{"id":23707,"date":"2025-07-26T13:58:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T13:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/23707\/"},"modified":"2025-07-26T13:58:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T13:58:10","slug":"andrew-johns-on-eligibility-victory-radleys-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/23707\/","title":{"rendered":"Andrew Johns on eligibility; Victory Radley’s comments"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andrew Johns<\/a> says he doesn’t want to see players representing England playing State of Origin but he’s happy to see that scenario for Pasifika players.<\/p>\n

Issues relating to eligibility have drawn attention after reports Kangaroos stars Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow<\/a>, Tino Fa’asuamaleaui<\/a> and Payne Haas<\/a> are all considering playing for Samoa in the end-of-year Pacific Championships instead of touring the UK for the Ashes.<\/p>\n

Roosters and England star Victory Radley weighed in saying<\/a> the tier system should be scrapped, telling Wide World of Sports: “It would be a positive for the international game if they did change the rules for everyone and not just for the Pacific Island and tier-two boys.”<\/p>\n

However, Johns disagrees.<\/p>\n

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\"Three?<\/p>\n

Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

“I don’t know why, it just doesn’t sit with me that you can play for England and play for New South Wales or Queensland,” Johns said on Wide World of Sports’ Immortal Behaviour.<\/a><\/p>\n

“I don’t know why. I don’t know whether it goes back to tradition, hundreds of years that England players can’t play Origin. Kiwis can’t play.<\/p>\n

“I don’t know why it doesn’t sit well with me, but it’s different for me with Pasifika nations.<\/p>\n

“Sorry Victor.<\/p>\n

“It’s a tricky one. For me it doesn’t sit comfortable and it breaks me that Victor will never play for New South Wales.<\/p>\n

“But I just feel England and the Kiwis is different to Samoa and Tonga and Fiji. I don’t know why. But that’s something we have to look at.<\/p>\n

“We have to get rid of the tier nations and talk about developing nations, which would be Greece and Italy and France and Cook Islands.<\/p>\n

“We need to get in a room and we need to sort it before the end of the year.<\/p>\n

“But we need international footy to get back. It’ll never overtake Origin because Origin’s just a beast of its own. But when it’s competitive, watch the international game go like that.”<\/p>\n

\"Isaiya<\/p>\n

Isaiya Katoa chose to play for Tonga instead of New Zealand to keep his hopes of Origin selection alive.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

League boss Peter V’landys revealed the ARL Commission was considering a landmark change to the State of Origin eligibility rules, which could see Radley play Origin and play for England.<\/p>\n

“It is something we’re going to have to look at again and to me there does seem to be a stronger push this time for change,” V’landys told The Sydney Morning Herald<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“It is a strong argument that if you’ve played your footy in Australia before the age of 13 and you are eligible to play Origin, why shouldn’t you be able to?<\/p>\n

“If we were to change the rules, it would only be for New Zealand and English players.<\/p>\n

“They’re the tier-one countries impacted. [Players from] tier-two nations like Samoa and Tonga can still play State of Origin and represent those nations.<\/p>\n

“It’s a polarising idea. When we’ve consulted on any possible Origin eligibility changes some people have loved it, others hated it.<\/p>\n

“We want a strong international game and calendar, and we want Australia to be challenged, and we want to respect the players and the nations they want to play for, and the argument for change is one we’ll consider.<\/p>\n

“It wouldn’t be open slather; it would be mostly New Zealand players, and any change would be considered to ensure they’re not left behind.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andrew Johns says he doesn’t want to see players representing England playing State of Origin but he’s happy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23708,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-23707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}