The Roar
The Roar

The Roar

Nico

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Joined April 2019

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Didn’t say that it wasn’t, only trade off is that the game is turning its back on an opportunity to spread its wings

The 17th NRL team? There’s only one answer

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2w

Interesting to see how insular expansion in both the NRL and Super League has become. After a few decades of spreading the wings of the game by adding teams in expansion territories such as Melbourne, Auckland, Perth, Townsville, Toronto and Southern France, the ESL has just added yet another team on the M62 with Leigh Centurions, while the NRL is looking to add to its safe territory of SE Qld. Not saying it’s a good or bad thing, but an interesting development in rugby league expansion. Curiously the junior partner, the ESL with arguably more at stake copped some criticism for taking the safer vanilla option to swap Toronto for Leigh, whereas the NRL’s decision seems to get a lot of backing because it looks a safe bet to generate more TV coin

The 17th NRL team? There’s only one answer

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2w

John I vaguely remembered this story too, his name was Kerry Gibson, he played lower grades for Wests in the 80s but never cracked first grade before heading over to England where he played for Runcorn

The forgotten players: Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks

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2w

Have to agree Gray-Hand and I’d also argue ongoing attitude issues stemming from the coaching mess in ’18/19 played a major part too. The wheels were already well and truly falling off throughout 2019 with a number of thumping defeats where they just didn’t turn up switched on to play. There’s too much talent there on paper for them to be competing for successive spoons and outside of recruiting Cam Smith I don’t see the Broncos turning these things around much just by going on a signing spree, which simply isn’t in the club’s DNA anyway

The Broncos have one hand on the 2021 wooden spoon

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3w

Dale Shearer had a brief stint for the Cows which would make him just about the only player to have played for 4 different Qld clubs

The forgotten players: North Queensland Cowboys

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4w

Mark Tookey hands down my favourite Crushers player

The forgotten players: South Queensland Crushers

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Dec

😂

Two-point field goal included in new NRL rules

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Dec

Not up on Farah’s shenanigans but seem to remember the rule had been booted before his time. Fittler scored a contentious try by playing the ball forward from 2 metres out in the ’96 finals which makes me think it would be a decent rule so long as it can’t be done inside the attacking 10m

Two-point field goal included in new NRL rules

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Dec

Can anyone explain why they got rid of the rule where you could play the ball forward to yourself if there was no marker? To me that would have been a pretty good way to speed up the game

Two-point field goal included in new NRL rules

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League
 
Dec

I think you’re on to something with the TV deal, the SL rights deal is up for negotiation within the next year which could help to explain the timing of this

NRL in talks about buying stake in Super League

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Dec

Sounds like Hawthorn have done pretty well out of it, apparently they’re getting $4m a year for playing there. Clearly a Tas deal isn’t viable for an NRL club but a regional spot such as Darwin, Cairns or even Pt Moresby could be

'Tis the season to be silly: Let's talk NRL expansion

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Dec

I think the pandemic’s shown us how little geographic location really counts and what’s really important is how much money can be generated through TV broadcast deals. If you want to grow the game, I would argue (and without any research or figures to back this up) that the AFL have the right model with teams like Hawthorn playing a handful of games in Tasmania each year to build a support base in the local community – much less painful for fans, some decent money from the state government, and doesn’t become a money pit once the team starts underperforming and fickle fans decide to stay at home after the 2nd season

'Tis the season to be silly: Let's talk NRL expansion

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Dec

Shaun Wane’s policy is a reaction to the diabolical GB tour last year, his selection policy could have some merit but (and I say this as a Qlder) it’s certainly worked for Qld picking players not born in the state. I guess the difference though is whether the players really ‘get’ what it means to represent their side. In saying that I think Wane would be pretty foolhardy not to pick Hastings but that looks like the way he’s going with his latest squad announcement. There’s much more more depth for the Exiles in the backs than forwards (in saying that I’d certainly put Martin in at NRL level), England seems to be better at producing those themselves and backs are arguably more exciting from a recruitment standpoint, the bigger issue for me is the lack of Northern Hemisphere talent outside of England, I’ve got one player in the whole squad (could have had Welshman Regan Grace at a pinch, it was a coin toss between him and Naiqama)

How will the Exiles shape up in 2021?

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Dec

Saddest thing about GC Chargers was that they were actually one of the few clubs not in debt when the got axed at the end of ’98

The forgotten players: Western Reds

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Dec

Seem to remember Reds had run up not insignificant losses because they had to pay travel costs for visiting teams

The forgotten players: Western Reds

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Dec

Very true

Roosters officially poach Suaalii from Souths

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Dec

Does anyone know if the Easts contract will have the get-out clauses he was asking from Souths should rah-rah come knocking?

Roosters officially poach Suaalii from Souths

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Dec

Loved seeing how much it meant to him after the match, so much passion

James Graham gets his storybook ending as St Helens claims the Super League title

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Nov

Kristian Woolf would have to be well and truly in the mix the next time that the NRL coaching merry-go-round inevitably gets up and running, he now boasts a successful track record with Tonga and St Helens

James Graham gets his storybook ending as St Helens claims the Super League title

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Nov

Was a classic grand final, who said high-scoring means entertaining? Feel for Bevan French, he was actually pretty solid without being spectacular for 79 minutes, just got an unlucky bounce and the rest is history

Graham gets fairytale in Super League grand final

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Nov

I get that the salary cap has somewhat failed in creating an even playing field but isn’t it also there to stop clubs from spending themselves into oblivion? I would have thought that the marquee player system at least allows for some of the wealthier clubs to loosen the purse strings a bit for a major purchase

Here's how to save rugby league in England

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Nov

Maybe someone with more knowledge of the game from an admin point of view could comment on this but I could see plenty of benefits in having a player trade system running between the NRL and ESL. I watched an interview with Aiden Sezer who was saying his move to Huddersfield had rekindled his love for the game being away from the fishbowl of the oz sports world and I reckon having a id-season stint in the ESL would be perfect for a player down on confidence such as Anthony Milford, who would also get bums on seats, while you could get younger ESL players more easily through an NRL club’s system and get more of a chance to run shoulders with the best in the game

Here's how to save rugby league in England

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Nov

Don’t change the competition structure, I reckon the ESL actually has it pretty spot on with 12 teams and promotion/relegation. The biggest issue is getting some publicity behind it. And decent publicity that actually focuses on the football, not just the controversies. So far this year the biggest stories from the ESL have centered around SBW, Folau and Joel Tomkins for his Hopoate tribute, but you’d be hard-pressed to find any sort of preview to Friday’s gf on any of the major sports sites. Unfortunately the 97 WCC did some serious lasting damage to the ESL in terms of Australian publicity by making it look like a Mickey Mouse competition and I don’t think that view has ever escaped the majority of Australia’s league fans. Outside Oz it seems the ESL has gone backwards, I remember back in the naughtiest you could actually get ESL on FTA via the BBC (in the Netherlands I might add). Where is that now?

Here's how to save rugby league in England

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League
 
Nov

Intentionally or not (I prefer to think it’s the former), NSW never lacks creativity in giving Queenslanders motivation to beat them for years to come. We’ve already got 80 years of interstate beatings, then add on top NSW clubs only releasing NSW players to prepare for the ’82 series, The King getting booed on his test captaincy debut in Sydney, Fearnley dropping 4 Qlders from the 85 test squad, NSW antics after the 2000 Bluewash, Justin Poore’s dog act and more recently Gallen labeling this side the worst ever (actually just Paul Gallen in general), even if Qld won the next 10 series Queenslanders would probably never tire of sticking it to NSW

NSW relapses: We don't understand Origin again

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Nov

I think Nat might have been referring to Joel Tomkins who attempted the John Hopoate impersonation. Sam Tomkins has been in fine touch all season

English Super League semi-finals preview

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Nov
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