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]
Almanac Rugby League – Making the Most of a Dead Rubber
September 7, 2011 by Leave a Comment
I met a couple of Canberra Raiders when I was in year one at school. It was a uniform free day and I happened to be wearing my Canberra Raiders jersey. Two up and coming Raiders players were visiting to promote Rugby League at the grass roots level. The players happened to be Ricky Stuart [Read more]
Almanac Rugby League – All goes to script
September 6, 2011 by 2 Comments
So here I am, sitting in my house in Melbourne, straight off the plane from a business trip to India, with a mate from England, ready to watch a game of footy between a team from Queensland that everyone in NSW hates playing a team from NSW that everyone in Australia (outside of Manly) hates. [Read more]
Almanac Rugby League – A Day for Darren
September 6, 2011 by 2 Comments
Tickets for this match sold out weeks beforehand, in fact well before I was asked to review it for the Almanac. So I watched on the big screen in the lounge after an earlier sumptuous lunch. With pen and paper poised and radio on hand to get comments from ABC Grandstand, I was up for [Read more]
Almanac Rugby League – Free of the rubbish and smiling
September 5, 2011 by 1 Comment
I love rugby league. A few years ago, I was asked by a neighbour whether I had watched the Bledisloe Cup. I explained that I had not, because it clashed with 13th placed Penrith playing 14th placed North Queensland in the mud, in front of 5,000 people. He still thinks I was joking. And so, [Read more]
Almanac Rugby League – Weyman sets the Dragon’s tone
September 5, 2011 by Leave a Comment
What proved to me that Wayne Bennett is a coaching genius was the signing of Michael Weyman when he headed to the Dragons in 2009. For the record, I was aware of Bennett’s record of success with the Broncos (being a Dragons fan in 1992 and 1993, it’s impossible not to). But it was only [Read more]
Almanac Rugby League – The battle for the wooden spoon
September 4, 2011 by Leave a Comment
The excitement last week of Parramatta’s extra-time loss fuelled the Golden Girl’s fire to make it to Skilled Park for the final match of the season for the Eels and Titans. The fact that it was also the final of the Wooden Spoon- a dreaded consequence of a poor season – made it an appealing [Read more]
Almanac Rugby League – A noble rugby league tradition
September 4, 2011 by 5 Comments
For good or ill, I am an optimist, so despite another disappointing season from Canterbury and a reliance on either a Friday night draw between South Sydney and Newcastle or a Rabbitohs win followed by a mammoth Bulldogs win, I still thought there was hope for Canterbury. Mathematical chance, I believe they call it. That [Read more]
Almanac Rugby League – Finals Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder
September 4, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Come back to 1995 with me for a moment. The ARL expanded their competition by introducing four new teams – the Western Reds, the South Queensland Crushers (featuring the incomparable St John Ellis), the Auckland (subsequently New Zealand) Warriors and the North Queensland Cowboys. With my early childhood years split between Mackay and Brisbane, I [Read more]
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