The NRL thread

by Luke Mon 02 Apr 2012, 6:43 pm

First topic message reminder :

Following on from other threads to make the RL section easier to follow, we know have this thread. So all news etc from what is in my opnion the best league in RL, views and other things that people want to add or put across about the Aussie/New Zealand leagues, please feel free to put in here.

Parramatta's remarkable skipper Nathan Hindmarsh has announced that this year will be his last. After a fantastic career that has spaned 15 years, and over 300 games, all for the Eels.

Melbourne's Cooper Cronk has signed a 4 year deal to remain at the club.

New Zealand Warriors utility Lewis Brown will be leaving the club at the end of this year. After agreeing a 3 year deal with the Penrith Panthers.

A potential white night has gone public with his intentions to save financially stricken NRL club the Gold Coast Titans.
Billy Rae has said that his consortium are deadly series in there take over bid. Meanwhile media reports say that Scott Hill & 5 other buisness men are a rival consortium to take over the Titans.
Th

by **Pal Joey** Thu 07 Mar 2013, 8:34 pm

Apparently more players will be named today from other clubs.

by **Kenny** Thu 07 Mar 2013, 8:39 pm

yes i caught a bit on Skysports with a few Manly players being interviewed

by aucklandlaurie Thu 07 Mar 2013, 9:14 pm

On New Zealand Skysports, they are saying That Cronulla will fullypay their players if they do a six month suspension.

Apparently (used loosely) 47 players are involved of those 17 have retired.

by **Kenny** Thu 07 Mar 2013, 9:16 pm

The thing i dont get at the Cronulla players is how can the authorities offer them 6 month bans if they admit it now rather then upto 2 years if found guilty ?

by aucklandlaurie Thu 07 Mar 2013, 9:31 pm

Kenny, My understanding is that if they sign a confession now and do the 6 month suspension then the ASADA (Australia's sports drug enforcement agency) will offer them immunity from any further action, might just check with Linebreaker that Im on the right line of thought when he comes on.

by **Kenny** Thu 07 Mar 2013, 9:35 pm

cheers laurie

by aucklandlaurie Thu 07 Mar 2013, 9:38 pm

Just saw this on the Telegraph site.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/nrl/cronulla-sharks-offer-players-payment-in-return-for-guilty-plea-to/story-e6frexnr-1226592766069

by **Kenny** Thu 07 Mar 2013, 9:42 pm

wow it really is a can of worms , if the players accept how will that leave Cronullas squad for this season given it starts today ?

by aucklandlaurie Thu 07 Mar 2013, 9:50 pm

Beau Ryan was on the Footy show last nught saying that they would just play reserve grade players.

The season actually started last night, excellant game of league South Sydney (Bunnies) beat Easts 28 -10, you may be interested to know that Sam Burgess had an excellant game as did his brother (the fairer haired one, Ive forgotten his name ) Nathan Merritt scored a hat trick, and Sonny Bill played 60 minutes and scored a try (for Easts alias Roosters).

by **Kenny** Thu 07 Mar 2013, 9:57 pm

Tom or George (they are twins )

was that a Premiership game ?

by aucklandlaurie Thu 07 Mar 2013, 10:06 pm

Yes one of the twins, I was talking about the one that doesnt look like Sam.he got a try as well.

Yes it was the first game of the NRL 2013 season, Tonight weve got the Broncos playing Manly up in Brisbane.

by **Pal Joey** Fri 08 Mar 2013, 12:30 am

Yeah, it was George. He's really bulked up.

Kenny, England need them both in their starting line-up. They're a great combination - one always knows where the other is and they look so powerful taking the ball up.

by George Hotel1895 Wed 13 Mar 2013, 12:38 am

Sharks chairman quits. All happening at the the club at the moment.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/nrl/chairman-damian-irvine-set-to-stand-down-from-cronulla-sharks/story-e6frexnr-1226596166091

by George Hotel1895 Wed 13 Mar 2013, 1:03 am

Kate Lundy told to put up or shut up.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/asada-must-put-up-or-shut-up/story-e6freuy9-1226595557225

by **Pal Joey** Wed 13 Mar 2013, 4:01 am

George Hotel1895 wrote:Kate Lundy told to put up or shut up.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/asada-must-put-up-or-shut-up/story-e6freuy9-1226595557225

I agree with Melham. They need to get ASADA to cut to the chase and name names. No use terrorising clubs, coaching staff, medicos, players and fans and taking a threatening position without offering up specific details of their investigation.

Don't get me wrong - I agree that this area of the game has to be cleaned up. However, at the moment it is merely bullying and intimidation of clubs like Cronulla and we still don't know who did what... and who was responsible for doing whatever.

I couldn't help but notice that in the first week of the season, the NRL have decided to strengthen their ties with the betting agencies. We now get these dodgy gambling types standing on the sidelines before, during and after matches offering odds on all sorts of 'markets'. Who creates these? The Betting Agencies. Or does the NRL have a say in the prices being set?

Surely we can all see the correlation between the desperate need for players/clubs to perform to their utmost (and therefore taking PEDs) and the growing interest (i.e. big $$$) in getting every man and his dog to have a flutter. The punters are now being told things like "if your team loses by X... we'll refund your money"... therefore pumping more & more money into the coffers of the Betting people and NRL.

It's like telling people not to speed on the roads and then offering discounts on Ferraris. It really is quite sick and the NRL is clearly complicit in creating this current dope-riddled sports environment.

It's being debated in Parliament as I type. PM trying to throw her fast diminishing political weight around offering "more resources to ASADA". Funny, given all the massive corruption that has been exposed in her own Party and all the crooks & gamblers associated with it. "A Fair Australia" my arse!! Can you see the big picture? How these people can keep a straight face and say that is beyond me - but that's nothing new.

by aucklandlaurie Wed 20 Mar 2013, 8:45 pm

linebreaker, Interesting comments.

When this all first broke about a month ago, Julia was up in front of any TV camera sayine how bad everything was, how great ASADA was etc etc .
Now after a month we ahve nothing.

Guillard has to respect the following:
1. Broadcasters have paid (with their subscribers fees) a lot of money to broadcast these codes in a number of countries, and all the drug innuendo is deminishing the value of that product.

2. Yes she is the Prime minister of Australia, but this whole drugs/ASADA/sport thing goes further than Australia's Territorial fishing limits, she isnt the Prime minister of everywhere.

3. The longer this goes without names being named, then the message it sends to any potential drug cheats is that ASADA 's got nothing, and end up doing nothing but encouraging crime, corruption and drug cheating.

by **Pal Joey** Thu 21 Mar 2013, 11:50 am

I've just realised we now get 6 days of NRL straight. 5 days of matches - 1 day of 'live' discussions, analysis, team line ups, etc... so there's only one day (Tuesday) when we don't get anything live.

More bloody options for the gamblers / drug cheats to spread things out a bit.

by George Hotel1895 Sun 24 Mar 2013, 1:41 am

Mal Meninga thinks that the Sharks should be moved interstate for their good and for the good of Rugby League.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/nrl/time-to-move-sharks-interstate/story-e6frexnr-1226604167901

by aucklandlaurie Sun 24 Mar 2013, 7:24 am

linebreaker

I must say I was very dissappointed with the Manly performance last night and in particular Watmough and jamie Lyon, did you think down similar lines?..... That game was there for the taking.

by **Pal Joey** Mon 25 Mar 2013, 11:41 am

They seemed to start slow and finished strongly. Just left it too late.

Brent Kite has signed up with the Panthers for 2014-15 so will be leaving Manly at the end of the season. He has served us very well ever since he came over from the Saints.

by **Pal Joey** Wed 27 Mar 2013, 7:16 am

I heard that the Dragons and the Panthers are ready to pounce on Kurtley Beale - should he fall on the wayside of the ARU.

by **Kenny** Thu 28 Mar 2013, 2:24 pm

I heard Craig Wing maybe on his way back to NRL ? if so were is he likely to go ?

by **Pal Joey** Fri 29 Mar 2013, 11:21 pm

Not sure. He'd probably want to be at Souths again.

by **Kenny** Sat 30 Mar 2013, 9:37 am

do you think the Eels would go in for him ? he could offer some experience getting around the park

by **Pal Joey** Mon 01 Apr 2013, 8:01 am

He'd fit in well there.

The Warriors have upset the Cowboys 20-18 in Auckland.
Roosters - Eels kicks off in about an hour. Looking forward to it... should be a good game.

by George Hotel1895 Wed 03 Apr 2013, 12:29 am

Linebreaker wrote:He'd fit in well there.
The Warriors have upset the Cowboys 20-18 in Auckland.
Roosters - Eels kicks off in about an hour. Looking forward to it... should be a good game.

I thought the Warriors were the worst side i had seen the the NRL this season, and then i saw the the Eels again. they look like a rudderless ship to me.

by aucklandlaurie Wed 03 Apr 2013, 11:44 pm

Kenny wrote:do you think the Eels would go in for him ? he could offer some experience getting around the park

At the moment Parramatta would go for blind Freddy if they could.

by **Pal Joey** Thu 04 Apr 2013, 11:11 pm

I'm a little shocked at Parra's recent performances too. They seemed full of confidence in that first match. Can't quite work it out - they have some decent players in there so maybe it's a psychological thing? Sticky's comments won't help... he needs to zip it and work something out... get behind the players and not diss them in public.

by **Pal Joey** Tue 16 Apr 2013, 3:09 am

Ricky Stuart and Parramatta club fined $10,000 for comments made post match criticising the referee.

by **Kenny** Tue 16 Apr 2013, 2:10 pm

yes didn't get the .... " we dont get decisions because we dont have star players " thing . Thats not the way to build confidence in the team

by **Pal Joey** Tue 16 Apr 2013, 2:19 pm

Silly outburst. He does it every year. The team played so well for most of that game - maybe he has a point but he's got to zip it in front of the cameras.

by aucklandlaurie Tue 16 Apr 2013, 8:36 pm

No one could ever accuse Sticky of not saying whats on his mind.

by **Pal Joey** Wed 17 Apr 2013, 10:29 am

You can read him like an analogue watch.

by **Kenny** Wed 17 Apr 2013, 3:07 pm

St George Illawarra half back Jamie Soward will join Penrith from next season

by **Pal Joey** Wed 17 Apr 2013, 3:10 pm

Yes, Saints are after Carney so Soward has signed a 4-year deal with the Panthers.

by **Kenny** Wed 17 Apr 2013, 3:15 pm

St George Illawarra Dragons had this to say about Rangi Chase

"As has been speculated for some time, we are in a strong position regarding recruitment but we have never been interested in speculating," said chief executive Peter Doust.

"When we have a number of matters finalised, we will communicate appropriately."

by **Pal Joey** Thu 18 Apr 2013, 3:20 am

Cronulla coach Shane Flangan is confident of re-signing star play maker Todd Carney to a new deal within days.

http://www.foxsports.com.au/league/nrl-premiership/cronulla-coach-shane-flangan-is-confident-of-re-signing-star-play-maker-todd-carney-within-days/story-fn2mcuj6-1226622957969#.UW9YRKBVbIk

by **Pal Joey** Thu 18 Apr 2013, 3:22 am

Newcastle Knights back-rower Jeremy Smith has failed in his bid to have a dangerous contact charge downgraded at the NRL Judiciary and will miss six games.

The New Zealand representative was effectively always going to miss Friday night's Test against Australia after he pleaded guilty - but he was hopeful of a downgrade to two weeks.

Instead the initial charge was upheld and he'll now find himself out of five NRL games for the Knights as well as the Test in Canberra.

Smith was the second man involved in the tackle of Penrith's Matt Robinson during their 8-6 win over the Panthers on Saturday at Hunter Stadium.

His arm and elbow came into contact with Robinson's face and the Panther's head hit the ground heavily after the contact.

The initial grading carried a four-match ban but because of a prior offence in the past two years, Smith was hit with the six-game suspension.

by **Pal Joey** Thu 18 Apr 2013, 3:23 am

St George Illawarra are reportedly on the verge of signing Canberra back rower Joel Thompson to a three-year $1.3 million deal.

Just hours after announcing the loss of key play maker Jamie Soward to Penrith, The Illawarra Mercury reports that the Dragons are poised to announce the signing of Thompson.

by **Pal Joey** Thu 18 Apr 2013, 3:24 am

Josh Reynolds has broken his silence on the injury that forced him out of Sunday's City-Country clash in Coffs Harbour - admitting he is shattered about not playing but he doesn't blame Canterbury-Bankstown for ruling him out.

The star five-eighth was at the centre of a selection controversy this week after he was passed fit by the City team's medical staff but was then ruled out by his club doctor.

Reynolds said speculation his injury was not legitimate was totally incorrect - and as for critics saying his withdrawal is further proof the annual clash has lost its relevance, Reynolds had this message: "People are tossing up this game is not worth having anymore.

"It is a rep game and this would have been my first rep jumper. I truly wish I was playing.

"To get to represent City would have been a massive, massive thing for me.

"I made it clear I wanted to play and there is no doubt about that."

by **Pal Joey** Thu 18 Apr 2013, 3:27 am

Anti-doping agents have sprung random drug tests on the New Zealand team ahead of Friday night's Anzac Test against Australia in Canberra.

New Zealand players and officials were stunned when a large contingent of officials from Drug Free Sport New Zealand arrived at the team hotel on Tuesday night.

"They certainly turned up in numbers," reported one Kiwi player.

It is understood that between "eight to 10" players were tested. Drug Free Sport is the equivalent of Australia's anti-doping authority ASADA.

News of the move shocked the Australian camp because drug-testing rarely happens during the lead-up to a Test.

by **Pal Joey** Thu 18 Apr 2013, 3:29 am

City Origin coach and NSW legend Brad Fittler says it is imperative City v Country stays as a long term fixture on the rugby league calendar as it provides a genuine audition for the New South Wales State of Origin side.

"Where we are with Origin at the moment, we need to be thinking in advance," told foxsports.com.au.

"The opposition has done a lot better than we have. Getting the support from Cary (NSW Rugby League CEO Geoff Carr) is enormous because he’s under a lot of pressure.

"I think the game will look after itself purely from an entertainment point of view. If we get to pick the players we want and the players want to be there then the game will stand-up."

by **Pal Joey** Thu 18 Apr 2013, 3:33 am

Peter Sterling weighs into the City-Country debate, arguing the rep fixture still matters.

"I understand why such a question mark hangs over City-Country, however it would still be disappointing to see it go by the wayside for someone who has such great memories of it.

While it was a source of regret in that from five attempts, with four as captain, I was never on a winning Country team, the experience itself was fantastic.

That was at a time when it really was more about country football and the opportunity for boys from the bush to take on those city slickers who had it all."

Many critics argue that the game serves no real purpose, yet respected figures such as Bob Fulton and Wayne Bennett continue to see value in it being on the calendar.

When assessing Sunday's clash in Coffs Harbour the first thing that needs to be acknowledged is that it is not a possibles versus probables when it comes to State of Origin selection.

NSW coach Laurie Daley will certainly have an eagle eye on the contest but it will have more to do with future representative selection than for the upcoming series.

by **Pal Joey** Thu 18 Apr 2013, 3:36 am

Kangaroos star Johnathan Thurston reveals he considered pledging allegiance to New Zealand in 2004.

On the eve of the Anzac Test, the Kangaroos five-eighth has revealed he strongly considered pledging his allegiance to New Zealand after an approach from goalkicking legend Darryl Halligan to play in the 2004 Tri-Nations series.

"Yeah, I do remember that," Thurston grins, surprised by the question.

At the time, Thurston was in the early stages of his career at the Bulldogs. And while he had been mentioned as an Origin player of the future he was firmly parked behind Queensland great Darren Lockyer. Thurston's father Graham is a New Zealander, while mum Deborah is indigenous.

by **Pal Joey** Thu 18 Apr 2013, 3:38 am

Maroons captain Cameron Smith says Dave Taylor should be one of the world's best rugby league players - but says a lack of maturity is costing the Titans hulk Queensland and Australia jumpers.

Read more: http://www.foxsports.com.au/league/maroons-captain-cameron-smith-says-lack-of-maturity-stopping-dave-taylor-from-being-one-of-worlds-greats/story-e6frf3ou-1226623367544#ixzz2QmLPgwmt

by **Pal Joey** Thu 18 Apr 2013, 3:41 am

Watch "Sterlo" from 7.30pm EST Thursday night to see exclusive inside access with Ricky Stuart.

http://www.foxsports.com.au/league/nrl-premiership/watch-sterlo-from-730pm-est-thursday-night-to-see-exclusive-inside-access-with-ricky-stuart/story-fn2mcuj6-1226622896463#.UW9dEKBVbIk

by aucklandlaurie Thu 18 Apr 2013, 8:16 am

Linebreaker wrote:Anti-doping agents have sprung random drug tests on the New Zealand team ahead of Friday night's Anzac Test against Australia in Canberra.

New Zealand players and officials were stunned when a large contingent of officials from Drug Free Sport New Zealand arrived at the team hotel on Tuesday night.

"They certainly turned up in numbers," reported one Kiwi player.

It is understood that between "eight to 10" players were tested. Drug Free Sport is the equivalent of Australia's anti-doping authority ASADA.

News of the move shocked the Australian camp because drug-testing rarely happens during the lead-up to a Test.

I wonder if they tested any of the Australians?

by **Pal Joey** Thu 18 Apr 2013, 10:13 am

They might get a knock on the door tonight.

What is interesting is the free junket these doping agents get. The trip to Canberra would surely cost more than if they'd done this at home. The timing is certainly a bit shocking.

by aucklandlaurie Thu 18 Apr 2013, 11:08 pm

LB actually Canberra probably makes sense.

Ive felt for quite some time now that in Australia, drugs in sport has far more to do with politics than sport...

by **Pal Joey** Fri 19 Apr 2013, 9:47 am

More to do with the $ I'd say. 'politics' is maybe a means to that end.

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