![Fickle allegiance: Andrew Fifita trains with the Prime Minister's XII in Port Moresby as recently as last month.](http://web.archive.org./web/20171007032941im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/y/w/3/m/c/image.related.wideLandscape.460x259.gyvzen.png/1507287879016.jpg)
Fitz Files: World Cup defections better than farce of pretend teams
Anything that makes other teams turning up the World Cup genuinely competitive, has to be good for the "World Cup"!
Anything that makes other teams turning up the World Cup genuinely competitive, has to be good for the "World Cup"!
What will we remember of 2017 when it comes to rugby league? I thought you'd never ask ...
Rugby league. It lives and breathes in country NSW!
There are many things I love about sport but the range of characters it produces, embraces, and celebrates is right up there.
If a boxer had been knocked cold like Corey Oates was, what chance he would be allowed in the ring just a week later?
We see good sportspeople go bad, and become great because of whether or not they give a f---.
Good on him for expressing his views, but I can't resist.
Coaches complaining about referees has become the most tedious aspect of sport.
Of course TFF took a bit of flak – like I care – for asking Socceroo coach Ange Postecoglou on Channel Nine last Sunday morning, if he would stand down in the event of his team not qualifying for the World Cup. Some thought it disrespectful. I thought it journalism.
These last weeks have given us some positive signs that a brighter future for our beloved code beckons. But not without changes.
You wonderful Wallabies. You bloody beauties. No, you didn't beat the All Blacks last Saturday night in Dunedin, but your performance was a triumph regardless.
Who said rugby is dying? Actually, I think it might have been me.
But allow me to at least say this.
But enough about the Storm, the tour to Bangladesh, the Wallabies, the retirement of Usain Bolt. Can we bring it back to me, for a change, and my life?
TFF received an enormous response to my piece on Thursday about young Marc Reichler-Stillhard.
This is the story of a fine young fellow born with Down syndrome and immediately embraced by the local community.
It was one of the great moments in Australian sport. You see, when Raelene Boyle won gold in her last race, at the Brisbane Commonwealth Games in 1982 – roaring home in the 400 Metres – the stadium roared even as the nation came to a standstill.
Here are the characteristics of captains that I know were instrumental in their own success.
How old am I? I am so old, soooooo old, I remember when Australian swimmers only had to dip a toe in chlorinated water and they started growing gold medals on their chest!
Could you break the news to Laurie Daley that you were giving him the bullet? I couldn't.
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