A diverse ecosystem of weirdos
Join the Maroon Observer QCup Tipping Sickoship
Welcome to The Maroon Observer, a weekly newsletter about rugby league, Queensland and rugby league in Queensland.
In 2020, the QRL introduced an official tipping product. I started a comp for PythagoNRL followers, we got one round in and then you know the rest. It never came back. That was disappointing and I have often thought about creating my own but never got around to it. Fortunately, Faceyourfears has taken that out of my hands and created a website that allows for custom tipping competitions.
So if you’re interested in joining a Queensland Cup tipping competition for 2026, join the Maroon Observer QCup Tipping Sickoship.
First prize is $50 and the title of Champion Sicko, assuming anyone signs up and at least half a dozen people tip consistently through the season. There’s also $20 for last place (minimum 20 rounds tipped). I’ll put a reminder in the weekly newsletter.
Good luck.
The glorious future is within our reach, comrades
V’Lando-Leninist Thought scores another victory over the fat cats:
Vegas interest surges to record heights as global expansion gathers pace
Each percentage point above plan goals is a blow against war-mongers [not anti-Semitic].
The Allegiant Stadium triple-header set a number of broadcast records, including:
Knights v Cowboys fixture was the second-most watched exclusive Fox Sports/Kayo match of all time, behind only the 2024 Vegas opener
It was the highest-ever audience on Fox Sports/Kayo for both Newcastle and North Queensland
The Bulldogs v Dragons game was the most-watched match of all time (including finals) between the two sides
It was the fourth most-watched Round 1 fixture of all time
It was the most-watched regular season fixture featuring the Bulldogs and the second-most watched Dragons regular season fixture of all time
The Super League fixture between Leeds and Hull KR was the most-watched Super League fixture on Fox Sports/Kayo of all time
I think a lot of these “records” have more to say about the state of the clubs involved than the appeal of the Vegas in 2026, a comment you can interpret as suits your agenda. The attendance figure will almost certainly be undermined by the real number released later and the FTA game was down 10% on last year.
Despite the claims of our man of steel, the vibes were not as high as previous years, with the broadcasters not making the same effort and the smaller NRL clubs not bringing the same crowd. Given that the NRL only has a couple of properly big clubs, if every team is expected to rotate through Vegas, this was as inevitable as the waning novelty. But V’Landys won’t be so easily defeated by counter-revolutionaries:
The NRL will decide in the next three months whether to charge towards a global round, with gradual year-by-year international expansion the likely model.
ARL Commission chairman Peter V’landys has confirmed the NRL has a three-year plan for the concept, culminating in double-headers in at least four cities.
The game’s boss also declared to AAP that Las Vegas would stay on the calendar beyond the current deal, which ends in 2028, labelling it the league’s anchor event.
The plan seems to be four double headers, comprising two NRL games and a Super League game, in some combination of London, Vegas, Miami, Hong Kong, Japan and several small countries that technically qualify as war zones as of the weekend just gone. Travel impacts, scheduling around time zones and whether the NRL will have a Glorious Global Round to start the season and then a week off as everyone returns to Australia remain question marks.
It seems pretty clear that V’Landys has a fixation on being a “global” sport, presumably because he has realised that you can extract a lot of government money that way. The Nevada tourism board chips in a mil or so for the Vegas event and the NRL would be a relatively budget option next to a lot of US and European sport with the advantage of being able to use existing infrastructure. I don’t doubt some version of this will happen if PVL wants it and you’ll be told it will be successful, even as V’Landys admitted that cracking the US gambling market was more difficult than expected (What? No way).
For the fans, it only serves to create very expensive games to attend but Vegas has proved there are some very willing fans if you make the event on the other end worthwhile. For the rest of us, the TV spectacle is fine but in an era of endless surpluses, I can’t say I find the NRL increasing its bottom line all that compelling.
Nonetheless, our illustrious captains of Leagueintern seem intent on forging a new future:
The NRL’s commander in chief, Peter V’landys, will sit down for talks with English officials this weekend with a view to ironing out a deal that will result in potential investment from the Australian game into Super League, bringing the two competitions together like never before. While the bright lights of Las Vegas and the glamour surrounding the fixtures at Allegiant Stadium catch the eye, this is perhaps the real story of note if you scratch beneath the surface.
V’Landys will get his way eventually. It’s just not that clear what that way is.
AMA
What one of the finest sports writers in the nation gets up to in his own time is usually beyond the purview of The Maroon Observer. However, I did go through Campo’s responses to his recent Reddit AMA, even though I probably have guessed his responses like a human LLM trained on the output of Boom Rookies episodes (subscribe here), and hey look we got a shout-out.
Nick didn’t need to do either the AMA or drop a minor mention of a very minor publication in that AMA (or the Boom Rookies Broncos preview), but it is appreciated.
Because there's something you need to understand about the way the internet has changed since 2013, which is when I started writing online for fun. These things are obvious to me because I have spent a lot of time trying to get people’s attention (within the limits of my capability and dignity) and I spend a lot of time reading various media operations’ woes but here it is:
It is harder than ever to connect with potential readers via social media.
It is probably harder now than it was before social media existed. Double or triple the degree of difficulty if you don’t have the time or will to produce front facing video.
The big internet platforms made it easy to find people in the 2010s. Once people and small businesses had moved their entire way of life over to the platforms, the platforms became pay for play. Everyone was captured by the algorithm and very few stray outside it.
For independent writers, through sheer good posting, you used to be able to find and build an audience. If you had a big enough personal audience prior to 2020, you could leverage that to start a Defector or be NRL Physio. After that, the hill got a lot steeper. These are not jealousies - I subscribe to Defector, although they did not get back to me about my pitch to write a freelance piece about the PNG NRL team, and Brien once flipped me off during Magic Round, but in a friendly way - but a statement of the situation.
It is now roughly twice (and feels ten times) as difficult to find your audience because very little of the independent fan content assembly line generates the kind of money that justifies investing in what is effectively advertising. There is no Maroon Observer Facebook page because it is not worth my time copying and pasting the link across and then asking you to waste your time trying to signal boost. If I was going to pay to advertise, I’d rather sponsor a footy club. If you want to signal boost, forward this email.
Hopefully, this partly explains why a lot of written content turned to newsletters and subscriptions (or moved to other media) and why in the 2020s, personal recommendations, even small ones like Campo’s, become really important. I’ve added about 6% to the subscriber base over the last week. To borrow from our friends at the Eye Test:
I’ve specifically chosen newsletters because email is one of the few remaining channels that hasn’t been ruined (as much as Google and Microsoft have tried) by algorithmic feeds promoting outrage and emotionally charged content. You’re in control of your inbox and hopefully these suggestions are useful additions to your rugby league information diet.
So today, I encourage you to subscribe to something. It doesn't have to be this newsletter, although I won't stop you and will provide a box for you to put in your email —
— but if you want a diverse ecosystem of weirdos punching out charts and GIFs and posts about interesting things about the NRL you would never have considered in a billion years, it starts with you connecting with them. It sounds backwards but then at least we know someone is listening and then we can justify putting in the time.
Here's a list from RLET to get you started. That I'm second on it has nothing to do with the fact that I'm linking to it. About half of these I had no idea were going concerns. See if there’s something that will change the way you look at things.
Around the grounds
Knights 28 defeated Cowboys 18. It's only round 1. It's only round 1. It's only round 1 and it's Vegas. There's no reason to panic. Calm down. Not even because the defensive line looks as porous as ever against a team people are not expecting to threaten this year and not because the offence looked as bereft of ideas as last year. Just… it's fine. Really. No need to panic. Look at how confident Crisafulli is.
Bulldogs 15 defeated Dragons 14. A game that presented a classic dilemma: do I spend my Sunday afternoon with my children, who are growing up faster than you can imagine, or do I watch this game between two teams I do not care about and that is expected to be both boring and round 1 rusty? In answer, I, for one, am looking to another 23 games of this scintillating Bulldogs attack that included taking multiple penalty goals and several favourable refereeing calls. I do not intend to watch any more of the Dragons.
Super League round 3. Wigan blitzed Leigh in an ominous warning sign for the rest of the competition. David Nofoaluma scored the opening try in York’s single point victory over Hull FC, although the black and whites benefitted from an extremely dubious last minute try. Huddersfield against Castleford is the most miserable fixture in professional rugby league but Tom Weaver added a touch of Gold Coast sunshine en route to the Tigers’ first win of the season. Trinity did well to make a contest of it, but Marc Sneyd showed too much class and got Wire across the line. The highlights didn’t make it clear if Catalans-Saints was a defensive masterclass or a bludger in the first half but the Dragons woefully underperformed their roster talent in the second half. Toby Sexton is looking like a lemon and Tristan Sailor is back to looking like a hero. Maika Sivo was the star of Leeds’ rout of Hull KR in Vegas. Perhaps dumping all of their emotional energy into the World Club Challenge, only to then jump on a plane to Vegas has taken its toll on Rovers. Presuming KR get off the canvas at some point, the Giants look like the best bet to be replaced by the Broncos next year (presuming there is promotion and relegation).
QCup Qicks off
Yeah, “qick” looks a lot like “dick”. Speaking of:
“It is ridiculous to have a 17 or 18-team Queensland Cup.
“The only people who benefit from it are the NRL clubs like the Broncos putting their teams in and it’s not right.
“If you have North Queensland Cowboys playing, how in the world are Cairns and Mackay and Townsville ever going to be able to compete in a Queensland Cup comp against a back-up NRL team?
“It’s just such bullshit for the NRL clubs to want their own reserve grade team in the Queensland Cup, playing against teams that haven’t got the capacity to be able to compete against them.”
Shane Richardson, onetime CEO of the Wests Tigers and onetime driving force behind the Brisbane Firehawks while at Easts Tigers, had his say on the proposed inclusion of Q4 reserve teams in the QCup.
“The Titans couldn’t even do a good enough job to retain Burleigh Bears and now they want to run their own second grade team,” he said.
“In my papers (when working at the NRL), my idea was to expand the game in NSW to Tamworth and Dubbo and places like that, because I think the Queensland model is the best way of doing things.
“Places like Mackay and Townsville are genuine cities that love their rugby league and by adding NRL teams, they will tear away from the heart of what the game is about.
“It will starve Burleigh. It will starve Tweed. It will starve Souths Logan to death. Ipswich won’t even exist.
“This is not doing anything for districts.
“It’s all for the NRL clubs. It’s not for the growth of rugby league.
“If the QRL goes along with it, well that’s their decision, but it’s just wrong on so many levels.”
Richardson has a whiff of that loser Tigers stink on him but I can’t say I disagree. NSW Cup should be more like Queensland Cup, rather than the other way around, and the Titans should try not to step on their own genitalia for a change. All good points. I expect this will have a similar impact to this newsletter.
The other media darlings reminded everyone they were back:
Ben Walker has been licking his lips at the prospect of exploiting the many rule changes brought in by the NRL.
“The game keeps providing coaches like us opportunities to innovate because they keep changing the rules every other day in rugby league. It gives you an opportunity to exploit those rules,” Ben Walker told AAP.
“Some of the changes are going to help our cause. There is one particular rule, brought in recently, that the game will probably be forced to change because of the way we will exploit it.
“You will see it in round one. I will send you a clip of it when we do it and it will make a mockery of the rule that is already there.”
Sure, man.
With the imminent arrival of rugby league’s greatest competition, here’s where each of the teams stands coming into 2026. From north to south:
Darren Lockyer personally raided the PNG Hunters’ roster, looking for players to fill out his newly acquired London Broncos. The Broncos are 4-0 in the Championship with a +215 points difference while the Hunters now have to fill a massive hole. Paul Aiton has restored this team to competitiveness but this might be too great a challenge for the Hunters to be relevant this year.
The Northern Pride had an exceptionally strange 2025. A team with Jeremiah Nanai, Jake Clifford, Zac Laybutt and Robert Derby lost to the Tweed Seagulls in round 2 and the Pride just never got going under new coach Russ Aitken. Aitken has made way for Sam Williams to take the reins in Cairns and get Northern moving again.
Recently reunited with the NRL team across town, the Townsville Blackhawks have to make sure that the Cowboys don’t drag them down to their level. The Blackhawks were 14-6 under Terry Campese in 2025 and in theory, a couple of fringe NRL players would patch some weaknesses and put them into contention. Someone sign Dudley Dotoi already.
Both the Mackay Cutters and Central Queensland Capras have plenty of work to do. The Capras reverted to form last year after a mini-golden age that included a preliminary finals appearance in 2023. Likely these two will be scrapping for the bottom of the table.
I always think the Sunshine Coast Falcons are on the verge of something. Since covid, the Birds have won 9, 13.5, 11.5, 12 and 12 games each year. Sunny Coast are definitionally good but not great. Losing the Storm will not help, even if Melbourne haven’t been much help over that period in any case, and adding a tenuous connection to the Broncos seems unlikely to change the calculus.
The Redcliffe Dolphins will be helmed by Dave Elliott, the premiership winning coach of 2024 at Norths who was decided to be surplus to requirements when Rohan Smith returned from Leeds. Proven quality with a point to prove at a big club smarting from an eight year title drought? Look out.
Despite the three titles in four years, the Norths Devils never felt that convincing. Perhaps it was that they are not the Bears or the Dolphins, our true overlords to whom we must bow and scrape, or perhaps it was the repeated narrow and last minute grand final wins. Burleigh crushed Norths in last year’s grand final, which felt a punctuation mark on the end of the Devils’ run. Oryn Keeley being too good for QCup, Jordan Lipp departing for York, Manase Kaho for Catalans and Sean O’Sullivan being mercifully rotated out of the Dolphins roster are some of the changes Rohan Smith will have to find solutions for.
Who knows what Souths Logan Magpies are doing at any given moment in time? The Magpies led QCup by Wins Above Reserve Grade, Anthony Milford finished as Guy #4 and Souths Logan underperformed their Pythagorean expectation by 2.5 wins. Your guess is as good as mine as to what they will be like this year. I hope the toilets are working at Davies Park. I will not be attending to find out.
Easts Tigers were the most active in the transfer market and have brought in stalwart veteran Jim Lenihan to take over from Matt Church. I am expecting a pretty big improvement at Coorparoo.
Wynnum Manly Seagulls:
Quite the dilemma. We’ll be watching to see if Jamal Shibasaki can get himself into good enough shape to crack the Broncos or if he is like the earlier version of his brother.
The Western Clydesdales have managed to bring in plenty of attention with the Walker Brothers. One hoped that would translate to better recruitment and better results but the team list for this week is not that different to what has been served up previously. Sweet jerseys (see end of newsletter).
The challenge for the Ipswich Jets is to maintain last year’s dramatic improvement from the bottom of the league to the finals. Tye Ingebritsen oversaw minimal churn in the roster, so the Jets just needs to stay better than the other improvers to maintain their place.
The Burleigh Bears are the reigning premiers but suffered a number of departures in the offseason to Super League and other statewide clubs. The mark of the big clubs is their ability to churn the roster and stay competitive. I’m not expecting the Bears to show much strain.
Tweed Seagulls? Oh, are you guys still here? Look, I’m going to have to see something before I commit too much memory to the southern seagulls.
A reminder to join Maroon Observer QCup Tipping Sickoship.
Intermission
It is not nice to make fun of people's appearance. On the other hand, it is called making fun for a reason. It is fun. For me.
So we see here three normal looking people, Anasta looking conventionally handsome by sheer and stark contrast, laughing at I’m not sure what because I had the sound off but I’ll bet it was a real ZINGER, and —
— Bruno Ganz in Der Untergang (2004), moments before the film's climax.
Man remember those memes? Couldn't go anywhere on the internet in 2009 without tripping over one. So it was only nearly 20 years ago. Most of them weren't funny. Movie was pretty good though.
Hopefully, QCup provides some better highlights than Vegas did.
Brisbane football is a gold mine
The Broncos reported to the ASX that revenue is up 20% and profits are up 35% on the previous year. Shockingly, winning premierships is good for business. Someone should have told Paul White that.
The Broncos will clear $7.7 million in profit, mostly off the back of increased sponsorship, increased funding from the NRL and tax payer funding for waving through the PNG Chiefs licence. I bought a full price jersey, possibly for the first time ever, which has to have contributed as well.
Unlike the Controlling Body, the Broncos making a profit makes sense, because it is a private entity with no overarching constitutional social responsibility which exists to enrich its shareholders, which is predominantly News but also me. My (extremely small) investment since 2018 is up 265%.
Surprisingly, the Broncos are not the most profitable or richest football club in Brisbane. The Lions, who didn’t even win the women’s premiership, reported $108m in revenue, compared to the Broncos’ $98m, and $9.8m in profit.
A 10% margin is not a bad bit of business.
Watch guide
Normally, I would preview a few games but I’ve spent too much of this newsletter talking about PVL and myself, as usual, so I’ll cut to the chase. Watch any Queensland Cup you can this weekend, it’ll all be good, and the obvious picks in the NRL are the 2023 grand final rematch on Friday night and the Re-Lomaxening: This Time Its On The Field on Thursday night. Remember the southerners can’t adjust their body clocks to the reality of the sun, despite billions of years of evolution, and so must have the nanny state and NRL do it for them.
I’ve also re-created Elo systems for Super League. While it needs a bit of tweaking, and some pre-Super League history added in for class rating purposes, it’s good enough to add the European game to the watch guide. With all the good teams scheduled against bad ones, or at least recently promoted clubs, what a weekend we get on debut. Last weekend, which was much more competitive on paper, was decided by an average of 26 points, so we can only tremble in horror at the prospects round 4.
We won’t treat you like a moron
One of the reasons this newsletter got going is that I realised that I had to write the stories I wanted to read about the sport. Another reason it got going is that I am tired of NRL content that makes you feel dumb and so wanted something that wasn’t written in the same voice as every gambling ad you’ve ever heard.
Enter NRL-IQ:
In collaboration with Telstra, the NRL has developed advanced capabilities using large language models to enhance the fan experience.
Phase one of the initiative is now complete, with future phases set to introduce an Al-powered, chat-based interface that helps fans better understand game statistics and insights.
By translating complex data into everyday language, NRL-IQ aims to deepen engagement and make the game more accessible and enjoyable for all fans.
In contrast to the NRL®, in collaboration with Telstra®, The Maroon Observer does not offer this service. I assume a basic level of reading comprehension and command of numeracy of my subscribers. I also assume that you would prefer to hear from a person, no matter how self-righteous or pretentious, than a computer, who should not be allowed to speak my holy tongue.
We do not have time to litigate the outputs of “Fox AI”.
If that sounds appealing, you may want to consider an upgrade to a paid subscription. Paid subscribers get full access to the club newsletters, The Almanac and The Dataset™, and commenting privileges.
If you don’t want Substack clipping your ticket or to commit to an ongoing subscription, Ko-Fi is also available.
Read this
Eye Test: Six things I noticed from the NRL’s Round 1 2026 Las Vegas games
Campo: Why Melbourne Storm have been waiting a generation for a player like Sua Fa’alogo
The Sportress: Measurable Difference
Storm Machine: 2026... Calibrate your expectations
Rugby League Writers: Knights Cause An Upset & Bulldogs Hang On
John Davidson: Tagged, trolled and trending: My accidental BAFTAs storm
1 Eyed Eel: ARL Boss Signals Support for Storm and Lomax (the Lomax thing had a lot of potential to be very funny but looks to be boringly resolved by negotiation. I guess this at least saves you a lecture about what a contract is)
Notes
Titans confirm Hostplus Cup allocations for 2026 and signed a bunch of kids: Faeamani, Taumoepeau and Liu, Ieremia, Kama. There are not a lot of established first graders in that Titans roster.
Seven might be more interested in the NRL than first thought with the suggestion they might bring in Monday night footy. Could be Seven and Kayo bidding against Nine and Stan? With the AFL already secured, Seven surely are not bidding to win at any price but the competitive tension would help buoy the other tenders.
“The financial report reveals that the NRL paid the princely sum of $15.6m for the Ibis Styles Port Macquarie Hotel and another $24.2m for the Mantra Terraces Hotel in Brisbane.” After all my stuff about commercial transparency, I have no idea how to evaluate these sale prices.
PNG Chiefs new general manager Michael Chammas wants a coach in place by May. Chammas kind of sounds like he knows what he's on about? I guess that's the minimum bar but I'm still surprised he cleared it.
A-League club’s CEO makes huge promise at fan forum: ‘Before I’m gone, we will deliver a stadium’. While Brisbane could use a mid-sized stadium, either by paving over Davies Park or replacing the Gabba, I don’t really want it built to benefit the Roar or the Reds. Call it spite. Also, feels like the kind of thing that should be built in to planning for, you know, the Olympic goddamn Games.
“Queensland Council of Social Service chief executive Aimee McVeigh said social housing income thresholds had not changed since 2006, while inflation had skyrocketed over the 20 years since.” You’d think after the absolute clusterfuck that was Robodebt, and the frequent callbacks to the Prime Minister’s own less-than-well-off youth, and his enormous parliamentary mandate, things like this could be sorted out relatively easily so that kids aren’t living in tents but no, too hard. Alternatively, a state LNP that wants to be seen as common sense and getting things done could sort this out easily enough but, no, too many kids to lock up.
Completely unrelated: “The average home in Brisbane is now worth $1,046,000 — an increase of 15.9 per cent since the same time last year… Annual growth in home prices in Ipswich reached 19.7 per cent, with Logan seeing an increase of 19 per cent and Toowoomba growing by 18.2 per cent.” We did it, folks. Congratulations to everyone involved.
Trump Tower: Barring the LNP throwing child prisoners at the construction, it is not happening. The ABC went to town on the no-name developer while the Gold Coast council comes under scrutiny for spending too much on international travel as Mayor Tom Tate admits he has met with Trump. Usually, you’re meant to be a little more discreet about these things but Trump seems to bring the absolute worst of out the most wretched people.
Broadcast: Channel Ten buys venerable Hollywood studio, world forced to watch A-League?
Don’t let PVL find out about the four point field goal
Random logo of the week
