In a recent article in the Sydney Morning Herald new Sydney Roosters coach Chris Anderson bemoaned the fact that the game has become too much of a defensive struggle. He cites the move by Greg Inglis and Mark Gasnier from the centers and into five-eight for their respective clubs as a sad sign for the…
Not a chance. As the WCC matchup between sentellins and the Broncos draws ever closer there seems to be a consensus that this is the real deal. The match has been re-arranged to suit the Broncos, they have more prep time than previous NRL sides as do the saints and we have people predicting a…
I wasn’t shocked when I heard the allegations about Craig Gowers behavior in a King Cross night club on Saturday night. Let me take you back to 1999 when Gower was kicked out of the Australian Rugby League team after exposing himself to an Irish Tourist at a Coogee Bay Hotel. The powers that be at…
Look, I’m a fan of Russell Crowe and what he wants to do at South Sydney. While most try hard want to be celebs go to one Souths game every ten years and then feed of it for the rest of their lives like they are a loyal fan, Crowe actually attends as many games…
By now I’m guessing you’re all pretty sick and tired of the gazzillions of repetitive predictions threads we’ve had over the off season on RLFans. ”I predict sintellins will finish top and hull will finish second” yadda yadda ad infinitum. The ‘wigan points deduction’ for a magical salary cap breach that hasn’t yet been confirmed…
The RFL today released news that it will be appointing a full time coach for the Great Britain team after announcing they will not be renewing Nobles contract. Shamefully Nobles greatest achievement with the GB team was getting one of the most comprehensive systematic thrashings ever seen on home soil by the aussies in the…
Sure they had a few decisions go against them, but Great Britain was well beaten by New Zealand in Wellington on the weekend. Now, down on confidence, the Lions face an Australian side in Brisbane thats looking for revenge. So can they come back and make their way into the final? With Sean Long having…
Lets sort the hype from the actual truth of the matter. When he left Rugby League, Matt Rogers was just a winger. He wasn’t a center, not up to fullback and defiantly not a half of any sort. He was a winger, plain and simple. On top of that, he was injury prone. So he…
There is no doubting Ricky Stuart is one of the top five coaches in the game today. His coaching record speaks for itself. So why then have the Roosters effectively got rid of Stuart (The official line is that both parties split by mutual agreement), the coach who took them to their first Grand Final…
It was a perfect start by Huddersfield, the type a start a coach would even ask for because it was so ridiculously good. Leon Pryce kicked the ball back, set after set on the St Helens line, a try, keeping St Helens under non stop pressure. However the signs we’re there early on that Huddersfield…
So Im over here in Pommyland and the Challenge Cup is on this weekend. Great, I can go to my first Challenge Cup….in Twickenham….to see St Helens….take on Huddersfield…. Ummm…no. I think I’ll be saving my money on this one and going to a Challenge Cup Final next year that will hopefully provide some type…
On the same day that Danny Buderus announced that he would not be taking part in the 2006 Tri Nations in Australia due to personal reasons, Keiron Cunningham announced that he would retire from test football all together because…well, he wants to. Two international hookers of a similar age. One stepping down for the series,…
Ive said for some time now that Rob Burrow isn’t even close to being a halfback, and if you have watched his play over the last few weeks, surely now you must agree with you. Burrow’s game consists of running across field and then throwing a long looping pass to a flat footed player out wide. He…
While I may be on the other side of the planet at the moment, I could see Andrew Johns getting charge for dissent weeks ago. Surely Johns must have know he was treading a fine like a few weeks ago when everyone was getting on his case for the way he was talking to match…
Well the relegation battle in Super League got a nice little fire lit under it when half the bloody teams in Super League were caught cheating the salary cap. So much for the level playing field. What ever the case it has set up a fascinating relegation battle with Wigan and Wakefield going head to head. Now…
In an article in todays Sydney Morning Herald the ARL has come under attack for rejecting a proposal to have both an Australian Aboriginal team and New Zealand Maori team take part in the 2008 World Cup. For once, I agree 100% with the ARL. It was a complete and utter farce that the Maori…
St Helens… aka Liverpool to some silly silly people! But its not… St Helens is a medium sized town.. i guess, outside of Liverpool!!!!!! Its probably most famous for St Helens RLFC and The Glass Industry… but the glass industry inst as big now here as it formally was… so Saints are what we are…
News that Craig Wing is being chased by the Penrith Panthers shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone. Wing, who’s form has not been great over the last 12 months, has found himself out of favor at Bondi and is pretty much being shown the door by the Roosters. The Panthers meanwhile are still looking…
I’ve been supporting the Wolves now since the middle of Super League VII in 2002. I got into it through a work mate of mine, who asked me to tag along to a game. It was versus St Helens. Me being a newbie didn’t know the rivalry we had with the Scousers. We lost…..but on…
You have to give credit to Rhys Wesser and Luke Priddis. No matter how Penrith players, both of these players always stand head and shoulders above their team mates. Penrith’s performances over the last few weeks have been nothing short of disgraceful. Its easy to point the finger at Craig Gower’s and his injury as…
Ah, so you’re wondering what Im doing here? Well isnt it obvious. Im building a web site baby. At this stage Im still testing things out, seeing what I can and cant do. Im making contacts and generally filling in space with crap like this. Why do you care though. You’ve just come here by…
RLFans is no more as League Freak is not only made a moderator, but is given his own subsite! The shocking news came amid reports that League Freak had died. Thankfully, these reports were not true and celebrations on the streets of Salford were put on hold as drunks and thugs came back down to…
The Brisbane Broncos will be looking for a new coach heading into season 2007 because Wayne Bennett will step down as coach. Having guided a young Broncos side to back to back titles in the early 90’s, Bennett enjoyed great success with a side full of champion players. As these players reached the prime/end of…
So the Warriors deliberately and systematically cheated the salary cap. They turned themselves in and were willing to cop the punishment. Somehow, the NRL decided to only take 4 premiership points away from their 2006 total. Thats like taking the free points from the bye away….a NOTHING penalty. And yet, according to some media outlets,…
What was Scotty Prince supposed to do? He’s had a tough career. If any bloke knows how quickly a career can end, its Scott Prince. There was a while there that Prince was only a 50/50 chance of ever coming back from a shocking leg injury and as he went to the West Tigers, it…
I was all for the NRL’s strong stance against the Bulldogs when it was revealed that they had cheated the salary cap. Not it seems the Warriors have done the same thing. If its proven that the Warriors organization at any time made payments to players, knowing those payments were not being put on the…
Yeah its just a trial, but the first footy match of the season was very much appreciated in my lavish surroundings. It was an entertaining game, some big hits and a surprise winner. While some say trial games mean nothing, I disagree. Ive seen to many teams in two many sports write off poor trial…
Well, we all heard the news this week. If you have followed my comments over the last year you know what I think of Matthew Elliott’s coaching. I mean, he seems like a nice enough bloke, but between selecting park footballs ahead of good youngsters, bulking up the side to the point where their lack…
News this week that the St George-Illawarra Dragons needed to release a number of players to get under the 2006 salary cap came as a surprise, especially as the club only just re-signed fullback Clint Greenshields to a one year deal and Luke Bailey to a similar deal just a few months earlier. The Dragons…
This is a very young story coming out of New Zealand but it seems the someone within the company that owns the New Zealand Warriors allegedly offered Warriors NRL players as a bargaining chip in their effort to secure the rights to a Pacific Islands rugby union side. Now, if this is the case, I…