{"id":365978,"date":"2024-02-07T05:26:55","date_gmt":"2024-02-07T06:26:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=365978"},"modified":"2024-02-07T13:04:15","modified_gmt":"2024-02-07T13:04:15","slug":"up-to-the-players-tapines-call-on-all-stars-withdrawals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=365978","title":{"rendered":"'Up to the players': Tapine's call on All Stars withdrawals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Maori All Stars<\/a> forward Joseph Tapine<\/a> believes "it's up to the players" to push their availability for the All Stars fixture<\/a> as the pre-season event looks set to go ahead without some of its biggest names.<\/p>\n

Kalyn Ponga announced just over a week ago he wouldn't be available for the Maori side<\/a>, preferring to focus his attention on the Knights.<\/p>\n

Ezra Mam, Reece Walsh, Bradman Best, Jack Wighton\ufeff, Tyrell Sloan, Alex Johnston and Selwyn Cobbo are all unavailable too.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Under-siege team boss breaks silence on driver fiasco<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> 'Huge shock' tipped as Maguire refuses Teddy guarantee<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> What snubbed Matilda was told in brutal phone call<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The Sydney Morning Herald<\/a> also revealed the Roosters had many an application with the NRL for their players to skip the All Stars match due to their trial going ahead the next day\ufeff.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

With teams set to be announced next week, there'll be plenty of intrigue around who's named for the Indigenous and Maori sides.<\/p>\n

Tapine, who has captained the Maori side previously, explained he has the full backing of his coach Ricky Stuart to feature in the match.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"I\ufeff'm lucky enough that Stick (Stuart) allows me to make the decision and I know my body," he told Wide World of Sports.<\/p>\n

"I think it's up to the players to push that on coaches as well …. Stick's always encouraged me whenever we've played that game."<\/p>\n

Speaking to NBN Newcastle, Indigenous All Stars coach Ronald Griffiths admitted \ufeffthere's been difficulties with availability.<\/p>\n

"We've had some players pull out due to injury so it's a work in progress," he said.<\/p>\n

"Last year was a lot more difficult on the back of the World Cup \ufeffbut this year there are other factors like teams travelling to Vegas so trying to work out the final squad has been reasonably challenging."<\/p>\n

\"All-Stars<\/p>\n

The All Stars fixture has changed over time, with its original inception pitting NRL All Stars against the Indigenous side.<\/p>\n

In 2016 the NRL side changed to World All Stars before the Maori All Stars were born in 2019.<\/p>\n

Since then, Tapine has featured in four matches and played a significant role in their 2022 victory.<\/p>\n

\ufeffThe Raiders forward explained his drive to play in the fixture simply comes down to his desire to represent his heritage.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffI feel so much passion towards it … and where I come from," he said.<\/p>\n

"It's obviously not as big as Origin and that but I love that game because it's my heritage and so much emotion goes into it, you invest so much of yourself into it so it's huge for me."<\/p>\n

The women's and men's All Stars fixtures will be played on February 16. \ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maori All Stars forward Joseph Tapine believes "it's up to the players" to push their availability for the All Stars fixture as the pre-season event […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":365980,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365978"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=365978"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":365983,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365978\/revisions\/365983"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/365980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=365978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=365978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=365978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}