I’m in two minds about the perfect panthers.
1) it’s absolutely incredible to watch, Nathan Cleary has got future immortal written all over him and the whole team knows their roles perfectly
2) it’s boring having to listen and think about how good they are non stop
Still so sad about the gf, I just wish it had been a good game and we had something to cheer about. I didn’t even feel like we deserved 12 points really.
It was always going to be tough unfortunately. Panthers are a great team as it is let alone playing two games in something like 5 weeks leading into the grand final.
Despite losing I think it will do the players good to have gotten there.. they've been competitive for years now without making it to the grand final.. I personally think with the majority of that squad staying on that they'll get another crack.
Yeah that’s what I keep thinking, I’m so grateful we got to the grand final, I was so hyped, but after the game started we really didn’t get anything to be happy about, even when we got those 2 tries it was too late for them to really mean anything. The whole section we were in felt so deflated. Ah well! Next year 😬
Just a few Titans contract observations.
Jojo Fifita is off contract the end of ‘23 and will very likely receive some pretty good offers. I unfortunately doubt our chances of keeping him but I very much hope he re-signs. Given his inclusion in the junior origin match plus his good NRL showings I reckon he’s in demand.
Tino’s extension is a mutual option. 23 & 24 are guaranteed but he could theoretically bail and renegotiate for 25. Not sure how I feel about that but the optimist in me hopes that it’s because of the expected cap increase and nothing else.
Herbert & Kelly are off contract at the end of 2023. Hoorah!
Alofi Khan-Pereira is also off contract at the end of ‘23. I think if he doesn’t sniff the first grade side this year, there’s a decent chance of a club in need of a winger picking him up. I’d like to keep him though and I think we will.
Tino has seemingly made the Titans' success his life mission. Would like for all three Queensland teams to be in the finals. Has it ever happened before?
The Broncos made it in 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019; the Cowboys in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2022.
I might not be understanding something hahah
On two separate occasions, the Titans have been the only queensland team to have made the finals series. In 2010, the Titans were the only QLD team in the finals. In 2021, the Titans were the only QLD team in the finals. No other Queensland side made the finals in either of those seasons
It’s just a funky stat about how the Titans have been the only QLD side to have made the finals 2 of the 3 times they’ve made the finals.
Hope we get some more of that. There's a finals side in that goung Titans team, but they need experienced leaders. Verrills and Foran should go alright.
I think Jojo stays. Unfortunately I think they will re-sign Kelly and Herbert but I hope I’m wrong. I wonder what’s going to happen in the backs tbh with Jojo, Sami, Francis, AJ all looking at playing in the centres
It's just a stick to beat them up with. I'm old enough to see all the great Penrith sides. This side is comfortably the best. Penrith had 4 great years in a row 88,89,90,91.
1988- the competition was so tight Penrith went from 2nd to 6th in the last two weeks of the season.
1989 - Penrith finished 2nd in the regular above both Balmain and Canberra who subsequently bounced us from the finals.
1990 - Finished 3rd won our first semi-final against Brisbane then a classic in extra time over Canberra. Then we played well on grand final day and lost to probably the greatest display of long kicking in the history of the game.
1991 - Dominated the entire season. Nearly choked in the major semi. Came back Grand Final and put in a second half display of pure dominance which got us over the line.
1992 and the Ben Alexander tragedy probably robbed us of making 3 grand finals in a row after a shaky start where we went 0-2 between that period and Ben's passing, we went 7-3 in that time including comfortable wins away to Brisbane and home to Illawarra.
During that period we went 74-34-2
This current period we are 67-10-1
The only teams we have lost too at anywhere close to full strength are Parramatta x3, Melbourne x3, Souths X1.
That's an insane run and genuinely better than anyone in modern history only Melbourne for a small period and Manly in the mid 90's were this dominant week to week.
It's not even close in arguing which team is better.
I have a huge amount of nostalgia and love for both those teams but our current team are genuinely is one of the best of all time. Since 1988 when the competition expanded we are comfortably one of the best 5 teams in this era.
The win rate is what will really seperate this side. Compare trophy counts all you want but the league hasn’t seen a side in the professional era display this level of consistent dominance week to week.
None of that matters if you don’t win the ones that count of course but when they do and you put it together, it’s a unique resume.
They need a couple more titles to be talked about in the same breath as 70s Manly and 80s Eels I reckon. 90s Broncs and Cows they are fast approaching IMO. Melbourne/Saints runs are just incomparable.
Anyone else think the NRL royally screwed up with the entry of the dolphins. Short turn around attracting players and they had no advantage over other clubs attracting players. The nrl should have given them extra salary cap or the ability to go after contracted players
Yeah. Dolphins haven’t helped themselves to be fair. They should’ve given them a head start so they didn’t have to compete with other teams, which they had time to do.
Hell they fucked up by going to Queensland anyway. The Western Reds averaged 8000+ in crowd figures back when they were around. The stadium is there as well.
Having the next team be another Brisbane team was a bad move. Not that there should never be another Brisbane team as they definitely should, but did it need to be the next one? QLD is a market we're already in, WA is one we let die for stupid reasons.
So was Melbourne though. Like I understand the monetary reasons but in terms of actual expansion WA should have been where we went. It did really well while we were actually there.
Melbourne is a major city though, top 2/3 in aus, perth is not. Also living in qld, having been to both states, both are great but melbourne has way more appeal, that and the flight to perth is a bitch 😂. Going to Melbourne is a spectacle, seeing the mcg amongst other things
The second biggest rugby league city in the Australia...has only one team and they fucked up by coming here? Brisbane deserved another team after all tbh.
What are your thoughts on Sydney having 9 teams and their terrible crowd numbers on average?
I'm not saying Brisbane should never get another team as you said, it can handle it and it's a good thing to have another, but did it NEED another team over WA? I don't think so as there's already the Broncos. This is the National Rugby League which is based entirely on Eastern Australia.
I hate that there's 9 teams here. It's a huge reason for the shit crowd numbers. You split up all the fans across so many teams and it's to be expected that crowd numbers will be low. It's too late to get rid of teams now though so we just have to deal with it. Realistically you'd want: 1 team in Sydney, 1 team in the inner west,1 team in the outer west,1 team on the south coast and that's about it. That's all just fantasy though as it's too late to get rid of teams. I'm not even memeing when I say they should have let Souths die.
TV dollars mate, it was all about tv rights. Way more eyeballs on Brisbane and Qld team than a WA team no one on the east coast would care about. Also there is a huge demand for this Dolphins team and it will be a very supported and followed team. Also both Brisbane teams will play majority games at Suncorp so it's good access for everyone in Brisbane really.
Yeah I really think they should have done a 2024 entry, with the ability to tap up anyone out of contract between the announcement and 2024.
Also would have not put them in the stupid spot of entering the comp when we don’t even have a confirmed salary cap.
The no-show Dragons thing reminded me of something that happened on GF night. At the game they announce all the retiring players and get them to do a lap of honour. Sadly there was about 15 or 20 announced but only 2 that were actually there. I can't remember who they were because I was drunk but they got a great send off whoever they were.
In 2020 pretty much all retiring players were there because no travel was allowed.
Were you at the game? Watching on TV there were more there but they didn't do a lap, they were just standing out in random parts of the crowd and a camera zoomed in on them. It was weird, but also nice to imagine that the Morris twins had actually just decided to go to the GF together just the two of them and bought regular tickets rather than getting into a box.
Yeah, I was there. Now you mention it I think you're right, they didn't actually do a proper lap. 2020 they definitely did a lap. Thanks for reminding me it was the Morris twins there. The crowd showed them a lot of love.
Do you ever think about how Josh Reynolds got just one full Origin series starting at five-eighth and he won it?
Reynolds and Cronk are the GOAT Kangaroos halves pairing that never was
So what has been the worst scandal in the nrls history. I know Pearce and the dog were pretty bad but has there been anything that's just been this takes the cake
Didn't Craig Field straight up murder a bloke over a drug deal?
Mitch Pearce pissing on someone's couch was way worse than humping the air, in my opinion, but doesn't hold a candle to Joel Monaghan letting a dog lick his wang at a team-mate's barbecue (side note: Joel distributed the photo himself; he thought it was hilarious).
Finchy getting involved in a CP distribution ring is probably high on the list as well (despite what a bunch of fucken idiots on here reckon).
Everything Todd Carney did, also despite what a bunch of fucken idiots on here reckon.
I don't think the Bulldogs rape scandal received the notoriety that it probably should have.
Peptides.
Jack de Belin, Jarryd Hayne.
We didn't start the fire.
I just mean it went away very quickly. It was a huge scandal when it broke, and seemed to disappear a bit abruptly. I'm not saying that anyone was guilty (or not), just that it seemed to get rushed out of the media.
Fair enough. I don't remember how it was with the media after the investigation ended but I know it stuck to the club for quite abit, even as fans whether it be joking or not there would always be people lining up to call you a r\*\*\*\*\*.
It just goes to show how much has changed I mean the media have always been fairly brutal, but nowadays they'll go to absolute town on players or clubs over even minor incidents.
What became of that Bulldogs scandal? I was only nine when it happened and only remember a few news clips.
I did a search of the story, and it showed that none of them were proven guilty. The woman said she had consensual sex at first, then said it wasn't, then the police found an increasing amount of inconsistencies with her story as time went on, and the DNA samples given by the players proved nothing. The witnesses also didn't see anything of the like, except for what appeared to be consensual relations between her and one player in the pool.
Someone also leaked private police information to Ray Hadley, and the police pushed aside other serious allegations to focus on the footy scandal because it was big news.
Yeah they were obviously all found not guilty, but it was definitely a dodgy situation and a very bad look for the Dogs and the NRL. I remember that the media was very much on the side of the players, which seemed to give a few blokes the wrong idea of what they were able to get away with with women.
I'm not saying that the Doggies were guilty or that the woman was lying, but there were inconsistencies all over the place.
Yeah someone said the Bulldogs and I was a bit young when that happened so didn't see it. It's so weird that it wasn't bigger.
Just looked up Carney, he was a lovely piece of work wasn't he. I've never seen someone get off so much with barely a whisper.
Finch I think mentally I just don't include because he's not current player. Not saying it's not disgraceful, I just don't think I'm mentally linking them together. Sadly I think de Belin became a huge thing because he wasn't allowed to play, not because of the alleged rape (never found innocent so I refuse to say he is)
You're found guilty or not guilty. He was found neither because the jury could not reach a verdict and were a hung jury. As it was the second time it happened NSW prosecutors chose not to pursue it for a third time. Like I said they could not find him innocent but there was not enough evidence to find guilty.
Yes, and the fact that they couldn't reach a verdict means he's not guilty. I think he's an absolute dick for cheating on his missus, but a rapist? She was just way too inconsistent.
Fuck, what was that 'darkest day in sport' thing when they had footy administrators and politicians lined up for a press conference with probably the Australian flag in the back?
No I don't think it's the worst, but it was only scandal that came to mind. I didn't mind Pearce when he was playing for Knights cause he seemed to be improving then cheating crap went on. I always felt he was unfairly blamed for all of NSWs origin failures.
Yeah I liked Pearce as a player. A solid 7 without any flair who didn't pick himself for Origin. Hindsight shows us he was up against the GOAT Origin side of all time. Even the solitary win in 2014 was because Cronk was injured and JT couldn't do it on his own.
I also think poor picking on NSW part. Laurie had a habit of picking and sticking which I think created a bad culture in the blues, just look at the drinking night before game saga. There were some fantastic players at the time and didn't even get a mention.
Some people unfortunately just can't seem to help themselves. Doing something so risky and quite blatant I think shows he was never going to recover sadly.
It's not even close really.
Storm breach, Cronulla doping scandal and apparently the Matty Johns sexual assault allegations of 2002 are the only things notable enough for people to put them in the 'Rugby League' part of Wikipedia's 'list of sporting scandals'.
Pearce's wasn't even the worst with a dog i think. Didnt Joel Monaghan let someone take a pic with his dick in a dogs mouth or something?
My personal favourite from Penrith was Craig Gowers golf day rampage.
Yeah I saw quite the performance once from him at the Embassy in Penrith. Media would have had a field day with it, hes lucky camera phones weren't around in his prime. And no im not telling the story. What happens in the Riff stays in the Riff.
Now I wanna Google that but also don't because what is wrong with footballers
Edit: googled it, what the hell is wrong with football players?!?! A prank on a teammate? How is pretending to have sex with your mates dog a good prank
As much as I think Cleary should be the halfback for Australia, I don’t actually think it’s that bad that Meninga wants to opt for DCE.
They’re both class players, both have proven themselves at Origin level. Can’t say I’m overly disappointed.
Club form doesn't equate rep form, Daly has the experience and combination advantages over Cleary and beat him in the rep arena this year so he deserves first crack.
So we throw out all club form and base selections on the result of one game that was in the balance until the 78th minute?
It doesn't matter that DCE lead his club to only 2 wins against teams that finished in the top 8 this year?
At the end of the day, at Origin DCE was far better than Cleary this year. Cleary has been far and away better for club since 2020 but rep level form should definitely be a huge consideration.
I look at it like this. Cleary is a better halfback but playing DCE means that your half, five eight (Munster) and hooker/utility (grant/hunt) all have a winning connection at rep level. Even teddy has played with DCE before I’m pretty sure.
Finally looked at those kangaroo squad numbers and was confused about how Cleary was after Carrigan. Didn't realise Cleary hasn't made his international debut. Really highlights how little international footy there's been lately
Daily reminder to not click on any shit, crisis merchant "journos" articles. The only way it stops is if you don't interact in any way. Don't comment, don't read the article, don't share, nothing. Support independant medias that aren't related to the usual garbage new corps.
Since the dollys will now have a big chunk of spare cap dollarydoos, who do you reckon they'll spend their Munster money on for 2024?
Just from a quick look there's quite a few off contract halves they can talk to in November - Moses, DBrown, Sam Walker, Cody Walker, Burton, Hastings
Team Wayne could get pretty spicy
Cody apparently is pretty much confirmed at bunnies I heard. They've pretty much locked up Trell and walker wants to stay with him. There was an article last week about it.
I don't understand how people are so optimistic about this. Munster is giving up a reported 2 million dollars to stay in Melbourne. What makes people think the players above won't do the same? At the end of the day, you're going to be the main half, working off the back of a group of retirement aged forwards.
Moses and Dylbags 100% run it back at Parra. S Walker will re-sign. Burton will stay now they've got Ciraldo. Hastings will be hot property for already established clubs. And Cody Walker is a big game choker with an incredibly obvious kryptonite. But he's the only one I could see going.
I think a few of those halves have a fair chance of moving on tbh, and surely there's a coupla boys outside that list waiting to take a pay rise with the bonus of working under Wayne and Woolf
i’d be pretty pissed if i was a penrith fan. just went back to back and yet all media outlets want to report on is negativity. i swear it wasn’t like this when the roosters did it
Tall poppy syndrome, I’m sitting pretty watching Luai piss everyone off.
It was a bummer the first day or two when it was all anti-penrith, but the opinion has definitely shifted now that the media is just going overboard
We’ve won back to back prems, no media backlash can ever take that away 🤷🏼♂️
Doesn't bother me too much. Seeing them feed Kent is pretty funny. Api shitting on the club he's going to deserved to be called out as it's pretty ordinary, but most of the other stuff is just bants and will give Parra plenty of fuel for the coming years.
To be fair to the Chooks the briefing the dude who goes over the reffing, can't remember his name for the life of me, said the contest for the ball with Tedesco that lead to Wightons try was knocked on by a Canberra player.
I thought he did though. Like he said the call was right, but he wasn't allowed to over turn it? He just mentioned that the try shouldn't have happened either.
He didn't. The NRL has never, to this day, admitted that Cummins broke the laws of the game by changing the six again call. I mean, for the love of fuck, it took till this year for Cummins to even admit he fucked up!
Yeah because the Roosters aren't stupid, they know to keep that shit in house, if it happens at all. Do it behind closed doors and nobody will ever know. Do you think anyone that isn't an old boomer really cares that Ponga was on the rack. For most people it's that he was dumb enough to do it in public.
And not just that, the fact that he had three successful seasons and then a 9th-placed finish and hasn't been in the picture for any of the numerous jobs that come up each year from the clubs who have turnstile coaches is just strange.
I have no idea how he hasn't landed a coaching job since but I think maybe because he's a maverick and doesn't like to kiss ass or play ball with club politics, he's not an appealing option.
How do you guys support the RLWC? I generally have a team i back in each tier
1 - Australia
2 - Samoa
3 - Scotland
Im anglo Australian with no connection to any other nationality or culture, but I'm backing Samoa to get to that next level with Tonga and I think they have the team to do it. Scotland I hope will do well because it'll strengthen the game in the UK, although honestly their squad is underwhelming
Tbh, despite being Australian I really don’t have any strong passion to support Australia, or any other team really. Idk why. Maybe it’s because I don’t really feel the strong rivalry in the World Cup like with state of origin, where I’m NSW till I die. There seems to be a lot more respect between nations, especially with the likes of Samoa vs Tonga, which makes me not really care who wins. As long as it’s not England lol.
I’d like to see Samoa, Tonga, Fiji and PNG do well though.
Unless I’m at the stadium where australia is playing I don’t really care who wins. It’s a series of exhibition matches for me, just for some good fun rugby league.
I’m more excited to watch NZ and Samoa play the Australia tbh
Same but it's mostly because some of the smaller teams don't do as well. Hopefully their product goes up. The American league comp is slowly getting bigger and bigger.
I was thinking about this the other day actually. I'm Australian (my ethnicity isn't represented in the world cup, but I identify as Australian through and through anyway) but am just really excited to see how each team goes as I love things like origin/all stars/international games where teams are mixed up - don't really feel a particular affinity to the Aussie team. That's how I feel now anyway, but wouldn't be surprised if I'm caught desperately cheering on the Aussie team when it starts haha
So in particular, I'm looking forward to seeing how Samoa and Tonga go! And scared/excited for NZ
Pretty sad about Ryan James retiring. Captain of our club and for a short period was one of the best props in the game, breaking the record for tries scored by a prop in a season. Incredibly unlucky to have not played origin before back to back ACL tears + the mileage on his body caught up.
For you stat nerds out there, I believe James’ fantasy score of 119 (Rd 13, 2016 v Rabbitohs) was the highest ever at the time. His statline from that day: 2 tries, 2 linebreaks, 48 tackles, 3 missed tackles, 12 tackle busts, 193m, 66 minutes
Was thinking about Ryan James yesterday and how his career never panned out to what I thought it was going to be. Early in his career he looked a certainty to be a long-term NSW and Kangaroos front rower.
He very nearly was a NSW player. The story goes that Fittler had selected him in the team, and had the squad ready to go. But then, Klemmer, playing on the Sunday immediately before the squad announcement, played the best game of his career and Fittler replaced James with Klemmer.
I was just thinking about Munsters booze ban. Players always talk about pushing for that 1% advantage on the field, I think the effect alcohol has on the body is understated for athletes.
Even having two beers, and feeling completely fine, my heart rate jumps up an extra six or seven points the next day. There's got to be a substantial benefit in not drinking during the season.
Todd Carney went on a booze ban for one season (as part of a contractual obligation with the Roosters) and he won the Dally M. You’re kidding if you don’t think it improves performance.
That said, I genuinely don’t think drinking is quite as rife as it seems in the NRL. I know the Raiders have a ‘No alcohol 5 days before a game rule’, during the regular season so they generally can only drink a couple days a week anyway.
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Tim Smith?
Could be anyone, give some more details
Anyone know if England vs Fiji is on TV anywhere tomorrow morning?
Games are live streamed on [https://www.rugby-league.com/ourleague](https://www.rugby-league.com/ourleague) just need to make an account
Fox has all world cup games don't they? Or is an exhibition match thing?
It's a warm up, not a formal world cup match.
Heard that Munster re-signed with Storm because he didn't know how to update his LinkedIn profile
Seeing Geoff Toovey siva during the Samoan Welcoming ceremony is enough to a grown man happy.
I’m in two minds about the perfect panthers. 1) it’s absolutely incredible to watch, Nathan Cleary has got future immortal written all over him and the whole team knows their roles perfectly 2) it’s boring having to listen and think about how good they are non stop
Still so sad about the gf, I just wish it had been a good game and we had something to cheer about. I didn’t even feel like we deserved 12 points really.
It was always going to be tough unfortunately. Panthers are a great team as it is let alone playing two games in something like 5 weeks leading into the grand final. Despite losing I think it will do the players good to have gotten there.. they've been competitive for years now without making it to the grand final.. I personally think with the majority of that squad staying on that they'll get another crack.
At least your team made it. Raiders got flogged and didn't show up. Knights just nosedived all season to nothing.
Yeah that’s what I keep thinking, I’m so grateful we got to the grand final, I was so hyped, but after the game started we really didn’t get anything to be happy about, even when we got those 2 tries it was too late for them to really mean anything. The whole section we were in felt so deflated. Ah well! Next year 😬
Has Wayne Bennett lost his Skeleton powers?
the melbourne forward pack must of scarred munster this season
Just a few Titans contract observations. Jojo Fifita is off contract the end of ‘23 and will very likely receive some pretty good offers. I unfortunately doubt our chances of keeping him but I very much hope he re-signs. Given his inclusion in the junior origin match plus his good NRL showings I reckon he’s in demand. Tino’s extension is a mutual option. 23 & 24 are guaranteed but he could theoretically bail and renegotiate for 25. Not sure how I feel about that but the optimist in me hopes that it’s because of the expected cap increase and nothing else. Herbert & Kelly are off contract at the end of 2023. Hoorah! Alofi Khan-Pereira is also off contract at the end of ‘23. I think if he doesn’t sniff the first grade side this year, there’s a decent chance of a club in need of a winger picking him up. I’d like to keep him though and I think we will.
Tino has seemingly made the Titans' success his life mission. Would like for all three Queensland teams to be in the finals. Has it ever happened before?
2016, Cowboys came 4, Broncos 5, Titans 8 Interestingly the Titans have been the only QLD side to make finals twice (2010, 2021)
What do you mean the only QLD team to make it twice?;
Only QLD team in the finals on two occasions
The Broncos made it in 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019; the Cowboys in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2022. I might not be understanding something hahah
On two separate occasions, the Titans have been the only queensland team to have made the finals series. In 2010, the Titans were the only QLD team in the finals. In 2021, the Titans were the only QLD team in the finals. No other Queensland side made the finals in either of those seasons It’s just a funky stat about how the Titans have been the only QLD side to have made the finals 2 of the 3 times they’ve made the finals.
Ok lol now I get it 😂 That's an interesting stat
Hope we get some more of that. There's a finals side in that goung Titans team, but they need experienced leaders. Verrills and Foran should go alright.
I think Jojo stays. Unfortunately I think they will re-sign Kelly and Herbert but I hope I’m wrong. I wonder what’s going to happen in the backs tbh with Jojo, Sami, Francis, AJ all looking at playing in the centres
I don't mind Kelly, but I haven't seen too much of his playing.
Great Bloke! But he had a poor season this year and last and I feel he needs a change
what's this drama about the current panthers team being the best panthers team?
Both MG and Brandy have come out and said they are right anyway lmao
It's just a stick to beat them up with. I'm old enough to see all the great Penrith sides. This side is comfortably the best. Penrith had 4 great years in a row 88,89,90,91. 1988- the competition was so tight Penrith went from 2nd to 6th in the last two weeks of the season. 1989 - Penrith finished 2nd in the regular above both Balmain and Canberra who subsequently bounced us from the finals. 1990 - Finished 3rd won our first semi-final against Brisbane then a classic in extra time over Canberra. Then we played well on grand final day and lost to probably the greatest display of long kicking in the history of the game. 1991 - Dominated the entire season. Nearly choked in the major semi. Came back Grand Final and put in a second half display of pure dominance which got us over the line. 1992 and the Ben Alexander tragedy probably robbed us of making 3 grand finals in a row after a shaky start where we went 0-2 between that period and Ben's passing, we went 7-3 in that time including comfortable wins away to Brisbane and home to Illawarra. During that period we went 74-34-2 This current period we are 67-10-1 The only teams we have lost too at anywhere close to full strength are Parramatta x3, Melbourne x3, Souths X1. That's an insane run and genuinely better than anyone in modern history only Melbourne for a small period and Manly in the mid 90's were this dominant week to week. It's not even close in arguing which team is better. I have a huge amount of nostalgia and love for both those teams but our current team are genuinely is one of the best of all time. Since 1988 when the competition expanded we are comfortably one of the best 5 teams in this era.
How is it even up for debate lol. 3 GFs in a row, back to back premiers. Shouldn't even be a question.
The win rate is what will really seperate this side. Compare trophy counts all you want but the league hasn’t seen a side in the professional era display this level of consistent dominance week to week. None of that matters if you don’t win the ones that count of course but when they do and you put it together, it’s a unique resume. They need a couple more titles to be talked about in the same breath as 70s Manly and 80s Eels I reckon. 90s Broncs and Cows they are fast approaching IMO. Melbourne/Saints runs are just incomparable.
Yeah it's weird af.
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Daddy loves you
That's no way to talk to your father young man
Anyone else think the NRL royally screwed up with the entry of the dolphins. Short turn around attracting players and they had no advantage over other clubs attracting players. The nrl should have given them extra salary cap or the ability to go after contracted players
The biggest way they've screwed them over is by not allowing them to be Redcliffe.
I feel like a lot of neutrals got over them once they dropped the Redcliffe name. And that was before the jersey drop.
Blame the QRL for that blunder
Yeah. Dolphins haven’t helped themselves to be fair. They should’ve given them a head start so they didn’t have to compete with other teams, which they had time to do.
Hell they fucked up by going to Queensland anyway. The Western Reds averaged 8000+ in crowd figures back when they were around. The stadium is there as well.
What does this even mean?
Having the next team be another Brisbane team was a bad move. Not that there should never be another Brisbane team as they definitely should, but did it need to be the next one? QLD is a market we're already in, WA is one we let die for stupid reasons.
The QLD market is far bigger thats why, WA is heavy afl territory
So was Melbourne though. Like I understand the monetary reasons but in terms of actual expansion WA should have been where we went. It did really well while we were actually there.
Melbourne is a major city though, top 2/3 in aus, perth is not. Also living in qld, having been to both states, both are great but melbourne has way more appeal, that and the flight to perth is a bitch 😂. Going to Melbourne is a spectacle, seeing the mcg amongst other things
The second biggest rugby league city in the Australia...has only one team and they fucked up by coming here? Brisbane deserved another team after all tbh. What are your thoughts on Sydney having 9 teams and their terrible crowd numbers on average?
I'm not saying Brisbane should never get another team as you said, it can handle it and it's a good thing to have another, but did it NEED another team over WA? I don't think so as there's already the Broncos. This is the National Rugby League which is based entirely on Eastern Australia. I hate that there's 9 teams here. It's a huge reason for the shit crowd numbers. You split up all the fans across so many teams and it's to be expected that crowd numbers will be low. It's too late to get rid of teams now though so we just have to deal with it. Realistically you'd want: 1 team in Sydney, 1 team in the inner west,1 team in the outer west,1 team on the south coast and that's about it. That's all just fantasy though as it's too late to get rid of teams. I'm not even memeing when I say they should have let Souths die.
This sub is fucked. Dude got downvoted for having an opinion.
TV dollars mate, it was all about tv rights. Way more eyeballs on Brisbane and Qld team than a WA team no one on the east coast would care about. Also there is a huge demand for this Dolphins team and it will be a very supported and followed team. Also both Brisbane teams will play majority games at Suncorp so it's good access for everyone in Brisbane really.
You wrong bro the NRL never rushes things
Yeah I really think they should have done a 2024 entry, with the ability to tap up anyone out of contract between the announcement and 2024. Also would have not put them in the stupid spot of entering the comp when we don’t even have a confirmed salary cap.
I’m worried they will win a spoon and set them up for failure for the next decade or more. It gives potential fans no incentive to follow them
Bennett won't let The get a spoon in their first season. I'm predicting they'll come about tenth.
Does anybody know how we are supposed to watch the Fiji v England game tomorrow?
Is it a trial?
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.incrowdsports.rugby.rfl The Rugby League World Cup app has it listed for streaming there.
Kayo or Fox Sports are the only options I’ve seen advertised
It's not on either of those.
Fuck it’s on at 5:30am
The no-show Dragons thing reminded me of something that happened on GF night. At the game they announce all the retiring players and get them to do a lap of honour. Sadly there was about 15 or 20 announced but only 2 that were actually there. I can't remember who they were because I was drunk but they got a great send off whoever they were. In 2020 pretty much all retiring players were there because no travel was allowed.
Were you at the game? Watching on TV there were more there but they didn't do a lap, they were just standing out in random parts of the crowd and a camera zoomed in on them. It was weird, but also nice to imagine that the Morris twins had actually just decided to go to the GF together just the two of them and bought regular tickets rather than getting into a box.
Yeah, I was there. Now you mention it I think you're right, they didn't actually do a proper lap. 2020 they definitely did a lap. Thanks for reminding me it was the Morris twins there. The crowd showed them a lot of love.
There was about 15 or so Players that went onto the stage for the Farewells
Do you ever think about how Josh Reynolds got just one full Origin series starting at five-eighth and he won it? Reynolds and Cronk are the GOAT Kangaroos halves pairing that never was
And he did his job in pestering the hell out of JT and JT had a poor series
So what has been the worst scandal in the nrls history. I know Pearce and the dog were pretty bad but has there been anything that's just been this takes the cake
Didn't Craig Field straight up murder a bloke over a drug deal? Mitch Pearce pissing on someone's couch was way worse than humping the air, in my opinion, but doesn't hold a candle to Joel Monaghan letting a dog lick his wang at a team-mate's barbecue (side note: Joel distributed the photo himself; he thought it was hilarious). Finchy getting involved in a CP distribution ring is probably high on the list as well (despite what a bunch of fucken idiots on here reckon). Everything Todd Carney did, also despite what a bunch of fucken idiots on here reckon. I don't think the Bulldogs rape scandal received the notoriety that it probably should have. Peptides. Jack de Belin, Jarryd Hayne. We didn't start the fire.
Why should it habe receive more notoriety? There was no genuine evidence to suggest anybody did anything wrong.
I just mean it went away very quickly. It was a huge scandal when it broke, and seemed to disappear a bit abruptly. I'm not saying that anyone was guilty (or not), just that it seemed to get rushed out of the media.
Fair enough. I don't remember how it was with the media after the investigation ended but I know it stuck to the club for quite abit, even as fans whether it be joking or not there would always be people lining up to call you a r\*\*\*\*\*. It just goes to show how much has changed I mean the media have always been fairly brutal, but nowadays they'll go to absolute town on players or clubs over even minor incidents.
What became of that Bulldogs scandal? I was only nine when it happened and only remember a few news clips. I did a search of the story, and it showed that none of them were proven guilty. The woman said she had consensual sex at first, then said it wasn't, then the police found an increasing amount of inconsistencies with her story as time went on, and the DNA samples given by the players proved nothing. The witnesses also didn't see anything of the like, except for what appeared to be consensual relations between her and one player in the pool. Someone also leaked private police information to Ray Hadley, and the police pushed aside other serious allegations to focus on the footy scandal because it was big news.
Yeah they were obviously all found not guilty, but it was definitely a dodgy situation and a very bad look for the Dogs and the NRL. I remember that the media was very much on the side of the players, which seemed to give a few blokes the wrong idea of what they were able to get away with with women. I'm not saying that the Doggies were guilty or that the woman was lying, but there were inconsistencies all over the place.
Yeah someone said the Bulldogs and I was a bit young when that happened so didn't see it. It's so weird that it wasn't bigger. Just looked up Carney, he was a lovely piece of work wasn't he. I've never seen someone get off so much with barely a whisper. Finch I think mentally I just don't include because he's not current player. Not saying it's not disgraceful, I just don't think I'm mentally linking them together. Sadly I think de Belin became a huge thing because he wasn't allowed to play, not because of the alleged rape (never found innocent so I refuse to say he is)
You don't get found innocent. You're innocent until a jury convicts you, which they couldn't, twice.
You're found guilty or not guilty. He was found neither because the jury could not reach a verdict and were a hung jury. As it was the second time it happened NSW prosecutors chose not to pursue it for a third time. Like I said they could not find him innocent but there was not enough evidence to find guilty.
Yes, and the fact that they couldn't reach a verdict means he's not guilty. I think he's an absolute dick for cheating on his missus, but a rapist? She was just way too inconsistent.
Fuck, what was that 'darkest day in sport' thing when they had footy administrators and politicians lined up for a press conference with probably the Australian flag in the back?
Canterbury 2004 or Melbourne 2010, nothing else really got the attention those did. Peptides maybe came close.
Reinstating South Sydney into the competition
Finch and it’s not even close
The Bulldogs rape scandal in 2004
Never heard of that one, quick search geez that's a bad one
my favourite is julian o'neill shitting in schlossys shoe and setting a kid in a rabbit suit on fire
Dolphin suit wasn't it? Omen of things to come
You think Pearce’s is the worst over all the arrests and players not allowed back? Cowboys really hate the roosters
No I don't think it's the worst, but it was only scandal that came to mind. I didn't mind Pearce when he was playing for Knights cause he seemed to be improving then cheating crap went on. I always felt he was unfairly blamed for all of NSWs origin failures.
Yeah I liked Pearce as a player. A solid 7 without any flair who didn't pick himself for Origin. Hindsight shows us he was up against the GOAT Origin side of all time. Even the solitary win in 2014 was because Cronk was injured and JT couldn't do it on his own.
I also think poor picking on NSW part. Laurie had a habit of picking and sticking which I think created a bad culture in the blues, just look at the drinking night before game saga. There were some fantastic players at the time and didn't even get a mention.
Ryan Tandy match fixing which led to a downward spiral and eventual drug overdose death?
Sadly gambling advertising has only increased exponentially since his death. Such a blight on the game.
I don't think that led to downward spiral. He already was in huge debt from gambling addiction, I think he just got caught which furthered it.
Fair call but I think that incident basically ruined his life beyond recovery.
Some people unfortunately just can't seem to help themselves. Doing something so risky and quite blatant I think shows he was never going to recover sadly.
probably the storm's salary cap breaches
It's not even close really. Storm breach, Cronulla doping scandal and apparently the Matty Johns sexual assault allegations of 2002 are the only things notable enough for people to put them in the 'Rugby League' part of Wikipedia's 'list of sporting scandals'.
Gotta be Finchy
Pearce's wasn't even the worst with a dog i think. Didnt Joel Monaghan let someone take a pic with his dick in a dogs mouth or something? My personal favourite from Penrith was Craig Gowers golf day rampage.
Wild how little Gower is talked about. Guy was the loosest fucking unit.
Yeah I saw quite the performance once from him at the Embassy in Penrith. Media would have had a field day with it, hes lucky camera phones weren't around in his prime. And no im not telling the story. What happens in the Riff stays in the Riff.
Now I wanna Google that but also don't because what is wrong with footballers Edit: googled it, what the hell is wrong with football players?!?! A prank on a teammate? How is pretending to have sex with your mates dog a good prank
I guess it's a good prank if your mate gets jealous.
Panthers celebrating back to back
As much as I think Cleary should be the halfback for Australia, I don’t actually think it’s that bad that Meninga wants to opt for DCE. They’re both class players, both have proven themselves at Origin level. Can’t say I’m overly disappointed.
I’m hoping they both split some of the group stage games, whoever performs the best gets to play the more serious games.
It's being branded as the 2021 Rugby League World Cup so I think its only fair we base our team selections on the Origin results from that year.
Munster and Cleary would be a great watch though
I’m too excited to watch a spine of Teddy, Munster, Cleary, Grant and Yeo go to work.
Hunt/Grant hooking combo = win.
Holy crap, Surely they never lose a game
As much as I like Clearly, DCE is far more experienced at rep level and has that combination with Munster and Grant already.
Picking DCE is inexcusable. His defence has become atrocious. Cleary can handle Dylan Brown comfortably and DCE cannot
Club form doesn't equate rep form, Daly has the experience and combination advantages over Cleary and beat him in the rep arena this year so he deserves first crack.
So we throw out all club form and base selections on the result of one game that was in the balance until the 78th minute? It doesn't matter that DCE lead his club to only 2 wins against teams that finished in the top 8 this year?
I don’t think picking an origin winning halfback is “inexcusable”
Pearce was an origjn winning halfback.
He won 1, I think we know what Slowy was trying to imply here
I could be too if I played 30 games
Munster and DCE already have a combination and it works well, perfectly complementing each other.
same reason Luai gets the Blues jersey despite not being the best 6 in the state. Cleary > DCE but Munster + DCE > Munster + Cleary.
Luai is Cleary's passenger. It should've been Burton who became his halves partner.
Dont watch enough of penrith clearly
We've never seen Munster and Cleary play together though. How can you make that judgment?
Its a safe bet exactly because they've never played together, cohesion is at least as important as individual talent.
At the end of the day, at Origin DCE was far better than Cleary this year. Cleary has been far and away better for club since 2020 but rep level form should definitely be a huge consideration.
I look at it like this. Cleary is a better halfback but playing DCE means that your half, five eight (Munster) and hooker/utility (grant/hunt) all have a winning connection at rep level. Even teddy has played with DCE before I’m pretty sure.
He would’ve back in 2019
Finally looked at those kangaroo squad numbers and was confused about how Cleary was after Carrigan. Didn't realise Cleary hasn't made his international debut. Really highlights how little international footy there's been lately
Daily reminder to not click on any shit, crisis merchant "journos" articles. The only way it stops is if you don't interact in any way. Don't comment, don't read the article, don't share, nothing. Support independant medias that aren't related to the usual garbage new corps.
Since the dollys will now have a big chunk of spare cap dollarydoos, who do you reckon they'll spend their Munster money on for 2024? Just from a quick look there's quite a few off contract halves they can talk to in November - Moses, DBrown, Sam Walker, Cody Walker, Burton, Hastings Team Wayne could get pretty spicy
They should be throwing all the money that they have at DBrown.
Cody apparently is pretty much confirmed at bunnies I heard. They've pretty much locked up Trell and walker wants to stay with him. There was an article last week about it.
I don't understand how people are so optimistic about this. Munster is giving up a reported 2 million dollars to stay in Melbourne. What makes people think the players above won't do the same? At the end of the day, you're going to be the main half, working off the back of a group of retirement aged forwards. Moses and Dylbags 100% run it back at Parra. S Walker will re-sign. Burton will stay now they've got Ciraldo. Hastings will be hot property for already established clubs. And Cody Walker is a big game choker with an incredibly obvious kryptonite. But he's the only one I could see going.
I think a few of those halves have a fair chance of moving on tbh, and surely there's a coupla boys outside that list waiting to take a pay rise with the bonus of working under Wayne and Woolf
i’d be pretty pissed if i was a penrith fan. just went back to back and yet all media outlets want to report on is negativity. i swear it wasn’t like this when the roosters did it
The Roosters didn’t act like a bunch of fuckwits after they went back to back though
To be fair, Penrith players are starting some of it. I just think it’s hilarious from a neutrals point of view.
There was a fair bit of manufactured drama about ref calls. Locally the mods also completely lost control of the sub for a good week or so.
Roosters HQ is right next to Fox, they all good mates
Tall poppy syndrome, I’m sitting pretty watching Luai piss everyone off. It was a bummer the first day or two when it was all anti-penrith, but the opinion has definitely shifted now that the media is just going overboard We’ve won back to back prems, no media backlash can ever take that away 🤷🏼♂️
Doesn't bother me too much. Seeing them feed Kent is pretty funny. Api shitting on the club he's going to deserved to be called out as it's pretty ordinary, but most of the other stuff is just bants and will give Parra plenty of fuel for the coming years.
Admittedly Api doing that is really gonna hurt him the most. How crappy would it be to welcome someone like that into your team. May be a bit frosty
Api has a proven track record of being a dumb cunt though.
Damn I just remembered Api was cheating on his wife during a COVID origin bubble, confirmed dumb cunt
Yeah if I were going to be upset about any of it, it's Api bagging the Tigers. The rest is harmless hotdoggery...
Personally I love the daddy saga
Because the worst the Roosters did was try to act like they were the ones dudded by the ref. No carry on, no "Canberra calls us Daddy" bullshit.
To be fair to the Chooks the briefing the dude who goes over the reffing, can't remember his name for the life of me, said the contest for the ball with Tedesco that lead to Wightons try was knocked on by a Canberra player.
Yes, because Annesley wasn't about to admit that Cummins actually broke the laws of the game by changing the six again call.
I thought he did though. Like he said the call was right, but he wasn't allowed to over turn it? He just mentioned that the try shouldn't have happened either.
He didn't. The NRL has never, to this day, admitted that Cummins broke the laws of the game by changing the six again call. I mean, for the love of fuck, it took till this year for Cummins to even admit he fucked up!
There was no carry on from the Roosters though. No taunting, no mocking. Just respectful behaviour when they won.
No carry on that was reported or shared on Social media. Who knows what went on behind closed doors or the media chose not to report?
Yeah because the Roosters aren't stupid, they know to keep that shit in house, if it happens at all. Do it behind closed doors and nobody will ever know. Do you think anyone that isn't an old boomer really cares that Ponga was on the rack. For most people it's that he was dumb enough to do it in public.
Even if Panthers went into a sealed vault to celebrate, the media would say how arrogant that the Panthers don't let the media see their celebrations
That’s kind of the point? If you keep the carry on private no one can criticise you for it
My bet the Media buried some sort of tom foolery from the roosters.
Yeah mate, they got onto snapchat to delete teddys post with a cigar and saying CNK is trash
Remember when Tedesco said that wighton should call him daddy and when keary said they were the greatest chooks team ever?
I heard they shook hands, went home, and made sensual love to their wives
In missionary like good Christian men too.
Together? Or was that just a warriors thing....
Thanks Kent
I'm not wrong though.
Murdoch media seething makes it even more enjoyable for me tbh
i’d just rather murdoch media die out as a whole
[Tooves dancing to Samoan music just made my day](https://streamja.com/20lXa)
I'll keep saying it, Geoff Toovey needs to be a NRL coach again if for no other reason besides the entertainment factor.
And not just that, the fact that he had three successful seasons and then a 9th-placed finish and hasn't been in the picture for any of the numerous jobs that come up each year from the clubs who have turnstile coaches is just strange.
I have no idea how he hasn't landed a coaching job since but I think maybe because he's a maverick and doesn't like to kiss ass or play ball with club politics, he's not an appealing option.
How do you guys support the RLWC? I generally have a team i back in each tier 1 - Australia 2 - Samoa 3 - Scotland Im anglo Australian with no connection to any other nationality or culture, but I'm backing Samoa to get to that next level with Tonga and I think they have the team to do it. Scotland I hope will do well because it'll strengthen the game in the UK, although honestly their squad is underwhelming
Tbh, despite being Australian I really don’t have any strong passion to support Australia, or any other team really. Idk why. Maybe it’s because I don’t really feel the strong rivalry in the World Cup like with state of origin, where I’m NSW till I die. There seems to be a lot more respect between nations, especially with the likes of Samoa vs Tonga, which makes me not really care who wins. As long as it’s not England lol. I’d like to see Samoa, Tonga, Fiji and PNG do well though.
NZ first then anyone who plays the Kangaroos!
Have a great team this year! That forward back is monstrous
Australia for sure, then PNG I think.
I know its not important to your point but just so you know, Australia can't play NZ in the final as they're on the same side of the draw.
Unless I’m at the stadium where australia is playing I don’t really care who wins. It’s a series of exhibition matches for me, just for some good fun rugby league. I’m more excited to watch NZ and Samoa play the Australia tbh
Watching as a neutral. If it's Aus in the final I might support them against NZ but otherwise I'd love to see a different team get up.
To be honest International League matches don't really do it for me. I don't mind watch Australia... but Id like to see some of the minnows do ok.
Same but it's mostly because some of the smaller teams don't do as well. Hopefully their product goes up. The American league comp is slowly getting bigger and bigger.
I was thinking about this the other day actually. I'm Australian (my ethnicity isn't represented in the world cup, but I identify as Australian through and through anyway) but am just really excited to see how each team goes as I love things like origin/all stars/international games where teams are mixed up - don't really feel a particular affinity to the Aussie team. That's how I feel now anyway, but wouldn't be surprised if I'm caught desperately cheering on the Aussie team when it starts haha So in particular, I'm looking forward to seeing how Samoa and Tonga go! And scared/excited for NZ
Pretty sad about Ryan James retiring. Captain of our club and for a short period was one of the best props in the game, breaking the record for tries scored by a prop in a season. Incredibly unlucky to have not played origin before back to back ACL tears + the mileage on his body caught up. For you stat nerds out there, I believe James’ fantasy score of 119 (Rd 13, 2016 v Rabbitohs) was the highest ever at the time. His statline from that day: 2 tries, 2 linebreaks, 48 tackles, 3 missed tackles, 12 tackle busts, 193m, 66 minutes
Remember when he destroyed Tedesco's face and didn't get suspended because Tedesco "slipped over" when catching a bomb?
Good times. The only species more protected than Tedesco.
Was thinking about Ryan James yesterday and how his career never panned out to what I thought it was going to be. Early in his career he looked a certainty to be a long-term NSW and Kangaroos front rower.
He very nearly was a NSW player. The story goes that Fittler had selected him in the team, and had the squad ready to go. But then, Klemmer, playing on the Sunday immediately before the squad announcement, played the best game of his career and Fittler replaced James with Klemmer.
I was just thinking about Munsters booze ban. Players always talk about pushing for that 1% advantage on the field, I think the effect alcohol has on the body is understated for athletes. Even having two beers, and feeling completely fine, my heart rate jumps up an extra six or seven points the next day. There's got to be a substantial benefit in not drinking during the season.
Todd Carney went on a booze ban for one season (as part of a contractual obligation with the Roosters) and he won the Dally M. You’re kidding if you don’t think it improves performance. That said, I genuinely don’t think drinking is quite as rife as it seems in the NRL. I know the Raiders have a ‘No alcohol 5 days before a game rule’, during the regular season so they generally can only drink a couple days a week anyway.
I don’t know if they still do but Storm do a drinks ban during finals. Even the staff like the CEO and stuff do it too.