News that covers Rugby League in Australia.
If I was running the Australian Rugby League Commission today I would have called NRL chief medical officer Ron Muratore into my office today and fired him on the spot. Making Rugby League as safe a sport as it can possibly be has been one of the major goals of every Rugby League administration going…
When the season kicks off, everyone feels like they have a chance of winning the NRL Grand Final. Soon after though, reality starts to set in and teams that started off with high expectations find themselves on the wrong end of too many scoreboards. So who were the most disappointing teams in season 2012? Obviously the level…
While player managers scramble to the media telling everyone that will listen that the NRL salary cap should be raised immediatley, it seems the NRL itself is holding off on any such move. There are two major reasons for this. First of all, there are a number of clubs that could really use a jump…
The first week of the NRL Finals series kicks off this weekend and it is shaping up as the NRL marketers dream. There are so many big match ups in the first week of the finals and the new finals system should make things easier for fans to follow too. The NRL captains call was…
The NRL came out yesterday with a curious announcement that, one week out from the finals, it would send any shoulder charge that made contact with a players head or neck straight to the judiciary without any grading. This process is usually what happens with the most extreme cases of foul play and usually results…
With Rugby League in Australia now predicted to generate an average of $270 million dollars per year the game administrators have an opportunity to do something they have not been able to even think about for a very long time. Building a legacy. While clubs grants will be raised along with the salary cap, Rugby…
A words of advice kids. If every you find yourself in a position where by you have the financial clout to sponsor a football stadium and use its naming rights to promote various companies that you own, don’t buy the naming rights to a stadium that doesn’t have a major sporting team as its number…
Sonny Bill Williams has revealed that he already regrets his decision to return to Rugby League and if he had his time over again, he would never have agreed to join the Sydney Roosters three years ago and would stay in Rugby Union. As it stands right now Williams has a stint in Japanese Rugby…
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 deal has been done and the budget is now set, so where does Rugby League go from here? For well over a decade Rugby League in Australia was just trying to survive. It wasn’t that the game wasn’t growing, it simply come down to the fact that clubs at first were spending way beyond…
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…
Ben Hornby has announced that he will retire at seasons end in a move that will hopefully allow the Dragons to go into a fully fledged rebuilding mode. In recent seasons I think Hornby has been a liability to the Dragons on the field. Playing in the halves, he lacked creativity, his kicking game was…
Brian McClennan has been sacked by the New Zealand Warriors effective immediately with assistant coach Tony Iro taking over the head coaching role for the teams remaining two games of the 2012 season. That McClennan couldn’t even see out his first season as the clubs head coach says a lot. McClennan stepped into the spotlight…
Over the last few months the South Sydney Rabbitohs have had a good run of form, and it led a lot of their fans to ask me if I rated them as a true Grand Final contender. The whole time I said I wanted to wait and see how they went against one of the…
With Ricky Stuart making the decision that he would stand down from his post as New South Wales coach we have seen a lot of maneuvering among potential replacements over the last few days. Brad Fittler, Laurie Daley and Trent Barrett have all be mentioned at the top of everyone’s list of candidates along with…
Last weekend the Penrith Panthers beat the Cronulla Sharks 21-20 in extra time. Both teams were missing a whole host of players and while the Sharks sit many places above the Panthers on the ladder, this contest looked to be evened out by a number of factors, the biggest of which was the Sharks poor…
Luke Lewis asked the Penrith Panthers for a release from the final two years of a lucrative contract. At the time many reasons were given, but I was one of the very few people that mentioned that the move would allow Lewis to capitalize on the remaining years of his playing career. A lot of…
After the resignation of Stephen Kearney this week, the Daily Telegraph as well as Fox Sports are reporting that Ricky Stuart will coach the Parramatta Eels from the beginning of next season in a move that all but certainly ends his reign as New South Wales State Of Origin coach. I tend to think this…
Luke Lewis has asked for, and received an early release from his contract at the Penrith Panthers sighting a desire for a new challenge at another club. Lewis is a local junior and has played for the Panthers for 11 years. He was stripped of the club captaincy earlier this year in a move that…
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…
The Western Australia Rugby League has announced that the name they will use for their National Rugby League expansion team will be the West Coast Pirates. Previously the Western Australia Rugby League had used the name Western Reds, Perth Reds, then WA Reds, but obviously they decided to go in a different direction for their…
A player moves from one club to another during the middle of the NRL season and predictably, the media runs around telling everyone that the sky is falling. The same old reactionary bullshit we have come to expect over the years. Then they wonder why they are all getting sacked! I personally have no problems…
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…
We are heading into a must win, possibly series deciding game two of the State Of Origin series, and you know what the big talking point is? Whinging. Both Mal Meninga and Ricky Stuart have carried on like a couple of fucking idiots. Neither one is better than the other. Between the planet sized chip…
In what is being described as a “mutual decision” made in conjunction with the Australian Rugby League Commission, David Gallop has decided to stand down as the CEO of the NRL only 4 months into a four year contract. I think it was time. David Gallop took over, reluctantly, as the NRL CEO in 2002…
At the beginning of the year the Penrith Panthers were a club looking to reinvent itself. It needed to happen, they needed to draw a line in the sand and put an era of complete and utter failure firmly in the rear view mirror. One of the major moved forward was that the club announced…
So the NRL Referees have used Brad Fittler to get around their bosses, Bill Harrigan and Stuart Raper, to contact NRL CEO David Gallop and tell him they no longer have confidence in Harrigan and Raper. Hmmm… Firstly, what is David Gallop doing even sitting down at that meeting. Aside from the fact that Brad…
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…
Josh, Josh, Josh…. You know, Canberra Raiders fans don’t ask for much from you. They kinda know what the deal by now. Basically, you’re a good fullback, but every time you get tackled you get up slower than Apollo Creed in Rocky II. You’re more injury prone than Mr Glass from Unbreakable. Hell, you missed…