The idea has been around for longer than most people think. Hell, its been done before, just not in our lifetime. The Australian Rugby League team, the mighty Kangaroos, taking on the Australian rugby union team, you know, the ones that wear a mustard coloured jersey and don’t win much of anything. The concept of…
A lot of the time when a Super League club appoints a head coach, its basically just giving the job to the next guy in line. Many of the coaches in Super League, the English ones, are bloody terrible. Guys that love the sport, they want to continue making a living out of the sport,…
Where there is smoke, there is usually fire. Only 12 months ago, all and sundry would have told you that the Gold Coast Titans were the gold standard of how an NRL team should be set up and run. A brand new stadium was in place. The local community was behind the team. The club…
In the Sydney print media there is basically two different camps. In one corner you have Fairfax, they own the Sydney Morning Herald. In the other corner, you have News Limited. They own the Sydney Daily Telegraph. They have always been at each others throats in a petty game of back and forth snide remarks….
The Melbourne Storm are in the almost impossible situation where by they have to shed hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of player contracts, that they are 100% committed to having to pay, in order to be under the salary cap for the start of the 2011 NRL season. The Storm tend to have a…
Darren Lockyer is upset. Darren Lockyer doesn’t like whats going on. Darren Lockyer wants things changed. Darren Lockyer is emo! The Sydney Telegraph is reporting today that Darren Lockyer Thinks The Dragons Deal For Mark Gasnier is unfair. He doesn’t like the fact that the Dragons are looking to sign Gasnier for around $50,000 for the remainder…
You’re probably wondering why I have yet to write anything about the news that Mark Gasnier is looking to get out of French Rugby Union and now wants to come back and play in the NRL with the St George/Illawarra Dragons. Its basically because I don’t care either way. Gasnier left the Dragons mid contract…
The Australian Kangaroos have beaten the World Champions New Zealand Kiwi’s 12-8 in torrential rain at Melbourne’s AAMI Park. It was the first game played at AAMI Park, Melbourne’s brand new rectangular pitched stadium, and the rain thrashed down for the full 80 minutes. The pitch itself must have been incredible to take the battering…
You will probably have noticed that the grumbles are starting to grow about Sam Burgess and his decision to not turn out for England’s mid season Test Match against France. The two other English players taking part in the NRL, Gareth Ellis and Mark Flanagan, both play for the West Tigers and both have made…
You probably noticed I didn’t post the lineups for the City vs Country game that will be played on Friday Night at the same time as the Australia vs New Zealand Test match. I haven’t looked at the lineups in any depth, I don’t know where the game is played (I have a feeling its…
Well Australia face the World Champion New Zealand Kiwi’s this Friday night down in Melbourne. It will be the first event held at Melbourne brand new rectangular stadium that will become the home of the Melbourne Storm. Looking at both lineups, I don’t think either team has gone out to experiment too much. Both teams…
Lets start off by saying, I love the Melbourne Storm. I personally hope they can keep their core together, surround them with minimum wage youngsters and come back in 2011 and win the comp. I think they may at least be forced to lose one of their top players, which is unfortunate. As you look…
They were once one of the NRL’s powerhouse clubs. The team everyone else wanted to be like, and yet over the last decade the Canberra Raiders have found themselves having to make do. Struggling with financial problems and unable to attract big name players, the club looked at taking a different direction. Sure it caused…
Its a little ironic that a sport founded on the basis of an open market for players and compensating players for the time and effort they put into the game not finds itself in a position where it tightly regulates what players are worth and shouts down any attempts for a player to earn as…
In 2010 the Melbourne Storm find themselves $700,000 over the 2010 salary cap and that figure is expected to climb over the next few seasons if the Storm were to keep the side they have. David Gallop has already said he will not accept players taking mass pay cuts to keep the side together as…
When Israel Folau exploded onto the Rugby League scene, you got the feeling that he could be anything. A huge center for the Melbourne Storm, he made a name for himself with his high flying leaps, catching kicks from Cooper Cronk, and being an amazing athlete. Ironically because of salary cap restraints, and a desire…
It was the end. You just had to ask the hacks in the media who were quick to point out that they had nothing to play for, no one cared anyway, and we might as well just forget Melbourne, the second largest city in Australia, and look to Gosford, the…..well, Gosford. A funny thing happened…
A salary caps job is to do two things. First and foremost, its designed to stop clubs spending more than they can afford. When the salary cap has not been in effect in sports, you see clubs falling over chasing dreams they simply can not afford. The second thing a salary cap does is even…
Sometimes it can feel like its a bit of a meat market, and while most players make good, sound decisions, others base their decisions on the wrong factors. I’ve always been a big believer on sticking with something good. When the magic is happening, when everything is going great, don’t leave a club for big…
There is something very special about players who play out their entire career at one club. It feel right. You see them come into first grade as a youngster, follow the highs and lows of their career. You see them reach their peak, playing brilliant football, and then they face the battles that come with…
Obviously the Melbourne Storm are under the pump at the moment and you will find a lot of the good old fashioned Rugby League alarmists talking about the complete demise of the club. That would be great for the game, we could then look to expand the comp in 15 years time and wonder why…
The Melbourne Storm have deceitfully breached the NRL salary cap over a total of five years. They over spent $1.7 million dollars over five years that they filtered through a second set of books that they did not submit to the NRL. As a result, the NRL has stripped the Melbourne Storm of two NRL…
After a much publicized world wide search the Rugby Football League has announced that Steve McNamara is the man to coach England into the next World Cup. Damn….. The Rugby Football League have been comical in the way they have appointed coaches over the last decade. Ask yourself this, if the Great Britain/England team was…
When I was four years old, the Cronulla Sharks were my favorite team. The reason was because I liked the Sharks logo, it was cool. In fact my first every footy jersey is a tiny little Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks jersey. When I went to primary school a year or so later, my favorite players was a…
After a terrible start to their season, the Parramatta Eels made a decision that it would cease all contract talks with their off contract players until such time as the team turned things around on the field. The backlash was fairly swift. The players were not happy at all. They were filthy the decision was…
The Gold Coast Titans had a great year last year, but when it came to finals football, they were just way short of the mark. Two major problems showed up for the Titans. First, they didn’t seem to be able to step up and play at a higher level, a higher gear. While great teams…
Sam Burgess is a young player who is already playing Test football for England. He is playing for the Bradford Bulls and basically, he could name his price, and how long he wants to stay there. Want a five year contract? It would be under his nose as soon as the printer could spit it…
Stupidity is a curse that no one asks for. It is a weight that one carries through their entire life. Footballers tend to get a reputation for being stupid. That can unfair in some instances as we have a lot of intelligent players in the game these days. Many run businesses and some excel in…
Over the last 20 years, when ever Great Britain or England have come to Australia to play a series or any kind, it has resulted in failure on an epic scale. That their best tour in that time frame was coming third in a three team competitions, where one of the top two sides lost…
When the machines take over and our robot overlords nuke the entire planet….two things will remain. Cockroaches and The Glorious King Of Rugby League……League Freak! No I’m not closing my web site. What are you, some kind of idiot? As if I am ever going to give up the great fight. You couldn’t kill me…