The Penrith Panthers have won 4 consecutive NRL Premierships because they spend more money than any other clubs on creating opportunities for as many people as possible to play Rugby League in the Penrith district. The Penrith Panthers great strength is their junior development system. It is the biggest single junior Rugby League system in…
Earlier this week news emerged that the Sydney Roosters were looking to make an offer to Australian rugby union player Mark Nawaqanitawase. This caused a bit of a stir in the media, and a lot of shrugged shoulders among Rugby League supporters. Still, if the Roosters feel thats the best place to spend their salary…
In this episode League Freak is joined by Julie as she has a chat about the process of getting her son into playing Rugby League in Adelaide. She also has a bit of a chat about the Parramatta Eels and a general chat about the game. Twitter AndrewRLP and LeagueFreak Patreon Rugby League Project Patreon and the League…
News that Brisbane Broncos halfback Tom Dearden has accepted a deal to move to the North Queensland Cowboys in 2022 really showed that sometimes a club can learn a lesson or two. It was just a few years ago that the North Queensland Cowboys lost a promising young player who was just starting his career…
Over the last few weeks I’ve been shocked by the way some Brisbane Broncos supporters and sections of the Brisbane media have talked about the days when players all wanted to play for the Brisbane Broncos. You would think that the Broncos were the team everyone had to play for. That players were climbing over…
In what has to be the most petty, pathetic response to losing a player they had every chance to hold onto to another club, the Wests Tigers have threatened to stop spending money developing players unless then NRL steps in and starts paying clubs money when they lose players. One half of this Wests Tigers…
The GIO Schoolboy Cup is now in its 39th year and is the premier competition in Schoolboy Rugby League. The Cup is an incredibly successful competition that has produced some outstanding young footballers and some of the NRL’s greatest players including Peter Sterling, Darren Lockyer, Andrew Ettinghausen, Brad Fittler, Andew Johns and more. It is…
2011 started out with a plan to start the Rebellion in the USARL and leverage that to jump start youth development of the sport in the USA. As the only way to make sure rugby league is stable in the USA is to have youth playing to sport in Schools as there is not a…
Scott Prince will be playing for the Brisbane Broncos next season after securing a release from the Gold Coast Titans. Prince’s contract is for two years and its is an interesting signing by the Broncos because they have Peter Wallace and Corey Norman who play in the halves for them last season. I’ve said a…
While player managers scramble to the media telling everyone that will listen that the NRL salary cap should be raised immediatley, it seems the NRL itself is holding off on any such move. There are two major reasons for this. First of all, there are a number of clubs that could really use a jump…
At the beginning of the year the Penrith Panthers were a club looking to reinvent itself. It needed to happen, they needed to draw a line in the sand and put an era of complete and utter failure firmly in the rear view mirror. One of the major moved forward was that the club announced…
Earlier this year on Twitter Phil Gould was answering questions put to him by Penrith Panthers fans and tried his best to convey the terrible position the clubs previous management had left the club in in regards to the salary cap. Gould didn’t beat around the bush either. He basically said that the club was…
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…
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…
I’ve written so many article about the changed that need to be made within the game of Rugby League in Great Britain. If you want to read them, go looking through the site archives. What if you started to think outside the box though? What if you stopped thinking about the basics, and went after…
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…
Optimism is the most important emotion for a sporting fan. Without it, supporting a team is a soul destroying process. You can have optimism no matter where you sit on the ladder. The team in first place give their fans hope that they can go on and win the title. The team at the bottom…
I wasn’t going to write this. This web site has always been one that a general fan of the game can come to a feel like they will get a taste of all the flavors our game has to offer. I might be a Panthers fan, but you don’t come to this site and get…
There is something very special about players who play out their entire career at one club. It feel right. You see them come into first grade as a youngster, follow the highs and lows of their career. You see them reach their peak, playing brilliant football, and then they face the battles that come with…
Under Matthew Elliotts coaching the Penrith Panthers have yet to have a winning season in his three years on control of the club, Despite this the Penrith Panthers management decided to give him a three year contract extension. Now, during the 2009-10 off season the Penrith Panthers have been spending a lot of money. Penrith…
The Manly Sae Eagles are the 100th Premiers after they destroyed the Melbourne Storm 40-0 in the Grand Final. It is the biggest winning margin in Australian Rugby League history. The game was close and predictably hard fought early on, and while the Sea Eagles scored two unconverted tries early in the game you just…
The Sydney Roosters have announced today that they will no longer field under 16’s or under 18’s teams in a move they have claimed is aimed at cutting costs. The Roosters have claimed that they will still offer selected junior players scholarships and will recruit players from other clubs at an older age. This is…
How good are Manly going. At the top of the NRL ladder, flying high and playing really well over some good opposition. As I watched them last weekend I thought about why they are so good…..and it hit me like an weekly Adrian Morley stiff arm that supposedly bounced off my chest! Manly brought players…