Briefing notes III
Getting a sick thrill out of just calling it "rugby"
Welcome to The Maroon Observer, a weekly newsletter about rugby league, Queensland and rugby league in Queensland.
Programming notes
While I’m on “holidays” in “England”, service will be reduced. It is difficult to write a full newsletter if you don’t have access to one-half of the newsletter’s remit.1 In lieu, we’ll keep it light and tight.
Things that happened
Mr Luai is going to Port Moresby:
The PNG Chiefs will stand for something bigger than a single country. We are also the team of the Pacific. Jarome embodies that identity, and his presence in our jersey will resonate across every Pacific community.
As attested by the ‘23 grand final Panthers, and the Blues in general, getting better without Luai, the Tigers could hardly have landed on a better first signing for the Chiefs. It will be weird for Luai to go back to the NRL after spending 2027 playing for the Magpies but he won't be the only one in that situation. See also: the guts of the London Broncos coming to PNG.
Alex Johnston is also committed, although he seems less likely to spend next year in Cup, and don’t forget the extremely normal friend-haver, Toby Rudolf. There are still hurdles ahead - the tax lawyers are rubbing their hands together as we speak - and some significant reality checks in the offing in November 2027. Still, the Chiefs seem to be landing better signings sooner than either the Bears or the Dolphins. Do with that information what you will.
Luai was flown to PNG on a private jet, was given the five star treatment, the subject of comments from the Prime Minister and witnessed grit and passion at a Digicel Cup game. Not every player is going to get the red carpet but the show makes it more real. As I've been saying for a while, this is happening. Whether it is sustainable in the medium term remains to be seen but the rivers of gold from the next deal will make it hard to fail.
NRL Physio went on Kevin Walters’ podcast, or at least that’s what I gather from some of the screen caps, and talked about the shit he cops from clubs:
Seeney received a professionally-worded response from someone within the Broncos rebuking him for sharing the information, while two more anonymous replies also arrived that were far less diplomatic.
“They abused the living hell out of me!” Seeney recalled.
Seeney puts such reactions down to a misunderstanding from clubs of what he’s trying to do.
“I’m not angling for a job in the NRL… I don’t need (clubs) to accept me or be friendly, but you don’t need to abuse me either,” he said.
“A lot of clubs seem to think I’m trying to undermine them, but I am literally just trying to educate fans.”
Brien is far too nice but I’m not. I would write in the newsletter that you got mad and I certainly would not keep your name out of it because I have even less interest in getting a NRL job than he does.
The blitheness with which the entire NRL industry treats its fans is increasingly grating. I haven’t cared about this in the past, and would often play devil’s advocate and justify decisions made in a business context because people seemed unable to see what was actually going on, but the powers that be are not even doing you the disrespect of being patronising. You've got Abdo out there telling us splitting the broadcast rights is in the best interests of the game while PVL sells set restarts as an existential panacea for the future of rugby league. Guess who didn't ask for either of those changes?
At the other end, you've got hopped up club apparatchiks chewing out an independent creator for doing their job for them. That he does it in a way a large part of the fan base enjoys only makes it worse for them. How about this: you want a different story out there? You have a comms team. Tell them to pull their fingers out and do their jobs. There aren’t many places of business where you could contact an independent person, abuse them for doing something tangentially related to that business, and keep your job. That’s why the NRL is full of employable geniuses and not just the most venomous vipers in the pit.
I make this point time and again but rugby league would not exist, certainly not professionally and perhaps not at all, without the time and money fans are willing to invest. All the players, administrators, club staff, player agents, RLPA officials, coaches, broadcasters and so on are parasites on your money and your attention. They should show some gratitude but instead, they assume you’ll be there, wallet in hand, ready to dump it out into their pockets. If fans want more injury information, they should get it because the customer is usually right.
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Intermission
Made the long, somewhat annoying journey (why are there roundabouts with traffic lights on major highways?) to Headingley to see the Rhinos absolutely crush the Dragons, 46-4, something that I will get around to writing up in more detail at a later date, once I’ve settled on a suitably patronising “here’s what I did on my holidays and what it Says about a Big Issue” undergraduate tone of essay.
Only one set restart was called but the AWOOGA sound was not piped into the stadium - disappointing - and then I had to explain to my wife why that was one special that they announced it, unlike every other penalty that I interpreted from the ref’s signals. That was something that I had never considered and annoys me more that the stupidest part of the game gets announced while real penalties do not. Some more photos on Instagram.
Upcoming slate
Read this
Eye Test - Melbourne’s edge defense has vanished
The Cruncher - Is the 2026 NRL season really “unpredictable”?
The Sportress - Six, Again: Space to Breathe (see below for a point of pedantry)
What You Get Is What You See - Ratings, Reddit and the myth of rugby league growth
Colleen Edwards - Kiwi stars welcome Maroons call-up after Origin rule change
Nick Tedeschi - Storm success was as certain as death and taxes. So how has it all gone wrong?
Storm Machine - Game 749 – S29E08 Review
Rugby League Writers - Broncos Draw Up A Beauty, Tedesco For Origin & Storm Depth Issues
Independent Australia - Beneath the anti-Zionist Big Banana
Notes
Last week's email has the wrong watch guide in it. No idea why because I did everything right on my end. Sorry. As always, click through on the Datawrapper embeds.
Margin watch: 23.5 pts/game is not a record round margin. It is 33rd highest in the 946 regular season rounds since 1988 and the worst since round 16, 2024 (24.4). The 17.5 average margin so far is bang on pace with 2021.
Drinkwater to depart Cowboys. I’ll have to think about this for the next Bovine Bulletin. What it means depends on what you think of Jaxon Purdue.
Sami signs on with the Dragons from ‘27. I’ll have to think about this for the next… oh, right. I won’t think about this anymore, other than to confusedly wrestle with the idea that the Titans are under cap pressure. But… how?
Brendan Piakura hurt again
Missed this last week: WSOO and NRLW rules confirmed. As in, the women’s rules are the same as they always are (no set restarts, 17-player sides). Lucky for the pro-set restart brigade, if there are any, the NRLW comp is so lopsided, no one will notice if the games are more competitive than they would otherwise be.
French broadcaster TV5MONDE to stream Top 14 for free in Ireland and UK. Brief bit of union news to note that, “The Top 14 continues to go from strength to strength and is by far the biggest club rugby competition in the world… A new agreement with Canal+ starts in 2027 and is worth an impressive €128.7 million per season.” So the biggest union club competition in the world is due to get AU$200m/yr from its domestic deal while the actual biggest rugby club competition in the world is already at ~AU$300m/yr from Australian rights (taking ~$100m/yr off from ~$400m/yr for Origin, rep games, NRLW, NZ TV deal) and is likely to climb north of $450m/yr soon.
AFL sacks appeals board chair Will Houghton after Lance Collard case
Rare Queensland set of bells rings its first peal in three-hour ‘marathon’ effort
Spending several weeks in close proximity with my in-laws is teaching me new things about how people use the internet (not complimentary).
Some content
I am not paying for Watch NRL given I already pay for Kayo and I don’t seem to have access to Sky Sports.