Roar Rookie
Joined March 2019
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The Gold Coast Titans have everything necessary to be a force in rugby league, but instead they languish at the bottom of the ladder…
Can Brisbane support a second NRL team? Absolutely. Will Brisbane support a second NRL team? Nope. There is no doubt that these days Queensland…
Baffled that a game can be stopped in the middle of a crucial play for a broken ankle, but not for a bloke who is clearly concussed and in severe distress.
When fans whinge about “consistency”, this is what they mean. Just makes last week’s crucial decision against Parramatta even more galling. Eels fans entitled to feel aggrieved.
Errors just kill you: Talking points from South Sydney’s rout of Manly
The Rabbitohs’ win looks comprehensive on the scoreboard, but it wasn’t quite like that out on the field.
Manly snuck over twice in the first half – both tries were disallowed, but the fact they got through and then had another crack in the dying minutes of the match showed the Rabbitohs still have trouble putting games to bed.
Melbourne – that’s who it’ll be – aren’t gonna give them any second chances on Grand Final day.
Errors just kill you: Talking points from South Sydney’s rout of Manly
They made it very clear at the start of the year they thought they were the best team in Rugby League history – and they were gonna break the record for the most wins, easily.
In fact, Panthers fans tried to tell us they already HAD broken the record – they held the record for the most consecutive wins “in regular season”, conveniently leaving out the fact they lost the Grand Final, the most important game of all.
They carry-on, the push the rules to their limits – and then their coach whinges that other teams do EXACTLY the things his own boys do, and blames everyone else when his team loses.
And then to top it off – to win that game against Parramatta with what we now know was illegal interference from the trainer.
Nah, I don’t like em. For the first time in my life, I’ll be cheering on the Melbourne Storm.
Why have the Penrith Panthers become the new team NRL fans love to hate?
I would have had no problem – no problem at all – with the trainer running on like that, if it had been a serious injury.
A broken ankle is extremely painful, and it’s ended Mitch Kenny’s season – but that’s not a serious injury, not in this context.
A head clash, a concussed player, a player clutching their neck or not moving at all, a popped-out knee – that’s worth stopping the game for.
A broken ankle could have waited four more tackles, easily. And as such the only conclusion you can draw is that this was a deliberate act of unsportsmanlike conduct from the trainer (not from Kenny, who did everything he’s supposed to do).
NRL hands Panthers breach notice over controversial trainer incident
Total shambles.
Just having a meeting like that is a signal that the Board – fairly or unfairly – does not have faith in the Coach.
How can he stay on now, knowing that? Why would he want to?
If you’re going to stab someone in the back, strike hard, strike home, strike true.
As to replacements – Ciraldo might be a viable option, but none of the others listed here leap out off the page. Would any of them be a trade-up from Maguire anyway?
UPDATED: Michael Maguire survives axe for now as board needs more time for decision
Before we even get to neutral trainers – of which I am in favour – why don’t we yet have neutral DOCTORS?
Why do we allow teams to conduct their own HIAs with their own guys?
Is it time for the NRL to consider neutral trainers?
Yes. Well.
Judging by the focus today on the many, many egregious refereeing errors in that match, it appears my opinion is a pretty general one.
Interchange controversy sours defensive performances for the ages: Talking points from the NRL semi
Nah.
I don’t like to blame referees – but I didn’t have a stake in this match, so you can believe I’m genuine when I say I thought it was one of the worst performances of the year.
If they give the Grand Final to Klein, they’re mental.
Interchange controversy sours defensive performances for the ages: Talking points from the NRL semi
The test of whether it’s a great game or not is – did the fans enjoy it?
That’s it really.
And they’ve been pretty vocal that they’re having a ball with the Finals series so far, a couple of lopsided games excepted.
Interchange controversy sours defensive performances for the ages: Talking points from the NRL semi
My understanding is that they had two free interchanges from Niukore being put on report twice, and Pangai’s was the second one being used.
Which makes sense.
So now this story about “the wrong card” being held up has just confused me further.
Interchange controversy sours defensive performances for the ages: Talking points from the NRL semi
I don’t know who the BEST commentator is, but I can sure as hell to you who is the WORST.
Andrew Johns. In a canter.
The man is so outrageously biased. His commentating during Game 3 of the Origin this year, when NSW were on the losing end, was over-the-top ridiculous. He should have been sacked there and then.
If he isn’t running the sport down and talking about how the referees have ruined the game (something he’s picked up from Gus, unfortunately), then he’s sharing ridiculously inappropriate in-jokes with the others and giggling in the background like a maniac.
Finally – and here I want to be careful, because I don’t know if it’s the result of an injury or something like that – but he sounds drunk. All the time.
One Johns brother is enough. Joey has to go.
The good, the bad and the Blocker: who are the best and worst of NRL's TV callers?
Here’s the thing about conflicts of interest – most of the time they don’t exist. They’re a beat up.
But companies go to enormous lengths to ensure that even the APPEARANCE of a conflict of interest is avoided. So that there can never be any doubt.
I don’t see how the NRL should be any different in that regard.
Stopping the Storm is going to take more than a brain-fart refereeing conspiracy
Keeping in mind what I wrote above, I think a splash of Maroon in the jersey would probably be a good start.
They don’t look like a QLD team to me.
Remember the Titans? They don't
“You can’t have a smashing Anzac Day rugby league round in 2019 because not enough rugby league players were killed at Gallipoli over a hundred years ago” really is one of the worst takes I’ve read on this site.
How many dead would make it acceptable?
Eight talking points from NRL Round 7
The game against the Rabbitohs – Bennett vs Seibold – will be the match of the week.
Hold on to your hats, folks. The media will be out in force.
Eight talking points from NRL Round 7
“What would a Daly Cherry-Evans injury mean to Manly?”
Who gives a stuff about Manly?
What will it mean for Queensland, dammit?
Eight talking points from NRL Round 7
“He now needs Munster to play that role in support, as well as providing the balanced head to control the kicking game alongside Croft”
Well, as we saw in the Grand Final – Munster certainly has what it takes to be the head kicker…
NRL 2019 season preview: Melbourne Storm
As a Queenslander, I’m licking my lips at the prospect of Pearce getting a blue jersey again. It’ll finally put an end to all that “New Blue Dynasty!” nonsense.
Mitchell Pearce is an excellent halfback. One of the best in the game. Under his guidance, Newcastle are a strong chance to finally make the top eight again for the first time in years.
… and he’s just not up to the task when it comes to Origin.
Call it nerves; call it a lack of mental toughness; call it guts. He just doesn’t have it. Something happens to him when he runs out onto that Origin field. He’s not himself. The Maroons are in his head, living rent-free.
It’s not unheard-of. Many players have had fantastic club careers and hopeless Origin records. Ben Hunt is the obvious Queensland counterpart – fantastic player, can’t hack it in the Maroon jersey.
Happens in cricket too – many great Shield and/or ODI players just fold when they get to the Test arena.
Rock solid predictions for the 2019 NRL season: Part one
“In a salary-capped competition, such squad retention following grand final success is simply unheard of.”
That is a very, um… tactful way of putting what we are ALL thinking.
Go into politics, mate.
Rock solid predictions for the 2019 NRL season: Part one
Exactly. These were massive breaches.
And whatever the Sharks might have done, I don’t like the way Smith is using them as an excuse to get Melbourne off the hook.
What the Sharks might have done has absolutely no bearing on the fact that Melbourne committed the biggest act of rorting in Australian sporting history.
Cameron Smith's Cronulla complaint is crying over spilt milk
There’s no doubt Reynolds is due for a BIG season, put it that way.
The five under-the-radar NRL players you need to watch this season
Why shouldn’t they be used as an example?
There must be a reason why every team the league has put on the Gold Coast has been a disaster – and I’ve given my reasons as to why I believe that is.
As to whether another Brisbane team will be supported – well, you say it will. I say it won’t.
I’ve explained why I don’t think it will work – why do you think it will?
A second Brisbane team? Tell him he's dreaming
Frankly, them or the Redcliffe Dolphins – each with a ready-made fanbase – are the only options I could see possibly working.
They’re the best shot, and I still don’t think it would happen.
A second Brisbane team? Tell him he's dreaming
I don’t think the Sunny Coast will work, for the same reason the Titans never took off.
Gotta say, though, games at Dolphins stadium in Redcliffe would be amazing.
If we ARE going to have a second Brisbane team, the only one I think might work – as I wrote in the article – is elevating the Ipswich Jets to the NRL, as they already have a huge fanbase of their own. But I have my doubts about that too.
A second Brisbane team? Tell him he's dreaming
Seinfeld article.
An article about nothing.
PS: I don’t think anyone denies that if you were building the NRL today from the ground up, there’d be a fairly even split between Queensland teams and Sydney teams (and throw in some others around the country).
The fact there’s 9 Sydney teams in a 16-team league is an accident of history, it’s not some proof that Sydney is more passionate about the Rugby League than anyone else.
And the fact that the NRL is STILL run as a Sydney boys club is just galling. Queenslanders bring you the money, the ratings, the bums on seats, the State of Origin, and we’re still treated like the retarded younger brother.
'Sydney is looking over its shoulder': The Harbour City's relationship with rugby league