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Back in 2003, I was a butter-fingered winger for the Newcastle representative touch football team. Playing in the link position (one in from the wingers) for the crazily dominant Western Suburbs team was a livewire Australian representative who had recently made his NRL debut in Benji Marshall.
This is the second article proposing how to improve the NRL fixture and scheduling.
The NRL draw is inherently unfair, with not all teams meeting one another on a home-and-away basis.
Despite the rollout of vaccines, bubbles and quarantines will continue to be unavoidable in the sporting world for the foreseeable future.
In this final edition of Super League Revisited, the last ‘what ifs’ concern the NRL’s 14-team rationalisation.
This week’s edition focuses on the warring competitions’ fight to recruit clubs and establish themselves.
In this final sequence of the look back on the Super League era looking at the events of the period and their consequences, I want to look at what didn’t happen, and how things may have changed. This week, the focus is on the early days of the war.
This edition is a re-look at the years affected by the war. Apologies if some details, like finals formats, seem like data dumps, but they help give context to the surrounding events.
Part 5 of this Super League series is the second half of the A-Z focus on select players and other stakeholders.
This look back on the Super League conflict, in true 2020 style, went on an unscheduled hiatus but is now going to run its course without any weeks off.
After looking at the clubs that defected to Super League and those that remained loyal to the ARL, this time, I want to review the fates and fortunes of the representative teams as well as Super League’s World Club Championship.
Following Part 1, which focused on the clubs aligned to the Super League, I’m now going to look back on the ARL and their clubs, including the joint ventures that followed the Super League war.
Due to COVID-19, the 25th anniversary of the last great disruption to the game – the Super League war – has passed with little comment.
Michael Lamonato penned a recent article about the excessive Formula One schedule.
On the week before the AFL finals six teams must travel interstate for their clashes. Facing a potential elimination match the following week against an opponent who may have had a much more restful preparation, it is an unfair situation that must be rectified.
I have no idea why they abandoned that experiment.
Muddled in the middle: Australia’s biggest World Cup hurdle
Aside from Maxwell, who would you back to find the rope from ball one if coming in with less than two overs remaining? I’d say Warner, with Wade opening instead. Obviously, though, selectors didn’t bother to experiment over the last few years. Such an idea might fail, but it’s so disappointing that it wasn’t even tried out.
Muddled in the middle: Australia’s biggest World Cup hurdle
I guess that means he’s auditioning for a role with Rugby Australia.
Latest Aussie cricket selector announced
Dodemaide’s got an impressive resume, but how relevant is his experience to selecting a cricket team?
Latest Aussie cricket selector announced
Do you know if the Warriors typically pick up members mid-season? If not, that’s a troubling drop.
'One of the game's heartlands': Matty Johns' surprising pick for 18th NRL team
If I were Bangladesh, I’d try to finish second in the qualifiers to be in group A and have a better chance of making the semi finals.
What to expect from cricket's first desert T20 World Cup
With India desperate to play as many games as possible for TV revenue, I’m surprised they don’t include all the qualifier teams in the main draw.
What to expect from cricket's first desert T20 World Cup
I think they decided whether or not to hate one another based on if their jerseys matched that game or not.
Rugby league’s fraught history of expansion: A fashion perspective
Someone who probably earns more in a year than the rest of us earn in a lifetime.
On a side note, in that series, Paul Harragon wore the 8 jersey with Mark Carroll in the 10. Spud is meant to wear the 8 and Chief the 10. I don’t know why that bothers me, but it does.
Rugby league’s fraught history of expansion: A fashion perspective
That could put someone off their game, admittedly
'Let's keep it respectable': Jimmy Anderson unimpressed with 'war of words' leading into Ashes series
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Kinda looks like ‘touch wood’
The hardest job in cricket: meet the bowlers set to take the T20 World Cup by storm
Do it with the Friday 6pm game that no one can get off work in time for. If a town was only hosting one game a year, they could put on a half-day holiday.
Grow the Game Round: How the NRL can take top-grade footy to untapped areas
As if a jug of moonshine is going to remain full.
In some towns, the locals drink straight from the bottle. In others, they can’t go without ice…
Grow the Game Round: How the NRL can take top-grade footy to untapped areas
If north of Wyong is banjo country, then what does that make Wyong itself? Blowing into a jug country?
Grow the Game Round: How the NRL can take top-grade footy to untapped areas
There are simply too many races in too few weeks at the end of the season. Crews will be making potentially catastrophic mistakes out of fatigue.
Melbourne finds new place in 23-race F1 roster
North of Wyong starts to turn into Knights fandom.
Grow the Game Round: How the NRL can take top-grade footy to untapped areas
“…the PIF will go further and throw their hate into the realm…” Most accurate typo ever.
A new era for Newcastle United
I like the idea on having consistentcy, but what about the areas that miss out, like Dubbo, Coffs Harbour, Mt Isa, etc? They’d surely want more rotation of venues.
Grow the Game Round: How the NRL can take top-grade footy to untapped areas
Michael Gordon was the goalkicking winger. Kevin Gordon was the fast winger.
The club stalwarts: Canterbury and Gold Coast
But we are talking about the end of 1998, and, as you suggested, good luck trawling through web pages to verify anything from back then!
What's in a name like the Dolphins?
I remember with all the joint venture proposals at the time, the idea was one team would provide the location and the other would provide the mascot (such as Parramatta Tigers). The problem with the Dragons and Steelers was that ‘St George’ and ‘Dragons’ worked in tandem (like Newcastle Knights). There was a lot of talk about the St George Steel Dragons as a result, to include something about Illawarra. Their eventual name was a lot better. I imagine commentators mostly used Steel Dragon references because it was topical and because it was still shorter than St George Illawarra, and they wanted to acknowledge the new combination.
I remember a lot of joke proposals for Manly and Norths to be the Beagles.
What's in a name like the Dolphins?
But making it to the top level doesn’t necessarily mean you’d make a good selector. Imagine if Warne had the job.
Latest Aussie cricket selector announced