News that covers Rugby League in Australia.
Rugby League is the only sport I know of where events that happen in and around the game can all be linked to its ultimate demise. Such was the case in the fallout of Friday nights brawl between the Melbourne Storm and the Manly Sea Eagles. The first fight was not bad, but nothing spectacular….
The other day I sat down to watch a press conference in Brazil where the UFC were promotion their first big event in the biggest country in South America. UFC President Dana White said that it had been a long time coming, and would mark the start of regular events in Brazil, which provides some…
Imagine being a St George/Illawarra player over the last few seasons. You are trying your guts out but its plainly obvious that you don’t have what it takes to win a Premiership. Hell, for nearly a decade the club has been there or there abouts, and they always fall short. So much so that the…
No doubt you have all read about the blowup this week by Phil Gould after some squiggles he wrote on a piece of paper at a recent meeting between all NRL club CEO’s and Chairman was “leaked” to the media. Gould felt like it was a personal attack on him by “someone” at the NRL…
You have to wonder where a club is at when, after a number of terrible performances, they feel like the best thing to do is to have everyone stop drinking alcohol for the next two weeks to try and lift their game. Imagine in your work place if things were going well and the prevailing…
When the Parramatta Eels went out in the last off season and signed Carl Webb, Paul Whatuira, Chris Walker, Chris Hicks and Reni Maitua off the scrap heap, I was certain it was all going to work out just fine for them. I was certain that by signing all of these player who were in…
Phil Gould wrote an article on the weekend about junior Rugby League in western Sydney that basically went along the lines of, the AFL is a juggernaught, we are doing nothing to stop them, we need to spend more money, the sky is falling…..you get the picture. It has caused a lot of headlines and…
The NRL’s National Youth Competition for Under 20’s player get a lot of critics, and I’m not really sure why. I’ve always taken the opinion that, I don’t care what the results are in junior football, the main thing is that the kids are playing Rugby League and having a bit of fun. That should…
When Petero Civoniceva come to the end of his last contract with the Brisbane Broncos, he was the best prop in the game. He expected to be paid, and the club had always preached loyalty and told him that pay day was coming. It never happened. Petero didn’t want to leave the Broncos, but in…
The Sydney Daily Telegraph is reporting that NRL clubs bosses are looking at a number of initiatives that are supposed to make the NRL season run a little bitter. From what I can see, it looks like club bosses have no only out smarted themselves, but also added a dose of self interest into the mix as…
Yesterday at a gas bagging session that was nothing more than an excuse for some of sports power-brokers to have an expensive lunch and hear themselves talk, Channel 9’s boss, David Gyngell, said that Rugby League could not expect to get anywhere near what the AFL got because put simply, the game didn’t have enough…
Rugby League holds 73 of the most watched 100 programs on Australian Pay Television. It is an industry that was formed on the foundation of Rugby League in this country. Today, Roy Masters has written an explosive article in the Sydney Morning Herald titled Clubs’ ploy to abandon Foxtel to get rights value. Go and read…
Starting a new football team, and expansion team, is all about good will. You have to convince the governing body of the sport that they really need you in the competition. That the area you are going into has room for growth, and their presence will will be a welcome addition to the established competition…
This morning Kevin Moore boarded a plane with his Bulldogs side in preparation for Friday nights showdown with the New Zealand Warriors. Not long after arriving in Auckland, Moore announced that he would stand down from the position of Bulldogs coach with immediate effect. Assistant coach Jim Dymock will take over with many suggesting that…
Mark Gasnier has announced that he will retire at the end of the 2011 season and get on with life after football. Gasnier told the media today that he knew going into this season that it would be his last. This is Mark Gasniers first full season of Rugby League, having returned by a stint…
Tim Sheens gave them every chance, but he knew, it was time for change. The West Tigers won the 2005 NRL Grand Final with a young team. Most of that team still forms the core of the current West Tigers lineup today. In the years following that Premiership win, the Tigers have had one major…
They are looking to enter the NRL and provide Brisbane with a second NRL team, but the expected announcement today that they want to name that team the “Brisbane Bombers” is ignorant and short sighted. It will never be allowed to happen, and rightfully so. There is an AFL team called the Essendon Bombers. That’s…
Think of this as a conspiracy theory that has a lot of pieces that fit very neatly into place… I wrote yesterday about Mal Meninga’s Ignorant Rant against everyone and everything from New South Wales. His article titled Queensland’s triumph a victory over the dirty rats of Origin was full of venom, and its got him in a lot…
You have to wonder what planet Mal Meninga is living on. Fresh off of winning a record sixth straight State Of Origin series at Queensland coach, Meninga went on a bizarre rant in his newspaper column titled Queensland’s triumph a victory over the dirty rats of Origin It was nothing short of a tirade directed at…
Queensland has wrapped up its 6th straight State Of Origin series win with a 34-24 win over New South Wales. Lets face it, the scoreline flattered New South Wales. I’ve never seen an opening half an hour to any Origin match like the one I saw in this game. Things just went Queenslands way. The…
On Sky Sports Radio this morning Peter Peters has revealed that there is unrest among the Penrith Panthers playing group. Players are said to be unhappy with the way Steve Georgallis was overlooked for the Panthers coaching position, with Ivan Cleary signed to coach the Panthers from the beginning of next season. This isn’t the…
Earlier this year the Gold Coast Titans announced that they had signed their coach, John Cartwright, to a five year contract extension that would see him coach the team until some time just after the ice caps have melted and we all live in under water cities. It was a move that raised a lot…
The New Zealand Warriors have called a press conference for Wednesday where it is expected that they will announce that Ivan Cleary will leave the club at the end of the 2011 season and take up the vacant coaching role at the Penrith Panthers next year. When people asked me who I wanted to coach…
Phil Gould was named the Penrith Panthers “general manager” with much fanfare a number of weeks ago. Soon after his appointment, Matthew Elliott was told he would no be the clubs coach beyond this season and the clubs CEO decided to “retire”. Then things went quiet… That all changed yesterday when Gould must have decided…
The second game of the 2011 State Of Origin series will be a game that I remember for a very long time. It is everything I love about sport. Witnessing a champion side face off against a team full of desire. An amazing contest. Reaching that point in the game when, both teams had proven…
We have passion! We’ve got the passion! Its about emotion! I’m passionate and emotional! The greatest sporting performances I have seen in my lifetime all come from cold, emotionless performances in which there was no wasted energy on emotion until the contest was well and truly over. I tend to think the New South Wales…
There is a lot of talk today about the Cronulla Sharks, with some wanting them axed from the competition. The first team I ever remember supporting was the Cronulla Sharks. My first favorite player was a young bloke they called “ET”. My first jersey, as a four year old, was a little Sharks jersey. I’m…
As Queensland crossed for their first try of the opening State Of Origin game after just five minutes, it was easy to worry that New South Wales were going to be on the wrong end of a big scoreline. Considering that for the next 20 minutes of the match, Queensland dominated possession and field position,…
I’ve waited to write this article until both New South Wales and Queensland had announced their State Of Origin lineups. I think its funny that we still see NSW selecting their team ahead of QLD. I guess it comes back to the fact that the administrators of our game have been just about non existent…
The Penrith Panthers needed someone who knew Rugby League. They needed someone that knew the club needed rebuilt at all levels. They needed a guiding hand, and yet, they also needed someone who wasn’t worried about results at first, they just needed to re-establish the club. To make things right again. It doesn’t matter what…