Coach Wayne Bennett and fullback Darius Boyd are among those at the Newcastle Knights who have not been paid thanks to Nathan Tinkler and his Hunter Sports Group. A lot of people have been critical of Boyd’s form this season, but if he isn’t being paid, I can completely understand why he would have better…
Angry Newcastle Knights fans have started an online petition calling for the removal of multi time premiership winning coach Wayne Bennett in the wake of their record loss to the Panthers. Surely no one saw this coming, and although only supported by a small percentage of fans, the fact a petition to remove Bennett exists…
Wayne Bennett gave a really good interview to News Limited overnight in which he covered a few topics, including the concussion debate. Bennett’s feelings were that, like with most issues in the game, there is a certain level of out of control hysteria surrounding the concussion debate. Much of this hysteria is fueled by the…
With the 2014 season about to begin the supporters of 16 National Rugby League clubs have hearts filled with hope and minds filled with dreams. Right now, anyone can win the Grand Final. Basically, everyone is too bloody happy for my liking! I could have written a normal season preview but there are only about…
From South Africa to Wembley Stadium, England’s 2013 Rugby League World Cup buildup and results were interesting to say the least. The Rugby Football League invested a lot of time, money and effort to make sure that England got the best preparation for the 2013 World Cup. No team that has come before had a…
Daniel Nichols looks back on the Newcastle Knights season in his ongoing series of season reviews. Finished: 7th Predicted: 7th Fan Prediction: 5th-6th Where It Went Right: Supercoach Wayne Bennett almost did it again. A month before the finals, not even the most committed Knights fan would have told you they’d be within 80 minutes…
Speculation is rife that Wayne Bennett has coached his last game at the Newcastle Knights. There is talk he will be coaching the North Queensland Cowboys next season, and even suggestions he will be back at the Brisbane Broncos in 2014. It is all speculation Bennett has refused to deny. So if Wayne Bennett does…
The Newcastle Knights currently cling on to 8th spot on the NRL ladder with four other teams chasing them. One of those teams is the Brisbane Broncos who currently sit in 12th place on the ladder, 4 competition points behind the Knights. A loss tonight would see the Broncos fall 6 points behind 8th spot…
The Daily Telegraph is reporting that Newcastle Knights owner Nathan Tinkler is being investigated by the NRL Integrity Unit for allegedly betting on NRL fixtures. The NRL has very strict rules that prohibit players and officials from betting on Rugby League. The news comes on the back of a report on the ABC’s Four Corners…
Do the Newcastle Knights look like a team coached by someone earning well over $1 million per year? I look at the Newcastle Knights and I don’t see any value for money coming from Wayne Bennett and what he is doing at the club. I don’t see them doing anything special. I don’t see a…
It is very rare that a terrible coach can manage to win a Premiership. It does happen from time to time (Hello Michael Hagan) but for the most part, the best coaches normally share the spoils. With the NRL salary cap strictly policed and teams not recruiting youngsters from all over the place, the biggest…
Despite some distasteful trash talking at the scrum base and some disobedient novelty Steedens, another coat of restoration polish was applied to St George Illawarra on Sunday thanks to a blue-collar negation of the Wests Tigers. Now with three straight wins, the famous Red V jersey is once again returning to being more palatable as…
The start of the NRL season is supposed to be a spectacular detonation of exhilaration and engrossment that results from the combination of various beefs from both on-field and off. With most players clearly on horse drugs, explosive knee-jerk sackings at administration level and indecisive young men everywhere struggling to keep their word on contract…
Josh Dugan and Blake Ferguson are two very talented footballers. Both are athletic players that add an explosive element to any team they play in. They both bring a real x factor to the game, they can make something out of nothing. Normally these qualities are something all teams would crave. However when it comes…
Pre Season in any sport is the time in which the foundation qualities needed for the long season ahead are established. In a collision sport like rugby league the intense mental and physical challenges of the game need to be not only mirrored but exceeded in this period, allowing the player to feel confident to…
The 2013 NRL season is going to be an interesting one to watch simply for the fact that the game finally has enough money to do things it hasn’t been able to do in well over a decade. How this changes the way the games administrators make decisions is anyone guess right now. Will we…
If the 2012 season showed us anything it was that a great coach is worth their weight in gold to any club. With top coaches now commanding million dollar salaries, clubs are more than aware that a top coach controls the entire destiny of a club. A coaches performance can make or break a club, not just…
The title says it all really. Not again. Not again as the Bulldogs who, in my opinion, were certainly the cream of the crop throughout the season came crashing back down to Earth after audio of someone within the club calling out abusive comments to a media contingent. Compounding the matter, the comments were of…
I can understand why New Zealand Warriors fans are a bit worried right now. After watching another disasterous season with a disasterous coach at the helm and knowing they actually have a very good lineup that can go places with the right leadership, they keep hearing some worrying names being tossed in their direction. The…
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…
I always find it very interesting when someone within Rugby League tosses up an idea that is used in another sport, when it is clear they have no idea how that idea is applied in that sport, let alone how it would be applied to Rugby League. The latest idea is the draft, and internal…
Well its that time of the year again when Santa going on the worlds largest break and enter spree. We don’t mind it because he leaves presents. Now, Santa spends all year making a list. Then, he checks it twice. He want to find out who’s naughty and who is nice. Personally, I think the…
This is when the NRL Finals series get really good! If you win this week, you are one week away from playing for a place in the Grand Final. If you lose, you leave the country. There are a lot of story lines to follow for this weekends two games. Can the West Tigers keep…
It was a very interesting first week of the NRL finals and we saw a clear divide between teams in all four games. The top two teams won their matches and get a week off. The bottom two teams are done for the season. That is how it was supposed to be! So lets have…
Last season felt like most of the competition was in transition and only a couple of teams were really primed for a real shot at the title. This season we have a number of different clubs ready to roll. The Storm are looking for redemption. The Dragons are looking to prove it wasn’t just a…
Imagine being a St George/Illawarra player over the last few seasons. You are trying your guts out but its plainly obvious that you don’t have what it takes to win a Premiership. Hell, for nearly a decade the club has been there or there abouts, and they always fall short. So much so that the…
Mark Gasnier has announced that he will retire at the end of the 2011 season and get on with life after football. Gasnier told the media today that he knew going into this season that it would be his last. This is Mark Gasniers first full season of Rugby League, having returned by a stint…
I always felt as though Wayne Bennett left the Brisbane Broncos is a fairly average position. Basically when he left, the club needed to completely rebuild itself. It’s highest paid player was getting on and would never be around once the youngsters kicked on. Thats not Bennett’s fault, that’s just how Rugby League works. The…
I’m not going to talk about how good of a player Darren Lockyer was. If you have eyes in your head, you could see what he did. You don’t need me to talk about how good he was! Last season there was a lot of talk that the Brisbane Broncos wanted to groom Lockyer to…
Remember last week when I said everyone in Brisbane was going batshit crazy? Well it seems the fun hasn’t stopped yet! Ivan Henjak was sensationally fired last night a few weeks out from the kickoff to the 2011 season. He will be replaced by assistant coach Anthony Griffin, who has only been given a deal…