And it must have been such a temptation for Johns. Sitting there on the bench so close to all the long white lines…….

G’day, Outside. Good read. i hope it is the first of many. Mal was that good. I also remember the 94 grand final against the Dogs where he did a few special things. He had a fend of an era.

I remember seeing Mal on a stand at a builder’s convention doing PR in what must have been late early 2006. We’d been beaten in origin the years previous and knives were out for him and plenty of players. I asked him something along the lines of “Are we going to win this year, Mal?” almost dejectedly.
He just smiled, gave a bit of a wink and a grin and said nothing. Little did he and I know at that point what would transpire over the next decade.

Champion player.

Are you suggesting that a company the size of the fox corporation is on the same footing as the ABC, for instance both in magnitude or in journalistic integrity?

We are in a democracy where media is mostly owned by conglomerates that force feeds any person who has any tv or press or internet viewing access.
I don’t suggest for a moment that Fox’s agenda is built on ratings. They create the ratings. It was just demonstrated in a civil US case that Fox’s US parent company was prepared to lie about the the US election for their own agenda. Is that democracy? Is that Fox listening to the people and giving them what they ask for?

No, it is creating fever and angry mob mentality and then building on and perpetuating dishonesty for their own gain.

And ask Jack DeBelin about one of the main media protagonists was who kept DeBelin’s name front and centre. Fox and its ilk trade on gossip and opinion and people like DeBelin are their bread and butter for ratings.
Fox’s NRL 360 is built on opinion. Why are you comfortable with them doing so?

We will know a lot more after Broncos play Warriors and Sharks away. broncos came out in the game last night looking sharp. Their backline moves to the right had a real slickness about them.

But once their defenses got busted, they seemed to go into scramble mode more often than not. The broncs should be proud of their scramble / second phase defense. But it gave the impression at times last night that that second phase was their default defense. Penrith had a bit to do with that, though. But Brisbane never really reset their D as often as the should. They looked rattled and started scrambling.

A lot more ball is being dropped by Brisbane and I am now really starting to wonder that with a lot more decisions falling against Walsh in recent weeks, how is going to handles this. Every young star who has had a stellar period has gone through this type of thing. Will the drops, the penalties and the like affect him in a positive or not so positive way? I’m mentioned Walsh, but there are a few more players in that category.

Broncos can take a lot of good out of this game. Capewell and Sullivan had some exceptional moments. There were plenty of disallowed tries from both sides so the creativeness is still there. But How will Broncs regroup after their place in the pecking order has been reinforced with these losses?

Thank you for the article, Mary. There is a lot to unpack based on the many issues you raise. First is violence against women. The second is the alleged incident and as that is before the courts. Another is the way that the general press and Fox have covered this story.

The accused has made a career over several years at Fox being a large part of a show that runs multiple nights per week and requires regular content that allows the accused to get angry and rile up the viewers. That content needs to come from somewhere. So if it is a slow news week, issues about player’s personal lives may need to be teased out and inflamed so that it can pad out the show and create a news article the next morning in other press.

What is said on the accused’s show becomes a story for newspapers simply by the rehashing and quoting what the accused and other guests have said previously. There is no journalistic integrity on the part of the press to do their own research to fact check the show in question’s opinion or rumour based claims. It is just lazy transcribing with additional filler.

The parent station in the US actively aims for opinion based controversy and demands opinion presenters create partisan scandels even when they know that what is being promoted is based on untruths (Dominion V Fox).

As a result of needing to create content for each episode, players clubs and staff are scrutinised and pushed into the limelight for any indiscretion whether confirmed or otherwise and often the “story” is massaged to become a larger issue that is warranted by letting the accused rant angrily about it.

Some players are speaking out that they are not happy about this opinion based show and its presenters as you have highlighted, Mary. But the thing is that players want more money. to get more money the NRL need to sell the rights to broadcasters and “news” corporations like the accused employer(s). To make the deal viable the NRL needs to forego control of the game programming schedule and the narrative for large parts of the actual game and leave that to the broadcasters. The power of the broadcasters to set agendas and opinions and rumour to create controversy is required to seal advertising and that in turn affects the privacy of the players. And therein is the viscous circle.

We also have player managers and club officials working for the shows of said broadcasters who have a biased view to push their own agendas such as promoting their own team, disparaging opposition teams, promoting power of the player managers to influence their contracted players all on a national level. It stinks of cronyism. None of this is good for the promotion of the game. It is a cesspit of partisan agendas created to make a few very wealthy at the expense of the game, the players, the clubs and the fans.

NRL allowed this to be created by selling their soul to broadcasters quite some time ago. And without a real hard discussion about how this can be reeled back in at the next broadcast contract, this will ruin the game many of us love.

Nat, just heard news that Josh Papalii has retired from rep football immediately. So that solves that question.

Big Papa deserves to be up there with the the other toiling loyal servants of the Qld team. He had some games where he took absolute control of the game and dominated. Rarely was he out-muscled by the opposition.

All the best to Papa.

Either way, origin 1 2023 is probably *not* the place to find out right now when there is a wealth of experienced talent in the Qld backline.

As a Qlder, I would have Turbo as my first pick for NSW.

Fair call on Coates, Nat. I’ve not seen much of him this season but in the few games I did, he was looking elusive away from the try line. Does Cobbo deserve a spot more than Coates? And they are both right wing. Hammer is comfortable down the left. And fair call on Hammer. He is on song.

Papa could put in the minutes and do a job for sure. But why did Slater use him so sparingly last year? If Papa is going to get the same minutes this year, Qld might as well just play with 16 men.

Welsh if fit should be there. He and Capewell put in effort after effort and that is what is needed.

Ponga deservers his shot at the back again. If there weren’t plenty of cover for fullback in the team should Ponga get injured, then he might not be such an easy choice.
Having Grant on the bench and Hunt starting, it means that the whole back line of Qld is covered against injury in key positions.

Gagai deserves to play game 1 but he needs to know he is on notice from here on in. There is just too much talent behind him should he falter.

Cobbo, would no doubt get the job done but to me he is a bit of a potential weak link. This time last year he was unstoppable and playing with massive confidence. But since then, the ball hasn’t always bounced his way and there have been handling errors starting to creep in. And with that comes self doubt. He just doesn’t seem as confident this season and is a little out of step even though his efforts are still there.

Likewise with Reece Walsh. There have been just a few more errors sneaking into his game lately. Earlier this year, he had the ball on a string and he was holding on to everything. If that ball was anywhere in striking distance, it was plucking it from the air or millimetres from the grass often with just fingertips and getting around his man.
But those once effortless pickups are starting to hit the turf a bit more often. It will be interesting to see if this affects his extreme confidence that made his game so exciting to watch in earlier rounds. Will he back off a little and play the percentages or will he push on with the flamboyant style and just accept that sometimes there will be errors?
Either way, origin 1 2023 is probably the the place to find out right now when there is a wealth of experienced talent in the Qld backline.

Is that the beer sold at the security side entrance to T3 in Melbourne?

as a Qlder, I want Turbo there.

Turbo is injured the state he is in now, he wouldn’t have outrun Darius Boyd in Boyd’s last seasons at the Broncos. And that is saying something.

Some I’ll concidered decisions by a club already being bashed multiple times daily by the press is getting hung out to dry by the likes of Paul Kent and his mob of sensationalist commentators.

Let’s not forget that the Tigers actually openly embrace the idea of supporting armed forces. The implimentation went astray and no they have made more poor decisions because of the irrational amount of stress placed on them from the press.

Seriously, this whole 24 news cycle in NRL will forever change this game. Fox needs issues and drama 7 days a week to feed its NRL360 show. If there is no problem, then one is created. If there is a minor incident, it is escalated.

It is repugnant.

You may be referring to someone else. I didn’t mention any painkillers.

After reading this, thoughts go back to Andrew Gee in SOO with a 90 degree finger dislocation. He just grabbed on his own finger, pulled it until it got back I to shape and played on. “Nothing to see here” attitude.

Tough game, tough players.

Have the players ever purchased or been associated with Adidas or Ford or Kelloggs for that matter?
Read a little about Adidas and its owners. That is enough to make your skin crawl. But Adidas’s major nastiness was a few generations before Lang made his repugnant statements

So it makes me wonder where is the cut off point for disgusting attitudes in commerce to be left to history?

The player felt uncomfortable you say. Was she still comfortable taking salary? Because you can be assured that a fair proportion of her salary would have come from 15 million sponsorship dollars.

Did the player feel dirty about earning racist money? Is she still willing to play for free now that she got her wish and had the sponsor removed?

It reads to me that you are suggesting that Gina Rinehart is just a puppet for Lang Hancock’s 40 year old repugnant comments. Are you held responsible for what your parents said 40 years ago? Of course you aren’t.

Rinehart sponsors numerous indigenous initiatives and is a great employer of indigenous people.

With rights come responsibilities. The player in question had the right to not wear a uniform that offends her. But the alternative is to forego being in the team that was sponsored by that business.

I also note that there has been nothing in the press about the players willing to play for zero money because they choose to disrespect the sponsor.

No one is stopping these players from playing netball. But if they wish to play at the highest level, they has the responsibility to respect where their pay packets come from.

Missed the game and in hearing the result am totally baffled. Have been concerned for weeks that out 7 is not taking the bull by the horns and getting field position, controlling the tempo of the game the Broncs need to play at and talking.

What has happened in the last 7 weeks? I thought the wheels fell off when Martin wasn’t at fullback. Assumed, quite simply that he was no longer keeping the line arranged and it all fell away.

Seems that wasn’t it or there is more to the story. How can a team that was playing so hard for each other in attack and defense just drop their bundle like this?

Carrigan is a major loss in a lot of departments, but that can’t be the reason.

What has happened?

The issue with Kent is that he needs to create controversy as he needs to maintain content to be angry at 5 nights a week on his TV show. When Ben Ikin compared the show he kept the discussion level and occasionally let Kent carry on before pulling things back into line.

Now it is a free-for-all. You have Kent and a player manager comparing a show that now has noon to rein them in. They need to keep upping the anti and getting more extreme.
Fox Australia is very quickly starting to follow into a right wing style agenda and propoganda machine that is now a cancer in the US society at large.

The NRL needs to step in before it is too late and get some control of how Fox sell our game to the audience at large. In 10 years time, it will be too late to repair what Kent and his ilk are starting down the path of.

A great series that swung dramatically. Qld edged forward in game 1 with the wonderful defense that shut NSW down. Then NSW did their homework in game 2 and never let Qld get acendency. It forced Qld to defend for long periods of time and the result was a gassed out team that leaked points.
I wasn’t comfortable in Qld winning coming into game 3 and thought that we would have some idea after 15 minutes of the first half. But Qld dug deep. I think NSW had 5 or 6 back to back sets in the first half. Qld had every right to not recovered from such a relentless attacking NSW – but they did.

Qld dug deep and finished very strongly. It wasn’t the prettiest game but it certainly was a second half of heart and courage and will. That game will fuel SOO for the next few years at least.

It is hard to understand what is going on with the bench. And agree that seeing Papalii coming back on at 70 minutes after the game had been lost was very confusing. The interchanges really need to be explained to the public.

Fatigue killed Qld in the second half and having a big body sitting on the pine for 60 minutes was truly bizarre.

In the first 20 minutes NSW were getting up in Qld’s face very, very quickly. They must have the quickest 10m sprinters in that team or possibly the ref wasn’t keeping them back 10m.

The match is a result of no possession due to intense NSW defense, possible NSW offside defense, ill discipline, poor positional kicking and sloppy defense from Qld.

It was a dominant display from NSW for sure and congrats to them. But this series is still alive. Qld need to start better. Qld were rushed and bustled early and lost their way and never really recovered. On the few occasions that Qld actually got into NSW territory, they scored or came close to scoring. The game was lost by Qld in the first half and they just didn’t have the juice in the tank for the second half.

Cherry Evan’s kicking game in the second half was disappointing. 30 – 40 m kicks straight to NSW regularly just set up NSW for great kick returns and with Teddy in the form he was in, that was always going to be trouble.

Looking to see Ponga injected in this game. Munster will be a decoy and that will bring Ponga to the fold.
Happy rugby league, everyone