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Write about sport here. Write about music, travel, life and the universe elsewhere. Troll me on Twitter ---> twitter.com/KrisSwales.
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When I first travelled to New Delhi to watch Australia play cricket in 2013, just leaving my hotel to confront the onslaught of this…
As we hurtle headlong towards the business end of the NRL season, coaches at the arse-end of the ladder are no doubt jumping at…
There's the cityscape peaking over the SCG’s heritage-listed grandstands. There's the mountains looming over Cape Town and Dharamshala. And then there's Galle, the cricket…
Kevin Walters has plumped for a blend of experience and even more experience for his first game picking the Maroons team for State of…
When rugby league and music cross paths, hilarity often ensues. But the times, they are a-changin'. Not that it's been all smooth sailing the…
If the hot air being generated in the Sydney press post-Origin 2 is to be believed, the Blues simply need to turn up at…
Injuries, form, and the small matter of restoring state pride at a packed Lang Park have forced Mal Meninga to ring the Queensland Maroons…
June 2, 1987. A night I'll never forget. My first time... at a State of Origin game at Lang Park. I wasn't totally wet…
There's something about rugby league attempting to push beyond its traditional boundaries that causes the collective sphincter of Australian sports fans to involuntarily tighten.…
Mal Meninga may have all but copy/pasted his Queensland Maroons team line-up for Game 1 of the 2015 State of Origin series from last…
It’s an age-old paradox – what happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object? The two can’t exist together, and in the case…
It was somewhat ironic that on the day Australia collectively mourned the loss of the voice of summer, the voice of two states' winters…
While watching the Sea Eagles and Raiders run around an Australian Rules football field in far-flung Albury on Easter Saturday, the word atop the…
In case you missed it, the MCG earlier this week waved the white flag in its battle with Tullamarine Airport for the title of…
You know a sport's grip on the nation's collective consciousness is tenuous when it only makes the headlines off the back of bad news.…
International rugby league. The most divisive three-word phrase in the greatest game of all this side of ‘Phil Gould monologue'; a concept that inevitably…
My first memory of an English footballer is David Hobbs' elbow setting Greg Conescu's tooth free from its gum at the SCG in 1984.…
In case you missed it, the XXXX Queensland Bulls are now the my FootDr Queensland Bulls. Because the boys presumably spent so much of…
On Saturday night, black wrap still covered the fence surrounding Redfern Oval as a reminder of Michael Maguire's intense grand final preparation. By Monday…
When it comes to grand final day entertainment, both the NRL and the AFL either get it very wrong or very right. Sadly, the…
Shout-out to the coaches for bringing all-out attack back to the table after a stodgily predictable past few series (give or take the odd Maroons rampage).
Cracking series which sets up an intriguing new era ahead. Not even disappointed to be on the losing end of it cos this NSW side are difficult to hate, but quietly confident I can turn that around by Game I next year.
Seven talking points from State of Origin Game 3
Whenever you see a hack journo or club executive talking down rugby league being played in Perth, Denver or beyond, just remember – the bigger the game gets, the less power they wield over it.
Rugby league’s standout year for whingeing
Can’t believe the free kick the NRL have given Hobart’s Dark Mofo festival this weekend. Now millions of young Aussies will be making thought-provoking experimental sound-art installations instead of picking up Steedens. #Crisis
CRISIS: Why the standalone Origin weekend is already killing rugby league
Simoc, time to send your sarcasm detector in for a check-up – it’s definitely on the blink.
SBS may reach out to Optus if World Cup streaming issues continue
For some overseas perspective, I’m currently in the hills of Dharamshala in India, where power can cut out at any time and usually does, using my mobile phone as a hotspot to watch the Sony Liv app on my laptop – watched Germany-Mexico last night with only one dropout.
So this whole fiasco is a pretty sad indictment on Optus and what passes for broadband back home.
Surely some think tank somewhere will suggest privatising SBS as the only way forward.
Whatever the case, our PM’s got a hide weighing in on it all.
SBS may reach out to Optus if World Cup streaming issues continue
Three syllable words, of course!
They must’ve all learned “outstanding!” and “middle third” in the pre-season, though that doesn’t explain the outbreak of “hundred percent”.
In defence of referees
Why can’t every commentary team have an ex-ref on board? You know, someone who actually knows the rules intimately?
Bill Harrigan’s perspective on the MMM call is excellent, and a million times more useful than Braith Anasta, who actually sounds disappointed when the refs get a line-ball call right.
In defence of referees
There’s only one question Ricky needs to answer – “Whose team is this?”
We’ve been overrun three weeks running by teams whose go-to clutch men were obviously Taylor, Pearce and Johnson.
Who is ours? Fans don’t know. Do the players?
The only half who has played all 240 minutes this year isn’t the guy doing all the talking when we’re awarded penalties. So the guys coming off the bench and calling the shots either need to play 80 every week, STFU and let Sam Williams run the show, or go to Mounties.
Also, Havili needs more minutes.
Stop complaining about the refs, Ricky, and answer these questions about the Raiders
Rolling from Knights-Manly into this cracker – decent night at the office!
Perth Wildcats vs Adelaide 36ers: NBL semi-final Game 2 live scores, blog
Ivan’s just locking down his best drivers before privatisation hits inner-west bus routes.
Wests Tigers take the totally serious option of naming five captains for 2018
Is anyone else struggling with the moral implications of playing Lodge in their SuperCoach team?
How to anger fans and alienate major sponsors
Maxi was simply awful in the India ODI series. He was the young leggie Chahal’s bunny, who was actually laughing with the ease he was getting him out.
So he deserved to be dropped, but it’s great seeing him back in this sort of form. That 6 for the century in Hobart was straight from the pool room.
Maxwell is Australia's one-day man. Someone tell Steve Smith
If I were to fetch my tinfoil hat from its shelf, I’d almost speculate that it’s in the interest of NRL clubs for Australia (read: Sydney) to remain the centre of the rugby league universe, and those with vested financial interests to do likewise.
Trying to keep something small so you can control it (could putting Tonga v Samoa in a stadium smaller than the one they recently almost sold out, away from their fanbase, with another game also on the same bill, be an example of that?) seems pretty sad to me.
NRL: Where Test matches are meaningless and trials on suburban ovals are essential
Thanks for this Charles – we diehard Raiders tragics know that our team’s annual performance is consistently the inverse of what tipsters predict, so this is the best Christmas present you could give us.
Here's why the Canberra Raiders will compete for the spoon next season
1. Clean up the ruck
2. Profit
What Michael Maguire has to do as the new referees coach
Hi Robert, assuming you’re talking about the same streaming service I was using in India it worked a treat (lack of women’s coverage notwithstanding) – but as far as I can tell it was available from Week 2 of the competition, and nothing went out through the RLWC social channels until just before Week 3. Madness.
I’ve watched an NRL grand final in Delhi with Americans, a Brit, a Korean and a Swede, and last year’s Four Nations Final with my Indian fiancee’s family. They all enjoy watching it, even if the ladies are most excited by a shirtless Cooper Cronk at the half-time break.
It’s a great game. It doesn’t deserve to be held back for even one week by the people charged with promoting it.
Any success from this tournament belongs to the players
Been watching Test footy since 1984 and can’t remember a match where both sides smashed so many shades of you-know-what out of each other for the full 80 (though there were some pretty dirty Kiwis sides in the mid-late 80s from memory).
Outstandingly brutal, tense rugby league decided by a one-on-one miss and the Hand of Duges.
The Kangaroos really have forgotten how to lose. But it looks like England have almost remembered how to beat us.
More international rugby league please. Thank you.
An ode to lady luck - England miss out again
Been watching Test footy since 1984 and can’t remember a match where both sides smashed so many shades of shit out of each other for the full 80 (though there were some pretty dirty Kiwis sides in the mid-late 80s from memory).
Outstandingly brutal, tense rugby league decided by a one-on-one miss and the Hand of Duges.
The Kangaroos really have forgotten how to lose. But it looks like England have almost remembered how to beat us.
More international rugby league please. Thank you.
An ode to lady luck - England miss out again
Think you’re being a bit harsh on Roby – he made 56 tackles so it’s a wonder he could even make it to the play-the-balls by the end.
An ode to lady luck - England miss out again
I thought Duges and Watkins duked it out for best back on the field myself, but Bateman’s lack of ball to Ryan Hall was borderline criminal.
An ode to lady luck - England miss out again
Good move for Mitchell – he’ll get to learn from an Origin-winning half afterall.
Mitchell Pearce to sign $4 million deal with the Newcastle Knights
Robert, I look around Delhi and ask myself “if a league comp started here, where would they play?” I’m still bearing a hand-sized scar on my leg from sliding to stop a boundary in the outfield here six months ago, so no one would have any skin left if they played a full game of league on your average local cow paddock.
Still, if I stick it out here long enough I could be eligible to captain-coach India by RLWC 2025.
Oh, and Leilua and Rapana would absolutely slay the Pro Kabaddi League.
Rugby league's G20 strategy: Who are the next two elite nations?
Surely some Wembley 2013 PTSD kicked in for the English with 3 minutes to play. I was at that game four years ago and never thought I’d see a finish to top it, but there you go!
Wily old Benny has got the team peaking at the right time, and they’ve at least put in a 72-minute performance in so potentially have a full 80 in them.
But I feel like Luke Gale is 0.5 secs off the pace at this level and the Aussie defence will pick off whatever he throws at them unless he finds something extra in interim.
Either way, tournament deserves a cracking finale and this is definitely the match-up to provide it. Can’t wait!
Lady luck finally smiles on England
Luis, welcome aboard!
Cracking game of footy Saturday, probably the best since the Poms-Kiwis classic at Wembley in 2013 which is still the best sporting thing I’ve seen in the flesh. Both ebbed and flowed like the best five-day cricket Tests with all results on the table until the final minute. Just superb.
Whether or not Australian rugby league types will be happy with Origin having a showpiece to rival it elsewhere remains to be seen, but El Clasico isn’t any less important because of Argentina v Brazil so hopefully everyone can be adults about it.
Has been a decent tournament otherwise and the quarters promise plenty of intrigue.
Geez, Wales were bad though. And the ball handling from France and USA was worse than what you’ll see on a wet winter’s afternoon at Henson Park.
We must patch the Pacific-sized hole in international rugby league
This illustration of the 2015-2018 horror show surfaced shortly after I filed this yesterday. Trigger warning for Raiders fans…
We need to talk about Ricky