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Roar Guru
Joined June 2014
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Twitter: @louismcintyre
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Desperate for some league articles that don’t revolve around Latrell Mitchell, I’ve decided to have a go at predicting which teams will jump up into this year’s top eight – and at the expense of who.
It’s clear to all who watched Wednesday night’s Origin opener that NSW lacked attacking structure in their defeat.
The season is essentially over for some NRL clubs, who must now look ahead to 2019 when preparing for their final seven games.
When I first heard that Macklemore had been named as the NRL grand final entertainment, I was a little disappointed. I find his music quite tedious, especially ‘Thrift Shop’ and the song about the moped.
In Round 26, all eight NRL games should be played at the same time. With one match to play, top four and top eight positions are still on the line, as is the wooden spoon, meaning simultaneous games is the fairest way to finish the season.
Manly’s push up the premiership ladder has been unexpected in 2017, even for a Manly fan like myself.
After all the backlash that came from both clubs and fans regarding Monday night football, I am surprised that the solution was a 6pm Friday game.
The St George Illawarra Dragons’ six-million-dollar deal with Ben Hunt is a clear indication of how far behind the eight-ball the team is ahead of the 2017 season.
The success of the Raiders’ season relies solely on the outcome of their game this weekend. Win, move on to the Storm the following week and go into the game with nothing to lose.
Up until this week, I thought Parramatta were unlikely to make the finals this year. The signing of Michael Jennings has changed my opinion.
Martin Taupau from Tigers to Manly, Matt Ballin doing the reverse trip, Tim Lafai to the Dragons, Will Hopoate to the Dogs, Dylan Walker to Manly, Sam Burgess back to the Bunnies. These transfers kept the NRL in the headlines this off-season.
Johnathan Thurston’s position as potentially the game’s greatest ever player all depends on the result this Sunday.
How good was the spectacle of Monday night football between the Bulldogs and Storm at Belmore Oval? What a way to bring life back to what was fast becoming a boring concept.
Daly Cherry-Evans is copping flak about how he is handling his negotiations for next year, but we should all just lay off him – he is not breaking any rules and is just looking out for his best interests.
It looks like it’s a case of another year, same old Warriors. While it is only Round 6, the boys from New Zealand are already showing the indifferent form to which we have become accustomed.
There are several ways the NRL can maximise their crowd potential, the prime being improving crowd numbers for Monday night games.
As a fifteen year old boy in 2005, all I wanted was for my team to play finals footy.
Finally! After years of complaining, my biggest pet peeve in regards to rugby league has been corrected. Sunday arvo football will now be shown live!
As a Manly fan, I am happy with the events of the last week. The Penn buyout to end the boardroom bickering was great news (and unexpected), and now the club can build and move forward.
2014 was a cracking year in rugby league, and wasn’t it a fairytale finish?
The media attention around this has been a farce. Good luck to him in looking for the best offer for his family. The Betoota Advocate has given the best assessment of this issue so far (as per usual) – while Latrell has been helping his community during the devastating drought and fires as well as keeping his nose clean, he has received overwhelmingly negative media attention for the best part of two months.
Find something else to report on.
Leave Latrell alone, he's done nothing wrong
To be fair, Blocker Roach and Wally Lewis are probably more qualified to make these kind of decisions than you or I
Revealing The Roar's NRL team of the decade for the 2010s
Jamie Lyon won Dally M Centre of the year 4 times this last decade. This is compared to 1 from Josh Morris and 0 from Croker and Jennings.
Surely this suggests something?
Revealing The Roar's NRL team of the decade for the 2010s
With your positional rankings, I think I would have centre at the lowest rank in the modern game below Wingers. Wingers role with kick returns, bringing the ball out of their own end and athletic finishes has a lot of impact on a team’s success. Fergo and Sivo’s impact at Parra this year is evidence of that.
In the end getting value for money is the biggest key to success. If you pay a million bucks you need at least a mil worth of impact. Successful teams regularly get more impact out of lower paid players, CNK at the Raiders being 2019’s key example.
Latrell doesn't warrant superstar money
Without going into stats (which could go to prove me wrong) I’ve seen AFB as our key forward the whole year, our win against the Knights in round 5 particularly sticking in my mind.
The top 50 NRL players of 2019: 20-11
As a Manly fan I think Fonua-Blake had a much greater impact than Taupau on our results this year. His ability to play big minutes and come up with big plays made him our key player. His performance in week one of the finals with a largely rookie pack was testament to this. I would swap to twos rankings around.
The top 50 NRL players of 2019: 20-11
I read this morning that grade one careless is a fine and grade 2 150 points (he has no loading). Hopefully it’s a grade one and he’s free to play next week.
Six talking points from Canberra Raiders vs South Sydney Rabbitohs NRL preliminary final
I apologise for the spelling mistake mate. Don’t take my opinion seriously it’s fine by me. Luckily those in charge of the game won’t be taking yours too seriously on this matter either.
Just so you know I think you’ve made some really good contributions to this website, just not this one.
One rule to bind them
Floored from the players perspective (and the rlpa as mentioned above).
Answer me this, would JT13 prefer a ten year ten million dollar contract or a one year 1.2 million dollar contract?
One rule to bind them
I see why you are disgruntled by the current trend but this idea is extremely floored. Watch all the players flock to union where they can secure multi year deals that secure their futures.
One rule to bind them
Great article! I’m very jealous I didn’t think of it.
For me it was 1998 and sitting in the stands at North Sydney oval with my Pop. He always hated that I became a Manly fan after the failed merger, but he as the man who sold the game of rugby league to me.
What made you fall in love with rugby league?
While the title made me laugh (both for being super corny and for a suggestion that seemed ridiculous), you have actually made some well supported claims. Despite this, Cook has enough runs on the board to keep his rep jerseys.
You would imagine Freddy will be loyal to the players that won him the series last year and it will take an injury or off field incident for Cook to lose his spot.
Cooked Cook, McInnes Masterchef: Why Cook’s Origin jersey should be given to crafty Cameron
You’re looking way too into it. The nicknames in my friendship group are mostly name related, maybe more an indication of current society than anything else.
Regardless of this, if i said Turbo, Jurbo, LeiPana you would know what players (or pair of players) I was referring to.
NRL: The end of contracts, and of characters
Disagree with this one as a send off is too harsh. I think the NRL have put appropriate measures in place and as mentioned above, there are bigger problems to look at.
Possibly adding two minutes to a players sin bin if they are deemed to be taking too long would be sufficient. Referees would be unlikely to want to implement the send off and then would be crucified by the fans and media if they did choose to use it.
Fines and suspensions won't be enough to fix the sin bin mess
Going by the most recent origin game, yeah he is in the run on team. He started at lock.
Irregardless, I think he meant in the future not necessarily 2019.
Des Hasler, Ben Barba and Quade Cooper give this week a good sporting feel
Geez mate, it’s a positive news article about the spirt you’re supposed to love. Go read the online articles at the telegraph. They are more up your alley.
Des Hasler, Ben Barba and Quade Cooper give this week a good sporting feel
The team will be fine once culture is restored. 2018 saw us on a hiding to nothing and we can’t possibly have another horror year like that. The irony is that in all our dominance over the last decade, this year is the first time I can recall us having 3 players in the Australian 17.
How Manly hit Eagle rock bottom
Over the last few years I have noticed the influx of my friends in their 20’s (particularly females) joining AFL teams in Sydney. Moving to London this year has also seen me notice a healthy AFL competition proving to be popular with the Aussie (and even Kiwi) expats.
Our game has such stiff competition that it astounds me that those who apparently love the game try so hard to bring it down. At university I had dreams of being a sports journalist, focusing on Rugby League, that’s why I try to write for the roar when I can. That dream has slowly died over the years as I would hate to be loathed by the players I love.
2018: The year rugby league turned on Buzz Rothfield
Totally disagree, and comparing league to European football is a waste of time. They have massive rosters, play 9 months of the year and have multiple games some weeks. Players can play more than 50 games a season with cups and internationals. Apples and oranges when compared to other sports.
It’s like saying the lowest score wins in golf so eagle should adopt that rule.
Six sells as NRL finals looms
How can you have no second chances in a 6 team finals system? You would end up with three teams in week 2. Unless teams 1 and 2 have a bye for week one, then there would still be an incentive to finish top.
Regardless the TV networks wouldnt go for 5 weeks less in the season and 1 in the finals
Six sells as NRL finals looms
Going to be in the crowd this weekend at Wembley, but I am a bit sceptical on how many others will be joining me in such a large stadium. Hopefully London make it through the super 8 qualifiers to attract aussie expats to jump on board top flight league in the U.K.
English rugby league grapples at Wembley with the impact of expansion
I think Cust, Docker-Clay and Croker all have merits to be in the 17. I presume Des will give them all a shot in the trials and then pick the best two for round 1. Will certainly be a shared job in 2020.
Also, when did Cust play for Avalon? I thought he was Scone born until coming to play for Manly’s 20s.
Fainu uncertainty should compel Sea Eagles to trust in Cust