Please don't put in the newsletter that I got mad II
Please don't put in the newsletter that I got mad II
Broncos and Cowboys win twice, Dolphins lose and Titans split the difference
Welcome to The Maroon Observer, a weekly newsletter about rugby league, Queensland and rugby league in Queensland.
Around the grounds
Broncos (M) 30 defeated Eels 16. It may be that you think your team, whether it be Dolphin, Cowboy, Titan or Bronco, is bad but then you see a really, really godawful team and you have a little gratitude that it isn’t so much worse. Brisbane could have won this by 50 but chose to spot the Eels 16 points and 20 minutes, in what should be a really worrying sign for the longevity of Walters’ career, but that thought will be smothered by the final result.
Cowboys (W) 28 defeated Raiders 18. It’s a real game of confidence. With a few good wins under their belts, the Cowboys are coming into their own. Manzelmann had a few scoots out of dummy half and kept things rolling wonderfully. Dibb dug into the line more and Butler hit the line harder. Blackwell has really settled in nicely in her quasi-fullback-slash-winger role. A consummate performance from whistle to whistle, albeit with a defence that is still prone to being run over by big bodies near the posts. Expectations are rising.
Storm 48 defeated Dolphins 6. Let’s hear from the winners for a bloody change -
Titans (W) 26 v Roosters 6. With Lauren Brown's kicking, so go the Titans and the Titans are back. I questioned whether 44-4 would be an aberration. That seemed less likely after 11-10 but seems more likely now that one of the premiership contenders got their ass beat. The Roosters had no answers for the Titans, in attack or in defence. A fantastic win for Gold Coast.
Broncos (W) 44 defeated Tigers 14. Completing the Queensland women’s slam, the Broncos put in their most impressive effort of the season. Down early to an overly enthusiastic Tigers side running with sugar high toddler energy head first into contact, Wests were in dire need of a lie down only 25 minutes into the contest. The territory battle tipped favourably to the Broncos middles landing body blow after body blow and the Tigers rarely saw the red zone. Noses were pushed through the line, threatening breaks and points. Brisbane bided their time, waiting for the inevitable. The inevitable arrived, first a little bit and then all at once. Matt Russell spent all week practicing Piliae-Rasabale.
Roosters 48 defeated Titans (M) 28. There are certain signs that winter is coming to an end and summer will soon be here. The days are longer and warmer. The doona goes back into the closet. Jasmine blooms - first common, then Chinese star. Weekends comprise Bunnings trips and yardwork while listening to NFL preview podcasts. The Titans play the Roosters in a meaningless late season contest in which Gold Coast get blown off the park. It’s been nearly a decade since the Titans beat the Roosters.
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Queensland Cup finals time
For me, this has not been a particularly exciting season, with one clear standard-setting club, but that might be because I didn’t get enough game time in. With the rest mired in a mid-table bog, only one finals place was decided in the final round of fixtures. Nonetheless, I am looking forward to an exciting finals series. If week 1 is half as insane as last year, we’re in for a treat.
Pride (1) vs Falcons (4) at Barlow Park, Saturday 2pm
The Pride are really good, pending the Cowboys pinching a bunch of guys, so a win here would help mitigate that risk by not having to play in the NRL’s round 27, where North Queensland could rest their starters and impose on their feeders. Part of that effect is why we’ve seen plenty of hot shot minor premiers fall over during finals in the last few years. The minor premier has only made two of the last four grand finals and only won one of those (Devils in 2021).
The (by far) best team in the league comes up against the box office team. The Falcons, despite not fielding Sua Faalogo this season, have been a great deal of fun to watch with ball in hand. Not unlike last year’s Broncos, they make line breaks for fun and can get a run of scoring on. Just ask the Devils, who were down 36-0 at the half last week. With the Storm resting their guys from travelling to Townsville, there seem to be no Melbourne guys available for Sunshine Coast. That makes for tough sledding but this is why the Falcons signed their guys. Tip: Pride
Hunters (5) vs Seagulls (8) at Santos NFS, Saturday 4pm
Wynnum suck. They’ve been dreadful, boring and unimaginative, and didn’t have a win for six weeks mid-season. The Seagulls managed to string together a few (two) late season wins to save their finals position from the Blackhawks.
Everyone’s second team have an enormously strong home ground advantage at FORT MORESBY. The Hunters have also managed to assemble a quietly good season, with a strong home stand (losing only to the Dolphins and the Magpies), solid 12-8 overall record but only +7 points difference and dropping only a single game since their round 15 bye. They’ve got the form and the fans, they just need to execute. Tip: Hunters
Capras (6) vs Bears (7) at Rugby Park, Saturday 6pm
It has been an absolutely dreadful season by the standard of the Burleigh Bears, which does not reflect on the new partnership with the Brisbane Broncos. It is now late August. The Bears haven’t won a game since June, hence the Fraud Watch, and haven’t beaten anyone above them on the ladder since early May. This is a big red flashing strobe of a football team.
The Capras are the Capras and their team has slowly been eroded over the last couple of years but they’ve made the finals more times under Lionel Harbin in the post-covid era than at any previous time in their history. The Capras won this same fixture in round 4 and have played reasonably competently since, beating who you’d expect them to beat.
I’m almost certain the winner is advancing no further than next week. Tip: Capras
Devils (2) vs Dolphins (3) at Bishop Park, Sunday 2pm
The Dolphins are big and mean and have barged their way into a top four finish. The Devils are wily and clever and have finessed their way to second place. Both teams won 13 games and their points differences are almost identical. Their home grounds are half an hour apart. This is a replay of the 2022 grand final, won by Brayden McGrady’s broken arm, although my overriding memory of that game is how slow Tyson Gamble was. I am greatly looking forward to this local derby, grand final replay, styles make fights extravaganza. My only concern is North’s late season form slump, taking only one from their last four, but they did beat Redcliffe before that. Tip: Devils
This week in expansion
The Western Bears have arrived after the partnership between North Sydney and Western Australia was confirmed by the two parties as they seek to become the NRL’s 18th team.
I really wish reporters, or at least whoever drops the quotes in their headlines (which is the detail that 99% of people read), would adopt the pretense of this not being a foregone conclusion. That it feels all but decided makes the entire process about 90% less fun.
NRL clubs are on a collision course with the ARL Commission over plans for them to share in a $60 million licence fee for Papua New Guinea to enter the league in 2028 – and they have a powerful lever in their back pocket.
As an engineer, the back pocket is the worst possible place to install an important lever. You’d sit down and the lever would go off.
Three journalists on the byline and they couldn’t craft a half decent metaphor. Ace up the sleeve is right there and that’s the laziest cliche available. You had to go out of your way to come up with the non-sensical powerful lever in the back pocket.
Leading club bosses believe $60m is nowhere near enough and want an additional $2m a year from 2027 – on top of their current club grant – in return for green-lighting expansion to 20 teams…
Crucially, all 17 of the clubs are off contract at the end of the season because the NRL has been unable to strike a deal on fresh licensing agreements after talks became bogged down in the expansion debate and financial terms for the existing clubs.
No further detail is provided on where negotiations are at (one assumes that, given the example set during the RLPA negotiations, the NRL are months behind where any reasonable organisation would be) or what the potential sticking points between the NRL and clubs might be, other than the aforementioned money (which perhaps is immaterial given the example set during the RLPA negotiations, as V’Landys intends to capitulate to all demands in order to avoid a protracted discussion in which the Controlling Body could be accused of Not Getting Things Done).
We had been given the impression this was more or less resolved when the salary cap was set but evidently not. The renewal of the licencing agreements remains a Powerful Lever in the Back Pocket.
You can fill in the gaps on what I would usually say about how the media have failed you with their poor imagery and lack of attention, least of all to detail, never mind that all the reporting seems to avoid pointing out that the Controlling Body is clearly unsustainably slow and administratively dysfunctional. Surely that won’t have any long-term ramifications for the sport.
Finally, I used the idiom “full support of the board” last week to describe the Newtown’s involvement in the Jetty Jet Jets joint venture. I am told by a source close to the situation that it was not unanimously supported by Newtown’s board but it was popular.
I am sympathetic to Newtown, both because of the philosophy espoused during the CEO’s appearance on Progressive Rugby League and as a potential ally in the fight against national reserve grade homogenising rugby league, and I think the JETS would be fun but it’s hard to see the case being all that compelling, whether for the Jets or the Easts Tigers, at the corporate level.
I feel - but may be wrong - the AFL is invading the Western Corridor is just really hard to get anyone to care about, both on the counts that the division between NRL and AFL is a lot less culturally fraught now than it was when I were a lad, and also the Western Corridor exists but still has large tracts of greenfield to be infilled. It will depend mostly on the broadcasters’ appetite for another SEQ team, which could conceivably be higher in three to five years if the Dolphins get it sorted and the population boom continues, or perhaps not. The fans will be generally apathetic until the Jets win something, which could be any amount of time down the track.
Nonetheless, the options here are more realistic than in PNG and more fully formed than in NZ. You could easily get to 20 with the Western Bears, the South Queensland-Newtown Jets and the Adelaide Firehawks/Bengals/(other big cat or destructive bird? Lion? Jaguar? Noisy miner?).
Intermission
Players shadow boxing with each other might be my favourite genre of intermission. Unfortunately, we didn’t have space to do a full frame-by-frame breakdown of this scrape but I did confirm:
For a change, Brianna Clark was not at the centre of the affray.
Jayme Fressard’s attempts to act the villain as she walked off for her well deserved binning was lame. You angry. You real angry. Everyone saw. We all know you angry. How embarrassing.
Between Leniu, the Fifita backflip and this, the Roosters are absolutely thrumming with an eldritch loser energy. Get rid of them, they bring nothing to the league.
Meanwhile
Ron Coote
Well, I expected nothing and I got even less. For the record, the following has nothing to do with Coote himself. It is perhaps telling that I, a pretty well but self-educated student of the history of the game, had to look up his career achievements on Rugby League Project and in A Centenary of Rugby League to get some context but being under the age of 60, I have no firm Ron Coote takes.
Here's a timeline of the various Immortals’ careers:
Here’s the gaps between each Immortal’s retirement and their induction:
The four Immortals originally selected all had to have been seen play live, in-person by the committee. In 1981, that restricted itself to post-War Sydney footballers. It made a bit of sense, in 2018, when the NRL added three Immortals from the pre-War era, which spans two or three generations, to have Messenger, Burge and Brown to complete a throughline of the history of the game from the early 20th century. If you then take Lewis and Johns as givens, which there is no argument on the former and I have no interest in arguing about the latter with Blues-brainwashed Xers and millennials, then going back to Langlands, Beetson, Provan, Meninga and now Coote looks out of place. Even bearing in mind the irregularity with which inductions were even considered, surely if it’s not obvious after a decade then they ain’t it.
Perhaps we can have several classes of Immortals. Fulton, Raper, Churchill, Gasnier, Lewis, Johns, Burge, Messenger and Brown all qualify as Immortals of High Distinction, as inducted with some degree of logic and alacrity, and Langlands, Beetson, Provan, Meninga and Coote as Immortals with Commendation, although I’d definitely hear out an argument that Beetson should be given higher honours, having overcome serious and widespread systemic racism (and a far less serious anti-Queensland bias) to rise to prominence. That’s probably not a discussion the NRL wants to have at its glamour event, even though it would make the whole thing substantially more interesting.
The upshot is that if a guy passed over 13 times previously is now the bar to be cleared, you don't exactly need to be Mondo Duplantis to be considered. That the wait can be as much as a half century, as in Provan’s and Coote’s cases, then the likes of Lockyer, Thurston, Smith, Slater, Inlgis are (im)mortal locks. When the time comes, I’d introduce an even higher class of Immortals and Heroes of Rugby League Labour just for them because this is my newsletter and I can do whatever I like. It's just a question of when PVL remembers he has to do it and then they'll be ushered in sometime between now and 2100, when they're all heads in jars. Even Langer and Cronk, who are consensus Mortals, might fancy their chances of becoming Immortals with an Honourable Mention.
The downside is all the boring, dry procedural stuff that I and The Sportress (who seem to have deleted their very good post?) and Nick Campton have been banging on about. The lowering the standard of the Immortals for no clear and obvious benefit is yet another symptom of Being Seen To Do Things philosophy, instead of having a good idea of what you're doing, that pervades head office.
But what else is new? Ahahahahaha:
In the space of two hours, which included a lunch, there were 25 people admitted to the Hall of Fame and an Immortal, league’s greatest individual accolade, was selected.
Adding to concerns was a significant lack of knowledge of the female Hall of Fame contenders, which resulted in every nominated athlete being admitted.
Oh, you’re serious? Allow me to laugh even harder.
The boss of the game, ARL Commission chairman Peter V’landys, was fuming about criticism of the process.
“I appreciate everyone is entitled to an opinion, however it’s disappointing that rather than celebrating our Hall of Famers and Immortal we try to find fault,” he said.
“We have had four years to consider who should be inducted. We had a committee meeting last year. We expanded the committee this year to have greater Queensland knowledge. The committee for the first time included two women. There were nine journalists on the committee, each with at least 25 years’ experience, with four having over 40 years’ experience.
“The NRL historian drafted a bio on each person considered. Committee members could nominate others. I have never seen in rugby league before the universal acceptance of Ron Coote as the Immortal. So the committee got it 100 per cent right.”
We cross to found footage of the discussion.
Because what the Immortals really needed for some relevance were the oldest, crustiest, most hated journalists in the game to give yet more accolades to a Baby Boomer. Talk about participation trophies.
Ugh, not again
The NRL is investigating the revival of the National Youth Competition which produced superstars Latrell Mitchell, Kalyn Ponga and Tom Trbojevic as part of rugby league’s march towards 20 teams…
But under a sweeping review of the code’s pathways and ‘vertical integration’ structures, the NYC is back on the agenda.
Talks are in their infancy but the NRL has commissioned a steering committee including Ikin, Robinson, Storm football boss Frank Ponissi and Penrith chief executive Matt Cameron.
No one went on the record in favour but Dave Donaghy did raise some concerns:
Broncos CEO Donaghy, who was the boss at Melbourne when the under-20s was axed, sees merit in an NYC rebirth.
“My first thought would be we need to look at all of this holistically,” he said.
“Often we bring in a new competition or a new idea without a thorough thought for what the unintended consequences may be.
“It’s great that the committee is approaching it in that manner, but I think it’s really important as a Queensland-based club that there needs to be parity with our competitors.
“The previous NYC was too expensive to run and for me it was too long, so it was a lot to ask young men to be copying the exact program of the NRL.
“There were also a range of welfare issues, so if we’re serious about bringing it back, let’s give it thought based on the challenges that we’ve experienced in the past.”
Sorry Stinky Pete, where are the merits? Must have been a typo. I know you’re very busy, what with the biological firestorms and what have you. Being mouldy JK Rowling’s best friend must be time-consuming.
It is pretty funny to think that the NRL’s strategy of vertical integration will see players come up through U17 and U19 state comps, then switch to NRL U21, most of which will probably end up back in state cup as seniors and then maybe make the NRL proper. A clear and comprehensible pyramid for the development of talent!
The best case scenario is that this is a trial balloon, like shortening the season, ahead of broadcast negotiations. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear someone was merely humouring the ideas of some old men - let’s potentially call them Gil Phould, Ruzz Bothfield and Bayne Wennett - and this committee will discover that the obstacles are difficult to overcome (read: expensive) and it will die quietly, not unlike national reserve grade. Unfortunately, in reality, the sport is run by a sweaty fash-adjacent charlatan and a gutless managerial consultant, so to the extent they have given it any thought, they probably think it’s a good idea.
The overall strategy seems to be as follows:
The NRLM is expanding to 20 teams by 2032
The NRLW will expand to match the NRLM over a longer, unknown time frame
The NRL is introducing a men’s under 21s competition, perhaps as early as 26/27, that will also match the NRLM in scale
Some questions are outstanding:
Where is the women’s under 21 comp?
Who is watching approximately 50 hours of content every weekend, or even how many people are watching more than one or two games each weekend?
Where does the NRL see the demand for 30 NRL-branded games every weekend?
Do the broadcasters see any appeal in producing three NRL-ish games at any given minute on a Saturday or Sunday, of which only one, maybe two, has a sizeable audience?
How does the complete lack of value to broadcasters and the inability to increase ticket prices for games no one wants to go to allow clubs to cover the cost of increasing the number of travelling staff by 50 to 100%?
I don’t really see a potential NRLU as a direct competitor to the QCup, although it is not ideal to have compete with yet another rugby league, but I am more concerned that the committee will think about this for 15 seconds, see the obvious gap and use it as a wedge to ram through a national reserve grade as well. If the North Sydney Bears and the Newtown Jets get into the NRL, then that’s all the rugby league heritage that these dopes care about preserved. Queensland’s legacy clubs will fade into history, with no one to speak for them and let down once more by the ostensible custodians of the national game.
I’m sure it’ll be fine. Look at how well they handled the Immortals. You just remember how good it was when there were all three grades (long before I was born).
Upcoming Slate
Enjoy the last two weeks of the Watch Guide. Once we get past the first week of finals, the form Elo ratings that power the stars cease to be calculated. There will be so few games to care about by then, I’ll just write them all up anyway.
NRLM - Cowboys vs Storm at QCB, Thursday 7.50pm
The Storm have already folded by naming Grant Anderson in the halves and yet… Tip: Storm
NRLW - Titans vs Sharks at C-Bus Super, Saturday 11am
Lofffffippppoooooooo is back, which helps replace Fuimaono, who has copped a two game suspension. As a big Sienna Lofipo guy, this is great to see what she can do next to one of the best in the business, having spent most of last year working with the talented but inexperienced Kiria Chantay-Ratu. The Sharks are undefeated so far and while this isn’t Cronulla’s first big test, they have Titans and Roosters back to back, which will make or break their credentials. If Gold Coast play like last week, the Sharks will find out if they have what it takes. Tip: Titans
NRLM - Dolphins vs Broncos at Suncorp, Saturday 5.30pm
We are set up for a classic Conflict on Caxton. Both teams will come in 10-12 and a loss will mathematically eliminate them from finals. The winner will be feted with Riverfire, the highest pyrotechnic honour the city of Brisbane bestows. The loser will return to whatever rock they crawled out from. The question is whether clueless, Sydney-based broadcasters or administrators scheduled this 50,000 person game directly against one of Brisbane’s biggest annual events without realising it or caring about the people on the ground, or if the Dolphins thought it would give the game a bit more of a vibe. As if that was needed. Tip: Broncos
NRLW - Broncos vs Cowboys at Langlands, Sunday 1.45pm
How much have the Cowboys learned about themselves as players and a team and can they apply to beating the second best team in the comp with the sharpest offence? If North Queensland get over here, they should start thinking about how much trouble they could cause the competition. That said, I think the Broncos will crush them through the middle and out wide because there’s still a bit to work on there. Tip: Broncos
(Tips 38 / 74)
Watch Guide
Notes
Tino: “Dave said, ‘I’m backflipping’. I couldn’t believe it was happening. I said, ‘Bro, why did you put yourself under so much pressure in the media’. I felt like I had failed Dave with all of it because we promised each other that one day we would lift the trophy up together at the Titans and be the first guys to do it. I’m just glad we get another crack at the title next year (when Fa’asuamaleaui returns from a knee reconstruction). Hopefully we don’t fail in our dream. But at least we get to stay together and keep kicking on.”
Cowboys extend Clifford and Valemei. Feldt, one of the last of the ‘15ers with Granville, to depart for St Helens. Feldt is going to do some good shit in the red V, not least because he still has some gas left in the tank.
Funny that Feldt seems to have taken the Corey Oates spot. Who knows where he will end up. He didn’t even want to drive to Burleigh to play Cup.
Titans: Erin Clark departs for the Warriors. The Phys reports Brimson is going for groin surgery, will be fine for pre-season 2025.
Redcliffe Dolphins announce new head coach for 2025. Pride’s new coach is TBA. Eric Smith, taking over from the longstanding Ty Williams for 2024, has obviously had a very successful season but the Dolphins have lured him south with the prospect of getting on to the NRL pathway by replacing Ben Teo, who is busy measuring up Kev’s office for new curtains.
Not Queensland: Lae Tigers have braved the flooded Yalu to play finals. This is insane.
QRL confirms Wide Bay Bulls restructure. I can’t believe Coby Black singlehandedly killed a rugby league program.
Darren Lockyer voices support to bring high-profile rugby league games to Roma.
Lastly, a cool try I wanted to embed but ran short on space. Incidentally, have I mentioned how much I hate vertical video?