Almanac Rugby League

The Almanac Rugby league Crew

If you’d like to publish a rugby league story on The Footy Almanac website, please contact Ian Hauser.

 

If you’d like to join the Footy Almanac’s rugby league email list to receive our regular
Thursday updates during the season and occasional updates in the off-season, contact John Harms in the first instance.

 

The Footy Almanac’s coverage of rugby league features a team of four regular columnists:

Ian Hauser provides a round by round preview/review and comments on specific players/incidents.
Matt O’Hanlon (Prop by the Sea) offers a quirky take of the week’s happenings on and off the field.
Mark Shannon (The Prospector) comments on various issues in the code, both historical and current.
Russel Hansen (Rabbit in the Vineyard) gives a specific take on South Sydney’s progress.

as well as numerous other occasional contributors.

Our collection of articles appears below. The first article was published in 2010.

 

Almanac Rugby League – Going the distance

September 13, 2011 by Leave a Comment

You learn a lot about life from watching Rocky movies. “It’s not about how hard you hit, but about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward,” Sylvester Stallone’s iconic character Rocky Balboa says in the final film of the franchise. “[It’s about] how much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s [Read more]

Almanac Rugby League – A clinical win, an expected loss

September 12, 2011 by Leave a Comment

The Knights hadn’t beaten the Storm in Melbourne for seven years and despite Melbourne losing their last two matches of the regular season, this Knights fan was pretty confident of another loss being added to that record. The first fifteen minutes was fairly back and forth. The Knights looked to exploit Melbourne’s up and in [Read more]

Almanac Rugby League – The kids are alright

September 12, 2011 by Leave a Comment

The Warriors have flown under the radar very effectively in the lead-up to this year’s finals series. They managed to get into Brisbane this week with barely a mention. Instead, it was all about the Broncos, the loss of Hoffmann and Thaiday, finding someone to protect Lockyer in the defensive line, and Hodges’ gammy hammy. [Read more]

Almanac Rugby League – Dragons/Tigers: The link between footy and the dishes

September 12, 2011 by 3 Comments

There has been precious little written about the link between the NRL finals and washing dishes. Perhaps because I’m the only evidence of this link. At half-time in last year’s grand final, with the Roosters leading 8-6 in a tight game I was a ball of nervous energy. With more than three decades of waiting [Read more]

Almanac Rugby League – Shaken but not stirred

September 12, 2011 by Leave a Comment

It was 9.20pm on Saturday 24 September 2005 and I was shaken to the core as the siren at the Sydney Football Stadium rang out. Not that I could actually hear it above the din of thousands of West Tigers fanatics writhing with ecstasy across the concourse and grandstand of the Sydney home of rugby [Read more]

Almanac Rugby League – Restarting the tackle count of hope

September 12, 2011 by Leave a Comment

The life of a North Queensland Cowboys fan is not an easy one. Having just completed our 17th home and away season across the ARL/ Super League/ NRL competitions and reaching the finals series for only the fourth time is an underwhelming return. If the Cowboys were an investment stock, there wouldn’t have been too [Read more]

Almanac Rugby League – Irrepressible Tigers too good for dour Dragon

September 10, 2011 by Leave a Comment

I arrived home in time for the dressing room shots. Hate missing them. ‘The Tigers have definitely got the best uniform.’ The legendary big red V cuts no ice with Sweetheart. Coach Tim Sheens, more statesmanlike every week as his beard thickens, and the Saints’ mentor, Wayne Bennett, are rock solid and calm. ‘Who’s the [Read more]

Almanac Rugby League – A hard night’s work

September 8, 2011 by 4 Comments

COVERING a footy match seems a pretty straightforward task. I remember a Julia Roberts movie where the main male love interest was a sportswriter, depicted in the press box with a beer in hand and not a notebook in sight. If only it was really like that. In fact, covering a night match where things [Read more]

Almanac Rugby League – Channelling Tricky

September 7, 2011 by 10 Comments

I was born into an Aussie Rules family and growing up on an aboriginal mission in central Australia I was totally unaware of the existence of Rugby League for the first ten years of my life. When I was in year three my parents went on a sojourn to Europe for three months and as [Read more]

Almanac Rugby League – There’s always next year

September 7, 2011 by Leave a Comment

“What we do tonight echoes in eternity” With those immortal words, the Gladiator Russell Crowe fired up his band of underdogs to bravely take on the might of the Romans. The Gladiator of course now owns the South Sydney Rabbitohs, who with a last premiership win way back in 1971 could be put in a [Read more]