All the latest National Rugby League News from all 16 NRL clubs.
The North Queensland Cowboys will face the Manly Sea Eagles next weeked after disposing of the Brisbane Broncos 33-16 and ending their 2012 season. This game pretty much went the way that I expected it too. The Broncos poor form leading into the finals meant they were no match against an in form Cowboys side…
The Melbourne Storm have blown the South Sydney Rabbitohs off the park in a clinical display in a huge 24-6 win in Melbourne. I said before the game that if the Rabbitohs were to win the match, their forward pack needed to step up and breathe fire for 80 minutes. They started the game looking…
The Canterbury Bulldogs have beaten the Manly Sea Eagles 16-10 to earn next weekend off and book a place in week three of the finals. The game was a brutal one that at times saw momentum swing from one side to the other. The Sea Eagles could not have hoped for a better start to…
I can understand why New Zealand Warriors fans are a bit worried right now. After watching another disasterous season with a disasterous coach at the helm and knowing they actually have a very good lineup that can go places with the right leadership, they keep hearing some worrying names being tossed in their direction. The…
The Sydney Roosters have announced that Catalan Dragons coach Trent Robinson join the club starting next season on what is a three year deal. Robinson was previously an assistant coach under Brian Smith in 2010 and linked up with the Catalan Dragons in 2011. He has done OK with the Dragons and his ability to…
The Sydney Roosters have announced that they have “parted ways” with Brian Smith today. This doesn’t come as a surprise after the season the Roosters had. I always got the feeling it was going to end this way for Smith. He was brought in to try and fix the club and rid them of a…
Bulldogs fullback Ben Barba has won the 2012 Dally M player of the year with in what is fittingly a run away victory. Matthew Bowen finished second in the count while Cooper Cronk finished third. Barba also won the headline moment of the year, the fullback of the year and the Provan Summons medal which…
If I was running the Australian Rugby League Commission today I would have called NRL chief medical officer Ron Muratore into my office today and fired him on the spot. Making Rugby League as safe a sport as it can possibly be has been one of the major goals of every Rugby League administration going…
When the season kicks off, everyone feels like they have a chance of winning the NRL Grand Final. Soon after though, reality starts to set in and teams that started off with high expectations find themselves on the wrong end of too many scoreboards. So who were the most disappointing teams in season 2012? Obviously the level…
While player managers scramble to the media telling everyone that will listen that the NRL salary cap should be raised immediatley, it seems the NRL itself is holding off on any such move. There are two major reasons for this. First of all, there are a number of clubs that could really use a jump…
The first week of the NRL Finals series kicks off this weekend and it is shaping up as the NRL marketers dream. There are so many big match ups in the first week of the finals and the new finals system should make things easier for fans to follow too. The NRL captains call was…
The NRL came out yesterday with a curious announcement that, one week out from the finals, it would send any shoulder charge that made contact with a players head or neck straight to the judiciary without any grading. This process is usually what happens with the most extreme cases of foul play and usually results…
A words of advice kids. If every you find yourself in a position where by you have the financial clout to sponsor a football stadium and use its naming rights to promote various companies that you own, don’t buy the naming rights to a stadium that doesn’t have a major sporting team as its number…
Sonny Bill Williams has revealed that he already regrets his decision to return to Rugby League and if he had his time over again, he would never have agreed to join the Sydney Roosters three years ago and would stay in Rugby Union. As it stands right now Williams has a stint in Japanese Rugby…
Luke Lewis has revealed that he was diagnosed with thyroid cancer earlier this month. Lewis had neck surgery to remove his cancerous thyroid and is currently undergoing further treatment in an effort to recover. Lewis’ ordeal is a little reminiscent of Adam Ritson’s many years ago. A scan on an injury he picked up during a match showed up the thyroid abnormality…
Ben Hornby has announced that he will retire at seasons end in a move that will hopefully allow the Dragons to go into a fully fledged rebuilding mode. In recent seasons I think Hornby has been a liability to the Dragons on the field. Playing in the halves, he lacked creativity, his kicking game was…
Brian McClennan has been sacked by the New Zealand Warriors effective immediately with assistant coach Tony Iro taking over the head coaching role for the teams remaining two games of the 2012 season. That McClennan couldn’t even see out his first season as the clubs head coach says a lot. McClennan stepped into the spotlight…
Over the last few months the South Sydney Rabbitohs have had a good run of form, and it led a lot of their fans to ask me if I rated them as a true Grand Final contender. The whole time I said I wanted to wait and see how they went against one of the…
Last weekend the Penrith Panthers beat the Cronulla Sharks 21-20 in extra time. Both teams were missing a whole host of players and while the Sharks sit many places above the Panthers on the ladder, this contest looked to be evened out by a number of factors, the biggest of which was the Sharks poor…
Luke Lewis asked the Penrith Panthers for a release from the final two years of a lucrative contract. At the time many reasons were given, but I was one of the very few people that mentioned that the move would allow Lewis to capitalize on the remaining years of his playing career. A lot of…
After the resignation of Stephen Kearney this week, the Daily Telegraph as well as Fox Sports are reporting that Ricky Stuart will coach the Parramatta Eels from the beginning of next season in a move that all but certainly ends his reign as New South Wales State Of Origin coach. I tend to think this…
Luke Lewis has asked for, and received an early release from his contract at the Penrith Panthers sighting a desire for a new challenge at another club. Lewis is a local junior and has played for the Panthers for 11 years. He was stripped of the club captaincy earlier this year in a move that…
The Western Australia Rugby League has announced that the name they will use for their National Rugby League expansion team will be the West Coast Pirates. Previously the Western Australia Rugby League had used the name Western Reds, Perth Reds, then WA Reds, but obviously they decided to go in a different direction for their…
A player moves from one club to another during the middle of the NRL season and predictably, the media runs around telling everyone that the sky is falling. The same old reactionary bullshit we have come to expect over the years. Then they wonder why they are all getting sacked! I personally have no problems…
In what is being described as a “mutual decision” made in conjunction with the Australian Rugby League Commission, David Gallop has decided to stand down as the CEO of the NRL only 4 months into a four year contract. I think it was time. David Gallop took over, reluctantly, as the NRL CEO in 2002…
At the beginning of the year the Penrith Panthers were a club looking to reinvent itself. It needed to happen, they needed to draw a line in the sand and put an era of complete and utter failure firmly in the rear view mirror. One of the major moved forward was that the club announced…
So the NRL Referees have used Brad Fittler to get around their bosses, Bill Harrigan and Stuart Raper, to contact NRL CEO David Gallop and tell him they no longer have confidence in Harrigan and Raper. Hmmm… Firstly, what is David Gallop doing even sitting down at that meeting. Aside from the fact that Brad…
Josh, Josh, Josh…. You know, Canberra Raiders fans don’t ask for much from you. They kinda know what the deal by now. Basically, you’re a good fullback, but every time you get tackled you get up slower than Apollo Creed in Rocky II. You’re more injury prone than Mr Glass from Unbreakable. Hell, you missed…
Earlier this year on Twitter Phil Gould was answering questions put to him by Penrith Panthers fans and tried his best to convey the terrible position the clubs previous management had left the club in in regards to the salary cap. Gould didn’t beat around the bush either. He basically said that the club was…
As many of you know I have complained a number of times about the money wasted in Sydney on stadium developments at venues that are no where near the standards required for top level sport these days. I have talked about the need for some sort of stadium rationalization for years now. Today came news…