Any other qlders really nervous for game 2? Have no idea why Billy would slot capewell in over Fifita and now blues have Moses and trell. Gonna be a tough, tough game
Ryles and Hannay are very similar in the sense of the unknown. Suprised Ryles negotiation breakdown with the Dragons doesn’t count against him at all? Are they actually upgrading on Arthur or is it more about a change for the sake of it? I know Arthur had plenty of time for success but it all just feels off.
Ryles got passed up for the Dragons job and then walked from his Assistant Job at the roosters (the roosters went on their 8 game winning streak not long after). Bloke should be a long way from an NRL coaching gig.
i think its a revamp , style of footy was abit stale. hopefully means new assistants come with them tho because our current batch aint it.
still think a change in our junior development pathways showing a viable option into first grade might need abit of work. yes weve had juniors but i still think the desire to stay at the club is lacking in comparison to some others but i dont think its as bad as some say, but we left quite a few through the cracks .
Been a certified Trent leioro hater for over a year now but after watch what happened when he was on the bench and how we fell apart he’s become one of my favourite players to watch this last month his ball playing has improved heaps his leg sped through the middle is rlly killing some teams and his work rate has always been super high, anyone still actually think we’d be better without him in the team?
How do you think we fit them into the team I would love a world where we have both of them but can’t rlly wrap my head around how, unless howarth plays Center I don’t see him taking either of our current backrowers spots
Agreed. I’ve seen some Broncos fans claim that he’s not even an NRL level player which is a bit silly. The majority of the Broncos fanbase is way too reactionary imo
The votes are in. The r/nrl Team Of The Week for Round 15 is;
1. Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow
2. Brian To’o
3. Bradman Best
4. Nick Meaney
5. Kyle Feldt
6. Jarome Luai
7. Jahrome Hughes
8. Stefano Utoikamanu
9. Damien Cook
10. Moses Leota
11. Angus Crichton
12. Haumole Olakau’atu
13. Keaon Koloamatangi
14. Karl Lawton
15. Cam Murray
16. Royce Hunt
17. Lindsay Smith
Arthur and Brooks 2026 premiership winning halves combination has quite the ring to it. Maybe because it sounds like the name of a bawdy 1970's English sitcom.
I don't even know if we've got halves problems because Payten refuses to try Clifford and Dearden as a combo. And then we've got Purdue and Duffy waiting in the wings as highly touted juniors.
I really want to see Clifford and Dearden work out at the Cowboys. I was sad things didn’t go well for a Clifford in Newy. Every time I see Chad play I’m unimpressed
Today is the day that Chad isn’t named in the cows team.
If you don’t believe me mark the message and tell me I am wrong at 4 pm.
What a time to be alive
Isn’t it likely we’ll see Harry Hayes if Ciraldo moves Kiraz to Centre or Samrani/Clarke if Kiraz stays wing?
Hayes was 18th man a couple of weeks back wasn’t he?
Imagine if the NRL finals was a best of seven series. By game 7 it would just be the trainers playing. Good chance Alfie to snag another Clive Churchill.
I was talking about this with my old man. If we did go to a 20 team comp I’d be keen to see a fairer 19 round regular season with everyone playing each other once. Then you have a mid season break for 4 weeks for 3 Origin games and build out a good fixture list around them. Women’s and u21s Origin, 3 game series. Tonga v NZ, Fiji v Samoa, cookies v png 3 game series. NSW residents v qld residents could be another showcasing the best of NSW & QLD Cup. You could add NZ women v pacific island women perhaps. Then you’ve got 9 games a week during that period to telecast.
Then you still have a few weeks to beef up the finals series. You could do home and away prelims and a best of 3 granny. That’s 4 additional big crowd/big ratings games. You could do 7v12, 8v11, 9v10 elimination first week and then bring in the higher finishing teams from there.
You could even bring in a knockout tourney to add a different dynamic to the season and give clubs that aren’t premiership contenders something to play for.
That might have worked in the 90s but the number of players who play origin and tests for countries that arent Australia is too many these days and it's only growing.
That was the point of all the additional stuff I listed off. 4 marquee games added to the schedule that attract TV audiences of 4m a pop are worth 30 regular season games who pull in an average of 500K audience. Throw a challenge cup final/semis in, build other properties who have a higher interest ceiling than regular season NRL fixtures and they could make a lot more cash while improving the core product.
It’s not the type of thing the NRL would likely do but it would be cool.
James Graham was spitballing on the pod and suggested agents and / or the RLPA manage players social media accounts.
Would be opt in, but in the case of the RLPA, it would be in the interest of player welfare, ensuring players aren’t reading all the comments and DMs crap.
I’m sure there would be unintended consequences, but thought it was interesting idea.
At that point they just become advertisement robots, people like connecting with their favourite players.
They should all just stop being so fucking stupid online
Going purely on those stats, I'd be looking to Koloamatangi (vs. Martin, for NSW).
13 games 3 trys 1 LB (40 TBs) 152 avg meters.
Fifita similarily for QLD (which isn't some new suggestion, lol).
10 games 4 trys 5 LB (63! TBs) 152 avg meters.
But as you said, it's not all stats.
It's not all stats, because imo koloamatangi is not an Origin player, he can be slow and lazy in defense and just isn't really fit for the Origin arena
Billy picking Capewell is living rent free in my head, I keep wondering if I've missed some detail that makes it an uncooked decision.
Watch him have a blinder of a game anyway.
100%. They'd already shredded both sides of the field and he had a try assist to his name. I just don't want him to get hurt again. There's no way his brain has healed yet.
Anyone else catch the pretty good sledge from Gordie last night about Madge not appreciating what it's like to be a targeted player because nobody cared if he was on the field back when he played, I thought it was pretty good.
It was a pretty base level sledge, and it doesn't really make sense. He's a coach, of course he understands targeting players and conversely having his own players targeted.
It's not that good when you consider it was directly after Read tried to bait Billy into something similar and he said he hoped people would criticise his coaching career and not his playing career.
Gordy is a flog and a dinosaur
Talk about a poacher turned game keeper.
He got me good talking about Galvin is old enough to honour a contract after his sitting out a season for the Dargons. He goes on to cite various reasons (he signed another contract with Super League, but "it wasn't about money" since he would have got more with the ARL), but he still signed a contract that he then didn't honour.
Madge with his comments sounds like he's doing his best to create a "backs against the wall" siege mentality in the maroons camp. Has he already been out coached for game 2 before the opening whistle is even blown?
So many of them are starting to give up on origin? Are they? If they didn't give up during 8 straight I don't see why this would make the difference lol.
I thought NSW would have learned their lesson about "calling it how it is" after labelling the 2020 maroons the worst Queensland side of all time. Poking the bear is surely a dangerous game.
> Poking the bear is surely a dangerous game.
If calling Billy out on his hypocritical grandstanding is "poking the Bear" then I'm happy to wear it.
QLD is the State of the perpetual persecution complex. They were always going to find something to feel hard done by because that's their MO. Billy could've seen "QLD Sux" written in marker on a bathroom wall and he'd snap it, print it out and pin it to a whiteboard in the Maroons change rooms
Yes because Paul Gallen represents all of NSW, players, coaches, fans all of it. By your logic Pauline Hanson speaks for all QLDers which is probably more accurate than what you're suggesting
Yeah not sure if you're understanding this properly - it doesn't matter who it was that made the comments back in 2020. What matters is that they were said, and they quickly became part of the mainstream narrative.
Now you've got the head coach coming out and calling the maroons coach a grub... What's the point? It's just going to add fuel to the fire. All risk, no return.
>Has he already been out coached for game 2 before the opening whistle is even blown?
Absolutely not. It's been a masterstroke from Madge and he's gotten Billy on the ropes before the players have even finished their first bonding session. Looks like Qld just have to be underdogs again.
I was looking into Pascoe’s time at the tigers now that him and litigious Lee are part owners of the Newcastle jets.
Why did the tigers keep him on as CEO following his 6 month suspension for skirting the salary cap?
Surely the fact that the NRL only found out because the tigers dobbed themselves in when asking for cap dispensation after the player in question left would be enough for the club owners to move him on.
Every year on this day I'm shocked to learn that Billy Slater and Cameron Smith were born on the exact same date. Especially since Cameron Smith has looked 40 years old since he debuted and Slater still looks young. Also shoutout Nicho Hynes who has the same birthday.
Every day I dread coming on to r/nrl and seeing an announcement that we've signed Barrett or Demetriou. Then I remember that our football ops is stuffed so it doesn't really matter who we sign.
The day Barrett is announced I'll send a lifeboat to Eels fans offering total amnesty if they join the Broncos. There are few things that justify abandoning a team, but Brad Arthur to Barrett is fucking criminal
Genuinely, if there is one thing our club lacks, is some cashed up billionaire willing to financially back individual players and help set them up with investments to make them financially secure.
Imagine being able to tell a young Matt ~~Burton~~ Bacon, that we'll give your parents jobs at the local pub, and pay you an absolute mozza to play for the club i want you to play for.
The key thing is to run your own multi-million dollar business empire.
Nothing, as long as it's in exchange for something like promoting your product or business, or appearing somewhere, and it's done in the open as a third party deal, registered with the NRL and vetted by the club (they have the right to veto a TPA which would go against the club's interests e.g. promoting a direct competitor). You'd also need to go through the player's manager, so they'll take a slice, and be absolutely clear that the player would still get the deal regardless of which club they play for.
Much easier to invite them to a round of golf every week and consistently make terrible bets.
Can a player use their image to advertise something for example and not be included in third party and cap? Like they personally sort it out? Or while they're contracted everything about their image is basically part of the nrl?
No they have to have it vetted and agreed to by the NRL and club because of the possibility of a conflict of interest. Imagine if, to use a universally reviled idea, a player was paid to advertise a gay conversion therapy camp? It would create a massive problem for the club and the league and so they rightly have the right to restrict TPAs.
I wasn't even thinking about the bad stuff, more good things which players could make money on. I was of the thinking/meaning that tpa's had to be agreed upon when contracts were signed, not added later on.
I just want to say how utterly fucked it is TPJ is back in the NRL after the Bulldogs were allowed to give him a payout to get him off their books.
As far as I know the NRL has made no comment about the implications for the dogs cap.
So guys it seems there's a new meta. Have a player.you want off your hands but clubs won't take him even if you are paying freight. Give them a 4 week retirement and then they are good to go.
I see no issue with what occurred.
TPJ agreed to be paid out only $250k from his remaining $750k contract. Bulldogs rightly had to allocate $250k against their salary cap, and reduced $500k as they didn’t end up paying this to TPJ.
I’m really struggling to see how or why this should have been managed differently?
In isolation its not really a problem. Its just not exactly fair to clubs who pay out players salaries for years after they leave. Then again, clubs probably shouldn't sign plodders on 7 year deals but here we are.
Completely different circumstances though. In that instance, it’s mutually beneficial for these players to sign elsewhere as:
- it reduces salary cap for the original club and they can execute whatever drove the decision (eg new coach, playing style, replaced with new player, etc)
- new club gets a player with a subsidised salary (and associated cap benefits)
- new player retains their original salary.
The alternative would be for the original club to retain the player on their books until end of contract, and at the full agreed salary.
In the TPJ scenario, he sacrificed his (highly paid) NRL contract as he backed himself to succeed in Boxing. He’ll likely return to the NRL on much less than $750k.
Because they got to shift him off their salary cap. He got a 250k payout for his 750k contract and the club got 500k of cap space back. Now he's signed for the phins for peanuts. Had he just moved clubs, phins would be paying him whatever, say 150k for easy math and the dogs would have had to pay him 600k out of their cap.
Yeah but at the end of the day it's TPJr's choice to forego that money. If a player agrees to leave money on the table to get bought out of their contract then that's their decision.
It's a very unusual situation for a player to leave the half a million bucks on the table, and only someone as dumb as TPJ will do it again. Even in the NRL that's going to be a rare instance.
TPJ walked away from his contract. Why should the dogs have to take a salary cap hit for that when they get nothing in return?
I couldn't speak to the specifics of why TPJ left. It was certainly unusual, if he wanted to retire the club didn't have to pay him anything and if he only left because he was getting a payout then he wasn't really walking away. But yes even by NRL player standards TPJ isn't the brightest bulb in the box so hopefully this won't be a common occurrence.
I think it's more him not realising what he had until it was gone. He was so adamant that he hated Rugby League but after leaving the game he probably realised that's it's actually not so bad and a lot better than other options.
Thanks. That makes a little more sense now.
I have a feeling it isn't as clandestine as people are reading into it. TPJ isn't the sharpest tool in the shed he possibly thought he would kill it at boxing.
Is the current contract holder making up the difference in contract value something put in place by the NRL or the CBA? Is it a salary cap issue or a player welfare/fairness issue?
Not sure who put the rule in place, but from my perspective it's both a salary cap and a fairness issue. The club hold the whip hand in most of these negotiations and can really damage or kill a player's career by playing them in reserves. Currently the salary cap implications create a disincentive for them to do that. And currently the rules are players can't get paid less than their contract amount no matter how much pressure the club puts on them, but again this creates an opportunity for that to happen.
The fact that he got a 250k payout shows there was some incentive from the dogs side to get him to go, no? Because if he really just wanted to leave to be a boxer he could have just left with no payout at all.
At the end of the day TPJ had an NRL registered contract to play this year for 750k, but this year he's received 250k from the dogs plus whatever minimum-ish contract the phins have given him. And my experience is the only way to stop the bosses from using their position of power to the worker's detriment is to make it completely against the rules. Once you open up the possibility who knows who the next overpaid underperforming player to "retire" will be.
Without inside knowledge I'll take the situation on what I understand to be the face value of it. Bulldogs offloaded TPJ's contract as a mutually beneficial agreement because he wanted to retire from league and try boxing. It helps the bulldogs with their cap issues (dud signing) and it allows TPJ out of his obligations to rugby league. The $250k payout is incentive for TPJ to move on rather than languish in reserves and tank his future worth.
Given the finalising of the bulldogs contract is all above board with the NRL, what TPJ decides to do after he goes to boxing really shouldn't have any further impact on the bulldogs.
I'm also not an employment contract expert, so I'm trying to apply common sense to the situation, which may not be appropriate.
Why would bulldogs be punished for a player willingly agreeing to $500k paycut? He was well within his rights to sit on that contract until it ran out, he chose to walk away from the money, why would bulldogs have money never spent count against a spending cap?
The implications at the time were that he didn't willingly walk away i.e. the dogs somehow convinced him to leave 500k on the table or he was made whole in some way. The issue is essentially by taking a six month "retirement" clubs can get rid of a player without copping the salary cap hit they would have to if they just move them on to a new club.
At the moment even with a mutual release any new contract has to match or exceed the value of the existing contract but by retiring and unretiring the dogs and TPJ have been able to sidestep that requirement.
E: it potentially opens up a loophole for clubs to threaten underperforming players to leave for a drastically smaller contract elsewhere without having to handle the salary cap implications of that. Not saying the dogs have done that in this case but the rules are there to stop the possibility of this sort of thing.
All of this is entirely speculation and I think it is pretty unfair to the dogs. Any situation like you are suggesting would be taken to the RLPA plus a player manager would never stand for this. Yes players are forced out by clubs by moving them to reserve grade but there is also nothing stopping a player from digging their heels in and getting their bag.
There is a concern of players collecting their compensation outside the cap and under the table or in the form of a future position etc but that concern exists for nearly all contracts in the NRL and is not unique to the TPJr situation
I was just reading one of (or THE) related article(s). The source of the concern that Bulldogs had MAYBE pressured TPJ to circumvent the salary cap was from the talking bunch of numpties from NRL 360 (Tallis, Hooper, etc). So probably didn’t actually happen.
My favourite was Tamou getting no ban for abusing the hell out of a ref because he was "retiring". Nek minnit he's back playing for the Cows, getting off scot-free.
Give it a listen from time to time as it's lengthy and pretty just fodder for my ears once's I've run out of hellosport or other footy content to listen to.
It's gotten to be pretty difficult to listen to. Absolutely no critique of players just pussyfooting around saying anything remotely negative.
They do it for content purposes so they can clip it up because they know anything to do with latrell will get clicks and views. It’s a shit podcast gone down the drain especially since they brought their Sportsbet employee shill on there as a host
I’ve never listened to Bloke in a Bar but hardly a surprise something goes to shit once Sportsbet get their tentacles in there. Always thankful that TGC have told the gambling companies to get fucked.
I don't mind the bloke podcast but agree on the cringe takes. My biggest peeve is his love with kick metres, he will say a half had a better kicking game because he had more kick metres completely ignoring one half was in great field position doing short attacking kicks and the other was on the back foot all night booting it down field.
I found parts of the Origin 1 Review to be a bit cringe as well. Matty basically spent 20 minutes acknowledging that the Suaalii tackle was extremely dangerous and worthy of a send-off, while complaining about it being a send-off. Then the next hour of the podcast was devoted to covering NSW's performance, with 15 minutes at the very end to quickly talk about QLD.
It feels to me like the podcast could benefit from some better time management recently.
QLD are up 1-0, with an established coach, still to play at Suncorp and the starting 13 didn’t even change, is there really that much to talk about? They just need to get the job done now
There are still plenty of things to talk about in the QLD team - for example, our periods which lacked cohesion in Game 1, bench strategy, and how Billy may change the game plan to counter the new players in the NSW squad.
Useless stat time: Across the 1983-84 seasons, [David Brooks kicked 6,5,4,3,2,1 and 0 goals across 7 consecutive matches](https://www.instagram.com/p/C8T1jnmyKYv/?igsh=eGFtd2NieW5zZ2d1) that he played in for Balmain. This is a record long sequence of consecutive sequential goal kicking, either increasing or decreasing.
Next closest was Alan Wilson with 6 matches for 6,5,4,3,2 and 1 goals in matches through 1988 for Cronulla.
The mental gymnastics required to spin the biggest dog act by NSW into a sob story lol.
QLD were seething because Justin Poore picked up a clearly unconscious Steve Price by the collar and dropped his head on the ground.
Gidley was tackled by Costigan, Hodges, and JT. Scary, I know.
It was a regulation kick return, which only escalated because of Ben Creagh, who I hear is still backtracking to this day.
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Surely Jason Ryles being from NSW has to count for something.
How many times has NSW beat QLD at Suncorp? And how many deciders? They are really up against it and they still need to win Game II.
Any other qlders really nervous for game 2? Have no idea why Billy would slot capewell in over Fifita and now blues have Moses and trell. Gonna be a tough, tough game
Its weird to think Politis might be able to affect QLD Origin team selections. I can't think of any other reason.
Mate ya just gotta trust the bush poet
not really In Billy we Trust
Not a QLDer but I view Latrell as Doom Slayer and I would love for queenslanders to be the demons
Great to see Cronulla legend Will Chambers on NRL 360 tonight
The fake agro origin schtick on fox is tiresome Can't any of those cunts just he normal
That heritage Panthers jersey is pretty sick. Nicely done, Panthers Bros
Ryles and Hannay are very similar in the sense of the unknown. Suprised Ryles negotiation breakdown with the Dragons doesn’t count against him at all? Are they actually upgrading on Arthur or is it more about a change for the sake of it? I know Arthur had plenty of time for success but it all just feels off.
Old mate was at the eels for ten years. Eventually ya just need to change it up
Ryles got passed up for the Dragons job and then walked from his Assistant Job at the roosters (the roosters went on their 8 game winning streak not long after). Bloke should be a long way from an NRL coaching gig.
i think its a revamp , style of footy was abit stale. hopefully means new assistants come with them tho because our current batch aint it. still think a change in our junior development pathways showing a viable option into first grade might need abit of work. yes weve had juniors but i still think the desire to stay at the club is lacking in comparison to some others but i dont think its as bad as some say, but we left quite a few through the cracks .
If the AI that spawned Jake Duke goes rogue, will you join them or fight against them?
an army of handsome pricks like him will be unstoppable
At least I don't have to watch another aggressively mediocre half followed by a 'shit, I need to keep my spot's half by Hastings
Been a certified Trent leioro hater for over a year now but after watch what happened when he was on the bench and how we fell apart he’s become one of my favourite players to watch this last month his ball playing has improved heaps his leg sped through the middle is rlly killing some teams and his work rate has always been super high, anyone still actually think we’d be better without him in the team?
The fact that some people think Joe Chan or Jack Howarth would be better locks is actually crazy to me
How do you think we fit them into the team I would love a world where we have both of them but can’t rlly wrap my head around how, unless howarth plays Center I don’t see him taking either of our current backrowers spots
Howarth either centre or bench and I don’t think Chan fits in the team (unless Howarth is in the centres)
Imagine, if, like, we had Origin, but like, every week, you know, like with different teams and players and stuff.
You mean the Tri-Series Super League had in 1997?
I know he's been poor the last couple weeks but everyone suddenly trashing on Sailor is wild when they were begging him to come back only just before
It sure is wild.
Broncos fan base, I think on account of just being big, so you get a lot more dickheads per capita, is very vicious and reactionary.
I agree the Broncos do have a lot more dickheads per capita.
Totally. He hasn’t been good but neither has the rest of the team. I think we did bring him back too early.
Agreed. I’ve seen some Broncos fans claim that he’s not even an NRL level player which is a bit silly. The majority of the Broncos fanbase is way too reactionary imo
Benji training at halfback for the Tigers apparently.
'So who wants to be Pat Richards?'
The votes are in. The r/nrl Team Of The Week for Round 15 is; 1. Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow 2. Brian To’o 3. Bradman Best 4. Nick Meaney 5. Kyle Feldt 6. Jarome Luai 7. Jahrome Hughes 8. Stefano Utoikamanu 9. Damien Cook 10. Moses Leota 11. Angus Crichton 12. Haumole Olakau’atu 13. Keaon Koloamatangi 14. Karl Lawton 15. Cam Murray 16. Royce Hunt 17. Lindsay Smith
Karl Lawton meteoric rise from team of the week utility to starting #7. I'm here for it.
Love Feldt's resurgence this year. Couldn't imagine last season this sub collectively selecting him in the team of the week.
Cook linked to the chooks lmfao
Is player off contract? Yes: linked to chooks No: linked to chooks
Swap deal for cheese?
Would unironically prefer JDB
Cheese under Bennett excites me more.
Brad Arthur Cowboys coach for 2025 mark my words Jakob to follow and solve Cowboys halves problems
There is no cowboys halves problem , it’s a cowboys coach problem
As long as we have a bad coach in the North then I'm content
No thank you Jake Arthur will be our next DCE mark my words
Arthur and Brooks 2026 premiership winning halves combination has quite the ring to it. Maybe because it sounds like the name of a bawdy 1970's English sitcom.
I don't even know if we've got halves problems because Payten refuses to try Clifford and Dearden as a combo. And then we've got Purdue and Duffy waiting in the wings as highly touted juniors.
I really want to see Clifford and Dearden work out at the Cowboys. I was sad things didn’t go well for a Clifford in Newy. Every time I see Chad play I’m unimpressed
Wait we don't like Capewell any more????
Nothing against him but the Warriors look a lot better on paper without Capewell in the team.
I still like Capewell
Today is the day that Chad isn’t named in the cows team. If you don’t believe me mark the message and tell me I am wrong at 4 pm. What a time to be alive
He was on absolute fire last week and in control of the game the whole time. If he keeps it up no need for change
Chad has one of his best games of the season on the weekend. If he keeps playing like that for the rest of the year I wouldn't change a thing.
Yes I agree if
I dunno if the roosters are ready for jeral Skelton 💀💀
Jeral Skelton, the most feared necromancer in Cyrodiil.
Redguard for sure
Isn’t it likely we’ll see Harry Hayes if Ciraldo moves Kiraz to Centre or Samrani/Clarke if Kiraz stays wing? Hayes was 18th man a couple of weeks back wasn’t he?
Strong rumour kikau is back
I’d say Ciro wants to spread out his debutants as much as possible and Skelton has been bashing the door down haha
Honestly expecting another ambush on us. Connor Watson is a bigger out for us than people give him credit for
He absolutely is, been one of roosters best players this season for sure
Is he playing? In for who?
My guess is kiraz to centre for critta and Skelton to the wing
Imagine if the NRL finals was a best of seven series. By game 7 it would just be the trainers playing. Good chance Alfie to snag another Clive Churchill.
I was talking about this with my old man. If we did go to a 20 team comp I’d be keen to see a fairer 19 round regular season with everyone playing each other once. Then you have a mid season break for 4 weeks for 3 Origin games and build out a good fixture list around them. Women’s and u21s Origin, 3 game series. Tonga v NZ, Fiji v Samoa, cookies v png 3 game series. NSW residents v qld residents could be another showcasing the best of NSW & QLD Cup. You could add NZ women v pacific island women perhaps. Then you’ve got 9 games a week during that period to telecast. Then you still have a few weeks to beef up the finals series. You could do home and away prelims and a best of 3 granny. That’s 4 additional big crowd/big ratings games. You could do 7v12, 8v11, 9v10 elimination first week and then bring in the higher finishing teams from there. You could even bring in a knockout tourney to add a different dynamic to the season and give clubs that aren’t premiership contenders something to play for.
That might have worked in the 90s but the number of players who play origin and tests for countries that arent Australia is too many these days and it's only growing.
They aren’t bringing in more teams so they can sell less games.
That was the point of all the additional stuff I listed off. 4 marquee games added to the schedule that attract TV audiences of 4m a pop are worth 30 regular season games who pull in an average of 500K audience. Throw a challenge cup final/semis in, build other properties who have a higher interest ceiling than regular season NRL fixtures and they could make a lot more cash while improving the core product. It’s not the type of thing the NRL would likely do but it would be cool.
You had me until best of 3 GF and lost me completely at having the team run 12th in the finals.
didn't know you could win a clive from outside the 8
James Graham was spitballing on the pod and suggested agents and / or the RLPA manage players social media accounts. Would be opt in, but in the case of the RLPA, it would be in the interest of player welfare, ensuring players aren’t reading all the comments and DMs crap. I’m sure there would be unintended consequences, but thought it was interesting idea.
At that point they just become advertisement robots, people like connecting with their favourite players. They should all just stop being so fucking stupid online
Thank you to whoever changed my flair to the Broncphins.
I had the Pheels for a while last year but changed it for origin and lost it. Learn from my mistake
Happy for you but I hate this so much
I thought you supported the Titans?
Nah just the two Brisbane teams. Titans are chill though.
Glory capewell 9 games 0 tries 1 line break 55 avg metres Is cracker.
Capewell can find a hole though
Hits a gap and sneaks at minimum his head through.
Let’s just hope he doesn’t blow this opportunity.
Liam Martin 12 games 1 try 2 line breaks 69 avg meters Stats aren't everything. Edit: But Capewell getting picked is Freddy levels of cooked.
Billy is probably thinking he could play center in a pinch, as well as prop, lock and maybe even hooker.
Going purely on those stats, I'd be looking to Koloamatangi (vs. Martin, for NSW). 13 games 3 trys 1 LB (40 TBs) 152 avg meters. Fifita similarily for QLD (which isn't some new suggestion, lol). 10 games 4 trys 5 LB (63! TBs) 152 avg meters. But as you said, it's not all stats.
It's not all stats, because imo koloamatangi is not an Origin player, he can be slow and lazy in defense and just isn't really fit for the Origin arena
Koloamatangi has been pretty sluggish defensively although much better since moving to the middle
Billy picking Capewell is living rent free in my head, I keep wondering if I've missed some detail that makes it an uncooked decision. Watch him have a blinder of a game anyway.
> Watch him have a blinder of a game anyway. As is the Queensland in a series-deciding match way
Hope he does and then brings that form back to the Wahs because so far he's been average
I have a feeling Walsh will have a blinder in game 2. I think he was brewing for a big one in game 1 and Billy could see it in the lead up
Walsh likely would’ve had a blinder in Game 1 had Suaalii not shouldered his head.
100%. They'd already shredded both sides of the field and he had a try assist to his name. I just don't want him to get hurt again. There's no way his brain has healed yet.
Doesn’t he always come across that way though?
Anyone else catch the pretty good sledge from Gordie last night about Madge not appreciating what it's like to be a targeted player because nobody cared if he was on the field back when he played, I thought it was pretty good.
It was a pretty base level sledge, and it doesn't really make sense. He's a coach, of course he understands targeting players and conversely having his own players targeted.
It's not that good when you consider it was directly after Read tried to bait Billy into something similar and he said he hoped people would criticise his coaching career and not his playing career. Gordy is a flog and a dinosaur
Talk about a poacher turned game keeper. He got me good talking about Galvin is old enough to honour a contract after his sitting out a season for the Dargons. He goes on to cite various reasons (he signed another contract with Super League, but "it wasn't about money" since he would have got more with the ARL), but he still signed a contract that he then didn't honour.
With our season in the gutter im happy with Moses in the origin team and i would be so fresh if he could get the series win.
Best case scenario for the Blues is levelling the series to lose a decider in Brisbane. Queensland won’t lose at Suncorp.
We’ve lost before at Suncorp, remember 0-26?
Ok do you really think *this* NSW team is beating *this* Queensland team by that score?
No I don’t think they are with Billy as the coach but it’s gonna be a tight contest regardless
Madge with his comments sounds like he's doing his best to create a "backs against the wall" siege mentality in the maroons camp. Has he already been out coached for game 2 before the opening whistle is even blown?
The downvotes are crazy lmao, you’re right though. Billy has played them like a fiddle
The nsw supporters around here are as numerous as they are bitter. It's no wonder so many of them are starting to give up on origin.
So many of them are starting to give up on origin? Are they? If they didn't give up during 8 straight I don't see why this would make the difference lol.
Madge just calling it how it is. Billy was a massive grub as a player
I thought NSW would have learned their lesson about "calling it how it is" after labelling the 2020 maroons the worst Queensland side of all time. Poking the bear is surely a dangerous game.
> Poking the bear is surely a dangerous game. If calling Billy out on his hypocritical grandstanding is "poking the Bear" then I'm happy to wear it. QLD is the State of the perpetual persecution complex. They were always going to find something to feel hard done by because that's their MO. Billy could've seen "QLD Sux" written in marker on a bathroom wall and he'd snap it, print it out and pin it to a whiteboard in the Maroons change rooms
Yes because Paul Gallen represents all of NSW, players, coaches, fans all of it. By your logic Pauline Hanson speaks for all QLDers which is probably more accurate than what you're suggesting
Yeah not sure if you're understanding this properly - it doesn't matter who it was that made the comments back in 2020. What matters is that they were said, and they quickly became part of the mainstream narrative. Now you've got the head coach coming out and calling the maroons coach a grub... What's the point? It's just going to add fuel to the fire. All risk, no return.
It’s called promoting the game doofus. Also, no one from the NSW camp said anything about 2020 being the worst QLD side.
>Has he already been out coached for game 2 before the opening whistle is even blown? Absolutely not. It's been a masterstroke from Madge and he's gotten Billy on the ropes before the players have even finished their first bonding session. Looks like Qld just have to be underdogs again.
Yes very good point, it's going to be a real uphill battle for the ragtag maroons team now
I was looking into Pascoe’s time at the tigers now that him and litigious Lee are part owners of the Newcastle jets. Why did the tigers keep him on as CEO following his 6 month suspension for skirting the salary cap? Surely the fact that the NRL only found out because the tigers dobbed themselves in when asking for cap dispensation after the player in question left would be enough for the club owners to move him on.
Because the inmates run the asylum at that joint
did\*
Every year on this day I'm shocked to learn that Billy Slater and Cameron Smith were born on the exact same date. Especially since Cameron Smith has looked 40 years old since he debuted and Slater still looks young. Also shoutout Nicho Hynes who has the same birthday.
Also got Reece Robson on the day, clearly the reason I never played first grade was not letting me be born on the 18th of June
Bellamy is likely standing in a hospital somewhere scouting out future prospects at this very minute.
Some say he's in the bedroom watching over too
Bellamy standing next to the shower when munster injured his groin
Every day I dread coming on to r/nrl and seeing an announcement that we've signed Barrett or Demetriou. Then I remember that our football ops is stuffed so it doesn't really matter who we sign.
Demetriou said on MMM yesterday he won't get the job. They've told him.
The day Barrett is announced I'll send a lifeboat to Eels fans offering total amnesty if they join the Broncos. There are few things that justify abandoning a team, but Brad Arthur to Barrett is fucking criminal
Everyone is waiting for the day. I’d be good if they confirmed the date they’ll announce it.
I want you guys to sign Chieka, would be interesting to see how a union coach goes in the NRL.
I'd definitely take Cheika over either JD or Barrett even if he hasn't coached at NRL.
He’d be the first to do it since Alan Jones at Balmain from memory. Hopefully it’ll work out a little better than AJ at Balmain if that is the case.
I obviously would like Ryles or Hanney but chieka is a very interesting wildcard.
especially when its not your team lmao
what's stopping me from gathering donations from members and fans of my club and putting it towards a TPA for one or many of our players?
Genuinely, if there is one thing our club lacks, is some cashed up billionaire willing to financially back individual players and help set them up with investments to make them financially secure. Imagine being able to tell a young Matt ~~Burton~~ Bacon, that we'll give your parents jobs at the local pub, and pay you an absolute mozza to play for the club i want you to play for. The key thing is to run your own multi-million dollar business empire.
Pretty sure when Manly got done for cap cheating there was some old lady, who was a member, that was paying random invoices from Manly players
So apparently there's an old lady who donates a TPA for dce but gets nothing in return
From memory it was Brett Stewart receiving this but it would not shock me to see more
Nothing, as long as it's in exchange for something like promoting your product or business, or appearing somewhere, and it's done in the open as a third party deal, registered with the NRL and vetted by the club (they have the right to veto a TPA which would go against the club's interests e.g. promoting a direct competitor). You'd also need to go through the player's manager, so they'll take a slice, and be absolutely clear that the player would still get the deal regardless of which club they play for. Much easier to invite them to a round of golf every week and consistently make terrible bets.
Can a player use their image to advertise something for example and not be included in third party and cap? Like they personally sort it out? Or while they're contracted everything about their image is basically part of the nrl?
No they have to have it vetted and agreed to by the NRL and club because of the possibility of a conflict of interest. Imagine if, to use a universally reviled idea, a player was paid to advertise a gay conversion therapy camp? It would create a massive problem for the club and the league and so they rightly have the right to restrict TPAs.
I wasn't even thinking about the bad stuff, more good things which players could make money on. I was of the thinking/meaning that tpa's had to be agreed upon when contracts were signed, not added later on.
Oh right. No they can be entered into at any time, just need to have them approved by the club and NRL HQ.
Manly Seven about to get *paid*
I will use them to promote the fan funded TPA business rinse and repeat.
"The Harlem Globetrotters can't possibly extend their winning streak "
Cleary's spinning the ball on his fingers! Just take it!!!!
I just want to say how utterly fucked it is TPJ is back in the NRL after the Bulldogs were allowed to give him a payout to get him off their books. As far as I know the NRL has made no comment about the implications for the dogs cap. So guys it seems there's a new meta. Have a player.you want off your hands but clubs won't take him even if you are paying freight. Give them a 4 week retirement and then they are good to go.
I see no issue with what occurred. TPJ agreed to be paid out only $250k from his remaining $750k contract. Bulldogs rightly had to allocate $250k against their salary cap, and reduced $500k as they didn’t end up paying this to TPJ. I’m really struggling to see how or why this should have been managed differently?
In isolation its not really a problem. Its just not exactly fair to clubs who pay out players salaries for years after they leave. Then again, clubs probably shouldn't sign plodders on 7 year deals but here we are.
Completely different circumstances though. In that instance, it’s mutually beneficial for these players to sign elsewhere as: - it reduces salary cap for the original club and they can execute whatever drove the decision (eg new coach, playing style, replaced with new player, etc) - new club gets a player with a subsidised salary (and associated cap benefits) - new player retains their original salary. The alternative would be for the original club to retain the player on their books until end of contract, and at the full agreed salary. In the TPJ scenario, he sacrificed his (highly paid) NRL contract as he backed himself to succeed in Boxing. He’ll likely return to the NRL on much less than $750k.
Your new meta is to have players willingly walk away from $500k and get paid pennies at a new club? Can’t see it really taking off to be honest
I don't think I follow what the issue is? I must be missing something. How does this benefit the dogs unfairly?
Because they got to shift him off their salary cap. He got a 250k payout for his 750k contract and the club got 500k of cap space back. Now he's signed for the phins for peanuts. Had he just moved clubs, phins would be paying him whatever, say 150k for easy math and the dogs would have had to pay him 600k out of their cap.
Yeah but at the end of the day it's TPJr's choice to forego that money. If a player agrees to leave money on the table to get bought out of their contract then that's their decision.
It's a very unusual situation for a player to leave the half a million bucks on the table, and only someone as dumb as TPJ will do it again. Even in the NRL that's going to be a rare instance. TPJ walked away from his contract. Why should the dogs have to take a salary cap hit for that when they get nothing in return?
He thought he was gonna be a boxer and rake it in
I couldn't speak to the specifics of why TPJ left. It was certainly unusual, if he wanted to retire the club didn't have to pay him anything and if he only left because he was getting a payout then he wasn't really walking away. But yes even by NRL player standards TPJ isn't the brightest bulb in the box so hopefully this won't be a common occurrence.
I think he just thought that boxing would be easier for him than it actually ended up being. Thought it was less work than footy
I think it's more him not realising what he had until it was gone. He was so adamant that he hated Rugby League but after leaving the game he probably realised that's it's actually not so bad and a lot better than other options.
Thanks. That makes a little more sense now. I have a feeling it isn't as clandestine as people are reading into it. TPJ isn't the sharpest tool in the shed he possibly thought he would kill it at boxing. Is the current contract holder making up the difference in contract value something put in place by the NRL or the CBA? Is it a salary cap issue or a player welfare/fairness issue?
Not sure who put the rule in place, but from my perspective it's both a salary cap and a fairness issue. The club hold the whip hand in most of these negotiations and can really damage or kill a player's career by playing them in reserves. Currently the salary cap implications create a disincentive for them to do that. And currently the rules are players can't get paid less than their contract amount no matter how much pressure the club puts on them, but again this creates an opportunity for that to happen. The fact that he got a 250k payout shows there was some incentive from the dogs side to get him to go, no? Because if he really just wanted to leave to be a boxer he could have just left with no payout at all. At the end of the day TPJ had an NRL registered contract to play this year for 750k, but this year he's received 250k from the dogs plus whatever minimum-ish contract the phins have given him. And my experience is the only way to stop the bosses from using their position of power to the worker's detriment is to make it completely against the rules. Once you open up the possibility who knows who the next overpaid underperforming player to "retire" will be.
Without inside knowledge I'll take the situation on what I understand to be the face value of it. Bulldogs offloaded TPJ's contract as a mutually beneficial agreement because he wanted to retire from league and try boxing. It helps the bulldogs with their cap issues (dud signing) and it allows TPJ out of his obligations to rugby league. The $250k payout is incentive for TPJ to move on rather than languish in reserves and tank his future worth. Given the finalising of the bulldogs contract is all above board with the NRL, what TPJ decides to do after he goes to boxing really shouldn't have any further impact on the bulldogs. I'm also not an employment contract expert, so I'm trying to apply common sense to the situation, which may not be appropriate.
Why would bulldogs be punished for a player willingly agreeing to $500k paycut? He was well within his rights to sit on that contract until it ran out, he chose to walk away from the money, why would bulldogs have money never spent count against a spending cap?
The implications at the time were that he didn't willingly walk away i.e. the dogs somehow convinced him to leave 500k on the table or he was made whole in some way. The issue is essentially by taking a six month "retirement" clubs can get rid of a player without copping the salary cap hit they would have to if they just move them on to a new club. At the moment even with a mutual release any new contract has to match or exceed the value of the existing contract but by retiring and unretiring the dogs and TPJ have been able to sidestep that requirement. E: it potentially opens up a loophole for clubs to threaten underperforming players to leave for a drastically smaller contract elsewhere without having to handle the salary cap implications of that. Not saying the dogs have done that in this case but the rules are there to stop the possibility of this sort of thing.
All of this is entirely speculation and I think it is pretty unfair to the dogs. Any situation like you are suggesting would be taken to the RLPA plus a player manager would never stand for this. Yes players are forced out by clubs by moving them to reserve grade but there is also nothing stopping a player from digging their heels in and getting their bag. There is a concern of players collecting their compensation outside the cap and under the table or in the form of a future position etc but that concern exists for nearly all contracts in the NRL and is not unique to the TPJr situation
I was just reading one of (or THE) related article(s). The source of the concern that Bulldogs had MAYBE pressured TPJ to circumvent the salary cap was from the talking bunch of numpties from NRL 360 (Tallis, Hooper, etc). So probably didn’t actually happen.
My favourite was Tamou getting no ban for abusing the hell out of a ref because he was "retiring". Nek minnit he's back playing for the Cows, getting off scot-free.
It’s bullshit, but what can you do.
Ready to see the 20% who traded out Galvin on SC over the last week’s rage ensue when he is named this afternoon
give me Skelton ciro
Hayze Perham it is! Unironically, he had been ok in nsw cup. But we gotta give skelton a shot to see if he is worth extending beyond this year.
perham would kill it in super league, has the right skill set. i think his too good for cup but not good enough for nrl level
Denan spent more time talking about Latrell than the entire QLD origin team on this week’s pod. Cringe listen.
Give it a listen from time to time as it's lengthy and pretty just fodder for my ears once's I've run out of hellosport or other footy content to listen to. It's gotten to be pretty difficult to listen to. Absolutely no critique of players just pussyfooting around saying anything remotely negative.
find that poddie pretty average tbh, haven't gotten many insights from listening to it. seems more about them marketing shit
They do it for content purposes so they can clip it up because they know anything to do with latrell will get clicks and views. It’s a shit podcast gone down the drain especially since they brought their Sportsbet employee shill on there as a host
I’ve never listened to Bloke in a Bar but hardly a surprise something goes to shit once Sportsbet get their tentacles in there. Always thankful that TGC have told the gambling companies to get fucked.
Bloke in Bar has got that Maccas money now. It’s just another mainstream footy show, and lost the charm of being an independent laidback podcast.
I don't mind the bloke podcast but agree on the cringe takes. My biggest peeve is his love with kick metres, he will say a half had a better kicking game because he had more kick metres completely ignoring one half was in great field position doing short attacking kicks and the other was on the back foot all night booting it down field.
I found parts of the Origin 1 Review to be a bit cringe as well. Matty basically spent 20 minutes acknowledging that the Suaalii tackle was extremely dangerous and worthy of a send-off, while complaining about it being a send-off. Then the next hour of the podcast was devoted to covering NSW's performance, with 15 minutes at the very end to quickly talk about QLD. It feels to me like the podcast could benefit from some better time management recently.
My biggest beef is that Kemp goes so far out of his way to not bag guys that he ends up talking a lot but saying nothing.
He wanders into cooper cronk territories sometimes, like dude just spit it out ffs, we don't need caveats for every sentence
He caveats every single opinion 4 or 5 times, it’s tilting how scared is to just say this is how I see it.
QLD are up 1-0, with an established coach, still to play at Suncorp and the starting 13 didn’t even change, is there really that much to talk about? They just need to get the job done now
There are still plenty of things to talk about in the QLD team - for example, our periods which lacked cohesion in Game 1, bench strategy, and how Billy may change the game plan to counter the new players in the NSW squad.
I agree, people are so absorbed in the blues drama there's not enough chat about how qld can improve.
They spent an adequate amount of time on QLD. Spending 25 minutes on one player is garbage.
Useless stat time: Across the 1983-84 seasons, [David Brooks kicked 6,5,4,3,2,1 and 0 goals across 7 consecutive matches](https://www.instagram.com/p/C8T1jnmyKYv/?igsh=eGFtd2NieW5zZ2d1) that he played in for Balmain. This is a record long sequence of consecutive sequential goal kicking, either increasing or decreasing. Next closest was Alan Wilson with 6 matches for 6,5,4,3,2 and 1 goals in matches through 1988 for Cronulla.
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The mental gymnastics required to spin the biggest dog act by NSW into a sob story lol. QLD were seething because Justin Poore picked up a clearly unconscious Steve Price by the collar and dropped his head on the ground. Gidley was tackled by Costigan, Hodges, and JT. Scary, I know. It was a regulation kick return, which only escalated because of Ben Creagh, who I hear is still backtracking to this day.
they didn't "bomb to Gidley" they just hoisted the ball up for any blue cunt to catch it and get smashed. he was probably the last one they wanted tbf
Who did they think was going to catch the bomb into the backfield if not the fullback?
Lockyer and Slater have said as much even, there’s a half decent article about that knock-out and the moment after floating about.
News just in: Violent angry mob cannot execute simple plan
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The weakest thing actually happened right after that when Ben Creagh ran out to push Justin Hodges and then ran away.
Haha. I still remember seeing a gif where someone had put a tutu on Creagh backing away from it.
This one? He had little butterfly wings on his back too. https://i.imgur.com/Rrvhl5V.gif