The 2010 State Of Origin series was the first sporting even in Australia to be shown in 3D. In the lead up, the series the different retailers pushed 3D televisions heavily on the public. They created a buzz. If you didn’t have a 3D television, you’d be missing out. You didn’t want to be the…
A big crowd in Perth to see the Bunnies and the Warriors has relit the calls for the NRL to expand with a return to the west the main topic of discussion. Earlier Brad Fittler suggested that the Melbourne Storm be relocated to Perth, regarding that I’m not sure what his thinking was as the…
Channel Seven has sensationally won the rights to broadcast the 2013 Rugby League World Cup, beating out current Free To Air broadcaster Channel Nine. The 2013 Rugby League World Cup, which will be held in Great Britain, is a huge pick up for the Seven Network and breaks the stranglehold that Channel Nine has had…
Normally the Bulldogs hosting the Roosters would be a big game. Especially when you consider where both teams are on the competition ladder and that Sonny Bill Williams was making his return after walking out on the Bulldogs all those years ago. Instead, the Friday night clash between these two clubs felt like an afterthought….
Channel Nine has named Canberra Raiders winger Sandor Earl a one of the players being investigated by ASADA for the use of performance enhancing drugs. Channel Nine claims that Earl is under investigation from an incident that allegedly occurred during his time with the Penrith Panthers in which it is claimed the player sought treatment…
The British and Irish Lions Rugby Union team is currently touring Australia. While Rugby Union in Australia might be a small sport that struggles to get a share of the spotlight, crowds have been good for their tour matches as Rugby Union fans come out of the woodwork and support the game. Steve Mascord this…
The 2013 State Of Origin series will reach the largest potential global audience in series history, with overseas networks covering the series as well as games being streamed over the internet. In Australia the match will be covered live by Channel 9, WIN and NBN networks. In New Zealand the game will be shown live…
He is a relative newcomer to the sports betting industry and yet somehow Tom Waterhouse has found himself the figurehead of a movement against gambling in Australia. How did it get to this point? Why have so many people turned on Tom Waterhouse? Where did he go wrong? Tom Waterhouse is a 30 year old…
The crowd of 7, 803 at Centrebet Stadium to see the home side Penrith take on the World Champion Melbourne Storm capped off a poor weekend of crowd attendance for the NRL. This week saw figures of: 12, 117 at The Titans vs. Dragons game 10, 453 in Canberra to see the Raiders belt Newcastle…
After broadcasting 45 grueling years of steamy side-glances from bush league thespians, Channel Nine has made a major alteration to sick day protocol by cancelling the daily screening of worshiped soap Days of our Lives. Unconfirmed reports from nameless sources say that CEO David Gyngell had grown tired of the program’s suffering standards, so he decided to allow his…
Do you remember the first time you heard what had happened? It was a fantastic story. The type of story I’m sure you didn’t believe until you watched the news that night. The Canterbury Bulldogs poster boy and one of the biggest named in the NRL had got on a plane and left for France,…
I have just sat down and watch the press conference in Sydney in which the Sydney Roosters announced that they had signed Sonny Bill Williams to a one year deal. The contract has yet to be forwarded to the National Rugby League and there is some concern about the way it come about, with no…
You always have to watch these media types, they will give you one side of the story, but leave out the other. Earlier this season the NRL put out a set of guidelines that teams needed to follow that outlines how much time NRL players and coaches should spend being available to the media and…
The North Queensland Cowboys will face the Manly Sea Eagles next weeked after disposing of the Brisbane Broncos 33-16 and ending their 2012 season. This game pretty much went the way that I expected it too. The Broncos poor form leading into the finals meant they were no match against an in form Cowboys side…
G’day from Scotland! Whilst it is summer here, I’ve seen the four seasons over the past hour, and have just had my fix of Australian news, especially all things RL. And what a massive couple of days it has been! When it rains, it pours. When ol’ Huey decides to dump it on theARLC/NRL, grab…
Luke Lewis has revealed that he was diagnosed with thyroid cancer earlier this month. Lewis had neck surgery to remove his cancerous thyroid and is currently undergoing further treatment in an effort to recover. Lewis’ ordeal is a little reminiscent of Adam Ritson’s many years ago. A scan on an injury he picked up during a match showed up the thyroid abnormality…
The Australian Rugby League Commission has today announced that the broadcasting rights for Rugby League in Australia have been retained by Channel 9 and Fox Sports Australia. The deal will run over five years and is worth $1.025 billion dollars. $100 million dollars of that is advertising on Channel 9 and Fox Sports. This deal…
I love a good grudge match and tonight’s Bulldogs vs Sea Eagles match is about as good of a grudge match as you will find. It all stems back to the Sea Eagles implosion after winning the Grand Final. Their success on the field had been masking a lot of issues off the field and…
The Rugby Football League have finally announced a broadcasting deal in Australia which will allow Rugby League fans in the biggest Rugby league market in the world to watch Super League games live. Eurosport will broadcast a number of games live each week while replaying other matches. You can go to their web site by clicking…
When Phil Gould took over as the Penrith Panthers General Manager the first thing he did was pretty cheeky. During a Channel 9 game Gould started calling the club the “Sanyo Panthers”. At the time Sanyo was the clubs major sponsor, and when Gould started calling them the Sanyo Panthers, he somehow managed to do…
It is the dream scenario for the National Rugby League, the worst case scenario for Fox Sport and it would be a deal that would change Australian television in a very dramatic way. The Sydney Daily Telegraph article Channel Ten to attempt to snatch NRL broadcast rights from Channel Nine outlines moves by Channel 10 to broadcast…
This week we saw and interesting court case in which Optus were ruled to not be breaking any laws by allowing its customers to record free to air television programs on a personal DVR and then stream that recording to their mobile devices and computers as early as 2 minutes after that television program started….
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…
Grand Finals are life changing experiences. For players, it is about that life long goal they have always had to reach the great pinnacle of the sport. It is a chance to live a childhood dream. For coaches, it is about going over everything a million times in their heads. As their team walks out…
It is like something out of a comedy sketch. For some reason in this country, sporting competitions see their major game entertainment as some type of pissing contest. Its almost as though the actual entertainment value of an act is not really of any relevance, its more the size of the name that the act…
Yesterday at a gas bagging session that was nothing more than an excuse for some of sports power-brokers to have an expensive lunch and hear themselves talk, Channel 9’s boss, David Gyngell, said that Rugby League could not expect to get anywhere near what the AFL got because put simply, the game didn’t have enough…
Rugby League holds 73 of the most watched 100 programs on Australian Pay Television. It is an industry that was formed on the foundation of Rugby League in this country. Today, Roy Masters has written an explosive article in the Sydney Morning Herald titled Clubs’ ploy to abandon Foxtel to get rights value. Go and read…
The New Zealand Warriors have called a press conference for Wednesday where it is expected that they will announce that Ivan Cleary will leave the club at the end of the 2011 season and take up the vacant coaching role at the Penrith Panthers next year. When people asked me who I wanted to coach…
So there was a rumour doing the rounds recently that one West Tigers player was doing the sexy time thing with another players girlfriend. When it got back to the West Tigers players, apparently they had a bit of a laugh about it. However, as days passed, things started to grate on them, and as…
Wigan are once again at the top of the pile in England after a dominant 22-10 win over St Helens in the 2010 Super League Grand Final. A sellout crowd of 71,526 filled Old Trafford to watch the two old rivals face off but it was pretty clear from early on that Wigan looked up…