As a Broncos fan who has always had a strong dislike of Manly, I’ll get the difficult part over with straight away: I have to admit Manly deserved to win. In all honesty I wasn’t expecting the Broncos to win. With Darren Lockyer missing, I sensed the Broncos wouldn’t quite have what it took to [Read more]
Almanac Rugby League – A relentless wave
September 26, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Despite the absence of my team, and ignoring the Melbourne – Newcastle game, this has been an extremely high quality finals series – the St. George/ Brisbane, St George /Wests Tigers and Wests Tigers/NZ Warriors games were all incredibly exciting but this game – from start to finish – topped the lot. It was fast, [Read more]
Almanac Rugby League – On the road
September 24, 2011 by 1 Comment
We are under immense pressure to perfect what shapes as a great game. We are in the trusted Commodore heading north. The only friend of the driver is the ABC radio and the pressure is from my obsessive goal to hit Miriam Vale at half-time to have the finest road food in Queensland –possibly Australia [Read more]
Almanac Rugby League – The Lang Park Report: 17 September 2011.
September 22, 2011 by Leave a Comment
By Greg Strohal My maiden visit to Lang Park was a memorable one. The crowd some 48,000 was primed for an epic contest. We caught the bus from Adelaide Street and arrived at Lang Park and were greeted by a real buzz surrounding Lockyer’s last. We walk around to Caxton Street and took the obligatory [Read more]
Almanac Rugby League – The Old Boys Can Bar corner and the 50 cent doubles
September 19, 2011 by 3 Comments
The Preliminary Finals of the Queensland Cup were both played at Redcliffe’s Dolphin Oval this weekend with two clear-cut results setting up an intriguing Grand Final next Sunday at Lang Park. Full credit to ABC-TV for telecasting both games live throughout the State. Memo to ABC-TV bean counters: In your drive to cut costs in [Read more]
Almanac Rugby League – The fairytale continues
September 19, 2011 by Leave a Comment
For someone who appears not to particularly enjoy the attention of the public spotlight , Darren Lockyer gets plenty of it. Don’t get me wrong, Lockyer is entirely accommodating with the media, public and corporate demands. He is pure sporting hero. But I can’t help think sometimes the demands of attention must be tiring and [Read more]
Almanac Rugby League – Justice
September 19, 2011 by Leave a Comment
I was watching a program on SBS last week (insert obligatory “not that sort of show” comment here) on the problems involved with online gambling and it got me thinking how the changes in gambling had affected our day to day lives. Now, in my mind, if you can find your way through all the Senator [Read more]
Almanac Rugby League – The fairytale continues
September 18, 2011 by 1 Comment
For a lot of people the main focus of this game involves Wayne Bennett and Darren Lockyer. The pair established a strong relationship when Bennett coached at the Broncos, slotting him in at fullback early in his career before moving him to five-eighth – and moulding him into an international in both positions. But more [Read more]
Almanac Rugby League – Don’t panic
September 18, 2011 by 1 Comment
I’m not a betting man, but if I was I’d say my game would be omen betting. As tactics go, it’s probably questionable at best, but given my lack of allegiances as I settled in to watch the Tigers take on the Warriors on Friday night I had absolutely nothing else to go on. I [Read more]
Almanac Rugby League – A numbers game
September 13, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Coming into this weekend I found myself once again scratching my head, just like most rugby league fans as to how this McIntyre Finals system operates. Apparently it’s all about rankings, and provided you keep winning, elimination isn’t a problem. On the surface, it sounds simple enough. But delving a little deeper, I realised that [Read more]
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]
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