News that covers Rugby League in Australia.
After a dominant display for Queensland in the first State Of Origin, and an even more dominant display in the Cowboys win against the Bulldogs just two days later, Jonathan Thurston is in the form of his career. On a night when channel 9 commentator Ray Warren was comparing Cowboys fullback Matthew Bowen to the…
The Cronulla Sharks have withdrawn their offer to halfback Brett Kimmorley in a week when the Shraks re-signed his halves partner Adam Dykes. The Sharks did have an offer on the table for Kimmorley but after recently upgrading the contracts of a number of players the club has seemingly shown the fomer Test halfback the…
You will go for many years to see a team play worse than the 2007 Penrith Panthers. The worst team I have ever seen in my lifetime was the Western Suburbs Magpies of the late 1990’s. To be fair to the Magpies, the club didn’t have much money and just didn’t have the cattle to…
Every off season NRL coaches are invited to attend a forum with the NRL to talk about issues within the game as far as rules go. This lets coaches be involved in the decision making process and get their points of view across on anything from game scheduling to rule interpretations. Wayne Bennett doesn’t attend…
Loud mouthed Dragons five-eight Richie Williams has been dropped to Premier League this weekend and Dean Young had been given the number 6 jersey by coach Nathan Brown. Young, who is returning from injury, is a good utility player, but much better playing at hooker or lock. Brown said Williams was dropped to work on…
Nathan Merritt has taken his omission really well by claiming that the reason he was not selected in the side was due to racism. Merritt appeared in Channel 9 News in Sydney this week and had this to say: “I’m not too sure what it is, maybe it’s a Souths thing or it’s a racial…
I am one of Brent Tates biggest fans. He is a whole hearted, gutsy players who decided to play on with a neck injury that would have seen most other players retire. He always produces the good no matter who he is playing for and against the best of the best at Origin and Test…
The Canberra Raiders can hold their head high today knowing they are proving all their critics wrong. The Raiders headed to Penrith this weekend without halfback Todd Carney and it seemed no one was willing to give them a chance of upsetting Penrith at home. Canberra had other ideas. The Raiders dominated the match and…
As time goes on, I’m starting to become a bit of a fan of Braith Anasta. He came into first grade under so much pressure for so many reasons. He was high profile from game number one in first grade and he has achieved so much already in such a young career. However that hasn’t…
Its been an agenda for a while now and for some stupid reason it persists despite the fact that on field results prove it would be a disaster! Now Jamie Lyon mentor and close person friend Noel Cleal Has told the Sydney Morning Herald thats Lyon is up to the job of playing five-eight for New South…
The Canberra Raiders came into season 2007 as red hot favorites to win the wooden spoon, but after a number of impressive performances against more fancied rivals, the Raiders are showing the rest of the competition that they will be no easy beats this season. One very welcome change from last season has been the…
You know, if you are going to come out and saying things about people, in any walk of life, you can expect there to be no consequences. I know that with this web site and what I say on this site that I cant expect the likes of Keiron Cunningham Craig Gower, Matthew Elliott, anyone…
I was forced to retrieve a can of false outrage yesterday when Channel Nine ran the shocking news that Bulldogs winger Hazem El Masri has been the target of racially motivated policing! Apparently, as the story goes, Hazem and his manager were having a coffee when asked by police for I.D. Now at this point a person…
I’m not surprised and nor should you be. Anyway that has watched Canberra over recent years will see the trend and know that, for three years at least, this is what Penrith fans have to look forward to. Matthew Elliott has currently got a team with 9 current or former international players in his side….
The Canberra Raiders are going to struggle in 2007, everyone knows that. The club lost a number of experienced first grade players at the end of last year and they have not been able to replace that experience. Some people have questioned how the Raiders will recover when quite frankly, no established stars want to…
“I like being competitive and I like to have the ball in my hands,” Tahu said at the time.” That would probably be the most stressful thing; the game’s close and you want to do something and you can’t even get the ball because they’re very structured. Being a centre or winger, you touch the…
New Sydney Roosters coach Chris Anderson made the ridiculous suggestion this week that he has been astonished by the lack of skill modern day players have. Anderson said that since taking over the Roosters he has found the club full of players that lack skill, with some players unable to do basics such as pass…
When Matt Rogers decided the world should stop for him and he wanted to break his rugby union contract a year early, the Gold Coast Titans stepped forward and offered Rogers a one year contract the winger could take up ahead of his much more lucrative two year deal he had already signed with the…
As Sonny Bill Williams signed a 5 years contracted estimated to be worth about $2.5 million dollars with the Bulldogs last week, it was revealed that the New Zealand Warriors were keen to sign the New Zealand sensation but simply could not afford him. What? The New Zealand Warriors, a team based in New Zealand…
The drawn out saga over where Lote Tuqiri will be up playing may finally be resolved by next week as South Sydney prepared to table an offer on the same day the australian rugby union has set a deadline for the former League winger to sign a contract offer they have made him. In the…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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,…