Time for the bushfires to have a go
Read to the end for a couple of larrikin Japanese corporations having a go
Welcome to The Maroon Observer, a weekly newsletter about rugby league, Queensland and rugby league in Queensland.
Around the grounds
Titans 30 defeated Roosters 12. As if evidence was required, I don’t put a lot of thought into the Watch Guide tips. On Tuesday night, putting the finishing touches on last week’s newsletter, I conservatively tipped the Roosters. By Thursday, I was tipping the Titans, in the almost equally thoughtless exercise of submitting weekly tips.
It might be fair to say that the Roosters beat themselves in this one, proffering the ball and field with numerous errors and a 57% completion rate, but it was only in the back quarter of the game that the Titans really came to life. David Fifita had some impact, to say the least. The Titans would've won by more if they focussed exclusively on Campbell, who might be a genuine halfback by the end of the year, and never passed to Brimson. Nonetheless, I refuse to be sucked in from two games. I need at least eight good performances before I would even consider buying in. Dom Young sucks and he's going to trade on his time as a Knight before he ends up back in England. The Roosters fans’ booing of Fifita was as pathetic as their players’ attempt at playing dirty. You guys need to watch more tape of The Milk to learn how it’s done.
Broncos 20 defeated Dolphins 12. The scoreline flatters the losers in this entirely juiceless rendition of Conflict on Caxton. While the weather probably plays a role here, so did the notable expanse of empty seats. I could’ve bought a single game Battle for Brisbane membership while sitting in the stands of the claimed “sell-out” that drew fewer fans than the Big Game the week before. The atmosphere of the pre-game was punctuated by a louder response to the Broncos team list than the Dolphins at their “home” game and the second half was marked by a notable chattiness of the crowd, mostly not paying attention to the lack of action on the field. These Dolphins deserve that. When is Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow going to do something? More to come in the next Pony Picayune.
Cowboys 30 defeated Raiders 20. Let’s hear from the Raiders fans:
Like your dad, it’s not that I’m angry. I’m just disappointed. The Raiders knew what was coming and they let it happen anyway. They’d gone from Manly direct to Townsville. The plan was to acclimatize, but when the heat and humidity do the world’s sweatiest tango like that, it doesn’t matter if you’ve been living in a sauna. Breathing becomes hard. You have to find a way to avoid errors. To show impeccable discipline when your brain is sapped of its ability to compute basic functions. It’s a test, but one that good footy teams pass. The Milk did not.
Recommend reading the rest of the analysis. North Queensland are off the mark. More to come in the next Bovine Bulletin.
Bulldogs 20 defeated Sharks 6. There will be plenty of time to make fun of the Sharks for this result - I got started on Bluesky - and I will flag that I only watched the second half but I want to highlight that the Bulldogs were a good defensive team as long ago as last year and I pointed this out in the season preview. It’s then not a particularly surprising result, even if that’s not what I tipped, to see the Bulldogs to get on top. This amounts to a signature win for the 2025 Canterbury campaign and while I don’t know if they can win the title, they could be the next volunteers to be turned into paste by the Panthers in the grand final.
Magpies 42 defeated Falcons 18. Some had started to wonder when Souths Logan’s relatively competent looking lineup was actually going to do something. Warren Boland said on the call that they should be thinking about winning the competition. The Mags started slow, going down 12-0 in the first handful of minutes and it looked like one of those games. Israel Leota was having an increasingly familiar rocks and diamonds performance but Souths Logan adjusted. After the first round of pit stops, the Magpies had taken both of their starting props off and put Callum Eggerling and Tyson Smoothy (both hookers) on to join Blake Mozer and rip open the contest. Mozer took dummy half, Smoothy at first receiver on the left and Milford in sweeper and Coby Black was first receiver on the right, with Siegwalt sweeping on that side. Whether that frankly baffling commitment to ball handling and play making over a traditional approach to size was exactly what broke the game open is not clear to me - the Falcons’ very bad defensive efforts in the red zone surely played a role - but damn, Karmichael.
Hunters 40 defeated Tigers 6. This got pretty ugly for the Tigers. The weather in Port Moresby is gross at the best of times, so this could be the Raiders in Townsville dialled up to 11, because Easts didn’t look particularly enthusiastic at any point in this encounter. The Hunters kept pressing and fired plenty of shots to come home with a significant margin, although perhaps that’s what we should come to expect based on last year’s ladder positions. The Tigers have a lot of soft defensive issues to work on.
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It's just one thing after another
The biggest flood in living memory for many people across outback Queensland continues to unfold.
It is record-breaking flooding that has inundated vast areas of land, homes and stations.
Rainfall of up to 600 millimetres, nearly double the yearly average annual rainfall has caused flooding never experienced before.
Major flooding, higher than the 1974 flood, is occurring at Stonehenge, Jundah and Windorah.
For some reason, the clinical references to livestock losses - more than 100,000 sheep, cattle and horses was the count as of yesterday - bummed me out more than anything else related to our recent statewide weather catastrophes, even though a lot of that livestock was destined for the plate.
I think I can safely say that whether north, south or west Queensland, we’ve all had enough rain. Time for the bushfires to have a go.
Roulette
Via an exclusive with no byline:
Australia’s most powerful sporting administrator, Peter V’landys, is weighing up his future in his dual roles as the boss of NSW racing and the NRL.
V’landys is seriously contemplating stepping down from one of the roles this year…
Please be rugby league, please be rugby league. Come on NRL, don't fail me now.
…most likely racing - to focus on his commitment to rugby league, the new TV deal and expansion.
Ah shit. Can't win ‘em all. Or any of ‘em really.
Intermission
David Fifita decided to make a few statements in his first game against the Roosters since his entirely reasonable and morally righteous backflip on Easts last year. Here he singles out Leniu and shoots out of the line, crunching him.
No doubt Leniu adds a few racial epithets after the play the ball.
Later, Fifita was so unperturbed by Leniu’s attempted revenge tackle, Fifita had time to insult him further while he's still bouncing off would-be tacklers, enraging Leniu further and leading Leniu in to conceding a penalty for holding down.
Huge, throbbing dub for the Titan there. Great stuff.
Upcoming Slate
Panthers versus Cowboys, Friday 5pm, Parramatta
If Penrith lose this, then it really is curtains for the dynasty. The Cowboys played up a bit last weekend but they were helped by the conditions and the Raiders’ inability to cope. They are unlikely to get the former and less likely - but not impossible! - to get the latter out of the Panthers. Getting key players back, along with a healthy dose of shame and pride, will probably propel Penrith over the top. If not, then we’ll need to really re-evaluate the Cowboys’ prospects. Tip: Panthers
Titans versus Dolphins, Saturday 4.30pm, Robina
Brawl on the Beach is back! Objectively the funniest of the Queensland derby permutations, BotB is known for its 20 point comebacks that embarrass Gold Coast. But that was the first three meetings until the Titans finally broke the Dolphins’ streak at the back end of the year on their way to the Queensland pennant. Based on form so far this season, the Titans will monster the Dolphins here. It’s hard to imagine that, even if the Titans completely collapse in the middle and drop the ball out wide, that the Dolphins have the remotest capability to take advantage of it. Redcliffe have never been an especially explosive offence, even when they were sort of good, and they are not that now. Tip: Titans
Tigers versus Falcons, Sunday 2.10pm, Langlands
I picked this for two reasons. The first is that I want to called this “the Melbourne Cup”, which I think is mildly amusing, even if you think its stupid. The second is that the Falcons are coming off two beatings, from the Magpies and the Clydesdales, and so are the Tigers, from the Jets and the Hunters. For two teams we assume would have been at least middle of the pack, it’s kind of interesting to see them struggle against this calibre of team (albeit the Jets, Hunters and Magpies might all prove to be good this year, it’s still early). This might provide some gradation in the gradings but whoever wins this will be whoever the Storm deign to favour on the day and we won’t know that until 10 minutes into the game and I notice Asofa-Solomona playing in gold and black. Tip: Falcons
(Tips 6 / 12 in 2025; 48 / 92 in 2024)
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Read this
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The Sportress: Six, again: Chaos Reigns
SMH: The 1982 ‘horror story’ that became one of rugby league’s greatest days
Storm Machine: Game 717 – S28E07 Review
Notes
The battle for the Ashes reignites after 22 years. I for one can't wait to see how they butcher this (12.30am kick offs is not a good start!) or if rugby league still exists in England at the end of the year. See also: Sexism and misogyny complaints add to turmoil at Rugby Football League
Titans: Keano Kini’s spine is hanging on by a thread, Jaime Chapman extends to 2027, and this is how I find out Evania Pelite is now Evania Isa’ako (me, begging NRLW players to reject patriarchy and keep their maiden names so it makes my life easier).
Dolphins: Francis Molo incoming
Foxtel strengthens Rugby League lineup with UK SUPER LEAGUE extension
What’s going on in PNG: “Papua New Guinea's national cabinet is facing a fierce backlash after resolving to expedite what has been called a "grand shopping list" of projects… The list includes acquiring a luxury island in partnership with a Congolese rapper, exploring the potential for a world-class Formula 1 track, creating a "Silicon Valley style hub" for entrepreneurs, developing post-quantum cryptography solutions and setting up a spy agency with training from Israel.” Right.
Also: “Junior is the first Port Moresby Vipers Academy player to secure a scholarship with Hull KR and will attend Hymers College, a prestrigious private school.” That’s a $35,000 per year education that kid is going to get. I hope they don’t make him play union.
Not rugby league: “The National Hockey League and Canadian telecommunications giant Rogers have agreed to a new 12-year national broadcasting deal worth $7.7 billion that will begin in 2026, according to multiple reports Monday.” That’s about AU$1 billion per year in a similar sized market that has 7 teams in a 32 team league. If the NRL were fair dinkum about being #1 in Australia, they’d get serious about broadcast blackouts.
Nickelware
With the resumption of Q4 hostilities, Nickelware (trophies that are not quite as nice as silverware) is back for 2025.
In the race for the NRL North title, the Broncos’ lead is already almost unassailable, two wins clear after only two games. The Dolphins and Titans get a chance to get off the mark this week.
Here’s a history of the Queensland pennant race. I have updated both the historical record and this year’s standings to use in-division for and against, instead of NRL ladder position or whatever I thought was easier to calculate at the time. Only one trophy changed hands as a result of this.
In the Affiliates Premiership, a big ol’ yikes for the Cowboys contingent, as they have yet to win a game in 2025, while the Dolphins division remains undefeated.
Here’s a history of the Affiliates Premiership. Similarly, I have updated the Affiliates Premiership to only include matches played between different feeder systems to avoid wins and losses within feeder systems cancelling out. As there are an uneven number of games played, I have to sort by win percentage and Pythagorean expectation (in lieu of points difference or the disgusting AFL-approved percentage).
The pyramid premiership will return shortly.
Some good content
Enjoyed this.
Beer o’clock
Not quite what I had in mind for this section but here’s a couple of larrikin Japanese corporations having a go.
