Dale now plays for Carlton

fair enough that souths complain but sam’s mum? it’s nice to know she cares but it reminds me of Marge Simpson” He tripped my boy! I demand vegnance!” He is going to cop some stick (if you’ll pardon the pun) from his mates for mummy sticking (once again, can’t help myself) up for him

cheers for the members numbers, funny thing i tried to look up comparisons on the NRL website, no numbers only how to buy one. i found rd 1 numbers so 8000 (roughly) isn’t to bad

here are the rd 1 numbers
Membership Numbers for Clubs
Rabbitohs – 27,543
Broncos – 22,165
Dragons – 15,615
Knights – 14,456
Eels – 13,675
Bulldogs – 13,035
Storm – 11,813
Roosters – 12,963
Cowboys – 10,536
Sea Eagles – 10,123
Panthers – 8,255
Warriors – 6,679
Sharks – 6,812
Titans – 7,409
Tigers – 6,497
Raiders – 6,698

so its not too bad but still… it does pretty well for a team that doesn’t play
Never said the ground was easy to get to, for me to catch a train from mine to bluetounge( or whatever it will be next year) would take 3 hours or 1.5 from central. it’s a fair hike up the M1 for most sydneysiders.

as for crowds i think having a couple of game a year verses a team permanatly based there makes a huge difference to crowd numbers. look at perth, they get a couple games a year and people turn up, if you know its going to be on again next week you do’t turn up in the rain for a game(personally i like rainy games, shorter queues for beer).

catchment might be bigger than the mountian men but the city clubs have no juniorsor catchment and seem to do ok, geographical area is no longer the main factor for people choosing a side. in m family we have three bunnies, roosters, panthers, eels, storm and not proud to say it a manly fan.

derbies… well just because you have a local rival doesn’t make a great rival cough cough…. Sydneyv GWS…. cough cough. i used to love the Manly/ newcastle games 97 Gf was one of the best games i’ve ever watched

where do you get your figures for memberships sold?what are they actually buying? attendance is a little sketchy as people can come from anywhere, away fans and fans of “local teams” (manly, souths).bums on seats is no guarantee that people will turn up week in and week out. no arguing about catchment size but culture is an intangible. no way to measure correctly. the GC is also heartland but not many turn out for their games, ditto the rifth. a great example was given on a different article about tasmania and AFL. it compaired the two as heartland but the powers that be know it will never move away. as a fan of the firbros my heart goes out to the bears as they copped a raw deal by the NRL and manly (wasn’t that a great merger) but the CC won’t get a team unless some one else relocates

but they didn’t and he did. and while we’re at it if your aunt had balls she’d be your uncle

something i don’t get with the shoulder charge. the players know that they’ll cop flak for doing it , why can’t they at least attempt to put the arm up and make it look like they are trying to tackle. its all about percepiton. put arm up and hit with the shoulder= no shoulder charge. tuck arm in to side of body and lead with shoulder = shoulder charge. not too difficult, is it?

1.Got to love Ch 9 coverage, half an hour of faux human interest about players and their feelings. Who bloody cares? Team line ups and maybe a little analysis (but not more than five minutes) is all thats needed.
2. how hard would it be for the NRL to produce a video rulebook showing a clear and comprehensive breakdown of what the laws of the game mean. then sit all the refs down and make them watch them. no interpretation needed. its all there in HD (if we don’t get Ch 9 to do production, hell me and a couple of mates can do it on the oval behind the pub on a sunday afternoon)
3. Who did GI insult at Nine? SB didn’t play poorly but come ON! he made the chooks look ordinary by himself.
4. Yeah…… If we could just get the Queensland economy to crash, get a massive population shift to NSW, wait for the curen’t just current crop of stars to retire and manage to lure the influx of queenslanders to play for us, we are looking god for a 2-1 series win in 2034.
5.I don’t see why we haven’t just called off the rest of the season and handed the bunnies the miror premiership and GF win.No point delaying. What do you mean its only round one?

Can’t take too much out of the NAB challenge. Preseason form has nothing to do with premiership season

Too right. The NRL needs to nip off field incidents in the bud. Maybe a policy like the NBA with minimum standards expected of players could work. Some people make out that these off field transgressions have nothing to do with their work and we shouldn’t set higher standards for football players but treat them like everyone else. As a former defence force member, standards were expected of us and we were punished for transgressions. An oppo of mine was charged and punished by the civilian courts and then again by the defence force for excessive speeding. He was told by both the judge and CO that better was expected of him because he represents his country. Maybe some of these players who misbehave should get a real job or do volunteer work and see how easy they have it.

as you say on home turf….that is kind of the problem. playing here they really don’t stand a chance. i agree with you that english rugby leauge needs the ARLC’s help as much as possible there really isn’t anything in it for them. Playing over in england after the season ends , it’s just an end of season trip for NRL winners, with a gimmick game thrown in as well. Preseason and you have coaches ( I’m looking at you Mr Bellamy) start whinging anout player wear and tear before the season starts, and sending a weak team, thus making the whole idea of the best against the best moot.

i like the game, i think how it works at the moment is ok but not ground breaking. however moving it around won’t make NRL clubs takeit seriously. If there was big money( And I Mean BIG money) the clubs would pay attention to it

honestly do you think the SL teams could beat the NRL teams at thier peak? Wigan were flattered by the scoreline and as the Chooks coach TR has stated they were underdone. if it’s after the season why would they care?i’d want to have a break as soon as the final whistle sounded from the GF and i think most players would too. if its preseason its a warm up and means nothing as well

as for superbowl winners i count 11 of the fist 16 to the AFC, but it is hard to compare the two asin the NFL both confrences play each other during the season so it’s alittle apples and oranges as NRL teams don’t travel to Engand and play teams there during the season and vice verser. also they play the same rules and have a draft which speads talent fairly( and i use the term loosly….*cough cough * Cleavland Browns) evenly.

it was an ok game, but i wouldn’t say it will live long in the memories of people once the season starts. Wigan were aggressive until jennings crossed and from then on it was a bit of a foregone conclusion. I think it’s an ok game, but it didn’t have a finals type atmosphere. I’m just not sure if it is going to get bigger or at least not until the SL clubs improve. I think anyone of last years top eight could of beaten Wigan. As for this years superbowl, Both AFC and NFC teams have won, there is not such a gulf in talent between both. The NRL is streets ahead of SL and that is why it won’t get bigger. One side has too great an advantage

Look, while I enjoyed this weekends game, like a glass of water to a man dying of thirst, it really was over in the second minute. the feather dusters never really go out of first gear and won confortably. Wigan got a nice end of season trip to Aus and the Roosters got a good trial match. There was not a lot of passion in the game and it looked like some of the Roosters players were looking not to get injured before the compition that really matters to them, the NRL season proper. It’s a nice gimmick match that shows that theARLCunderstands that RL is played outside it’s sphere of influence

1,2,4,5,7
so funny but undeniably true. don’t know wheather to laugh or cry

1.hard to go pasted the dragons for the spoon, aging list, no stars and possibly the worst coach in the NRL, failing that the Titans or Tigers
2.As a NSW fan I’m over feeling hopeful. Maybe this means if we win this year it will be a surprise and that much sweeter. Can’t see it happening though.
3.Sure as hell the Nrl will change what rules they focus on ever two weeks and on the back of a questionable call in SoO Nrl will bring in new rules to outlaw a tackle because it looks bad and a knee jerk reaction looks better in the papers
4.Steve Price at the Drags has to be the first to go, followed closely by Mick
Potter at the tigers and John Cartwright at the titans
5.Dally M, probably to DCE or GI if he doesn’t get rubbed out for two weeks for a stupid tackle toward the end of the season
6.Premiers, hard to see any of the top teams(Chooks, Storm, Manly, Bunnies) falling away to much and their discipline, possession style of play is hard to beat, Cowboys are a bit of a smokie but it will be interesting to see how the go over origin, and the period after
.

Ha

Taylor swift? I wouldn’t admit to that on the internet,

Taylor swift? I wouldn’t admit to that on the internet,

As a blues fan I would love SBW or Sam or anyone else to pull on the blue jumper and pull NSW out of the hole they’ve been in the last eight years( probably nine this year as well) but we can’t. It’s not they way the game works. SOO is between Qld and Nsw and that’s that.

I don’t get why Root is touted as the next big thing in English cricket. Carberry has had a much better tour, looking promising and solid in the Australian conditions. Root on the other hand seems to get flustered and sure, he has had an unlucky time with the DRS, but looks like a petulant school boy throwing his gear around the changerooms.

Hard to argue with Kiwi Stokes. He has looked the goods with bat and ball , probably the only light in a dark test series for England.

As for changes for the last two tests, they’ll bring in the Irishman Rankin to replace Broad for one test. No other changes will be made

while we aspire for competant governance for all football clubs, why can’t the players aspire to have a season whereone of themdon’t go out and do something stupid on the drink. the NRL can aspire to not change the rules creating more confusion as a knee jerk reaction to something that happens at most 3 times a season. channel Nine could aspire to have a positive outlook at all aspects of the NRL and not jump on the first contraversy that pops up. as fans we could aspire to turn up to games at every oppertunity and/ or buy memberships to support clubs, rather than biching about the nine coverage.

as for responsibility i agree. alot has been said about the sharks board , i was just pointing out others are just as shonky. doesn’t make it right.

i understand your point, but dysfuction is not a sharks problem. the wests tigers, parra and manly boards are all basket cases and really should have some one step in and sort them out. i fear integrity might not be as obtainable as you think. scandals have been rolling around with alarming regularty since the War. storm, dogs salary cap breaches, bulldogs shady development deals and match fixing,players acting like twits for the media integrity hasn’t been a major player in the NRL for a while

“it was tough for Fitzroy supporters to see their club merge with Brisbane but in the end they embraced the change” Not all embraced them and some walked away forever. same with the swans, bears, magpies ,jets and the steelers

all well and good to demand some one or the club to take responsiblity. Were mistakes made? Yes, Massive ones. Should heads roll at a board level? without doubt. should the Nrl up stumps and move the sharks to a new market? Personally i can’t see the logic.
with the ARU bringing back the ARC( or whaever they call it) the NRL would give them a massive free hit if they moved the sharks. the ARU could put one of their sydney teams in the shire and pull in all of the juniors from the area

don’t get all the hate for the shark. it’s not like they’ve dominated the comp for years, hell they have never won a premeirship. for all those demanding they be kicked out or relocated a question. would you still be calling for it if it was the Broncos? what about the storm? even the roosters or bunnies? exact same “crime”? the NRL won’t kick them out due to the TV deal, yes i know they can bring in another team or relocate, but why bring in a hastely put together team that isn’t thought through, or move the brand to a market that doesn’t want them?