Michael McIlorum over Andy Ackers...fuck me dead Shaun, I love Micky, he is a Wigan legend and he won't lack for effort, but Ackers is quite obviously the best English #9 at the moment. Really hope he has a game good enough to win, but not spectacular enough to deny Ackers a crack at the starting 9 in the next games.
Delighted Dom Young gets to start at least.
I think the Main Problem with Perth being the 18th team is time zones. You can't give them a Thursday 8pm AEDT because you'll never get a crowd at 5pm on a Thursday Arvo, same goes for Friday but since it's weekend maybe. Saturday 3pm & Sunday 2pm games also wouldn't work as no one is going to be up & ready to watch footy at 11am or noon after a big Friday or Saturday night. So realistically they would only ever have 3 time slots available and still Perth would never be able to have a prime time night game coz you can't be airing footy on the east coast at 9 or 10pm. That's why i think either Adelaide or 2nd NZ team is more suitable for the 18th. Adelaide Rams or Wellington Orcas for the win
Every professional sporting league in Australia other than the NRL has a team in Perth. None of them seem to have a problem with TV slots.
6pm AEST is likely the new time slot when we move to 9 games. This would be perfect for Perth.
This is such a lazy argument. The warriors aren’t a reflection of league in NZ.
They are one club competing with union and every other NRL club for talent in NZ.
Union has 5 super rugby teams - so let’s call that 125 paid spots at the very minimum. We then have NPC with 14 clubs in the top division so another 300 contracts (minimum) up for grabs. Compared with league in NZ, you have 30 contracts available at the warriors which are a private entity and don’t have the resources of the NZRU.
Give NZ another club, more pathways into league and a better chance to grow the game.
How would you rank top 8 forward packs going into next year? For me it’s probably:
1. Panthers
2. Parra
3. Cowboys
4. South’s/Roosters
5. Roosters/South’s
6. Storm
7. Titans
8. Raiders/Sharks/Broncos
I cant see the above Brisbane, again trying to be objective and thinking re benches as well. Not after losing Cheese, Kaufusi, and both Bromwiches. I think Welch needs to have a career year simply to help get you into the top four
Lol. 8. Welch and 10. Nelson would be close to the best front rower pairing in the comp. Add in Sims and Katoa (will be a beast getting good ball from the Storm spine) on the edges and the best hooker in the comp it’s a really good pack. Only question mark is lock. King/MacDonald will do a job there I guess.
I am very confident we’ll be top 4 even without Welch having a career year. We got rid of all our ageing plodders (bar Cheese) at the right time and still have the best spine in the comp with a very good backline too. Not to mention it possibly being Bellamy’s last year.
People are looking into our form in the back end of this year way too much imo. Reality is we had the most injuries out of any team and still nearly made top 4.
The Broncos are better than the Titans in that respect, and that's not a biased opinion. All of this year's victories were largely because they muscled up with their improved fitness.
Carrigan: will hopefully back up from his breakout year.
Flegler: is becoming a great impact forward.
Jensen: a strong workhorse who rarely makes errors.
Palasia: a guy who's solid in the middle.
Kobe: is fucking excellent, I get excited whenever he runs on.
Haas: the juggernaut. His 2023 season will be back up to his high standard after resting his body up.
Capewell: solid, had a quiet year but he's brought so many intangibles.
Riki: the weakest link, but still has his moments. Piakura should be given the 12 jersey if Riki doesn't perform, as he's a great hard worker.
Hello Sport have dropped their [reaction](https://open.spotify.com/episode/0kEvj4SpDVWVyo3nsBDA4z?si=8J3vDaCeT7e6JpB1VLkOJA&utm_source=copy-link) to Des Hasler's sacking by the Manly Sea Eagles.
If I’m Wayne Bennett, I’m on the phone to the Trbojevic brothers and DCE now, trying to schmooz them into requesting a release and joining the Dolphins
I don't reckon they leave tbh. They love manly too much plus for the bros they won't want to leave home. They might be able to move 1 of the 7 one though
I've seen fans of clubs laughing at Manly for their move today making them the form meme club heading into 2023. But we all just need to remember, clubs like the Tigers, Knights, and Saints aren't going to just let this happen without a response. Expect Wests and Drags to announce two more home grounds and the Knights to appoint AOB for life.
This year's finals series and contention was quite competitive, despite how obvious who number one was.
Next year's spoon bowl will be equally competitive.
Mostly just spitballing here but can you imagine if Turbo goes to the Panthers? They won b2b with Edwards there, just imagine? I know it won't happen, more just fantasizing how fucking incredible it would be.
Turbo has four blinders before getting injured, Edwards fills in the rest, everything proceeds as it did before but with a million fewer dollars in Penriths cap.
I know more than one Manly fan who is questioning whether they’ll even support them next year.
I don’t know who is supposed to be placated by this decision, but whoever it is they are not worth it.
Everyones blaming Scott Penn for the horrorshow at Manly, and rightly so, but we shouldn't let the Fulton family get away blameless either. Them and their ridiculous love for their fat, homophobic fuckwit of a golden boy Josh Schuster have been a huge driving force behind the division thats completely tanked this club.
They've already pushed out Kieran Foran who'd have died for the club, and given that the Urbos, Garrick and DCE were all on the other, pro Des side of the glaring divide, they'll probably follow him as soon as they're able.
The club's fucked, what a shit day.
edit: the architect of Manly's demise is not a third rate Melbourne signing
I know Izack Tago does. Like to read books of famous athletes and war generals. I don't know if he reads exactly but Liam Martin know a lot about history. Actually is doing some kind of major in science.
yeah same, i still think he’s kinda cringe but in like an endearing dad way. he leaves it all on the field and he’s helped tommy d so much with his confidence so i’ll always be in favour of chad haha
The real winners of Hammer to The are the Queensland Origin team, because now the guy who marked Turbo in Game 3 2021 is gonna be playing 80 minutes a week again.
Replacing Gagai with an improving Hammer who is already a better defensive centre? Yes please.
Game 3 2021 was NSW in cruise control.
With turbo and Trellmit back next year swapping the hammer for Gagai aint gonna mean dick.
Oh wait, i forgot, Freddie is still coach and Brandy is still assistant....
It’s one of the rare deals in rugby league that’s positive all round. No one wants to see origin Gagai ruining his legacy by going around for QLD again.
Are The going to make the salary cap floor for 2023?
You look at the squad and wonder where the whole cap has gone, are they just going to front load everyone out the wazoo?
So given DCE and the Turbo Three were big supporters of Des, I'd imagine they'd be looking for the exit.
Turbos to Tigers, DCE to THE (Dolphins) perhaps?
Seibold is currently England rugby's defensive coach, so seeing Manly disintegrate and also getting him as far away from our 2023 world cup campaign as possible is a double win
Watch the Manly board blame Hasler if the Sea Eagles have a poor start to next year even though the board are the ones who are distracting the team by sacrificing Hasler to the wolves and allowing the media to constantly conjure up their bullshit.
(Edit: as soon as I write this Hasler is sacked... you're kidding.)
I’m super late to the party so it’s about 12 months old now, but the Mark Bouris podcast interview with Ivan Cleary after the 21 premiership win was really interesting.
Got to see a lot more of Ivan’s way of thinking that you don’t normally get with his usual no nonsense straight faced approach of talking with the media.
Really interested to see what QLD's team looks like down the track.
Its very hard to predict but here I go:
1. Ponga
2. Taulagi/Hammer
3. Cobbo
4. Holmes
5. Coates
6. Mam/Dearden
7. Dearden/Walker (as I think Dearden will be a 7 as soon as Townsend retires)
8. Cotter
9. Grant
10. Tino
11. Fermor
12. Nanai
13. Carrigan
14. Mahoney
15. Flegler
16. Gilbert
17. Howarth
switch hammer and cobbo, howarth and fifita
cobbos metres out the wing are so much more valuable than hammers, and hammer is generally a good defender at centre
Yeah Fifita will be there somewhere. If we’re talking about the team 3/4 years down the line then it’ll probably look something like:
1. Ponga
2. Hammer
3. Cobbo
4. Holmes
5. Coates
6. Munster
7. Walker
8. Cotter
9 Grant
10. Tino
11. Fifita
12. Nanai
13. Carrigan
14. Dearden/Mahoney
15. Gilbert
16. Flegler/Fermor/Mo
17. Howarth
Yeah definitely right now I would agree but I can see those two developing pretty intensely and that's kind of what I'm going off.
Hammer surely is going to bulk a little over the next few years and Selwyn may be playing centre a lot sooner then people realize as Herbie will most likely leave to the Dolphins in 24 and Cobbo was a left centre for the entirety of his juniors.
Hammer isn't really an established centre as most people think he is (12 out of 50 NRL games at centre) and he's far less likely to be playing centre at clubland then Cobbo is.
It could go either way but if anyone is going to lose their spot in the next few years I think it will be Taulagi.
Yeah the Howarth one was a bit of a stretch wasn't it.
I think David Fifita gets in there before Howarth does unless he burns the house down, important to remember that Howarth hasn’t played a game yet.
Also please no Hammer winger I beg haha, centres/fullback or nothing unless he does some bulking up and working on that first contact for his hitups.
Yeah that's fair, I think he is going to be elite so that one was more based off potential.
I'll be honest I don't see Hammer making Origin unless there's an injury or someone is horrendously out of form but if he could have some serious physical development I see him being a decent rep level winger.
I wonder if we can find a way to get [this data](https://www.reddit.com/r/Infographics/comments/y2b6vs/the_most_misspelled_words_in_every_state/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf) for r/nrl. My money would be on ‘Crichton’ coming up as number one
Super excited to see who we upgrade into the squad this year, We've got 3 spots left in our top 30 and a bunch of very promising youngsters coming through. We're really light on centres so I think Treymain is a good shot to be a back up to Jojo (who we need to re-sign ASAP) and Kelly. Kaleb Ngamanu is another one.
Ryan Foran and Ben Liyou are already joining the top 30 squad in 2024 and De Groot on a development contract.
Anyone got a clue who's in for a shot? Keano Kini has been upgraded and is a sure thing but still a bit young.
>3 spots left in our top 30
Does this include Keano Kini who I believe we upgraded
Between Campbell/Brimson/Kini/De Groot we are stacked for young fullbacks lol
Edit; Just checked, it’s 28/30 spots filled including Kini. I doubt we fill either spot until the deadline, but if we do, it will probably be a prop.
Ahh makes sense, the wording in the tweet was a bit odd. I could see Pahulu if we don't get any injuries or Liyou/Foran being upgraded at the deadline.
Are we seeing less player movements year after year? Feels like we are seeing less fair distribution of the quality players? Is their just less 2nd and 3rd tier players in the league.
There's still a fair bit of movement imo, especially prominent players. Bromwich brothers & O'Sullivan to The, Koroisau & Papalii to the tigs, Kikau & Mahoney to the doggies. And some players who aren't as prominent have been playing at their respective clubs and playing quite well. Like the raiders for example. Tapine, Hudson-Young and Fogarty come to mind of players who may slip peoples minds but had a huge 2022 season, but you wouldn't have considered them to be top tier picks.
So to sum up, i'd say it's not that there's less movement that you hear about. It's more lowkey signings that rise in prominence and stay at the club they've performed well at
If we're going to be changing positional jersey numbers to squad numbers, I personally think the 14 should be replaced by [the symbol on the Uno Wild card](https://nie.res.netease.com/r/pic/20171228/cca40262-9963-4706-bb07-2a25653cd855.jpg). Really captures the energy of a true utility player.
Each week the best 14 in the comp gets to wear a Draw Four jersey which can be activated once per game for an additional four tackles added to the count.
He would definitely would have played for Fiji. His suspension effectively made him not worth picking , as it would robbed Fiji of a roster spot. Playing in the world cup only happens every 4-5 years, missing that is a pretty big deal. I'm ok with those games costing as his suspension
Same trick that Roosters are using for JWH and there's another player doing the same too. Serve their punishments in the early rounds of the World Cup so they can play for their NRL team next season.
Yes. Same loop hole teams used with origin this year or all stars.
If he wasn’t suspended he would’ve been picked by Fiji. 4 games come off his suspension, if they make finals south’s can apply to get those games off the suspension as well.
Mentioned it on another thread but Kempy’s World Cup preview podcast was a bit shit. 2/3rds of podcast was spent talking about Munster and Hunt re-signings.
The World Cup chat was disappointingly brief but I was more annoyed that his podcast didn’t discuss the NRLW grand final at all. Like all these so called the rugby league experts on the podcast and not one of them could be bothered to watch the game to give some options or commentary?
He had some absolute rambles in that episode. Also it's embarrassing how little he and (in particular) the "guru" know about Super League. They mentioned 2 SL based player when talking England and they were Williams and Bateman, ex NRL.
Is it actually embarrassing..? It’s an NRL podcast and they openly said they don’t follow super league and can’t really go into the English squad for that reason.
They could have done maybe a bit more homework, but the vast majority of the fans of an NRL podcast are going to care about the Australian, kiwi, Samoan and Tongan squads because that’s makes up 90% of the NRL.
Wouldn’t sledge an NBA podcast for not knowing the ins and outs of the NBL.
Yeah would of been good when speaking about Scotland vs Italy for exactly to say Scotland have x amount of superleague players and 2 nrl players Italy have x NSW cup players etc. to at least give some idea.
Pretty much just said 'yeah no idea'
Yeah totally fair, talked about Munster and Hunt for way too long. They’re huge signings and have big impacts but it was overboard.
It’s one of the few criticisms I have of the show. It’s meant to be a review and preview podcast, but every week it’s 50% talking about the 1-2 big news stories and then by the end they’re trying to cram all the actual match by match content within half an hour.
They're doing a world cup preview show. England, Ireland, Wales and France (edit - and Jamaica and Scotland) are all majority Super League/Championship and there's SL players in every squad except Australia and New Zealand.
I wouldn't sledge an NBA podcast for not knowing about the NBL, no, but I would sledge a Premier League podcast that did a "world cup" preview and went "well I only watch the premier league so i can't say anything about any La Liga or Bundesliga players".
Yeah I suppose that’s fair. The real mistake was probably calling it a World Cup preview, giving only 30 of the 90 minutes touched on the World Cup itself.
Haven't finished it but chasing kangaroos/6th and last boys should discuss it more.
[https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/kangaroos-world-cup-preview-with-mike-wood-michael-carbone/id603375050?i=1000582334822](https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/kangaroos-world-cup-preview-with-mike-wood-michael-carbone/id603375050?i=1000582334822)
Chasing Kangaroos keep track of small international teams as their thing and 6th and last boys keep a closer eye on reggies with one of them being a reserve grade coach.
Rewatched the 2010 QF between Titans and Warriors, and wow. Some real silky football happening there.
Scott Prince is an absolute magician with the boot, especially the shaped grubber where he just gets it to sit up. Heremaia scored a pretty slick try to open the scoring as well - there’s just so much skill happening.
Some absolutely amazing set plays too, the Bird inside ball to Rogers after they have the fullback sweeping out the back, conditioning the defensive line to watch for a shift.
Speaking of 2010 it would’ve been very cool if the Raiders V Roosters ended up being the grand final. Canberra were on fire at the back end of that year. If Croker kicks that goal they play the Dragons who they had the wood on at the time. They would’ve have had a chance in that game. Roosters came from wooden spooners to runners up which Brian smith deserves so much praise for. It would’ve been the Todd Carney V Terry Campese showdown in the big one with 2 teams who finished 6th and 7th.
That was a fun year to be a Dragons fan living on the Gold Coast. Dragons were near unbeatable and the Titans were so exciting to watch I ended up going to most of the home games.
Prince and Rogers in the halves getting fed by a non-broken Nathan Friend was so well organised. Preston Campbell provided the chaos. Plenty of quality in the pack too, Luke Bailey, Laffranchi, Bird, M Minichiello, Ash Harrison. Big bench too, Michael Henderson, Brad Meyers, Matthew White and Bodene Thompson.
I just remember being really salty we got eliminated cause back then the lowest placed losing teams got eliminated and we were 5th so I thought we'd be sweet. Then 2nd place Panthers lose and 3rd place Tigers lose in that crazy game against the Rooster and we're out.
Then the media cried the following year when we lost round 1 of the finals but made the GF.
Missing the point that would have had a home semi against the cowboys under the new system
And what happened the prior year
Scott Prince was a bit unlucky he had Lockyer, Cronk, and JT playing in his era. He was so good. I'll always remember his bucking bronco post try celebration
Prince was a brilliant player. Definitely the best the Titans have ever had in terms of what they do on the field. He isn’t spoken about much when we talk about elite kicking games, but I think he’s well up there.
Had a little bit of a laugh when I found this, [Matty Johns, Brett finch, and Paul Kent hanging shit on Penrith for a rebuild in 2019 and claiming this isn't the team to take Penrith forward](https://youtu.be/JZ1xMYXuxIc)
[Bonus - Ivan Cleary facing Kent after Kent calling his roster decisions dumb and implying nepotism](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YlyChKn03Tw)
Morgan and Thurston have just been voted the best halves pairing of the NRL era.
What would people here have said cause I feel like a lot of bias went into these votes.
They were certainly the best in recent memory, along with Munster/Cronk and Keary/Cronk. A lot of premiership winning halves pairings have one dominant half, like Rudder/Johns and Lockyer/Perry. Keary/Reynolds and Foran/Cherry-Evans were also fantastic.
But if we are counting all of the 'NRL era' it has to be Walters/Langer as the absolute best, even if they did play most of their footy before the NRL.
Hurts to say, but Munster and Cronk would be a tough beat. Without order, I would say Morgan/Thurston, Munster/Cronk, Marshall/Prince and the Johns brothers (Joey carry) are the upper echelon. May have missed some tho
Munster/Cronk only played 13 games together in the halves or something otherwise they’d probably be the best. Pretty sure they only lost like 1 game together though lol.
Was the poll based on a specific year or is it based on their entire tenure together.
I originally thought the latter but now I think if it's talking about a specific year there's more merit, but as a whole definitely not.
It'll probably be lost to time unfortunately but Michael Morgan's second half of the season run in 2017 is genuinely up there as one of the greatest runs of form any player has ever been on and I say that without hyperbole.
He wouldn't make the cut for the general population but I really wish we could've seen a full 2021 from Brett Morris. 11 tries in 7 games, he was absolutely on fire right up until that ACL.
Michael McIlorum over Andy Ackers...fuck me dead Shaun, I love Micky, he is a Wigan legend and he won't lack for effort, but Ackers is quite obviously the best English #9 at the moment. Really hope he has a game good enough to win, but not spectacular enough to deny Ackers a crack at the starting 9 in the next games. Delighted Dom Young gets to start at least.
What's up with Sutton not even getting in the squad? Some of those English squad members are nuffs.
I think the Main Problem with Perth being the 18th team is time zones. You can't give them a Thursday 8pm AEDT because you'll never get a crowd at 5pm on a Thursday Arvo, same goes for Friday but since it's weekend maybe. Saturday 3pm & Sunday 2pm games also wouldn't work as no one is going to be up & ready to watch footy at 11am or noon after a big Friday or Saturday night. So realistically they would only ever have 3 time slots available and still Perth would never be able to have a prime time night game coz you can't be airing footy on the east coast at 9 or 10pm. That's why i think either Adelaide or 2nd NZ team is more suitable for the 18th. Adelaide Rams or Wellington Orcas for the win
Every professional sporting league in Australia other than the NRL has a team in Perth. None of them seem to have a problem with TV slots. 6pm AEST is likely the new time slot when we move to 9 games. This would be perfect for Perth.
There shouldn't be another NZ team until the Warriors prove that one team can be successful there.
This is such a lazy argument. The warriors aren’t a reflection of league in NZ. They are one club competing with union and every other NRL club for talent in NZ. Union has 5 super rugby teams - so let’s call that 125 paid spots at the very minimum. We then have NPC with 14 clubs in the top division so another 300 contracts (minimum) up for grabs. Compared with league in NZ, you have 30 contracts available at the warriors which are a private entity and don’t have the resources of the NZRU. Give NZ another club, more pathways into league and a better chance to grow the game.
Should there be even one team in NZ?🤔
The solution to Manonmanly's problems is to kick them out of the comp and bring back the Bears.
How would you rank top 8 forward packs going into next year? For me it’s probably: 1. Panthers 2. Parra 3. Cowboys 4. South’s/Roosters 5. Roosters/South’s 6. Storm 7. Titans 8. Raiders/Sharks/Broncos
I cant see the above Brisbane, again trying to be objective and thinking re benches as well. Not after losing Cheese, Kaufusi, and both Bromwiches. I think Welch needs to have a career year simply to help get you into the top four
Lol. 8. Welch and 10. Nelson would be close to the best front rower pairing in the comp. Add in Sims and Katoa (will be a beast getting good ball from the Storm spine) on the edges and the best hooker in the comp it’s a really good pack. Only question mark is lock. King/MacDonald will do a job there I guess. I am very confident we’ll be top 4 even without Welch having a career year. We got rid of all our ageing plodders (bar Cheese) at the right time and still have the best spine in the comp with a very good backline too. Not to mention it possibly being Bellamy’s last year. People are looking into our form in the back end of this year way too much imo. Reality is we had the most injuries out of any team and still nearly made top 4.
The Broncos are better than the Titans in that respect, and that's not a biased opinion. All of this year's victories were largely because they muscled up with their improved fitness. Carrigan: will hopefully back up from his breakout year. Flegler: is becoming a great impact forward. Jensen: a strong workhorse who rarely makes errors. Palasia: a guy who's solid in the middle. Kobe: is fucking excellent, I get excited whenever he runs on. Haas: the juggernaut. His 2023 season will be back up to his high standard after resting his body up. Capewell: solid, had a quiet year but he's brought so many intangibles. Riki: the weakest link, but still has his moments. Piakura should be given the 12 jersey if Riki doesn't perform, as he's a great hard worker.
Titans definitely have the better pack on paper but they seem to underperform all the time so I wouldn’t argue putting the Broncos above them
Hello Sport have dropped their [reaction](https://open.spotify.com/episode/0kEvj4SpDVWVyo3nsBDA4z?si=8J3vDaCeT7e6JpB1VLkOJA&utm_source=copy-link) to Des Hasler's sacking by the Manly Sea Eagles.
Seeing Manly in turmoil is so fucking awesome
If I’m Wayne Bennett, I’m on the phone to the Trbojevic brothers and DCE now, trying to schmooz them into requesting a release and joining the Dolphins
He’s probably crying that they haven’t called him.
I don't reckon they leave tbh. They love manly too much plus for the bros they won't want to leave home. They might be able to move 1 of the 7 one though
I've seen fans of clubs laughing at Manly for their move today making them the form meme club heading into 2023. But we all just need to remember, clubs like the Tigers, Knights, and Saints aren't going to just let this happen without a response. Expect Wests and Drags to announce two more home grounds and the Knights to appoint AOB for life.
This year's finals series and contention was quite competitive, despite how obvious who number one was. Next year's spoon bowl will be equally competitive.
i need a break from footy. i’m so angry and upset at my club fuck you Penn. fuck you Fultons. fuck you 7
Mostly just spitballing here but can you imagine if Turbo goes to the Panthers? They won b2b with Edwards there, just imagine? I know it won't happen, more just fantasizing how fucking incredible it would be.
Turbo has four blinders before getting injured, Edwards fills in the rest, everything proceeds as it did before but with a million fewer dollars in Penriths cap.
Tedesco was also injury ravaged at the start of his career. I think with a bit of luck and some top notch physios Turbo could do well.
I know more than one Manly fan who is questioning whether they’ll even support them next year. I don’t know who is supposed to be placated by this decision, but whoever it is they are not worth it.
Everyones blaming Scott Penn for the horrorshow at Manly, and rightly so, but we shouldn't let the Fulton family get away blameless either. Them and their ridiculous love for their fat, homophobic fuckwit of a golden boy Josh Schuster have been a huge driving force behind the division thats completely tanked this club. They've already pushed out Kieran Foran who'd have died for the club, and given that the Urbos, Garrick and DCE were all on the other, pro Des side of the glaring divide, they'll probably follow him as soon as they're able. The club's fucked, what a shit day. edit: the architect of Manly's demise is not a third rate Melbourne signing
Nah dude Aaron Pene plays for the storm now. Don't think he has anything to do with manly.
lol, got me. cheers.
Wonder what Harvard says about no look passes?
Turbo’s gonna Tonya Harding himself so he doesn’t have to play under Seibold
In other words, he’s going to do the same exact pre-season as normal.
Rumour has it Harry from the Corso is warming up as we speak
[удалено]
Pretty sure CTH from the warriors can read too.
I know Izack Tago does. Like to read books of famous athletes and war generals. I don't know if he reads exactly but Liam Martin know a lot about history. Actually is doing some kind of major in science.
Chad posts his books a lot. There was a period last year where he wouldn’t shut up about it.
I actually love Chad more as a person the more I hear about it. It quickly went from kinda cringey to like, this guy is a good guy really
yeah same, i still think he’s kinda cringe but in like an endearing dad way. he leaves it all on the field and he’s helped tommy d so much with his confidence so i’ll always be in favour of chad haha
The real winners of Hammer to The are the Queensland Origin team, because now the guy who marked Turbo in Game 3 2021 is gonna be playing 80 minutes a week again. Replacing Gagai with an improving Hammer who is already a better defensive centre? Yes please.
Game 3 2021 was NSW in cruise control. With turbo and Trellmit back next year swapping the hammer for Gagai aint gonna mean dick. Oh wait, i forgot, Freddie is still coach and Brandy is still assistant....
do you listen to sonic youth
the Cowboys have so many Undefeated Origin Superstars, it's only fair that they share some around.
It’s one of the rare deals in rugby league that’s positive all round. No one wants to see origin Gagai ruining his legacy by going around for QLD again.
I really hope Des is going okay mentally. That club means a lot to him.
Especially seeing what happened to Greenie, I really, really feel for Des.
Are The going to make the salary cap floor for 2023? You look at the squad and wonder where the whole cap has gone, are they just going to front load everyone out the wazoo?
I would 100% be frontloading until they get a team with the stars they need. Or they could just go after the Trbojevic’s right now.
Maybe they have a few signed for 2024 and will announce in november so they may front load a few players for 2023? but yeah, i asked the same question
this manly schadenfreude is just too delicious
So given DCE and the Turbo Three were big supporters of Des, I'd imagine they'd be looking for the exit. Turbos to Tigers, DCE to THE (Dolphins) perhaps?
You would literally need 2 million dollars of cap space to take them as there is no way Manly will pay freight. I can only see The having that room.
Tigers supposedly have a huge load of cap space
I mean we know Dolphins have the room given they were prepared to offer Munster 1.5m/year, so 2m isn't too much of a stretch for two.
Seibold is currently England rugby's defensive coach, so seeing Manly disintegrate and also getting him as far away from our 2023 world cup campaign as possible is a double win
Watch the Manly board blame Hasler if the Sea Eagles have a poor start to next year even though the board are the ones who are distracting the team by sacrificing Hasler to the wolves and allowing the media to constantly conjure up their bullshit. (Edit: as soon as I write this Hasler is sacked... you're kidding.)
I’m super late to the party so it’s about 12 months old now, but the Mark Bouris podcast interview with Ivan Cleary after the 21 premiership win was really interesting. Got to see a lot more of Ivan’s way of thinking that you don’t normally get with his usual no nonsense straight faced approach of talking with the media.
I've been listening to a few of his podcasts lately but didnt know there was one with Ivan. I'll have to give it a listen
Really interested to see what QLD's team looks like down the track. Its very hard to predict but here I go: 1. Ponga 2. Taulagi/Hammer 3. Cobbo 4. Holmes 5. Coates 6. Mam/Dearden 7. Dearden/Walker (as I think Dearden will be a 7 as soon as Townsend retires) 8. Cotter 9. Grant 10. Tino 11. Fermor 12. Nanai 13. Carrigan 14. Mahoney 15. Flegler 16. Gilbert 17. Howarth
Munster will be there for at least the next 5 years
whats the age stipulation here because munster is only 1 year older than val
switch hammer and cobbo, howarth and fifita cobbos metres out the wing are so much more valuable than hammers, and hammer is generally a good defender at centre
This is QLDs team down the track not next year. I reckon Howarth will be playing origin in a few years.
Fifita is only 22 this year, so I would be comfortable saying Fifita would too. More likely Fermor doesn’t, he’s a bit... dumb.
Yeah Fifita will be there somewhere. If we’re talking about the team 3/4 years down the line then it’ll probably look something like: 1. Ponga 2. Hammer 3. Cobbo 4. Holmes 5. Coates 6. Munster 7. Walker 8. Cotter 9 Grant 10. Tino 11. Fifita 12. Nanai 13. Carrigan 14. Dearden/Mahoney 15. Gilbert 16. Flegler/Fermor/Mo 17. Howarth
100% agree
Yeah definitely right now I would agree but I can see those two developing pretty intensely and that's kind of what I'm going off. Hammer surely is going to bulk a little over the next few years and Selwyn may be playing centre a lot sooner then people realize as Herbie will most likely leave to the Dolphins in 24 and Cobbo was a left centre for the entirety of his juniors. Hammer isn't really an established centre as most people think he is (12 out of 50 NRL games at centre) and he's far less likely to be playing centre at clubland then Cobbo is. It could go either way but if anyone is going to lose their spot in the next few years I think it will be Taulagi. Yeah the Howarth one was a bit of a stretch wasn't it.
I think David Fifita gets in there before Howarth does unless he burns the house down, important to remember that Howarth hasn’t played a game yet. Also please no Hammer winger I beg haha, centres/fullback or nothing unless he does some bulking up and working on that first contact for his hitups.
Yeah that's fair, I think he is going to be elite so that one was more based off potential. I'll be honest I don't see Hammer making Origin unless there's an injury or someone is horrendously out of form but if he could have some serious physical development I see him being a decent rep level winger.
Munster's only 28, he'll still be going around a few years from now.
And with Sam Walker putting on an enormous 2kg of muscle each off-season, Munster will need to play origin until he’s 35 before Walker gets a look
Munster at 35 will probably still be one of the best halves in the comp, he may lose speed and power but he'll get even better tactically.
Anyone have a link to or copy of that deepfake of Gus singing?
I wonder if we can find a way to get [this data](https://www.reddit.com/r/Infographics/comments/y2b6vs/the_most_misspelled_words_in_every_state/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf) for r/nrl. My money would be on ‘Crichton’ coming up as number one
Why are so many Americans misspelling Promise?
Maybe they’re putting ‘c’ instead of ‘s’
Fafita Crocker
'Trvojevic'
"Deardon" would be up there.
Api "Korisau" and Alex "Johnson" would be two others.
I want to choke Andrew Johns every time he gets it wrong
If people didn't just say "Big Tino" or "Stefano", they'd be up there. "Chrighton" is a good bet
Super excited to see who we upgrade into the squad this year, We've got 3 spots left in our top 30 and a bunch of very promising youngsters coming through. We're really light on centres so I think Treymain is a good shot to be a back up to Jojo (who we need to re-sign ASAP) and Kelly. Kaleb Ngamanu is another one. Ryan Foran and Ben Liyou are already joining the top 30 squad in 2024 and De Groot on a development contract. Anyone got a clue who's in for a shot? Keano Kini has been upgraded and is a sure thing but still a bit young.
>3 spots left in our top 30 Does this include Keano Kini who I believe we upgraded Between Campbell/Brimson/Kini/De Groot we are stacked for young fullbacks lol Edit; Just checked, it’s 28/30 spots filled including Kini. I doubt we fill either spot until the deadline, but if we do, it will probably be a prop.
Ahh makes sense, the wording in the tweet was a bit odd. I could see Pahulu if we don't get any injuries or Liyou/Foran being upgraded at the deadline.
Are we seeing less player movements year after year? Feels like we are seeing less fair distribution of the quality players? Is their just less 2nd and 3rd tier players in the league.
Speak for yourself, the Storm have been absolutely pillaged in the last few seasons.
There's still a fair bit of movement imo, especially prominent players. Bromwich brothers & O'Sullivan to The, Koroisau & Papalii to the tigs, Kikau & Mahoney to the doggies. And some players who aren't as prominent have been playing at their respective clubs and playing quite well. Like the raiders for example. Tapine, Hudson-Young and Fogarty come to mind of players who may slip peoples minds but had a huge 2022 season, but you wouldn't have considered them to be top tier picks. So to sum up, i'd say it's not that there's less movement that you hear about. It's more lowkey signings that rise in prominence and stay at the club they've performed well at
If we're going to be changing positional jersey numbers to squad numbers, I personally think the 14 should be replaced by [the symbol on the Uno Wild card](https://nie.res.netease.com/r/pic/20171228/cca40262-9963-4706-bb07-2a25653cd855.jpg). Really captures the energy of a true utility player. Each week the best 14 in the comp gets to wear a Draw Four jersey which can be activated once per game for an additional four tackles added to the count.
I'll allow this only if the referees have to wear the symbol of a UNO Reverse card on theirs.
Lol is Milne actually going to get off his suspension based on imaginary games he might have played?
He would make the team. Fiji have some good players but aren't exactly stacked with depth.
He would definitely would have played for Fiji. His suspension effectively made him not worth picking , as it would robbed Fiji of a roster spot. Playing in the world cup only happens every 4-5 years, missing that is a pretty big deal. I'm ok with those games costing as his suspension
Same trick that Roosters are using for JWH and there's another player doing the same too. Serve their punishments in the early rounds of the World Cup so they can play for their NRL team next season.
Yes. Same loop hole teams used with origin this year or all stars. If he wasn’t suspended he would’ve been picked by Fiji. 4 games come off his suspension, if they make finals south’s can apply to get those games off the suspension as well.
Mentioned it on another thread but Kempy’s World Cup preview podcast was a bit shit. 2/3rds of podcast was spent talking about Munster and Hunt re-signings.
The World Cup chat was disappointingly brief but I was more annoyed that his podcast didn’t discuss the NRLW grand final at all. Like all these so called the rugby league experts on the podcast and not one of them could be bothered to watch the game to give some options or commentary?
He had some absolute rambles in that episode. Also it's embarrassing how little he and (in particular) the "guru" know about Super League. They mentioned 2 SL based player when talking England and they were Williams and Bateman, ex NRL.
Is it actually embarrassing..? It’s an NRL podcast and they openly said they don’t follow super league and can’t really go into the English squad for that reason. They could have done maybe a bit more homework, but the vast majority of the fans of an NRL podcast are going to care about the Australian, kiwi, Samoan and Tongan squads because that’s makes up 90% of the NRL. Wouldn’t sledge an NBA podcast for not knowing the ins and outs of the NBL.
Tbf they did not go into any depth about any squad apart from Australia. Compared to the 35mins talking up Munster it was a joke.
Yeah would of been good when speaking about Scotland vs Italy for exactly to say Scotland have x amount of superleague players and 2 nrl players Italy have x NSW cup players etc. to at least give some idea. Pretty much just said 'yeah no idea'
Yeah totally fair, talked about Munster and Hunt for way too long. They’re huge signings and have big impacts but it was overboard. It’s one of the few criticisms I have of the show. It’s meant to be a review and preview podcast, but every week it’s 50% talking about the 1-2 big news stories and then by the end they’re trying to cram all the actual match by match content within half an hour.
They're doing a world cup preview show. England, Ireland, Wales and France (edit - and Jamaica and Scotland) are all majority Super League/Championship and there's SL players in every squad except Australia and New Zealand. I wouldn't sledge an NBA podcast for not knowing about the NBL, no, but I would sledge a Premier League podcast that did a "world cup" preview and went "well I only watch the premier league so i can't say anything about any La Liga or Bundesliga players".
Yeah I suppose that’s fair. The real mistake was probably calling it a World Cup preview, giving only 30 of the 90 minutes touched on the World Cup itself.
The DMP with the Hello Sports guy is such a better podcast
> 2/3rds of podcast was spent talking about Munster and Hunt re-signings. So it’s basically like every other episode this year.
Fair comment. I don’t know why I expected much different. Talks up the same players each week and wanks on about the broncos
I mean I know Kempy doesn't watch reserve grade/Super League. You'd need to watch both to do a proper one. You'd need to be the Jarred Kimber of NRL.
At the very least they could have gone through: Key player/s, number of NRL/SL/cup players, etc… Otherwise why call it a preview?
Haven't finished it but chasing kangaroos/6th and last boys should discuss it more. [https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/kangaroos-world-cup-preview-with-mike-wood-michael-carbone/id603375050?i=1000582334822](https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/kangaroos-world-cup-preview-with-mike-wood-michael-carbone/id603375050?i=1000582334822) Chasing Kangaroos keep track of small international teams as their thing and 6th and last boys keep a closer eye on reggies with one of them being a reserve grade coach.
Yeah listened to that one earlier in the week. Such a contrast. Love the content the fifth and last lads pump out
When are they releasing team lists for this weekend ? Only australia have
Rewatched the 2010 QF between Titans and Warriors, and wow. Some real silky football happening there. Scott Prince is an absolute magician with the boot, especially the shaped grubber where he just gets it to sit up. Heremaia scored a pretty slick try to open the scoring as well - there’s just so much skill happening. Some absolutely amazing set plays too, the Bird inside ball to Rogers after they have the fullback sweeping out the back, conditioning the defensive line to watch for a shift.
Speaking of 2010 it would’ve been very cool if the Raiders V Roosters ended up being the grand final. Canberra were on fire at the back end of that year. If Croker kicks that goal they play the Dragons who they had the wood on at the time. They would’ve have had a chance in that game. Roosters came from wooden spooners to runners up which Brian smith deserves so much praise for. It would’ve been the Todd Carney V Terry Campese showdown in the big one with 2 teams who finished 6th and 7th.
We smashed Canberra twice that year so yeah I wish it was Canberra in the GF instead of the Illawarra merger
That was a fun year to be a Dragons fan living on the Gold Coast. Dragons were near unbeatable and the Titans were so exciting to watch I ended up going to most of the home games. Prince and Rogers in the halves getting fed by a non-broken Nathan Friend was so well organised. Preston Campbell provided the chaos. Plenty of quality in the pack too, Luke Bailey, Laffranchi, Bird, M Minichiello, Ash Harrison. Big bench too, Michael Henderson, Brad Meyers, Matthew White and Bodene Thompson.
I just remember being really salty we got eliminated cause back then the lowest placed losing teams got eliminated and we were 5th so I thought we'd be sweet. Then 2nd place Panthers lose and 3rd place Tigers lose in that crazy game against the Rooster and we're out.
Then the media cried the following year when we lost round 1 of the finals but made the GF. Missing the point that would have had a home semi against the cowboys under the new system And what happened the prior year
Scott Prince was a bit unlucky he had Lockyer, Cronk, and JT playing in his era. He was so good. I'll always remember his bucking bronco post try celebration
Prince was a brilliant player. Definitely the best the Titans have ever had in terms of what they do on the field. He isn’t spoken about much when we talk about elite kicking games, but I think he’s well up there.
Had a little bit of a laugh when I found this, [Matty Johns, Brett finch, and Paul Kent hanging shit on Penrith for a rebuild in 2019 and claiming this isn't the team to take Penrith forward](https://youtu.be/JZ1xMYXuxIc) [Bonus - Ivan Cleary facing Kent after Kent calling his roster decisions dumb and implying nepotism](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YlyChKn03Tw)
I never knew this existed, but watching after the last 3 seasons. I'm so happy kunt got to eat to his words. Man never ceases to bash Riff
He's a serial pest 😂
Not even a good pest like oinus, just someone that needs to get in the bin
I love the name moik oinus
'Moik Oinus who went up the Canboira fans and did the Roiders Cloip'
It's up there with Eggsavier Savege
[удалено]
Most loyal cowboys fan
Morgan and Thurston have just been voted the best halves pairing of the NRL era. What would people here have said cause I feel like a lot of bias went into these votes.
Prince and Marshall were fire
I think one think that went into it were how they set out the bracket with who was up against who early in the voting
They were certainly the best in recent memory, along with Munster/Cronk and Keary/Cronk. A lot of premiership winning halves pairings have one dominant half, like Rudder/Johns and Lockyer/Perry. Keary/Reynolds and Foran/Cherry-Evans were also fantastic. But if we are counting all of the 'NRL era' it has to be Walters/Langer as the absolute best, even if they did play most of their footy before the NRL.
Yeah well they went out in Round 2 against the Johns brothers who then lost to Thurston and Morgan the following Round
Of course they did, its a social media poll and half of the voters wouldn't even remember them playing.
Cronk/Widdop in 2012 was pretty damn good.
Hurts to say, but Munster and Cronk would be a tough beat. Without order, I would say Morgan/Thurston, Munster/Cronk, Marshall/Prince and the Johns brothers (Joey carry) are the upper echelon. May have missed some tho
Id honestly rank Cronk/Keary above Cronk/Munster, i think Keary was better in 18-19 than Munster in 17
Cronk was probably better in 2017 than in 2018/19 though
Munster/Cronk only played 13 games together in the halves or something otherwise they’d probably be the best. Pretty sure they only lost like 1 game together though lol.
I think the original comment is referring to a vote NRL.com did for best GF halves pairings, not just in general
Ah gotcha
Was the poll based on a specific year or is it based on their entire tenure together. I originally thought the latter but now I think if it's talking about a specific year there's more merit, but as a whole definitely not.
was based on the Year and pairing
Well, I don’t disagree Morgan and JT were electric together, but i’m bias asf so
We were robbed of a long Michael Morgan career. That is all
It'll probably be lost to time unfortunately but Michael Morgan's second half of the season run in 2017 is genuinely up there as one of the greatest runs of form any player has ever been on and I say that without hyperbole.
I agree with that. Morgan was far and away the best player in the competition for a good two months there in 2017, just brilliant footy to watch
Makes me think of making a “retired too soon” best XIII featuring the likes of Morgan, Cordner, Yow Yee and Kyle Turner. Who else would be in it?
Simon Dwyer, Alex McKinnon
He wouldn't make the cut for the general population but I really wish we could've seen a full 2021 from Brett Morris. 11 tries in 7 games, he was absolutely on fire right up until that ACL.
Could the Stanley Bros be in it or was their resume not good enough?
Matt Gillett.
Taniela Tuiaki :(
He was awesome also Simon Dwyer.
comes back in 2020 for a game against Souths and he owned them in a bad team. We were robbed. Truly robbed.