Almanac Rugby League

For general use

 

If you’d like to join the Almanac’s rugby league email list to receive regular
updates during the season and occasional updates in the off-season, contact John Harms in the first instance at: [email protected]

 

 

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

Almanac Rugby League – NRL R24, 2011: Glory, glory to South Sydney

August 20, 2011 by 1 Comment

We’re heading west on Parramatta Road. Every other car has a white rabbit sticker on its back window. After looking like dead men walking just a month ago, Souths have won three in a row and are suddenly in with a show of making the semis. If they win tonight, that is. Boxhead and I [Read more]

Almanac Rugby League – NRL R24, 2011: Celebrating Billy

August 20, 2011 by 2 Comments

I first visited Melbourne in 2000, a lads trip from Canberra in a busted-up Camry that lost both reverse and fifth gear mid-trek as Rohan, Bommy, The Judge and I all took our turns holding the bastard in fifth as we chugged down the Hume. It was the first time I had met Parko. We [Read more]

Almanac Rugby League – Fire Up

August 18, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Fans who enjoy Rugby League can consider this the end of the rainbow because they have just found their pot of gold Stephen Ferris and I (Brett Oaten) host a rugby league “show” every Friday morning on FBI 94.5 in Sydney and have done so for many years. Our standards are so low that not [Read more]

Almanac Rugby League – Rugby League comes to The Footy Almanac

August 18, 2011 by 5 Comments

Growing up as a young Canterbury diehard in Orange, when all you would get were two games a week on television and your main contact with the Big League came through Rugby League Week and The Daily Telegraph, the highlight of every Christmas was David Middleton’s Rugby League yearbook. The book was a goldmine for [Read more]

Almanac Rugby League – Monday nights

August 1, 2011 by 1 Comment

Monday night was good for nothing much at all in the old days. Except rissoles and mash and getting over the trauma of returning to work. Footy training was on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I do remember one Monday night, though, in the mid-80s when my mate PJ and I decided to go to the Keperra [Read more]

Almanac Rugby League – Celebrating Darren Lockyer

July 11, 2011 by 8 Comments

Darren Lockyer still has a few games of football left in him, but when he stood on the stage after Queensland’s victory last Wednesday night, the whole of the maroon world paused to listen and to reflect for a moment with him. With humility in his face, he turned to the crowd, and in a [Read more]

Almanac Rugby League – State of Origin 3

July 6, 2011 by 5 Comments

  byDavid Butler NSW go into tonight’s State Of Origin decider at Lang Park with a realistic chance of winning the series they have failed to win for the last 5 years. Even those like myself who have had only a passing interest in Rugby League after having been immersed in it as a kid [Read more]

Almanac Rugby League – Katter’s FNQ position stable thanks to good old rugby league

June 24, 2011 by 6 Comments

When, on Wednesday, Bob Katter rose to his feet in the lower house of the national parliament and defended Johnathan Thurstons, some condemned his actions. They said that Australian politics had fallen to the depths, and that it showed how disgraceful this parliament was. (“The worst in Australian history”). People weren’t of that view in [Read more]

Almanac Rugby League – Queensland, just.

May 26, 2011 by 4 Comments

Yet another fine, fine example of the State of Origin genre last night: Queensland come out powerfully with their two props creaming New South up the guts, and with the defence back-pedalling, Cam Smith, JT and Locky going nuts and throwing the ball around beautifully. They score and it looks like the same thing is [Read more]

Almanac Rugby League – Some Origin thoughts from an ecumenical fan

May 25, 2011 by 3 Comments

by Lee Carney Australia is a unique country when it comes to its sport and particularly the football codes, like fans of sport in all nations we follow our teams religiously, having our moods go up and down based on the fortunes, of what in this era of trades and free agency is really a [Read more]