Just before kick-off of the Bulldogs-Dragons spoon bowl on Monday, the Warriors dropped a big press release. Contained within is an important story with a lot of implications for rugby league, so let’s go through them. For the Broncos It wasn’t that long ago that the Broncos had six feeder clubs in the Queensland Cup.… Read More The Warrior Dolphins
Take half an hour and watch this. The interesting thing about the debate is what’s missing. There’s no discussion about the purpose or meaning of Super League. There’s a large pile of cash on the table. The bigger clubs and RFL have plainly decided to accept this because they need the money more than anything… Read More Super League 2.0 is not coming
The 1956-66 St George Dragons are often cited as the greatest rugby league dynasty of all time, especially if the author of the statement is of a particular age. Unlike most received wisdom in rugby league, this seems to be hold up pretty well from whichever angle you examine it. But what of other teams… Read More The Dynasties of Rugby League
The overwhelming majority of fans get their NRL fix through the TV. An average round will attract 124,000 in the stands but 3.6 million, thirty times as many, will tune in via subscription (PTV) or free-to-air (FTA) television. TV ratings are an under-explored and critically important part of the modern game. Ratings should be a,… Read More Everything you ever wanted to know about NRL TV ratings but were afraid to ask
Did you know the world is in the grip of a pandemic? I’m not sure how you could have missed it, given that it’s all I’ve been thinking about for the past week. The vibe, right here and now on 17 March 2020, is absolutely unprecedented in my lifetime. The only two parallels I can… Read More Rugby league in the time of coronavirus
I was always vaguely aware of the Queensland Cup growing up, but only really took an actual interest in it when I started this site a couple of years ago. I became a Souths Logan fan, because that’s where I lived most of my life, and started going to games. Since then, I’ve toyed with… Read More A deep dive in to the 2020 Queensland Cup
Six months ago, the Titans were on the chopping block to keep the Sydney clubs alive and some think still should be. With the NRL’s footprint study having presumably been delivered to the ARLC, if not the general public, Peter V’Landys has let drop that he’s not interested in taking the NRL to Perth and… Read More BNE2 or, On Expansion and its relationship with Brisbane
This is my third season preview and I have got some things laughably wrong in the previous attempts (see 2018 and 2019). This year’s will be a slightly different format to previous years but undertaken in the same spirit of considering each team’s strengths, weaknesses and opportunities, as well as assessing the changes made since… Read More A deep dive in to the 2020 NRL premiership
When a coach arrives at a major league club, fresh and excited to make his own mark in the history books, you’d have to think that, as a minimum threshold for success, he’d want to leave the place in better shape than when he arrived. Sometimes, the vagaries of reality make it difficult to assess… Read More The coaches that fucked up your club
The Toronto Wolfpack made their Super League debut on the weekend. After three seasons in the lower divisions, the Wolfpack’s first game in Leeds against the Castleford Tigers resulted in a quasi-respectable but messy 28-10 loss. Still, one result is one result and not necessarily informative on its own, disappointing though it may be. For… Read More How will the Toronto Wolfpack go in Super League?
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