| My Kingdom For 100 Vinyl Stickers |
 The Rugby Football League has signed a three year deal with trucking company Stobart. The deal involved Stobart putting large Rugby League themed stickers on 100 of their trucks and involves no money.
In exchange for this the Super League competition will carry the Stobart.
This is insane! Nothing against Stobart, they've done a great deal and made out like bandits. Lets put this in perspective though. The RFL gave Stobart free advertising on Sky Sports television. In return for that national exposure Stobart gave the RFL free advertising on the A57!
The game in England is terribly under funded, and is it any wonder why? How much is a vinyl sticker on a truck worth to Wakefield or London? How much will Hull FC get out of a truck that is traveling up to Newcastle with their logo on it?
If you ran a club and the RFL came back and said "We just sold the naming rights of the entire competition for no money....but look at these cool pictures on some trucks" you would be furious! Clubs have budgets they have to fill out and balance. The naming rights to the Super League competition is one of the few opportunities for the game to draw in some cold, hard cash, and the Rugby Football League blew it!
This deal comes a day after the shocking news that the Rugby Football League had bought Odsal Stadium. Some have suggested that the RFL did this to secure the future of the Bradford Bulls, who the RFL have said they will lease use of the ground to.
So, now that the RFL owns Odsal Stadium, how long do you think it is going to take for the Bradford Bulls to cry poor and claim they can't afford to pay the RFL anything to play there. What are the RFL going to do, kick out the one team willing to play at what is a dump of a ground?
Some people have said the RFL should redevelop the group. Really? You want the RFL to spend a few hundred million pounds it doesn't have on a stadium in Bradford?
It seems like every few weeks the Rugby Football League makes one shambolic decision after another that costs the game in one way or another. How long will these people be allowed to continue to run the game in Great Britain and be accountable to absolutely no one?
To give away free sponsorship and buy a relic of a football stadium is unbelievable. Hopefully someone in club land can call the RFL into account and send the current set of administrators off to ruin some other sport.
League Freak
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| How Much Can You Get Out Of Pre Season Results? |
 You've waited through the long off season, and now, with the season just around the corner, your team is starting to play trial matches.
So how much can you get out of trial games? How much can you take from trail game results?
You can do all of the fitness work you like, but nothing beats the fitness you build up by playing games. What it comes down to it, this is what trail games are for. It allows teams to build up that bit of match fitness, and get their eye back on the ball so that when the season starts they hopefully hit the ground running.
Most coaches I would suggest don't worry too much about pure results in the pre season. They will look at a few different combinations, maybe see how certain players react to positional changes or how the team takes on a new style of play or new tactics, but most coaches just want to get a run into their squad and come away with no injuries.
If your team wins big, great, but that doesn't mean they will be great during the regular season. If your team loses, it is not the worst thing in the world.
I only ever get worried about pre season losses when they are big losses and there are a lot of them. Sometimes you see some teams that have a losing habit will lose most of their trail games. That sort of thing usually carries itself into the regular season.
This is all why we can't really have a pre season competition in Rugby League. Teams really do need this time to prepare for the regular season start. It is also why I don't like seeing NRL teams having to fly over to the UK to to play in the waste of time that is the World Club Challenge.
While everyone back home is is easing themselves into a new season, the NRL Champions are dealing with jet lag and conditions they will never have to face again for the rest of the year. It is a disruption no team would want.
Some clubs play other NRL teams. Some clubs play lower grade sides. The opposition a lot of the time really isn't important.
Clubs sometimes agree to extended squads or a much higher number of interchanges. Some teams agree to play the game in quarters. We have even seen some pre season games where an NRL side will play one team in the first half, and another team in the second half.
It is all just about getting a run into your legs.
So with the pre season about to kick off, keep an eye on results, but don't live and die by them. Ideally your team gets pushed a little and comes into round one injury free. Win, lose or draw, if your team his Round One of the NRL season in some type of decent form, you're club probably had a good pre season campaign.
League Freak
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| Slater Lover Helps League Freak Break The 50,000 Tweet Barrier |
The Glorious League Freak joined Twitter on the 16th of October in 2009. Today, League Freak broke the 50,000 tweet barrier.
In honour of this great occasion, The Glorious League Freak ran a competition to get a mention in the 50,000th tweet. That competition was won by Andrea who made this awesome fan sign! You should get on Twitter and follow her here: @SlaterLover
Twitter has been a hell of a lot of fun and really added a whole lot to the site. It is great to get instant feedback on what I write here.
The highlight for most people is when I either go off on a Twitter rant or just generally take the piss out of anything that is being shown on television. Embarrassing Bodies is not half as entertaining unless you're following me.
One thing that is very cool is to see the network of people that have all come together and followed each other after following me. Twitter is a bit like a cult, and I'm still buttering up you bastards until such time as you hand over all your money. That is when I'll tell you to drink the Kool-Aid.
Anyway, that is 50,000. Now get back to work!
League Freak
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| Matthew Johns Must Have Forgotten He's Only Matthew Johns |
 Paul Vautin had hosted The Footy Show every single year since 1994. He is the worst host in Australian television history, and that is what makes him so great!
In an industry of talentless try hards who have the personality of a wet cardboard box, Fatty is still a breath of fresh air.
There are people that love The Footy Show, and others hate The Footy Show. I've been critical of it in the past, but I rarely miss an episode. For me, it is great when they are talking Rugby League, and it starts to lose me when they are talking about other sports or doing some type of gimmicky bullshit.
This week it has come to light that Matthew Johns was offered a return to The Footy Show on a big salary. He was willing to come back on the condition that "his company" produced the show, he hosted the show, and Fatty Vautin was axed.
Wait.....who the fuck are you again?
Matthew Johns used to be part of The Footy Show. There was a feeling the network was grooming him to eventually take over as host. He even hosted the show when Vautin had a few episodes off with concussion over he fell over in a Sumo Suit (How can you not love that!).
Johns wasn't a good host. He was awkward and tried too hard. In fact, outside of his Reg Reagan character, Johns didn't really add anything to The Footy Show anyway.
Then, a few years ago news come out of an alleged group sex romp the Cronulla Sharks had while in New Zealand for a pre season trial game a few years earlier. John, who was married at the time of the alleged events, was really the only name to come out as being involved in the incident.
Channel Nine and Paul Vautin stood by him.
At the end of that year Johns left Channel 9 and formed a production company with John Singleton. They come up with a new style Footy Show for Channel 7, with an earlier time slot.
It was nothing short of a disaster. In fact, it is honestly one of the worst shows I have even see on Television. Channel 7 persisted with it, however after less than one year, Channel 7 was actually willing to pay Matthew Johns to stay off the air.
A year out of television all together, and now Johns for some reason thinks he has the right to call the shots to ANYONE? Why?
John Singleton took aim at Paul Vautin, calling him an average player, coach and television presenter. This is what John Singleton does though, he backs a loser and then slags off everyone else. Its why he bought into a Rugby League stadium in Gosford with no Rugby League team....and then took shots at the NRL for not "expanding" to Gosford. His opinion's are all about self interest, and therefore carry no currency.
Johns however should know better.
For a below average talent, Johns should have a good hard look at the likes of Ray Hadley and ask himself if he wants to end up being very good at his job, and universally disliked.
Hadley has called Rugby League games on the radio for decades. He is very good at what he does on the radio, but has failed numerous times at trying to crack it for a television career.
When a commentator retires, the connection they form over many years with listeners see's them leave the game with a tide of good will.
When Ray Hadley retires, do you think anyone will be saying the nice things about him that will will undoubtedly see when Ray Warren retires?
Paul Vautin has now been fronting one of the longest running shows in Australian television history for 18 years. That after having a fantastic career as a player and a ridiculously good career as a State Of Origin coach.
When he decides its time to move on, people are going are going to miss Paul Vautin.
With that in mind.....did anyone miss Matthew Johns this past year?
League Freak
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| Rugby League Champions League: What A Stupid Idea! |
 Imagine a Rugby League club competition that only has the elite clubs in the world participating in it. Imagine that the concentration of the best players in the world play in this competition and that the interest in it was so great that people watched it on both sides of the planet.
Its would be the best of the best facing off to find out who was the best Rugby League club in the world!!!
We have this competition already. Its called the National Rugby League.
I always have to have a good laugh when someone from England tosses up this stupid concept of an expanded World Club Challenge. Lets for a second over look the fact that you would have to completely scrap international Rugby League to play such a competition, something the Poms wouldn't have any problems with considering that for the last 40 years that is an area they have been dismal failures in.
I can not understand why anyone in England thinks their clubs would be part of ANY elite club competition. That ANY Super Leaque club has ANY sort of relevance in the Rugby League pecking order is just a fanciful idea that is pushed by the same idiots that will tell you Super League isn't all that far off of NRL standards.
The worst club in the NRL last season was the Gold Coast Titans. They were dreadful. Yet, if you put the Titans in Super League, they would easily have the best halves, wingers, fullback, forward pack, coaching staff, stadium, off field set up and corporate sponsorship base compared to anyone else competing in Super League.
It is not even close....
Keep in mind, England can't even rustle up enough decent players to put together a 17 man international line up. That tells you how bad their club sides are.
In 2011 the best player in Super League was Rangi Chase. In the NRL, Chase not even an established first grader!
Super League is a competition that Sam Tomkins tears up on a weekly basis. The same Sam Tomkins that is a dismal failure at international level any time he is playing anyone beyond the semi professional level!
Hell in 2011 in Super League, the Leeds Rhino's won the title with what was their worst side in a decade and with a coach that was so bad he almost sent his previous club into oblivion! I had Rhino's fans saying to me "We were terrible last year. Yeah we won the title but still, we were really bad".
If the best team in Super League isn't all that good by Super League standards, on what plane of reality are they needed in an elite club competition? What makes these sub standard shell's, these small organisations propped up by rich benefactors, think they have more of a right to be fighting for a world title then say the 5th, 6th, 7th or 8th best NRL club?
Its bad enough the NRL clubs take part in the farce that is the current World Club Challenge, which all NRL club treat as nothing more than a trial match, resting star players, sending over small squads and not even sending their entire coaching staffs. They do it for money, but now that is less of a lure in itself with a strong Australian Dollar and the fact that NRL clubs are about to be riding a billion dollar television deal.
Some English fans tend to forget that the last time we had an expanded World Club Challenge, the rules had to be changed part of the way through because English clubs were providing no competition what so ever. There was the prospect that an unbeaten Australian club was going to end up playing an English club in the final that had a losing record.
English supporters and the like can keep telling themselves their top clubs would compete in the NRL all day if they want to. No one cares what these people think. Nothing of any relevance in Rugby League has come out of Great Britain since the early 1970's. These are the same people that honestly believe they are above New Zealand on the pecking order because the Kiwi's don't like traveling to England....and can you blame them?
Down here in Australia, we are part of a wider Rugby League community that includes an overwhelming influence from New Zealand and a host of great players from the Pacific Islands. We watch all of these players compete in an incredible club competition week in week out. They get tested every single week.
So, when England comes out of the blue and proclaims its importance on the overall game, the Rugby League community in this part of the world laughs because it is genuinely funny.
England provides about half a dozen players to the elite club competition on this planet, an yet, they honestly believe they should get three of their clubs and a French side in a Champions League competition! Its insane!
England has not been relevant in Rugby League for decades, and they just don't seem to understand that fact. Their arrogant self importance is a comical levels.
So no. Take your stupid idea's back to England. I don't care where you were born, I don't care what you do for a living. I don't care what you think of Super League, I don't care what you think of the NRL.
You are just another fucking television person looking for content. You don't care about the game, you obviously don't know much about the game, so take your stupid idea, and go back to the soap dodgers where you found a comfortable place for yourself.
The National Rugby League is an elite 16 team competition comprised of the best clubs in the world. It is a competition that is played by the best Rugby League players in the world.
Champions League? You're looking at it pal....
League Freak
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| Attacking Rugby League, Despising Rugby League And Loving Rugby League |
There is something about Rugby League that really pisses some people off.
I can not think of another sport anywhere else in the world that is supposed to justify its existence, as well as its ability to survive long term, despite the fact the tough old bastard has been around since 1895.
It is not as though Rugby League is the type of sport that gets forced on people. In fact, in most cases, to play or watch a game of Rugby League, you have to go out of your way to do it.
Imagine being a Rugby League player in France for instance.
You have Soccer, which is easily the number one sport. If that's not your thing, it would be so much easier to play Rugby Union, and more lucrative. Yet, you get blokes that say "No, Rugby League looks like my game". They go out every weekend and they play the sport they love.
New Zealand are the Rugby League World Champions. Even there you still hear stories of youngsters being told by their schools Rugby Union team that if they don't stop playing Rugby League on the weekend, they can consider themselves out of the side. When this happens, the school usually has to go looking for an extra player, because when Rugby League is in your blood, it has you for life.
Why do we love this game? What is it about Rugby League that captures us and never lets us go?
For me, Rugby League is the smell of freshly cut grass. The feeling of running down a sideline while others try to cut you down. It's the moment of confrontation, bracing for impact and driving through a tackle. Sometimes you get dragged to the ground and you feel the full impact of the planet hitting you. Other times, you feel the defenders fall off you, that power turns into speed, and when you run it in for a try, you feel like a king.
Rugby League is a game for the athletes and the magicians. It is a game of power and speed. It is a game of grit and agility. Just to walk out on the field, just to play this sport, it says something about the person you are.
Not everyone is cut out for Rugby League, and I think sometimes as a sport, we forget that. Lets face it, the idea of running out onto a field and running with the ball while 13 other people try to tackle you, that doesn't appeal to everyone!
I like that a good Rugby League team needs a mix of elements. That the elements that bring success to a club are constantly changing as the game continues to evolve. I love that I can sit down on any given weekend to watch an NRL game, and even after all these years, I can see something that takes my breath away.
The physical demands of our sport tests a player to their limits. Rugby League breaks everyone, without fail. The greatest players in our sport have always been better for the adversity that the game throws at them. It is the test, and the special ones rise above the set backs to reach new levels of greatness.
My favorite player is Benji Marshall. A young bloke from New Zealand that had a thousand reasons to not make it. As a slightly built touch football player, Benji found himself playing in the toughest sporting competition in the world.
It took its toll.
Marshall endured a number of major injury set backs, and at one point, it looked like shoulder injuries would shorten his career.Yet, today, Benji Marshall is among that rare breed of players that play with magic out on the field. In this physical battle that breaks even the best athletes, Marshall has an ability to do things that he has no right to do.
In last years semi finals series, we all watched in horror as Darren Lockyer had his face smashed by a team mates stray knee. We watched the fight between Lockyers physical, primal reaction to having broken bones in his face, and the pride of a champion player who looked up field at his young side battling away and knew he couldn't leave the field.
When Lockyer waved the trainers away, it was a moment. They knew to just leave him.
As Lockyer started a slow jog back into the game, clinching his jaw shut in an effort to keep his shattered face braced, you knew you were watching something special.
Those raw moments are what get me. For such an unforgiving game, every so often you have players that just refuse to give in. Who refuse to be broken.
How can you not love a sport that give you all of that? How can you watch all the sport in the world, and then see what Rugby League brings to the table, and decide it's rubbish?
Rugby League isn't played all over the world, but very few sports are! Unless you are Soccer or Basketball, you are a mainstream sport that is only popular within a select few geographically confined areas of the world.
As a realist, I can tell you Rugby League is played throughout Australia, through a large portion of New Zealand and throughout England. It is played in parts of Wales, Ireland and France. It has outposts in Russia, Canada and a fairly healthy competition in the United States, where is has enough playing that the sport is actually split into two different competitions over there!
Rugby League is played in the Pacific Islands and it is the national sport of PNG. All of that and I haven't even touched on the countries where the game is played in small numbers by committed fans who love the game just as much as the rest of us do!
The thing is, Rugby League has never pretended to be a game the entire world plays. Sure we have the second oldest World Cup in all of sports, but you wouldn't hear Rugby League pumping out pompous suggesting like our World Cup is "The World In Union".
If all of Rugby League was encompassed by areas serviced by the National Rugby League, damn, it would still be a great sport!
Uneducated, ignorant hacks have been taking shots at Rugby League since 1895. After all, there is no way a sport formed in a hotel in Huddersfield is going to go anywhere. Yet, here we in 2012, and you get a sense that this is a sport that might be doing OK for itself
With a billion dollar television deal just around the corner, further expansion on the horizon, a World Cup next year and a sense that the game is finally standing on its own two feet and ready to push into new areas once again, Rugby League is doing alright.
So, when ever you read another attack piece on Rugby League, I want to you think one thing for the poor old writer that wrote that article.
"Its OK. You're going to be OK."
League Freak
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| Rugby Leagues Position In The Patchwork Quilt Of Sports Venues In Sydney |
Today it has been announced that the Sydney Cricket Ground will be upgraded with funding from the Australian Federal Government of $50 million, the NSW State Government tipping in $86 million and the SGC Trust itself spending $50 million as well.
This will see the venues capacity boosted from 45,758 to 48,000.
Wait, what? That works out to be just under $83,000 per additional seat! How blood ridiculous!
It makes me think about the scatter gun approach Rugby League has taken to upgrading its own facilities. So many millions of dollars have been wasted on so many different venues, none of which are still anywhere near up to the standards they should be at.
There is no long term strategy in regards to where the NRL wants to permanently base teams in Sydney. There is no long term plan for which venues will get funding to becomes the world class facilities that the game needs. The sad thing is, Rugby League has no one else to blame but itself for this situation.
Right now only the Sydney Roosters, Parramatta Eels and Penrith Panthers have permanent, long term home stadiums that they will not be moving from any time in the medium or even long term.
The West Tigers and St George/Illawarra Dragons have at least two "home" stadiums they use as well as moving bigger games to ANZ Stadium or the SFS.
The Canterbury Bulldogs currently play out of ANZ Stadium, but recently opened a tax payer funded training facility at the dilapidated Belmore Oval. A place the club has said they want to get back up to NRL standards again, courtesy of the tax payer, as if ANYONE wants to travel to Belmore to watch games!
You have the Manly Sea Eagles who want funding to upgrade their stadium, leaving aside it being impossible to get to and having no parking. They have talked about possibly moving the club if they don't get a stadium upgrade.
Then you have the poor old Cronulla Sharks who are so busy servicing debt that they don't know how long they will be around, let alone if they will be playing at Shark Park long term.
It is one great big giant mess and it doesn't have to be that way.
I would like to see the NRL sit down and formulate a long term strategy for where it wants every NRL club playing in Sydney, not just over the next few seasons, but 20 years from now.
They need to look at fully servicing the Campbelltown area with a full time team. They need to look at what venues they want to invest their product in, and in tern look at getting funding for those venues so that Rugby League fans can attend games at stadiums that are comfortable and give the best spectator experience.
The NRL should look to team up with the Football Federation of Australia (Soccer) and Australian Rugby Union and all three sports sit down and talk about strategic plans for facilities from the biggest stadiums, down to local playing fields.
All three sports have the same requirements in that they require a rectangular field. The goal posts and field markings change, but that is it. Across all three sports, spectators and players require the exact same things.
Being able to lobby the government for funding as a group, and with a long term strategy, would benefit all three sports. They are all trying to target the same areas anyway, but without a coordinated approach. That makes it very difficult to get anything done.
I would like to see Sydney end up with a rectangular stadium with a capacity of between 35-40,000 based near the geographical center of the Sydney population.
To me, Parramatta Stadium ticks a lot of boxes and gives you a great base to build upon. With the right amount of commitment from three sports, a number of full time tenants and the right amount of funding, you could turn Parramatta Stadium into a smaller version of Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane.
Imagine a 35,000 seat version of Suncorp Stadium based at Parramatta. It would become the home of the Parramatta Eels and Canterbury Bulldogs in the NRL as well as being home to a western Sydney A League team, meaning it would be used 12 months of the year.
This venue would be the perfect size to host Rugby League Internationals as well as bigger games involving western Sydney teams such as the West Tigers and Penrith Panthers. It could host smaller scale Soccer and Rugby Union internationals as well.
I can't see a down side to this type of commitment from the game of Rugby League, Soccer, Rugby Union, or the tax payer, who would be asked to fund all of this.
The alternative is to look at building a brand new stadium that would need a bigger commitment from all three sports and that would probably require the game to completely abandon a few venues around Sydney.
That would see a stadium built at say Homebush Bay with the Canterbury Bulldogs and South Sydney Rabbitohs committing to the venue. A promise that the Parramatta Eels would not require any stadium upgrades as they would play their biggest games at this new stadium, and a similar commitment from the St George/Illawarra Dragons and the West Tigers (Who would have to finally give up Leichhardt Oval and commit to Campbelltown and the new stadium).
This will all horrify the traditionalists, but I don't really care. Right now we are seeing so many millons of tax payers money being pissed away on venues that, even after having tens of millions of dollars spent on them, are still not up to any reasonable standard!
Plenty of people say to me "The reason Rugby League teams in Sydney don't get huge crowds is because they are not marketed well". That is a misconception.
These days all sporting venues are in competition with HD TV and a generally busier lifestyle. The competition Rugby League is up against is television coverage, your own lounge chair, beers from your own fridge and pizza!
To get people to go to the football, and come back time and time again, you have to provide a very good experience. It is not good enough any more to offer a grass hill at an out of the way suburban ground with no parking what so ever. You cant ask a supporter to invest money in a night out to watch your team play, and then offer them a facility that is poor.
When you look at stadiums in other cities and the experience they provide, Sydney is locked in a completely different era to those places. A stadium such as Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, Skilled Park on the Gold Coast or AAMI Park in Melbourne, these are venues that are so good that fans attending games just want to come back and watch anything at the stadium, they don't care what sport it is!
There are Super League teams in England with stadiums better than those at Manly, Cronulla, Balmain, St George and Penrith. How ridiculous is that! In fact St Helens has just completed construction on a brand new venue, and while it only has a capacity of 18,000 it leaves anything in the above mentioned areas for dead.
If Rugby League in Sydney wants to provide a good enough experience to keep fans coming back, it will need to provide venues that are up to today's standards. For all the talk about how great traditional old venues are, the fact is that newer stadiums go beyond drawing in just the die hard fans, and because of that they draw in bigger attendance numbers.
Not too long ago Rugby League in Sydney used to have a match of round that it would hold at the SCG. They did this because it allowed people to go to a top class venue that had a big capacity. It allowed as many people to attend a big game and in the most comfortable environment possible.
This should be what is provided every single week to Sydney based NRL fans, and the simple fact is, it's not.
We need to get funding for NRL venues, but we need to concentrate that funding into only a select few venues that will host regular games over a long term basis. Not just throw money at old ruins so we can play the occasional game at grounds our parents used to go to in a very different area.
Time moves on...
If the SCG can spend $186 million to add a few extra seats, I don't think it is beyond reason to think that Rugby League, Soccer and Rugby Union could get together the money to have a rectangular football stadium in the geographical heart of Sydney that would become the home of a number of different clubs as well as hosting international.
Sound pie in the sky?
Well keep in mind that for the price of the $186 million upgrade the SCG will undergo for Cricket and AFL alone, you could have constructed Skilled Stadium on the Gold Coast and had a spare $26 million to spend. I'm sure that would be enough to buy a few extra seats as well...
League Freak
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| I Hope The Sydney Roosters Sign Sonny Bill Williams |
 So yet again Rugby League is talking about a "super secret meeting" that happened over a coffee in public.
The story is that Sonny Bill Williams met with the Sydney Roosters chairman Nick Politis and Channel Nine supremo David Gyngell at "secluded" Circular Quay to all but finalize a return to the NRL for the former Bulldog starting in 2013.
Williams manager Khoder Nasser has denied any deal had been done and suggested they all just met for a catch up. Yeah, that's a good one. Have you heard Sonny Bill Williams trying for form a sentence? What is he talking to two business men about, his new tattoo? He's a moron! Apart from being a football player hes an empty vessel!
Williams would be yet another former Bulldogs player the Roosters have signed in recent years. Every since the Bulldogs beat the Roosters in the 2004 Grand Final it has been as though the Roosters just decided to buy that Bulldogs side.
I don't understand why any player would want to play for the Roosters.
First of all, you are constantly playing in front of tiny crowds. The Roosters simply do not have a supporter base that warrants a team in the NRL. They are a side propped up by old rich men and are as far from a true Rugby League club as you will find.
The Roosters wine and dine their possible recruits and talk about becoming part of the family....but its all bullshit.
Take a look at the long list of players the Roosters have pushed out of the club time and time again. They have zero loyalty towards their own players.
Take a look at Braith Anasta, another former Bulldogs player.
Anasta has stuck by the club through thick and thin. Its safe to say that he probably wasted the best years of his career at a club that has struggled from one crisis to another. He has watched so much rubbish going on around him, he is one of the really good people within the game, and yet the Roosters are trying to push him out the door to sign Williams.
Why would you want to go to a club with no fans, that no one likes to get no assurances that they will not push you out the door before your contract is even up!
I hope that Sonny Bill Williams does sign with the Roosters. I can't think of anything better than watching him play in front of 4,000 people for a couple of games before he picks up another injury.
I want the Roosters to be associated with the traveling farce that is Sonny Bill Williams, a player who has looked to move on as soon as he has signed a contract with every single League or Union side he has joined.
I want to watch the Roosters highest paid player boxing pensioners and fall guys mid season. I want them to invest $800,000 of their salary cap in a stupid, unreliable kid who is injury prone. Please, do that!
It must be remembered that when Sonny Bill Williams left Rugby League, there were questions about whether his body was up to play in the forwards. I personally don't think it was, I always felt he should have stayed out in the centers.
In 2012, playing in the forwards in the NRL is a very different animal to what it was five years ago. Players are bigger, stronger, faster, and there is a hell of a lot more depth. To be a forward in the NRL these days, you have to be a certain type of animal. You have to have a certain type of build. Sure Sonny Bill Williams is athletic but if you put him next to some of the forward running around in the NRL, you can see, he just hasn't got that same solid, thick build.
If there is one thing we have seen from players that went to Rugby Union and then came back its that they are not even close to being as good as they once were. Williams has been playing union now for five years. To invest $800,000 a year into him over a five year contract is just insane.
Then again, after 6 months either Williams will be looking to shuffle on somewhere else, or the Roosters will be pushing him out the door anyway.
They deserve each other.
League Freak
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| So What The Hell Happened To LeagueFreak.com? |
I know its been difficult, but its all back up and running now.
No doubt the first question you have is "League Freak, what the hell happened to your web site over the last week or so?".
How about I tell you...
So on about the 23rd of December I has written the article below and went to upload it on my web site. I went to my bookmark....and nothing happened, the site didn't load.
It wasn't a big issue as far as I was concerned. Sometimes on the old server the site would be on the blink for a few hours. So I decided just to leave it for the night and that was that!
The next day, same thing, but once again, no real issue as far as I was concerned.
On Christmas night I decided to get on and post what was now going to be a bit of an out of date Christmas article, but the site was STILL down. So I went to RLFans and emailed their technical issues form, because I haven't actually had one-on-one contact with anyone involved with RLFans for years now. Its just how it worked out....my site worked....I had nothing to talk to them about.
I got this email in reply:
Sorry for the delay in responding.
When we recently moved and upgraded all of our servers, we took a decision to focus on club sites and that we could no longer host the LeagueFreak.com site as part of the RLFANS.COM network.
The server upon which LeagueFreak.com resided has now been decommissioned and we are looking to but this machine, with all of its data, from our hosts and should have the physical machine at some point next week.
Once we have it we will be happy to make a backup of your site available so that you can find a new host for it. We will pass on details as soon as we have the old machine.
No warning this was happening. No one contacted me, nothing. They just flicked the switch on my site and that was that.
Keep in mind, I had no back up of the web site of my own at all. The entire site was gone and in someone elses hands.
So I turned to Twitter for some help.
I needed web space to use, I needed someone that was familiar with the type of web site I have, and I needed help getting everything set up again.
In stepped Matt from ZeroTackle.com.au. He said he would help me with all of the above, and he even worked on my type of web site for a living.
It is thanks to Matt and ZeroTackle.com.au that my web site is up and running again.
So now its 2012 and you're gonna see a few changes around here.
I plan on adding a live chat to the site and allow Facebook and Twitter users to be able to long into this site with their respective accounts. The more interactivity I can get on here, the better!
I'm also looking at having a Podcast feed set up on here for the start of the Rugby League season. It should be good fun and the topics covered won't just include Rugby League.
When our robot overlords have won their great war, and the Earth is nothing by a post-apocalyptic wasteland.....there will be three things remaining.
Cockroaches, Todd Carneys liver and the Glorious Bastard that owns this web site!
So welcome to LeagueFreak.com version 4.0. Its the same as version 3.0 except if you hold it the wrong way you lose reception.
League Freak
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| League Freak Hands Out His Christmas Gifts |
Well its that time of the year again when Santa going on the worlds largest break and enter spree. We don't mind it because he leaves presents.
Now, Santa spends all year making a list. Then, he checks it twice. He want to find out who's naughty and who is nice. Personally, I think the second one is less important than the first, but what ever dude. This is your party!
I also have made a list. I was going to check it twice but I have far more important things to do with my time (Porn).
So, who made my list and what did I decide to get them for Christmas?
Lets find out!
Benji Marshall - A KFC Voucher
No one actually goes inside a KFC, they all use the drive through. So he could go to KFC at all hours and no one would hassle him.
Wayne Bennett - A Personal Assistant
Because taking on the coaching role at the Newcastle Knights gave him the biggest coaching challenge out there. How is he supposed to coach the side AND carry his wallet?
Dennis Fitzgerald - Glen 20
He was voted out of his place at the Parramatta Eels and ever since then he has hung around like a bad smell. He needs to move on. Get a hobby or something!
Jason Ryles - A Ball Of String
What else would you get a big pussy?
George Riley - A Tounge Scraper
The BBC's Rugby League blogger needs one of these with all the constant arse licking he does.
Josh Dugan - A 1991 Holden Commodore
He is the biggest bogan in the NRL and this has to be the car that is the top choice for all bogans. He could use it to drive to the doctor to get his boils lanced!
Craig Bellemy - A Sound Proof Booth
That way when he is watching the game Keiron Walters want have to put up with him yelling like an insufferable prick.
James Maloney - A 12 Month Coma
Just put him to sleep and when he wakes up again, he is a Sydney Rooster. That all he wants damn it!
Brad Fittler - Reigns
When he stopped being so guarded and spoke his mind, it was refreshing. His honesty about players and his own career was fantastic. Then, he just started to sound dumb. Really, really dumb. He needs to pull it back a bit.
Jamie Peacock - A Walking Frame
Aside from his speech impediment I'm told Peacock didn't fit in all that well with his younger England team mates. Especially when he started handing out boiled candy and talking about the blitz.
Joel Monaghan - Shmackos
What, you think he taught a dog to blow him just by saying "good boy"?
Mitchell Pearce - A High Visibility Jacket
OK, OK, this is kinda for all our benefit. Thing is, when ever there is a big game to be played, he goes missing. At least this way we would be able to see where he is on the field when he is having no impact at all.
Danny Weidler - Lubricant And A Shoehorn
I figure he could use one when he is trying to get his head out of Anthony Mundines arse.
Jamie Soward - A Halfback
This poor young bloke plays on a team that loved to choke, and along side him is Ben Hornby who is the most useless fucking player in the competition. A complete passenger!
John Cartwright - A Glass Elevator
Ever since he received a Golden Ticket from the Gold Coast Titans to coach them until he is in his 80's, he might as well just complete the whole puzzle.
Jarryd Hayne - The Holy Bible
That way he can read it and try and find the part where God asks you to have over a percentage of your income.
James Graham - Sunscreen
Fat Prince Harry will be playing for the Bulldogs this year and the pasty bastard is going to need a case of 50+ if he isn't going to look like a dopey pommy lobster.
Todd Carney - A Billion Dollar Contract
It has a clause in it that says if he drinks alcohol I don't have to pay him anything. My money is so safe...
Michael Maguire - A Halfback
Seen as South Sydney CEO Shane Richardson managed to allow one of the best young halfbacks in the game leave, and then came to the conclusion that a modern day Rugby League team doesn't need a halfback, I thought I'd help out poor Michael out, who got off the plane from Wigan only to realize the 2012 season is fucked before it even started.
Chris Sandow - A Night In The High Rollers Room At The Casino In Sydney
The poor fucker was made out to be some type of gambling addict this year, all because he decided to take a very good offer from the Parramatta Eels that South Sydney refused to match. So I say we give him a big night at the Casino. He deserves it!
Mal Meninga - A Time Delay
Granted he is a Queenslander so he is already working a bit slower than the rest of us. Still, a time delay of say 24 hours between an idea that pops into his head and the moment he can actually put those thoughts into words would be pretty handy.
Sam Tomkins - Smoke Flares
He could shoot them into the sky just so we know he is on the field when he is playing against anyone higher than a semi professional level player.
David Williams - A Plank
Why? Well a plank spends less time laid out than Williams does.
David Gallop - An Electrified Dog Collar
No, no, its not for Dave himself. It is to whack around Phil Gould neck so that every time Gus goes to say something he can press a button and 50,000 volts will render Gus' voice box unusable.
Phil Gould - Whiskey
Would you want to run a club that has a bastard like me watching over it? No, neither would I! Gus is going to need to sit back some nights and knock back a few drinks just to remember not to take things too seriously.
Cameron Smith - Laser Hair Removal
He's the only person in the world that can make Robin Williams look up from a line of cocaine and say "Woooooow, that man is one hairy bastard!". He wakes up on a morning, has a shave and is already sporting a 5 o'clock shadow by breakfast. So lets just sort this out for him once and for all. burn every single hair follicle on his entire body!
Sonny Bill Williams - A New Zealand Heavyweight Title Belt
Just hand one to him. Seriously, when was the last time a heavyweight title in New Zealand, Australia or in any country for that matter actually meant something worthwhile? Hell even the World Heavyweight Title doesn't mean much these days. So here you go Sonny, you have your pretty little belt. It makes you special, really, really special...
Willie Mason - A Time Machine
Willie Mason is looking to come back to the NRL and leave a legacy. Oh, too late! Sure it is difficult when you are an athlete, you're marching towards your mid 30's, you've been irrelevant for a number of years and your reputation is mud. Still, the idea that being a fringe first grader on a team that's obviously desperate will turn all that around is not well thought out. So, to reverse all the damage don't to his career and reputation, fire up the Flux Capacitor!
On Twitter I asked my followers what they would get me for Christmas. Here are their replies:
dannymac7411"a glorious meter coz yours is clearly fucked!"
Sherms_5 "So, what would you get The Glorious League Freak for Christmas?” I'll chip in a few $$$ so you can get laid"
ms_meh "I'd give a good, long, intense.... oiling... for your joints.."
Bella55555 "A rubber blow up doll holding a football....!"
sexyand_iknowit "a bender flesh light"
Bondiborn "A temporary #unfollow from me? #peaceandgoodwill"
Amul82 "English flag printed toilet paper.."
parrasteve "a vagina"
TheChapo82 "a female miss league freak"
ChrisTweetsGood "A seat on the Independent Commission"
stormgwsrule1 "Manners"
DibsXIII "Manners and spanners. Gob stoppers. Straight jacket. A brain (to sometimes engage before speaking) ;o)"
anna2533 "Flap curlers."
bunnies1612 "WD40..."
KerryPerry1 "id buy you a robotic version of me... so you can do what you want but there is in "off" switch on my back for some peace"
KerryPerry1 "id buy you a Wayne Rooney calendar so every month you can see someone uglier than you and think "im fuckin hot""
KerryPerry1 "oooh and for your stocking fillers- invisible condoms (enough said), spy camera you can put anywhere and a willy warmer (XS)"
_REDnWHITE_Mojo "of course it would be foxtel sports package #neverWalkalone"
mattXIII "a terraced house in Salford."
danbissett76 "A 2012 season ticket for Bradford Bulls on the steep open terraces"
Davros313 "An induction into the England RFL Hall of Fame!!!"
League Freak
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| Adam Everitt: Hetherington Stabs England In The Back In Favour Of Personal Gain |
 Gary Hetherington is a complete moron. There, I said it. And this quote from him is why.
“The increase in the NRL’s salary cap, the current exchange rate and various changes made by the government are going to make it very, very difficult to attract top-quality, international standard overseas players,” Hetherington said.
The Yorkshire Post said he was predicting this. Way to go, predicting the obvious much add credibility to the claim now!
Only two players of “international standard” immediately come to mind when I think about the amount of Australian and New Zealand players who have come over in recent times: Thomas Leuluai of Wigan, and Greg Eastwood who played for Leeds. Why? They are both currently Kiwi international players.
So where have all the “top-quality” overseas players been hiding then, Gary?
Billy Slater and Cameron Smith have been found sheltering in Melbourne, Greg Inglis was under Russell Crowe’s desk in South Sydney and Darren Lockyer was out catching the waves in surfer’s paradise! Super League has only attracted two world class players: Jamie Lyon, who was unbelievable for St Helens, and Andrew ‘Joey’ Johns, who had a short stint with Warrington.
We had some excellent players plying their trade here in 2011, like Matt King, Michael and Joel Monaghan, George Carmont, and Danny Buderus. All good players who have been brilliant to watch this season. But are they now all “top-quality, international standard overseas players” that Gary has been alluding to? No.
Now the Leeds Rhinos’ Chief Executive plans to fly down under in 2012 and search out decent young Australian talent. Now, if you’re a promising young Enlish player, like Luke Briscoe, perhaps, and you sign for Leeds only then to find out that your club’s hierarchy are planning this, how would you react?
Gary said, “We’ll still get players like Danny Buderus, who wanted to come with his family to experience the culture and lifestyle over here. We still need and want players like that, but – for the moment at least – we will no longer be able to compete with NRL clubs for their top players.”
Gary, shut up! Super League has never been able to compete for their top players. It seems to one that Hetherington is simply after the ‘filler’ type of Aussie player, and that is likely to be what he gets if he brings back a load of average junior Aussie players with him.
In 2013 the NRL, as previously mentioned on this website, stands to make around $250m-a-year in broadcasting deals, another franchise are likely to be entered into the competition and around 80 new roster spots will be made available for the soon-to-be 19 league members. These ‘top-quality, international standard overseas players’ will then have no reason to come over, Gary. Hell, they will soon have no reason to consider Union either!
And if he thinks he can match the $55k minimum contract for rookie players, he needs his head testing. The onus for Super League clubs must be to further develop quality young players now, because the chances are that the NRL will come hunting for what top quality players we actually have – and that isn’t many. We’d be lucky to fill a 5-a-side team to be honest!
But, I understand Hetherington has to do what is right by Leeds. I know he wants his club to be successful. I also know that their development programme is one of the best in the league and that they are also planting seeds in the south west of England, an area virtually untouched by Rugby League. But what Hetherington is now saying is that the NRL are going to get rich and we won’t be able to attract players of a very high standard so we’ll have to make do with kids who just don’t make the grade down under.
Is that what you want for your future Super League?
Adam Everitt
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