Articles posted on LeagueFreak.com that are written by guest writers.
Despite some distasteful trash talking at the scrum base and some disobedient novelty Steedens, another coat of restoration polish was applied to St George Illawarra on Sunday thanks to a blue-collar negation of the Wests Tigers. Now with three straight wins, the famous Red V jersey is once again returning to being more palatable as…
So, we’re three days removed from the ‘Showcase of the Immortals’ Wrestlemania 29. It’s time to look back and rate the matches. The show closed with John Cena winning the WWE title after a night which featured matches that ranged from the enthralling all the way to the disappointing. The event mixed the WWE’s best…
Monday night saw the banality of the universe maintained with another two competition points to the Melbourne Storm, a result which took the club to a record-equalling 13th consecutive win. Yes siree, 2013 so far has been enterprise as usual for Craig Bellamy and his cartel of systemised androids. Death, taxes, yada yada yada. Like…
Queensland currently reigns over the most dominant period of State of Origin since the concept’s inception in 1980. Coach Mal Meniga has arguably the greatest pool of talent to choose from and has built a team that has at times destroyed the best NSW could muster in the past 7 series. Billy Slater, Cameron Smith,…
5 rounds into the 2013 season and it looks like it’s a three horse race for the Minor Premiership in the form of Melbourne, South Sydney, and Manly. Newcastle, Roosters and Cowboys fans would argue that their sides are well within the running but general consensus is that the top 3 sides are a class…
New South Wales, we need a Todd Carney contingency plan. It seems a rambunctious youth of whiskey and lead-footing combined with the rusting capabilities of the Shire’s ocean air is slowly beginning to render his body brittle and unreliable. Right now, our incumbent five-eighth is sidelined with a busted ankle that will keep him out…
First up let me say that Sam Thaiday had EVERY right to blow up over the decision to award Billy Slater a try last Friday Night but he had NO right to touch a referee in his protest. One of the first rules you are taught as a child in any sport is respect the…
From the point of view of a card carrying pessimist such as myself, the major talking point from last weekend’s round of NRL will not be the glorious half-ton that my re-tootled Roosters poured on to the outstripped Eels at Allianz Stadium on Monday night. Inside my cynical headspace, this titillating 80 minutes of tri-coloured…
For those who haven’t yet read Ms. Wilson’s ‘article’ yet, the basic premise was that The Sharks were undeserving of their position in the NRL and should be kicked out or relocated. She sighted the fact the club was in crisis, along with ‘terrible crowd figures’ and a fan base that simply doesn’t care. 17,000…
The start of the NRL season is supposed to be a spectacular detonation of exhilaration and engrossment that results from the combination of various beefs from both on-field and off. With most players clearly on horse drugs, explosive knee-jerk sackings at administration level and indecisive young men everywhere struggling to keep their word on contract…
Don’t be boring You could be forgiven for thinking the current Australian cricket team are a touch on the bland side. By a touch on the bland side, I obviously mean the blandest thing since the Poms started making curries. A team consisting of a few stalwarts, a bunch of who-the-fucks, and Michael Clarke. A…
Depression – It is a word that has a different meaning to many different people. To those who suffer from it, it is a daily burden and something to manage in order to prevent further health implications. To those who are ignorant of it, it is a disease for the weak minded and those who…
Within a minute after the full time siren sounds on grand final day, NRL clubs turn their attention to membership drives. Memberships are a good source of revenue for clubs and are used to try and get fans closer to their club with members only features, such as invitations to training days and team functions,…
The City of Sydney. Much like the other filthy and overpopulated municipalities of this earth, it has always had its fair share of the faceless melancholia and alienated futility that any confined human-squash is famous for. However of late, one locale of ye olde convict hub is bluer than it’s ever been, and to pinpoint…
The 2012 season was a season to forget for Penrith Panther fans. A 15th place finish with a plethora of injuries on top of a mass exodus which included club legends Michael Gordon, Luke Lewis and Michael Jennings had many Panther fans asking the question “What is happening to my club?” It is a fair…
With the kickoff to the 2013 National Rugby League season fast approaching all eyes now turn towards each team and how they are lined up as they look to become the Premiers. In this special presentation with bonus senza deposito immediato senza invio documenti, writer Daniel Nichols takes us through a thorough run down of…
Performance enhancing drugs have been all over the sporting world lately. First came cycling’s fallen angel Lance Armstrong finally coming out of the PED closet on Oprah and confirming what we’ve all known for the last two years. Just as we’d all digested that, enter Ray Lewis and his alleged use of deer antler spray that may…
At his press conference on Tuesday, Sonny Bill Williams made an unusual break with the pre-fight pugilist’s charter by making the rare admission that he is worried. Thanks to this badly timed confession, I now too am brickin’ it. It appears that both of us neglected to search deeper than the first two links presented…
Although the NFL and the NRL are two completely different sports, the skill sets can often merge without any problems. Below are the players from the 2012 season of the NFL that I believe would make up the best NRL outfit. The obvious deficiency in this side is the kicking game, as the NFL does…
Pre Season in any sport is the time in which the foundation qualities needed for the long season ahead are established. In a collision sport like rugby league the intense mental and physical challenges of the game need to be not only mirrored but exceeded in this period, allowing the player to feel confident to…
In all his gloriousness, League Freak asked in November how everyone gets by in the off-season, and I’d like to offer up what I’ve been getting up to over the past three months. 2012 ended with my club, Hull KR finishing outside of the top eight playoff places for the first time since our inaugural…
Ever wondered how much damage one little lie could do? One Newcastle player certainly found out the hard way. Before the salary cap was introduced, players had to play for the team representing the area they lived in. If a player residing in Sydney wished to change clubs, he had to leave the suburb he…
Ian Schubert, the NRL’s salary cap chaperone, has had some devilishly intricate contracts to review over the years. However, there is one from a different kettle of fish and loaves that stretches his abilities more than most, and with Israel Folau’s return to the land of league imminent, he’s about to tussle with its particulars…
The problem a lot of Super League teams are faced with is spending more money than they make. That is the simplistic answer to the financial issues dogging the likes of Salford, Castleford and Hull KR. The salary cap sits at £1.65m. That means that clubs can spend up to that limit on wages and…
With the Salford City reds currently await a winding up petition hearing and the recent spate of big clubs going bust, it begs the question, what does the future have in store for Rugby League in England? Last season we saw one of the biggest clubs in English RL History, the Bradford Bulls arrive at…
The great game of rugby league, saturated in rich heritage and underpinned with a revered history, will forever find itself jousting with the feisty and youthful beast of progression. The sport has been constantly churned through the stamping press of time and subsequently embossed with evolutions like video technology, floodlit night games, convoys of on-field…
My oval-shaped pigskin heart almost flat-lined on the weekend thanks to a Sabbath sans rugby league, but with the aid of an unheralded sliver of light that poked through the vile post-season darkness, I was able to survive and tell my tale today. The saviour smelt like oil and bourbon and aggressively attacked my ear…
“I was with Ray until the end.” Sam Haron wasn’t anyone special or significant to the greater public. He was an average person enjoying his life. In 1933, he managed to begin the greatest dream of his life, to tour with the Australian Rugby League Kangaroo’s to England, on board the S.S. Jervis Bay as a Rugby…
The title says it all really. Not again. Not again as the Bulldogs who, in my opinion, were certainly the cream of the crop throughout the season came crashing back down to Earth after audio of someone within the club calling out abusive comments to a media contingent. Compounding the matter, the comments were of…
Two battle-dusty sheriffs stand at opposite ends of the ANZ corral in the Wild West, wearily upright among piles of the steaming fallen as the only remaining gunslingers from a drawn-out bloody battle carried out over 1 score and 6 rounds. And a couple of finals. Both wear an engulfing tattoo of strain on their…