,with his style of play,he may have been quite a good convert himself in the Brad Thorn mode.With a hell of a lot less class,though!
I've heard Tallis talk about his potential foray into rugby union, and how terrified he was of the rucks. He's called it barbaric, dangerous, and said he didn't understand why any parent would let their child play such a game. I mean, ruck marks!
This from the Raging Bull.
He never seems to miss a chance to take a swipe at union, unless he's talking to a union player, like Tim Horan or George Gregan or Matt Burke. Then he's nothing but complimentary, and even seems like he's payed a bit of attention to the sport.
It's a weird two-faced-ness, and one I don't see out of big media figures in union (except for maybe David Campese). A lot of the talk -- and that's all it is -- seems to emerge out of fear of exodus. Before union went pro it was common enough for union players to switch to league, and that gave league a bit of an ego boost. Then that player stream dried up when union went pro, and now it's reversing a bit. League doesn't have much of a presence outside of Australia and a region around the M62 in northern England. In the last league world cup, many of the players were out of Australia or England and only representing a country because of an ancestor, not because they played league in that country. The big hope for expansion seems to be Papua New Guinea. It's just not growing in the same way, and there may be a reason for that -- it's not as interesting to others outside of those regions.
But I do wonder if the regular beat-downs of union in the Aussie press doesn't help suppress interest in union in that country. It can't help it. I don't live there, so someone tell me: How much of that might have something to do with stakeholders in league who are also stakeholders in mass media?