The Wests Tigers come into the 2012 season as Premiership favorites. They had made a number of big moves in the off season and many felt that they would kick on and go all the way this year after falling just short the last few seasons. Things don’t always follow the script. After starting the…
Being this good just comes naturally to me. I’m not moving to England! I don’t need to live in Leeds to tell the Rugby Football League how bloody terrible they are. As if I would sell my beast of a car so that I could travel to places like Salford and Warrington in a Vauxhall!…
Over the years I have had many people tell me that I should get involved in the running of Rugby League in some capacity. That I have some good idea’s, that I tend to think outside the box, and that I am not afraid to suggest things even if they are not the most popular…
The Rugby Football League have finally announced a broadcasting deal in Australia which will allow Rugby League fans in the biggest Rugby league market in the world to watch Super League games live. Eurosport will broadcast a number of games live each week while replaying other matches. You can go to their web site by clicking…
It is one of the questions I have been asked the most over the last few days. With the financial crisis in Super League seeing three of the competitions 14 clubs fall over in the last 12 months, people realize that something has to give, and it is probably the ability of Super League to…
The NRL Players Association will push for the NRL to fund the cost of having Income protection for players that suffer career ending injuries. This is a good move and one that you would hope is easy to implement and doesn’t cost too much. It is something that we need too. I think of players…
On Wednesday night I sat down at 8:30pm to watch NRL On Fox. Just before the show started, I checked my Twitter timeline and saw a message from Wests Tigers hooker Robbie Farah that said this: Just got ambushed on NRL on Fox. Pretty fired up ATM to be honest and pretty pissed off. Wanted…
Bradford Bulls fans have woken up to the news this morning that their club could be dead and buried within a fortnight. The Bulls released a statement today pleading with fans to donate £100 each to save the club. They claimed they need to raise around £1,000,000 to survive and £500,000 just to survive through…
When it comes to Rugby League, the rot always starts from the top. How on earth are the Parramatta Eels supposed to succeed on the field when every other level of the club is a complete mess? What makes anyone think that for some reason an entire club can be rotten to the core, and…
The ARL Independent Commission was set up with the goal of being able to stand above self interests and agenda’s and do what is in the best interests of the overall game. In the past, Rugby League administrations have been political beasts. They have had to answer to clubs, who are always out to look…
Last night in England the Rugby Football League was supposed to announce all of the venues that would be used for the 2013 World Cup. For what ever reason, that did not happen and in all the confusion about why the announcement wasn’t being made, it felt like the RFL just decided to announce what…
Every time Johnathan Thurston appears on the Footy Show, he laughs. People love his laugh too. If you’re on Twitter when Thurston is on the Footy Show you will see your timeline light up with people going on and on about it. Last night was a classic Footy Show appearance for Thurston as he got…
Last night in England the Rugby Football League was supposed to announce all of the venues that would be used for the 2013 World Cup. For what ever reason, that did not happen and in all the confusion about why the announcement wasn’t being made, it felt like the RFL just decided to announce what…
St Helens officially sacked Royce Simmons today and have appointed Head of high performance Mike Rush as coach. This is a move that came way too soon and one that smacks of a club that has lost all perspective on its true standing within the game. St Helens is facing the stark reality that has…
Daly Cherry-Evans is a 23 year old halfback that has proven himself in big games, won a premiership with the Manly Sea Eagles and represented Australia. You simply don’t get many young halfbacks that tick all of those boxes. I don’t mean right now in 2012….I mean ever! Right now Daly Cherry-Evans is one of…
There are some really good Rugby League players running around in the NRL. Players that are game breakers. Players that are so important to their club that any sort of injury to them is a crushing blow to their teams premiership aspirations. I can understand when the media focuses on these players. What I don’t…
I always find it very interesting when someone within Rugby League tosses up an idea that is used in another sport, when it is clear they have no idea how that idea is applied in that sport, let alone how it would be applied to Rugby League. The latest idea is the draft, and internal…
When Phil Gould took over as the Penrith Panthers General Manager the first thing he did was pretty cheeky. During a Channel 9 game Gould started calling the club the “Sanyo Panthers”. At the time Sanyo was the clubs major sponsor, and when Gould started calling them the Sanyo Panthers, he somehow managed to do…
Last Friday, the 2nd of March, a significant event in the history of the New Zealand Warriors occurred with expatriate New Zealand businessman Owen Glenn purchasing a 50% shareholding in the club. Glenn and current owner Eric Watson finalised and signed of the deal with NRL CEO David Gallop in Auckland on Thursday evening, the…
I really don’t like doing season previews. They just don’t get me fired up. Still, I know you lot want to see what I’m thinking about the 2012 NRL season so here we are. This season is going to be a close one. The worst team in the comp probably won’t be that bad, and…
Wests Tigers forward Gareth Ellis has been granted an early release from his contract enabling him to return home to England at the end of the 2012 NRL season. Ellis is one of only a few English players who looked to come to Australia and test himself in the worlds toughest rugby competition. He has…
So I’m watching Rambo 3, which is my favorite of all the Rambo movies, and I’m thinking about which of today’s current action stars match up with the all time list of the very best action heros. I put this question to my Twitter followers and the responses were varied. It also threw up the…
It is a series in which every single game rates as highly on TV as the Grand Final. I would argue that State Of Origin is the most identifiable product that the game has Australia wide. Recent speculation suggest that any television station that wants to broadcast the three game State Of Origin series will…
How good is it to go into a Rugby League season and feel optimistic about the club? Its been a long time for us Panthers fans since we could feel positive towards the club. For so long it was a closed shop. No one was accountable for their behavior off the field or their failure…
It was over 12 months ago that Christchurch was rocked by a series of powerful earthquakes that flattened buildings, destroyed infrastructure and claimed many, many lives. It was heartbreaking to watch. Our Kiwi brothers and sisters got up that morning, and it was like any other day. They went to work not realizing that some…
Being an MMA fan and a Gamer, its understandable that when I heard UFC Undisputed 3 was coming out I was pretty excited. I had played UFC Undisputed 2010 and it was a very good game, but felt like it was 85% of the way to being a great game. I knew that the next…
The Independent Commission has been in place for just a few days and yet we are already seeing a lot of interesting development happen in regards to the next round of expansion for the National Rugby League competition. Already there is talk that Perth may be the venue for the end of season test match…
It is the dream scenario for the National Rugby League, the worst case scenario for Fox Sport and it would be a deal that would change Australian television in a very dramatic way. The Sydney Daily Telegraph article Channel Ten to attempt to snatch NRL broadcast rights from Channel Nine outlines moves by Channel 10 to broadcast…
For well over a decade News Limited was part of the business. A 50% owner of the NRL, heavily involved in broadcasting rights, they had their fingers in all the pies and made hundreds of millions of dollars out of the game. Now, they are no longer at the table when it comes to the…
It took a long time but they finally got it done. The old ARL has been dissolved, News Limited has left the building and now the Independent Commission is finally in charge under the name of the Australian Rugby League Commission. The handover occurred yesterday at Moore Park in Sydney where the new HQ for…