Australia has named a preliminary 46 man World Cup squad and its interesting to see some of the names in the list. For the most part the side consists of proven performers at representative level with one or two players thrown in to cover for any injuries that may occur between now and the start…
Well the World Cup Countdown has begun and if you are following some of the squad selections at the moment you will find that some players are being named in more than one squad. Because this kind of muddies the waters, the RLIF (See ARL via an fancy letterhead) decided to clear things up. The…
“I was offered double what I’m on at Canterbury to go somewhere else and I stayed because I wanted to stay loyal to the club and keep the boys around, but to see him leave like that …” “It’s tough because he was a player that I really did look up to and for him…
And the winners are the Celtic Crusaders and the Salford City Reds. As you can imagine there have been all sorts of reactions but this is pretty much what I expected to happen. The Crusaders are the first Welsh Super League club and have had a major amount of support by the RFL to get…
This weekend sees the return of Broncos dangerous centre Justin Hodges after his 6 week suspension for a dangerous throw on Eels hooker Mark Riddell. It is on the issue of these lengthy suspensions that I take issue. The matter has been brought to my attention in particular by the recent long suspensions dished out…
The poor old Bulldogs get pulled in more directions than a $50 note dropped in a packed TAB. They try to please everyone and yet everyone ends up feeling short changed somehow. I think that of all the clubs in Sydney, the Bulldogs have the most potential to be the big drawing super club that…
This pretty much sums up Super League this move… The Huddersfield Giants have signed St George/Illawarra Tampons coach Nathan Brown to a three year deal. Brown, who’s long reign at the St George/Illawarra has been nothing short of a tragic mess, has shown nothing at all to suggest that he would be a good coach…
I was going to let this slide but comments today from Wigans moron of a coach, Brian Noble have tipped me over the edge. Six weeks ago Tim Smith came out and say he had bipolar disorder. It was so bad that he needed to walk away from the game and get his life back…
Well as we all know Mark Gasnier is probably going to opt out of his long term contract with the St George/Illawarra Tampons and take up a huge contract to play Rugby Union in France. Gasnier’s high paying, long term contract with St George/Illawarra basically allows him to come off contract every single season and negotiate with…
The Canberra Raiders have done it tough over the last decade but there are finally signs that things are starting to turn around. They are probably the youngest team in the NRL but they sport a number of top class players that any team would love to have in their lineup. I’ve been hyper critical…
In his first season with the Newcastle Knights, Michael Hagan won a Premiership. It was a fair achievement and many saw him as the new breed of coach who would go on to take the game to a new level. The problem was that from that point on, Newcastle got worse and worse to the…
The Scottish Rugby League scene is small to say the least. At best its just starting to get going at the junior level in a few small areas. At worst you could say it doesn’t actually exist. However on the back of a team full of English players, and being fortunate enough to be grouped…
If I could pick any center in the game, it would be St George/Illawarra’s supertsar center. No, not that injury prone turnstyle who’s Uncle made a name for him 40 years ago, I’m talking about Matthew Cooper. In a basketcase of a team, a club who’s erratic, stupid play has become a trademark, Matt Cooper…
In a recent article in The Guardian Online Rugby League reporter Andy Wilson wrote an article about England World Cup chances titled No reason to fear Folau and co. The article was typical of a lot of press thats coming out of the UK at the moment. With England having just beaten a French team thats was mostly…
You have to wonder where Steve Menzies stands among the games all time greats. At the age of 42 he is still running around for Manly, scoring tries seemingly every week. Early on in his career Menzies copped a bit of a bad wrap, and funnily enough it was because he was so good. Playing…
Well as you probably already know, the forum is down for the count. Its a problem with my forums host and I have no idea when it will be fixed because their support forum is also down as well. When they get it all back up and running I’ll be looking to backup the forum…
Well the World Cup is fast approaching and at this stage all you can hear is the voice of a thousand Poms claiming they are in with a real shot of winning the World Cup. With an easy win over France under their belts, England’s confidence is sky high, and the script of every major…
He has been one of the games elite players for over ten years. He is universally respected and one of the gentlemen of the game. He is a premiership winner, he has captained Canberra and the New Zealand Warriors and been an inspirational leader at both clubs. He in one of only 6 players in…
So if you didn’t know, Sydney’s Daily Telegraph is running an online poll to try and find out who the top player in the NRL is. Seeing this, Canberra fans decided they wanted to have their say and within hours of the poll opening they bombarded the site with votes for Canberra halfback Todd Carney….
Trent Barrett has signed a two year deal with the Cronulla Sharks that will see him play with the club for the 2009 and 2010 seasons. The deal is said to be worth around $300,000 with a third party agreement with Channel Nine. Barrett needed to get a release from Wigan to get this deal…
Anyone that saw Shane Richardson’s embarrassing performance on the Footy Show will remember it for a very long time. Richardson has a history of enjoying the spotlight, he is right there with Matt Adamson as far as getting his head on TV for no apparent reason to do lots of talking, but not really say…
And they reckon they are cutting imports…. In a week where young Bulldogs player Cameron Phelps headed to England, now Queensland and Australian back rower Michael Crocker has announced he will join Hull from next year on a three year deal. Crocker has an amazing winning streak going at the Melbourne Storm but he has…
The Newcastle Knights are the envy of other New South Wales based clubs today after the NSW Government announced a major upgrade to Energy Australia Stadium. After drawing 20,000+ on a regular basis to a grass hill for years, Newcastle can look forward to having an all seater stadium in 2011 with a capacity of…
Luke Lewis has really screwed over the South Sydney Rabbitohs by backing out of a handshake deal to play for the club from next season, deciding to re-sign with the Penrith Panthers instead. Lewis had agreed to join the Rabbitoh’s but had not signed on the dotted line yet. Obviously with the Bunnies poor start…
The mail was spot on and Graham Murray has stepped down as the coach of the North Queensland Cowboys. You knew Murray was gone when there was a betting plunge this week on hyim being the first coach to go. This isn’t new territory for Murray. He has a history of coming into a club,…
Well its just a matter of going from one farce to another when it comes to English Rugby League. This week came news that Hull FC had fielded an ineligible player in their last two Challenge Cup Ties. Forward Jamie Thackery signed with Hull FC, from Leeds on March the 27th, two weeks after the…
Yeah I know, RLFans broke down for a few days and it wiped out my web site as well. I have nothing to do with that side of things, I employ people to manage that. They have all been fired. Now….on to some of the actual Rugby League news….
Australia has beaten New Zealand 28-12 at the Sydney Cricket Ground in a good, entertaining match. Australia looked like they were going to run away with the game after scoring 22 points in the first 22 minutes, but a turn of possession saw the scoring halted as the Kiwi’s floated in and out of the…
Leading into this Fridays on of Test between Australia and New Zealand, we have once again been told by anyone wearing a small, flightless bird on their t-shirt that they ar proud to play for New Zealand and to be a Kiwi’s Test player. Pull the other one! For well over 10 years now the…
Darren Lockyer is one of the greatest players of all time, there is no doubt about that. He could retire today and he would have achieved more in his career than any current Rugby League player. Right now though, his knee is giving him a lot of problems. You find that most great players come…