All the latest National Rugby League News from all 16 NRL clubs.
As a Penrith Panthers fan, I didn’t want to see Cooper Cronk leave the Melbourne Storm. Having been talent scouted by the Storm, developed, given his first grade debut and blossomed into a super star of the game at the club, I thought it would have been tragic to see Cronk leave the Storm and…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
He is off contract at the end of the season and for the last few years, he has been less than enthusiastic about re-signing with the Canberra Raiders. Now, news has emerged that Josh Dugan is facing speeding charges after being clocked doing 105kph in a 60kph zone. On top of this, Dugan was unlicensed,…
This week we saw and interesting court case in which Optus were ruled to not be breaking any laws by allowing its customers to record free to air television programs on a personal DVR and then stream that recording to their mobile devices and computers as early as 2 minutes after that television program started….
You’ve waited through the long off season, and now, with the season just around the corner, your team is starting to play trial matches. So how much can you get out of trial games? How much can you take from trail game results? You can do all of the fitness work you like, but nothing…
There is something about Rugby League that really pisses some people off. I can not think of another sport anywhere else in the world that is supposed to justify its existence, as well as its ability to survive long term, despite the fact the tough old bastard has been around since 1895. It is not…
Today it has been announced that the Sydney Cricket Ground will be upgraded with funding from the Australian Federal Government of $50 million, the NSW State Government tipping in $86 million and the SGC Trust itself spending $50 million as well. This will see the venues capacity boosted from 45,758 to 48,000. Wait, what? That…
So yet again Rugby League is talking about a “super secret meeting” that happened over a coffee in public. The story is that Sonny Bill Williams met with the Sydney Roosters chairman Nick Politis and Channel Nine supremo David Gyngell at “secluded” Circular Quay to all but finalize a return to the NRL for the…
Watch me start off simplifying this and then making it much more complicated as we go along. NRL clubs currently receive a grant from the NRL every year. This is basically their share of the current broadcasting deal. The NRL is looking to get clubs to sign an agreement that says that next year, they…
Twitter is an incredible resource that is like a gold mine for anyone that knows how to use it properly. Personally, Twitter had been amazing for my web site. It is a completely open forum that allows me to contact a large user base of people who are interested in Rugby League. I can send…
Today on Twitter I mentioned once again that I believe the Cronulla Sharks should relocate to Brisbane. I point to the way they have struggled over their entire history financially and the way they are squeezed into a small area of Sydney with no room to grown. In Brisbane they would be one of just…
Just days after the announcement that James Maloney would not be re-signing with the New Zealand Warriors at the completing of his contract in 2012 comes word that the halfback has signed a three year deal with the Sydney Roosters from 2013. Maloney is a good buy for the Roosters and will partner Mitchell Pearce…
If you follow me on Twitter, you will know that this is something that I have brought up a few times and I am not happy about. As of today, the Penrith Panthers do not have a captain, CEO or a major sponsor. Earlier this week The Daily Telegraph looks at the latter in an…