Your men’s New Zealand Vodafone® Warriors™ finished the 2022 season in fifteenth and second last place with a 6-18 record and -292 points difference. Their defence was the worst in the NRL, conceding an even 700 points in 24 games, and the worst in Warriors franchise history. The only team that came close to their… Read More A Shallow Dive into the 2022 New Zealand Warriors
Your men’s Wests Tigers finished the 2022 season in last place with a frozen meat pie of a record (4-20) and a points difference of -327. The Tigers scored the fewest points in the NRL at 14.7 per game, the worst effort since the 1999 Magpies and 1999 Tigers both failed to clear that mark.… Read More A Shallow Dive into the 2022 Wests Tigers
Imagine a professional sport. Let’s call it “non-association football”, or “football” for short. Every winter, the Board of Control for the Non-Association Football League Union (BOCNAFLU) holds an auction. Up for bid are sixteen licences to be sold. Each licence grants a football club one year’s participation in the most prestigious competition, along with a… Read More What’s next
Please, I’m begging you, stop saying Brodie Croft is good For a shining moment in 2017, Brodie Croft was the wunderkind heir apparent to Cooper Cronk at the Melbourne Storm. By 2019, the club had given him every oppourtunity, decided he wasn’t up to it and he was punted for Jahrome Hughes. Hughes, then a… Read More Please, I’m begging you, stop saying Brodie Croft is good (and other 2022 Super League stuff)
We only witnessed the grand final of the last season four months ago, but we’re back again with a new season of women’s football to look forward to. This season is the first official Deep Dive™ into the women’s game, so let’s get into it. Note: in line with the convention of the NRL, I’ll… Read More A Deep Dive into the 2022 NRLW Premiership
What the hell happened to the Storm? One of the Storm’s strengths during its golden era has been its next-man-up conveyor belt of talent. Somehow, they always have someone ready to step up to capably fill gaps. Need a fullback to replace Billy Slater? You got a choice of Scott Drinkwater, Nicho Hynes or Ryan… Read More Storm feeders, Capras, Magpies and the race to the 2022 Queensland Cup
Everyone can see the potential of international rugby league. The people who allegedly run the sport are not quite that blind. However, no one seems quite sure how to get there without upsetting the entrenched interests that actually run the sport. Hand waving away this aspect of the problem is fine for people shooting the… Read More The death of the rep weekend
One of the tough things writing about homogenised rugby league was trying to ascribe the direction of the sport solely to the cravenness of the Sydney clubs. But at that time, we hadn’t actually seen the Queensland clubs rise to the defence of the state’s rugby league heritage. They’d been mute and I was going… Read More Benny, Vossy and Bluey: it’s been a week and then some
The NRL broadcasters’ marketing really kicks into overdrive for a rivalry game. Often, this is framed as a long running grudge match between proximate Sydney suburbs that have been fighting the same grudge match for decades and sometimes the Broncos and Cowboys play a derby game. I’ve found it a little mystifying what gets played… Read More The 2022 NRL Rivalry Survey
I didn’t think we’d be here again so soon. I had planned to take it easier in 2022, after writing several splitte-flecked screeds in 2021 vehemently demonising what passes for the administration of rugby league in this country. I assumed that the same admin might lie a little lower after a constant stream of disasters… Read More Homogenised rugby league
Pythago NRL 