News that covers Rugby League in Australia.
Week two of the NRL Finals series will see the 7th and 6th placed teams during the regular season host home finals games against the 3rd and 2nd ranked sides. There Wests Tigers have called for this set up to be changed. They feel that, a reward for finishing higher up the ladder during the…
Of the six teams that have so far taken part in the first week of the NRL Finals series, the Gold Coast Titans look the pick of the bunch. Their 28-16 win over the New Zealand Warriors wasn’t always set in stone, but when the pressure was applied they managed to kick on and put…
I hate the Sydney Roosters. I hate that a club with no fans and no junior league, with a false history tarnished by the fact that no one cares can be soaking up the funding that other clubs with actual supporters could use. However, who cares, because this game was sooooo good. The Wests Tigers…
Remember a couple of months ago when I wrote off the Canberra Raiders because they were just too inconsistent? Basically I said, I like them, but they can’t win the title because they can’t string performances together. When they do however, look out! The Raiders last night become the first NRL clubs to win six…
When I woke up this morning and read the headline “Brian Noble Looks To Swap Super League For The NRL” I felt sick. I didn’t have to read the article to know that such complete and utter stupidity could only be aiming towards one man. I mean, lets think about this for a second. An…
Like most teams that miss the NRL Finals series, consistency was the Achilles heel of the Parramatta Eels. After making last years Grand Final, the Eels had big hopes in 2010. They had lost a few players in the off season but they felt they had more than squared the ledger with the additions of…
On the list of the most frustrating footballers I’ve ever seen, Frank Pritchard has got to rank right up there among the very best. For most of the season the fire just doesn’t seem to be there. He is one step slower, he doesn’t have the impact, and quite honestly, he looks like he is…
In 2010 the Rugby League media in Australia has gone bat shit crazy. Between the formation of the Independent Commission, the Melbourne Storm Salary Cap saga, players demanding higher wages and Greg Inglis deciding he wants to live in Brisbane, the media has basically had a nervous breakdown in this part of the world. You…
Quade Cooper is an Australian Rugby Union player. Yes, Rugby Union still does exist in this country, if only barely. News came out this week that Cooper had held talks with the Parramatta Eels with an eye on switching codes. It came out at a time when he is negotiating with the ARU, and he…
Why do we have a salary cap? Two reasons. Firstly, in the game of Rugby League we need to stop our moronic club administrators from over spending. Pushed by ego, the need to make themselves seem like they are doing their job and therefore, being safe in their own job, administrators have no problems spending…
Well the predictions of doom and gloom over the crowd figure were off the mark but the predictions of a Queensland clean sweep were spot on. While New South Wales seemed to put up more of a fight, the fact is Queensland were not at their rampaging best and STILL managed to come away with…
Talk is that the crowd for State Of Origin number 3 in Sydney on Wednesday night will struggle to get a big crowd. Ticket sales have supposedly been slow, people are selling tickets on EBay for cheap, and while they are talking about a crowd of 50-60,000, I’m tipping more along the likes of 40,000….
It should have been the type of situation that would have any decent footballer licking their chops and reading for a big game. Facing off against a weakened opponents. No captain, no on field general. Their back forward missing, their best backs missing. All that would be left is a couple of experienced club players…
So if you don’t know who Beau Ryan is, he is a winger for the West Tigers with a fantastic last name. He is a handy player, and he is bloody funny. He has a segment on The Footy Show called “Beau Knows” where he takes a hard look at various things, not only within…
You are probably wondering why I have not listed the Queensland and New South Wales sides heading into State Of Origin three. The reason is, it doesn’t really matter who was named. Queensland have named a very strong side, they have dropped Ben Hannant for Petero Civoniceva. They looked great. New South Wales on the…
This has been coming for some time. The Daily Telegraph in Sydney is reporting that Jarryd Hayne has his nose out of joint over comments made by his coach Daniel Anderson after the weekends loss to the Brisbane Broncos. What Anderson said was the softest rocket you have ever seen: “I think our fullback is learning. He…
The Queensland Rugby League team has completely dominated New South Wales in game two of the State Of Origin series, running away with a 34-6 victory. The win gives Queensland a record five series wins in a row, and makes Mal Meninga the most successful coach in State Of Origin history. To say this was…
So the report is in, and….wait for it….wait for it…. The Melbourne Storm broke the salary cap by a whole lot! The false outrage today has been a bit ridiculous really. We knew the Storm broke the Salary cap. We knew they had broken it by millions of dollars over the course of the last…
When I first heard that Timana Tahu had left the NSW cap for personal reasons, I was a bit confused. When I heard he had left after being upset at something Andrew Johns had said, I thought it was a piss weak move. It them came out that Andrew Johns had made a racist remark…
Where there is smoke, there is usually fire. Only 12 months ago, all and sundry would have told you that the Gold Coast Titans were the gold standard of how an NRL team should be set up and run. A brand new stadium was in place. The local community was behind the team. The club…
The Melbourne Storm are in the almost impossible situation where by they have to shed hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of player contracts, that they are 100% committed to having to pay, in order to be under the salary cap for the start of the 2011 NRL season. The Storm tend to have a…
Darren Lockyer is upset. Darren Lockyer doesn’t like whats going on. Darren Lockyer wants things changed. Darren Lockyer is emo! The Sydney Telegraph is reporting today that Darren Lockyer Thinks The Dragons Deal For Mark Gasnier is unfair. He doesn’t like the fact that the Dragons are looking to sign Gasnier for around $50,000 for the remainder…
You’re probably wondering why I have yet to write anything about the news that Mark Gasnier is looking to get out of French Rugby Union and now wants to come back and play in the NRL with the St George/Illawarra Dragons. Its basically because I don’t care either way. Gasnier left the Dragons mid contract…
You probably noticed I didn’t post the lineups for the City vs Country game that will be played on Friday Night at the same time as the Australia vs New Zealand Test match. I haven’t looked at the lineups in any depth, I don’t know where the game is played (I have a feeling its…
Lets start off by saying, I love the Melbourne Storm. I personally hope they can keep their core together, surround them with minimum wage youngsters and come back in 2011 and win the comp. I think they may at least be forced to lose one of their top players, which is unfortunate. As you look…
They were once one of the NRL’s powerhouse clubs. The team everyone else wanted to be like, and yet over the last decade the Canberra Raiders have found themselves having to make do. Struggling with financial problems and unable to attract big name players, the club looked at taking a different direction. Sure it caused…
In 2010 the Melbourne Storm find themselves $700,000 over the 2010 salary cap and that figure is expected to climb over the next few seasons if the Storm were to keep the side they have. David Gallop has already said he will not accept players taking mass pay cuts to keep the side together as…
It was the end. You just had to ask the hacks in the media who were quick to point out that they had nothing to play for, no one cared anyway, and we might as well just forget Melbourne, the second largest city in Australia, and look to Gosford, the…..well, Gosford. A funny thing happened…
Obviously the Melbourne Storm are under the pump at the moment and you will find a lot of the good old fashioned Rugby League alarmists talking about the complete demise of the club. That would be great for the game, we could then look to expand the comp in 15 years time and wonder why…
The Melbourne Storm have deceitfully breached the NRL salary cap over a total of five years. They over spent $1.7 million dollars over five years that they filtered through a second set of books that they did not submit to the NRL. As a result, the NRL has stripped the Melbourne Storm of two NRL…