The Rugby Football League’s licencing system has come under fire recently after the financial collapse of the Bradford Bulls showed it up for what it really was. The grading of clubs in such black and white terms was completely ridiculous. Putting clubs into different categories was always going to lead to problems simply because so…
The Rugby Football League should be on the phone right now to David Gallop and offering him the role as RFL Chairman along with a sizable contract. During David Gallops time in charge of the NRL he always pushed three major idea’s and never wavered on their importance. Gallop resisted calls to raise the salary…
It is finals time in the National Rugby League and Super League. This is the business part of the season, where the game and its sponsors get the most attention. Yet here we are, in 2011, and teams on both sides of the world are refusing to talk to the media. They are under self…
Now I must admit that I like the Super League playoff process… well, most of it. Remove that God-awful ‘club call pick a team to play even though we all know they’re gunna choose the lowest-ranked side’ rubbish and I think you’ve got a brilliant formula. And we’ve seen pieces of magic that remind you…
The NRL’s next broadcasting deal will see a huge leap in the amount of money the game makes. By at least 2015, we will have an 18 team competition (With the addition of Perth and most likely a second Brisbane team). The deal after that, which will run between 2018 and 2023, will see further…
New Zealand are the best Rugby League nation in the world, having proven it once again by beating Australia, on home soil, in a big final. While Australia now has to face up to why it has been beaten by New Zealand, its fair to say that on any given day, there is very little…
A football club is a little bit like a sailing ship. The boat itself is the team. The captain of the ship is like the coach. The rudder is like the CEO and the keel, well, that is like the football board. Everything has its own job, and as soon as something fails, the whole…
When I woke up this morning and read the headline “Brian Noble Looks To Swap Super League For The NRL” I felt sick. I didn’t have to read the article to know that such complete and utter stupidity could only be aiming towards one man. I mean, lets think about this for a second. An…
Samoa will make an application to the Rugby League International Federation to host a World Nines competition in 2012, an area of the international calender that is seen as a bit of a dead spot in the lead in to the 2013 World Cup. Its a nice idea, and it has seen some within the…
French Rugby League was doing really well until a bit of money started to be generated by it and the French game was infiltrated by English coaches and officials. These leeches walked into a growing area that was showing great promise and started to tell the French how to become even more competitive….like England. It…
Well the Cronulla Sharks now longer have to deal with Greg Bird and the mess he has created. Both parties have agreed to a buyout of Birds contract that that will see Bird released from his Sharks contract on the proviso that he plays for not other NRL club in 2009. This will most likely…
One of the major stories out of the 2008 Rugby League World Cup was how poor England played. Winning just one of their four games played at the World Cup, and then only just beating Papua New Guinea, the England side went to Australia talking themselves up and left with their tail between their legs….
For Great Britain the 2005 Tri Nations is over. Many people in the UK went into this series full of confidence. They felt that last years thrashing in the Tri Series Final was not an indication of their standing in the game. Thats why 2005 comes as a rude reality check for some. Personally, this…