Queensland has wrapped up its 7th straight State Of Origin series with a thrilling 21-20 win at Lang Park. A field goal from 45 meters out by Cooper Cronk ended up being all that separated the two sides in a win that see’s Fijian born Petero Civoniceva retire as the most capped forward in Origin…
In front of over 83,000 screaming New South Wales supporters the Blues have defeated the Maroons 16-12 to level up the State Of Origin series 1-1. It was an unsettled start to the game with both sides looking nervous. New South Wales settled first through and early on had the best of the chances, although…
Game one of the 2012 State Of Origin series was a very interesting game for a number of reasons. I personally didn’t think it was the highest quality game, I think neither side played at their best, but both probably learned a lot from that first game and I think both teams will be thinking…
Game one of the 2012 State Of Origin series was a very interesting game for a number of reasons. I personally didn’t think it was the highest quality game, I think neither side played at their best, but both probably learned a lot from that first game and I think both teams will be thinking…
So here we are, the 2011 Four Nations Final. Australia vs England at Elland Road in Leeds. England are full of confidence after their big win over New Zealand in Hull. I watched the game and England did play well, but New Zealand were terrible. I don’t know how much England is really going to…
Queensland has wrapped up its 6th straight State Of Origin series win with a 34-24 win over New South Wales. Lets face it, the scoreline flattered New South Wales. I’ve never seen an opening half an hour to any Origin match like the one I saw in this game. Things just went Queenslands way. The…
Australia has defeated World Champions New Zealand 20-10 at Skilled Park on the Gold Coast. This was a really interesting game, a true test match, and I think it showed a lot of the strengths and weaknesses of both sides. Overall, Australia always seemed to have the upper hand in the game, especially in the…
Last year the AFL made a decision that to them, Israel Folau was worth $1.5 million dollars a year. This made him the richest player in AFL history, and he had never played the game, at any level. Not even as a kid. This week, Kyle Eastmond has made the decision to take a big…
I remember talking to a former Super League club coach a number of years ago and he said to me that during the off season, you’d be amazing at home much weight some players can pack on. In fact, even during the course of a couple of weeks on the sidelines through injury, a player…
I am a big supporter of the salary cap because quite simply, when the salary cap is working, every supporter can go into any given season knowing their team could be winning the Grand Final in 8 months time. The salary cap has two basic functions in Rugby League. The first function is to limit…
This is what it all comes down to… The Melbourne Storm, who still have Greg Inglis under contract, are happy to release him from his contract to play for another NRL club because it will help them with their salary cap issues. The thing is, they want him to pay a legal bill the club…
In 2010 the Rugby League media in Australia has gone bat shit crazy. Between the formation of the Independent Commission, the Melbourne Storm Salary Cap saga, players demanding higher wages and Greg Inglis deciding he wants to live in Brisbane, the media has basically had a nervous breakdown in this part of the world. You…
The Queensland Rugby League team has completely dominated New South Wales in game two of the State Of Origin series, running away with a 34-6 victory. The win gives Queensland a record five series wins in a row, and makes Mal Meninga the most successful coach in State Of Origin history. To say this was…
So the report is in, and….wait for it….wait for it…. The Melbourne Storm broke the salary cap by a whole lot! The false outrage today has been a bit ridiculous really. We knew the Storm broke the Salary cap. We knew they had broken it by millions of dollars over the course of the last…
When I first heard that Timana Tahu had left the NSW cap for personal reasons, I was a bit confused. When I heard he had left after being upset at something Andrew Johns had said, I thought it was a piss weak move. It them came out that Andrew Johns had made a racist remark…
The Melbourne Storm are in the almost impossible situation where by they have to shed hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of player contracts, that they are 100% committed to having to pay, in order to be under the salary cap for the start of the 2011 NRL season. The Storm tend to have a…
Lets start off by saying, I love the Melbourne Storm. I personally hope they can keep their core together, surround them with minimum wage youngsters and come back in 2011 and win the comp. I think they may at least be forced to lose one of their top players, which is unfortunate. As you look…
Its a little ironic that a sport founded on the basis of an open market for players and compensating players for the time and effort they put into the game not finds itself in a position where it tightly regulates what players are worth and shouts down any attempts for a player to earn as…
In 2010 the Melbourne Storm find themselves $700,000 over the 2010 salary cap and that figure is expected to climb over the next few seasons if the Storm were to keep the side they have. David Gallop has already said he will not accept players taking mass pay cuts to keep the side together as…
Sometimes it can feel like its a bit of a meat market, and while most players make good, sound decisions, others base their decisions on the wrong factors. I’ve always been a big believer on sticking with something good. When the magic is happening, when everything is going great, don’t leave a club for big…
The Melbourne Storm have deceitfully breached the NRL salary cap over a total of five years. They over spent $1.7 million dollars over five years that they filtered through a second set of books that they did not submit to the NRL. As a result, the NRL has stripped the Melbourne Storm of two NRL…
As a football junkie, the Melbourne Storm deadset make me damp every single week. The effort required to get up and produce the goods week after week, year after year, its astounding what they have managed to achieve. Just trying to stay motivated after so many Premierships, so many Grand Finals, and yet not team…
Twenty minutes of easy, untouchable football, sixty minutes of complete and utter garbage. That pretty much sums up Australia’s performance in their 26-16 win over England in Wigan this evening. Australia looked like they would easily rack up the massive scoreline I expected them to in the first quarter of the match. As I predicted,…
Australia and New Zealand have fought out a 20 all draw at the Stoop in London. In what at times was a scrappy game, both teams looked rusty at times with New Zealand playing the better football over the course of the game. The Kiwi’s were under the pump early on but in true Rugby…
In a great game of football the Melbourne Storm cemented their place as one of the most dominant teams of the modern era by beating the Parramatta Eels 23-16. The sellout crowd of 82,538 saw a classic Grand Final with momentum changes, precision play, rampaging runs, a great comeback and a cool as you like…
The Melbourne Storm will take the field in their fourth successive Grand Final after a dominant 40-10 victory over the Brisbane Broncos in front of 27,000 fans in Melbourne. The game never really reached any great heights and as I suspected, once the Broncos came up against a real top of the line outfit they…
The two referee’s have changed the way the game is played and we have gone away from wrestling, forward play late in the game, and we are seeing free flowing, skillful football late in games. I think this has really hurt the Manly Sea Eagles. Manly have become successful by playing the percentages. Play smart…
Australia were outstanding in their first game against anyone since their mid season thrashing of New Zealand. Their combination looked good, the forwards played well, the backs were oustanding and Lockyer and Thurston were clicking already. England meanwhile have had a number of games over the same period of time including a thrashing of Wales…
Well its here, the Rugby League World Cup Final and the chance for one nation to claim it is the undisputed World Champions. Australia have held that mantle for three decades, and while New Zealand managed to win the 2005 Tri Nations Final, this is the only game you can win and claim to be…
Australia have secured the top spot in Group A with a crushing 52-4 win over England. As usual England come out playing physically and they were helped along when Australia played terribly for about ten minutes. However from that point on it was all one way traffic and to be honest, England were lucky a…