Rugby League in Great Britain is complex. It is small minded and yet at the same time it has this inflated opinion of itself. It is closed off and proud of its ability to not need any outside influences, and yet pounds its chest in triumph at the capture of a foreign player or coach….
The Australian squad for the Four Nations was named today and there are some very interesting selections. I said earlier today on Twitter that I would be shocked if New Zealand didn’t win this years Four Nations tournament, and a look at the Australian squad confirms all of my thoughts. The team is made up…
The Manly Sea Eagles are the 2001 National Rugby League Premiers after a dominant display in their Grand Final showdown with the New Zealand Warriors. I was going for the New Zealand Warriors in this match and they looked pretty good early on. In fact, the first 30 minutes of the match reminded me a…
Grand Finals are life changing experiences. For players, it is about that life long goal they have always had to reach the great pinnacle of the sport. It is a chance to live a childhood dream. For coaches, it is about going over everything a million times in their heads. As their team walks out…
So here we are, the last weekend of big NRL games for the season. I say the last weekend of big games for a reason. Next week, next week is more than a big game. Next week will be life changing. We are now down to four teams and I have to say, I liked…
It is like something out of a comedy sketch. For some reason in this country, sporting competitions see their major game entertainment as some type of pissing contest. Its almost as though the actual entertainment value of an act is not really of any relevance, its more the size of the name that the act…
It is finals time in the National Rugby League and Super League. This is the business part of the season, where the game and its sponsors get the most attention. Yet here we are, in 2011, and teams on both sides of the world are refusing to talk to the media. They are under self…
It was the outcome I expected, and yet, I still feel as though this hasn’t fully played out yet. After getting a low altitude chopper ride down from Brisbane to Sydney yesterday to avoid issues with air pressure that can be an issue with his injury, Darren Lockyer has this morning ruled himself out of…
West Tigers halfback Robert Lui has been charged with an alleged assault. Police turned up to Lui’s home to find his 21 year old girlfriend with a swollen face. You may remember that in September last year Lui was also charge with assaulting his girlfriend, who was pregnant at the time with his child, just after…
It was a fantastic week of Rugby League and one that will be remembered for some time. The Warriors vs Tigers game was fantastic. The Broncos vs Dragons game was even better! There were so many great stories as a backdrop to these games as well. It is what makes this time of the year…
This is when the NRL Finals series get really good! If you win this week, you are one week away from playing for a place in the Grand Final. If you lose, you leave the country. There are a lot of story lines to follow for this weekends two games. Can the West Tigers keep…
Now I must admit that I like the Super League playoff process… well, most of it. Remove that God-awful ‘club call pick a team to play even though we all know they’re gunna choose the lowest-ranked side’ rubbish and I think you’ve got a brilliant formula. And we’ve seen pieces of magic that remind you…
Welcome to the 2011 Rugby Union World Cup. The last World Cup in which Australia will compete as anything other than a minnow. You see, Rugby Union in Australia has a problem. It is a game that prides itself on retaining its supposed class superiority and this has seen the game remain marginalized across the wider Australian…
David Gallop has the toughest job in sport. He is the leading figure in a sport he is not the leading figure in. He is an administrator who only took up the job as NRL CEO until the powers that be found someone who could take up the role over on a longer term basis….
One day……one day, the game of Rugby League in Australia will be run by an independent commission that is set to streamline the administration of the sport. Backed by the riches that are expected to come from a billion dollar broadcasting deal, the game finally see’s a chance to do a number of things it…
It was a very interesting first week of the NRL finals and we saw a clear divide between teams in all four games. The top two teams won their matches and get a week off. The bottom two teams are done for the season. That is how it was supposed to be! So lets have…
What a difference a year makes. This time last year Todd Carney was riding high after the best season of his career. He talked about the way he had turned his life around, how he had seen the error of his ways and how he would never let his his team mates, his friend and…
Last season felt like most of the competition was in transition and only a couple of teams were really primed for a real shot at the title. This season we have a number of different clubs ready to roll. The Storm are looking for redemption. The Dragons are looking to prove it wasn’t just a…
Rugby League at its highest level is a male dominated industry. You only have to go back ten years and anything from female journalists to female board members were just about unheard of! Thankfully, times are changing, to the point where we have even moved on from the forced, token female presence. Now we are…
So the Dally M’s were held last night and before I list the results, I need to get something off my chest. I’m not real sure how relevant the Dally M’s are any more. First of all, this is an award that has recently been won by Todd Carney and Matt Orford, but has never…
Its time for me to confront this issue. Sam Tomkins is not the most well liked player in the British game. For all of the accolades people throw in his direction, he still is not well liked at all by British Rugby League fans. Just recently the BBC’s George Riley wrote a piece titled Why boo…
Jack Reed is like a gift from the Rugby League Gods. Reed is a 23 year old center for the Brisbane Broncos. This time last year, he didn’t think he had much of a career ahead of him as far as Rugby League went. Perseverance paid off though and today he is a top performer…
Rugby League is the only sport I know of where events that happen in and around the game can all be linked to its ultimate demise. Such was the case in the fallout of Friday nights brawl between the Melbourne Storm and the Manly Sea Eagles. The first fight was not bad, but nothing spectacular….
I started reading League Freak a couple of years ago and the main thing that attracted me to the site was the laconic and straight-to-the-point attitude of the author, which is evident when he covers the issues that affect rugby league. People within the game can so often be found on the fence but some,…
The other day I sat down to watch a press conference in Brazil where the UFC were promotion their first big event in the biggest country in South America. UFC President Dana White said that it had been a long time coming, and would mark the start of regular events in Brazil, which provides some…
Imagine being a St George/Illawarra player over the last few seasons. You are trying your guts out but its plainly obvious that you don’t have what it takes to win a Premiership. Hell, for nearly a decade the club has been there or there abouts, and they always fall short. So much so that the…
No doubt you have all read about the blowup this week by Phil Gould after some squiggles he wrote on a piece of paper at a recent meeting between all NRL club CEO’s and Chairman was “leaked” to the media. Gould felt like it was a personal attack on him by “someone” at the NRL…
You have to wonder where a club is at when, after a number of terrible performances, they feel like the best thing to do is to have everyone stop drinking alcohol for the next two weeks to try and lift their game. Imagine in your work place if things were going well and the prevailing…
When the Parramatta Eels went out in the last off season and signed Carl Webb, Paul Whatuira, Chris Walker, Chris Hicks and Reni Maitua off the scrap heap, I was certain it was all going to work out just fine for them. I was certain that by signing all of these player who were in…
I’ve been saying for some time that Rugby League in Great Britain, and Super League in particular needs fixing. In 1996 Rugby League in Great Britain was given a whole lot of money to help try and form an elite club competition that would provide broadcasters with a nice amount of content they could show…