Why is NZ Maori vs Indigenous game treated with such disrespect?

For the first time ever, the NRL All Stars match is heading to New Zealand, when, in the main game, the NZ Maori All Stars will take on the Australian Indigenous All Stars.

This game is not just a celebration of cultures, but is being promoted as the 2023 season opener, and being held in Auckland to give rugby league in NZ a much needed boost following several years of being effectively shut out due to Covid.

However, it seems the closer this game gets the worse it looks, and the less likely that it will command either the status or audience that it deserves.

Unfortunately, the game has been in the news for all the wrong reasons.

Firstly, as a result of the changes to the selected sides, as some 25% of the players originally selected have now dropped out for one reason or another, further reducing the quality of the players on show, and secondly, thanks to the stupidity of Australian indigenous “stars” Jack Wighton and Latrell Mitchell, who managed to get themselves arrested the day before the teams headed to Auckland.

Why these two are still playing is anybody’s guess, and now the story is more about the deeds of two dills, rather than the game itself, and I can’t imagine the Kiwis are happy.

I’m not sure who had the responsibility to select the teams or what all the selection criteria were, but to be honest, the original squads hardly looked anything like the best available Maori or Aboriginal players, and this position was made significantly worse when current internationals Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, Joey Manu and Dallin Watene-Zelezniak were ruled out of the Maori side, and last year’s Indigenous captain Josh Addo-Carr also dropped out.

What’s left looks like two very average teams, and a long way from the best available.

Consider some of these Maori players who somehow find themselves in the team:

• fringe first-graders in Jesse Arthars, Zach Dockar-Clay, Austin Dias, Leo Thompson, Hayze Perham and Zane Musgrove;
• the virtually unknown Sheldon Pitama, Tukimihia Simpkins, Paul Turner and Creedence Toia; and
• the unremarkable Morgan Harper, Adam Pompey and Jordan Riki.

I can’t see any stars among that lot.

The Maori side celebrate victory during the NRL All Stars match in 2022. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

And how about these members of the Aboriginal team:

• fringe first-graders Tyrell Fuimaono, Albert Kelly, J’maine Hopgood, Shaquai Mitchell, Josh Kerr, Jamayne Taunoa-Brown and Tyrell Sloan;
• the virtually unknown Bailey Butler;
• Kierran Moseley, who played the last of his 21 NRL games off the bench in 2016; and
• Ryan James, who I was pretty sure retired last year?

No stars there either, I’m afraid.

Surely very few, if any, of these players would get a run if these two teams were picked on merit. Where are the likes of Kotoni Staggs, Jamal Fogarty, William Kennedy, Jayden Campbell, Dane Gagai and Alex Johnston for the Indigenous team? Are they injured, not available or not interested?

Where are players of the calibre of Reece Walsh, Dylan Brown, the Bromwich brothers, Kalyn Ponga and Brandon Smith for the Maori? How were they not selected? The Maori’s expected spine of Perham, Zach-Dockar-Clay, Turner and Corey Harawira-Naera looks more like a reserve grade line-up than All Star.

With the game being played in Rotorua, why not pick a few of the Warriors’ frontline players in Tohu Harris, Te Maire Martin and Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, instead of also-rans like Pompey and Dylan Walker? Leaving out the best eligible players not only does the game an injustice, but also makes a mockery of the “All Stars” tag.

Players seem to be demanding a lot of things these days, but demanding to be selected to represent their heritage and culture apparently isn’t on the list.

If this is the NRL’s idea of a season opener coming off the back of a very successful RLWC year, they need to take a good hard look at themselves, and give this game the respect it deserves.