Canterbury Bulldogs fullback Ben Barba has been charged by the NRL Match Review Committee with Grade 1 Dangerous Contact – Unnecessary Use of Knees. Barba will avoid suspension if he decides to take the early guilty please. If he chooses to fight the charge and loses, he would face a one match suspension. Barba was…
Penrith Panthers halfback Luke Walsh could find himself playing for Super League club St Helens as early as this season. News that the St George/Illawarra Dragons may be willing to release half Jamie Soward early from his contract to join the Penrith Panthers this season could open the door for Walsh to also leave early….
Do the Newcastle Knights look like a team coached by someone earning well over $1 million per year? I look at the Newcastle Knights and I don’t see any value for money coming from Wayne Bennett and what he is doing at the club. I don’t see them doing anything special. I don’t see a…
The 2013 State Of Origin series will reach the largest potential global audience in series history, with overseas networks covering the series as well as games being streamed over the internet. In Australia the match will be covered live by Channel 9, WIN and NBN networks. In New Zealand the game will be shown live…
When Penrith Panthers fans were sold the dream of signing Johnathan Thurston things were looking pretty good! I wasn’t sold on signing Thurston, I think he was demanding too much money and is too old to be investing that much salary cap space into, but there is no doubt he would have got the job…
On Friday night as the video referee was called upon, I knew Bulldogs fans would be very unhappy with the decision that was about to be made. We were either going to see Ben Barba awarded a sensational, game ending try, or we were going to see the Dragons awarded a penalty within the Bulldogs…
As much as I hate to say it and as much as I love them, I think it’s the best option for the North Queensland Cowboy to release Dallas Johnson, Matthew Bowen & Glenn Hall at seasons end. It’s no secret we have an ageing roster, the old legs in the squad is partly the…
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I am a NSW Blues fan in the State of Origin. Correction, I am a frustrated NSW Blues fan in the State of Origin. You see, as we haven’t won a series since 2005, my frustrations have slowly but surely built to the surface. What was once a babbling underground brook is now a raging…
“I’m not defending what he said, but…” JUST STOP TALKING, ALL OF YOU. So the AFL’s Indigenous Round has been a dismal failure. It’s timed to coincide with Reconciliation Week, to honour the contribution of Aboriginal players to AFL. Make no mistake, Aussie Rules is their game. We all know what happened, let’s get to…
With reports circulating that English prop Gareth Hock is about to pull out of his deal with the Parramatta Eels, two questions come to mind: 1) Why do players sign for clubs before they are genuinely committed? 2) What’s the point of signing a contract if you can just back out of it later? Earlier…
When outgoing Chief Executive Officer Todd Greenberg announced he was leaving his post as Top Dog at the Canterbury Bulldogs to join David Smith’s senior executive team at NRL Head Office, members, fans and the NRL community all wondered who could possibly replace him. Greenberg joined the club in 2008 at a time when the…
South Sydneys John Sutton and Canterburys Josh Reynolds have been called into the New South Wales Blues squad, with a decision to be made later this week on which player will replace injured utility player Kurt Gidley. Sutton’s size and ability to play in the back row would mean New South Wales is going for…
There were good games, close games, a few bludgers, controversy, and big crowd numbers that were able to be posted. To the bean counters at the Rugby Football League, it had everything you need to throw together a nice little press release that you can send out to the few media outlets that still care…
Queensland has named its team for the opening game of the 2013 State Of Origin series with a few interestings selections in their side. Mal Meninga was never going to move away from a backline that has won the bulk of the last seven series, but the Maroons forward rotation looks a little different with…
Last night League Freak suggested taking an entire round of games to New Zealand, an idea taken from the Super League Magic Weekend. A very good idea indeed to create extra interest across the Tasman. After Sunday’s game in Mudgee I’d suggest taking an entire round of games to the bush so to speak. By…
Update: Kurt Gidley will miss the entire State Of Origin series. He has been replayed by Josh Reynolds for game one. New South Wales has named its team for Game 1 of the 2013 State Of Origin series. This is the first team named by new NSW coach Laurie Daley as the Blues stare down…
It is the worst case scenario and something that can not be tolerated by the Rugby Football League With scores tied up between Hull FC and Hull KR in their Magic Weekend derby game and just seconds remaining on the clock, Hull FC put a bomb up from just within their own half of the…
This weekend see’s Super League clubs take an entire round of games to one stadium, Etihad Stadium, home of Manchester City. The concept was born as a way to try and open up expansion markets in Wales and Scotland. The Rugby Football League would take over a major stadium for one weekend and put on…
Today the Wests Tigers faithful are rejoicing in the fact that their team has finally located a pulse. It may be waterlogged, but it’s beating. The process wasn’t pretty, but last night at Leichhardt Oval they eventually emerged from the mud wrestle on top of the Cowboys in a sodden contest that involved some fortuitous…
I’ve thought about writing this Saturday Night but it was not until now that I decided to go ahead due to the sensitive nature of the topic. Last weekend the NRL put on its Women In League round. Teams wore pink, charities were given much needed publicity and thousands upon thousands of dollars were raised…
When an NRL club signs a highly paid player to a long term contract, they are taking a risk. It doesn’t matter who that player is or what they have done in the past, committing so much money to one player and hoping that he is still performing at a high level at the end of that deal is…
The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that Penrith Panthers prop Mose Masoe will join St Helens in 2014. Masoe, who joined the Panthers in the off season from the Sydney Roosters, is one of the biggest players in the game today and a player I rate fairly highly. he has good mobility for a big…
Another day another sportsman being investigated for comments made on Twitter. A day after the Ben Te’o alleged assault case surfaced young cricket Chris Lynn is in hot water for tweeting about the woman at the centre of the allegations. This just a day after David Warner was fined for his comments made on twitter…
The South Sydney Rabbitohs only informed the NRL of assault allegations leveled against Ben Te’o last night, despite having said they knew about the allegations five weeks ago. This news comes as the NRL looks to establish an independent investigation into these allegations via the NRL’s own Integrity Unit. NRL CEO David Smith played a straight bat to reporters…
South Sydney will take no action against back rower Ben Te’o after allegations of domestic violence were made against him by Brisbane woman who will be the subject of a Channel 9 interview later tonight. The incident is alleged to have occurred on Friday the 19th of April after the Australia vs New Zealand test…
Brent Tate looks like he will retire as a North Queensland Cowboys after re-signing with the club through to the end of the 2014 season. With the re-signing of Jonathan Thurston soaking up a huge amount of the Cowboys salary cap space, the club is starting to look at where it can save a bit…
The New South Wales State of Origin side is set to be named on Sunday night and it seems everybody is talking about who should be selected. Some players are automatic selections (i.e. Gallen, Jennings) whilst other spots are extremely up for grabs (i.e. five-eighth, bench). In something that is sure to spark much feedback…
The NRL has announced that it will introduce a 30 second time limit on the formation of scrums in an effort to speed up the game. There will also be a change to the time limit currently applied to line drop outs, with the limit dropped from 40 seconds down to 30 seconds. These changed…
Eric Grothe Junior burst onto the scene as a young, strong winger for the Parramatta Eels. Sharing the name of his famous dad Grothe has been in the spotlight since an early age and having played Origin for NSW 3 times and representing his nation it’s fair to say Eric has embraced it. Since retiring…