Two years after being excluded from the premiership due to salary cap breaches the Canterbury Bulldogs found themselves rebuilt and facing off the with Minor Premiers in the 2004 NRL Grand Final. The animosity between these two teams was palpable, with the Roosters constantly being linked to Bulldogs players over the previous few seasons. A…
The NRL has released the schedule for week one of the NRL finals series. The Brisbane Broncos will host the Melbourne Storm at Suncorp Stadium at 7:50pm on Friday night. The winner of that match will get week two of the finals series off, moving straight into the preliminary final in week three. The loser…
On Saturday evening, and just after attending the Penrith Panthers match in which they claimed the 2023 Minor Premiership, I appeared on the Ramblings Of A Saint podcast with Johnny Lew. We talked about the NRL, Super League, the broadcasting deal for British Rugby League, expansion, international Rugby League and much more! Have a listen!
The Penrith Panthers have claimed the 2023 Minor Premiership in the last game of the regular season with a dominant 44-12 win over the North Queensland Cowboys. The Panthers finish the season with 18 wins in the 24 games they played. They had an astonishing 333 points difference on for and against. This is the…
There is a big difference between a club having a tough few years and what we are currently seeing the Century Bulldogs going through. The Bulldogs, because of terrible administration, poor coaching and the repercussions of salary cap breaches, hit a point where they had no good juniors coming through the club, their first grade…
Sports betting is becoming increasingly popular in Australia, with more and more people engaging in the activity as an extension of the country’s love of sport. The market for online sports betting in Australia is experiencing a huge surge of growth. This growth has been helped by the strong sports culture that exists in Australia,…
2022 Clive Churchill Medalist Dylan Edwards has re-signed with the Penrith Panthers on a 4 year deal said to be around $3.4 million. Edwards took a long time to cement his spot as the Panthers fullback but boy has it paid off. He joins a long list of Panthers players who have chosen to remain…
In this episode we talk about the meltdown that Ricky Stuart had, again, and his failures as a an NRL coach. Why the Super League TV deals keep getting worse and worse. The media and the way it hounds Latrell Mitchell, the injuries that hit all the contenders last weekend, and then Andrew, the stats…
The Penrith Panthers loss to a Parramatta Eels team sputtering to the end of a disappointing season was, in itself, disappointing. Even accounting for the fact that the Panthers have been trying to cycle their regular starters out of the side in recent weeks to get players a week off here and there leading into…
In this episode we talk about the complete mess the Wests Tigers have turned into, and ask if there is any hope left for this club to turn things around. We chat about the top of the Premiership and the contenders, why Papua New Guinea is looking like it will get the next NRL expansion…
In early 2022 the Wests Tigers brought in former coach Tim Sheens to do a complete review of the club. The result of that review is that Sheens recommended that the club sack then coach Michael Maguire, and install the best man for the job to coach the club going forward. Tim Sheens. Thats right,…
In this episode we have a look at the reaction of the Brazilian Rugby League and their questions about the management of the International Rugby League. We chate about the retirement of Jarrod Croker and Tevita Pangai Jr, as well as the re-sgnings of Payne Hass at the Broncos and David Fifita and Tino Fa’asuamaleaui…
There are reports by various News Ltd journalists suggesting that Tevita Pangai Jr will retire from Rugby League at seasons end to take up boxing, this dispute having a season remaining on his deal at the Bulldogs. This feels like a very strange decision , and call me a cynic, but this feels like a…
Payne Hass has chosen to remain at the Brisbane Broncos through to the end of the 2026 season according to Channel 9 reporter Danny Weidler. Hass had a clause in his contract which allowed him to look at other avenues to continue his career going forward. While the media was outraged by this, and tried…
The NRL and its clubs are all flushed with cash. With ticket sales, merchandise, deals with local governments and the broadcasting deal all bringing hundreds of millions of dollars into the sport every single year. The NRL grant to clubs covers all players payments and then some, so don’t think this is about the business…
The Parramatta Eels extremely slim chances of making the 2023 NRL Finals series have been dealt a major blow with halfback Mitchell Moses suspected up picking up a fractured eye socket in the clubs loss to the Brisbane Broncos. Moses picked up the injury trying to make a cover tackle late in the first half….
Want to know what the biggest losing margin in the Wests Tigers history is? You’ve come to the right place! On July 1st in 2023 the North Queensland Cowboys defeated the Wests Tigers 74-0 at Queensland Country Bank Stadium in Townsville. North Queensland Cowboys centre Valentine Holmes scored 30 points in the match through 2…
The RFL has confirmed that the Rugby League Challenge Cup Final will remain at Wembley Stadium for the next two years, but with a date change for seeing the event moved to June the 8th starting from 2024. The switch of date comes as the RFL, Super League and IMG look to make changes to…
The Gold Coast Titans have announced the re-signing of forwards Tino Fa’asuamaleaui and David Fifita to long term deals, with Tino Fa’asuamaleaui signing a ten year deal that is now the biggest contract in the history of Rugby League. The deal will end when Tino Fa’asuamaleaui is 33 years old, and is similar to the…
Coming into the 2022 NRL Grand Final the Penrith Panthers faced their old foe the Parramatta Eels, one of the few teams who could boast that they beat the Panthers during the regular season, and a team that was confident of their chances of preventing the Panthers from joining the very short list of clubs…
The standoff between the NRL and the Rugby League players association looked like it may have come to an end according to the Sydney Morning Herald, with talks in recent days resulting in agreement on a number of issues. The RLPA will now take the deal to the players to vote upon. The RLPA has…
In this episode we start off by talking about what Dolphin tastes like, and then describe how you milk a dolphin. No, seriously, thats how this episode starts. We then take a look at a stats table put together by a media organisation that was supposed to rank NRL clubs, but we worked out really…
There is a push right now for the NRL to have a national reserve grade competition, where each NRL club would have its own reserve grade team that would travel around the country, and to New Zealand, to play games against everyone else’s reserve grade team. A basic look at the concept makes a bit…
I always find it funny when you hear people whinging that “The salary cap isn’t working” as we watch one of the closest seasons in Australian Rugby League history. You can turn into the NRL on any weekend and honestly feel that most teams have a chance to win their match no matter who their…
The Warrington Wolves have finally announced that Sam Burgess will take over as their head coach starting in 2024. Burgess is currently part of the South Sydney Rabbitohs coaching set up, but he has no experience being the head coach of any team at any level outside of coaching the Orara Valley Axe Men up…
In this episode we give you a rundown on the latest International Rugby League meeting in Singapore and what it managed to accolplish Spoiler Alert: NOTHING! Have a chat about the how the Panthers sit right now, the teams that are falling away as the regular season draws to an end, and we manage to…
In this episode we talk about sharing a meal while the Wests Tigers fall apart, the Challenge Cup Final to feature a couple of new teams, Phil Goulds salary cap “management” at the Canterbury Bulldogs, the Penrith Panthers anomoly, New Zealand Rugby League great Syd Eru, Welsh Rugby League greats and so much more! Damn…
There is a big, and dedicated supporters following of Rugby and is branches out around the world. You can find major tournaments on television and the Rugby League World Cup in 2021 broke records for being the biggest, best, and most inclusive tournament in rugby leagues history. In the UK every minute of the 2021…
Rugby prop betting offers exciting opportunities for rugby enthusiasts to test their predictions on specific events or outcomes during a match. Unlike other rugby bets, prop bets focus on unique occurrences during a game. These bets tend to have lower probabilities but higher payouts. Let’s explore bets that involve individual player performances, drop goals, and…
Die-hard rugby enthusiasts and newcomers can agree on the thrill and excitement of wagering on the game. With various markets, odds, and strategies to consider, starting with a solid foundation is essential. Let’s equip you with the knowledge and confidence to navigate the exciting world of rugby sports betting. Past To Present: Analyzing Team Form…