Does anyone else find the Indigenous vs non indigenous concept terrible? :-k

OUR YEAR BABY. Carn the Sharks

Cannot wait until March 3: Raiders vs Dirty Cheating Scum. :cool:

1. Dugan
2. Ferguson
3. Croker
4. Berrigan
5. Robinson
6. Campese
7. McCrone
8. White
9. Buttriss
10. Shillington
11. Thompson
12. Harrison
13. Fensom

14. Waddell
15. Papalii
16. Tilse
17. Learoyd-Lahrs

Yeah they did. Great signing for them IMO.

NRL clubs join forces to take on rugby league independent commission

by: Phil Rothfield

From: The Daily Telegraph
February 21, 2012 12:00AM

IN a major threat to rugby league's new independent commission, the 16 NRL clubs will sign legal documents tomorrow to form their own association.

The game's most powerful club official, Roosters chairman Nick Politis, will host a meeting of the club chairmen and their legal advisers in the Roosters boardroom to sign the documents - just hours before the official NRL season launch at its new Moore Park headquarters and only 10 days after the body was formed.

The Daily Telegraph has obtained a 39-page document which is to become the constitution for the organisation to be known as the Australian Professional Rugby League Clubs Association Limited.

It has been set up to ensure the clubs and long-time officials like Politis remain powerbrokers in the game at a time when we thought NRL boss David Gallop and the commission had a clear and political-free passage to do their business.



The formation talks have been carried out in such an undercover way that Gallop was not even aware of the new alliance until informed by The Daily Telegraph over the weekend. And it was only the fact this newspaper contacted Wests Tigers chairman David Trodden, who was responsible for drawing up the constitution, that the NRL boss got a courtesy phone call so he wouldn't read about it in the newspaper first.


Gallop was reluctant to comment last night until he had more details."David Trodden contacted John Grant and me about it over the weekend," he said. "We haven't seen the document but I'm sure the commission will get some more information once the company is formed." Grant could not be contacted last night.

Why does Phil Rothfield think this assocition is the biggest threat to the game?

Trodden was quick to play down any threat to the power of the independent commission.


Other observers feel it puts the clubs in a position to apply the blowtorch to Gallop and the commissioners as they set about major reform.

Politis recently stood down from his position on the NRL partnership to allow the commission to be formed, losing the huge influence he has held over the game for decades. Now he looks certain to be appointed to the executive board of the new association.

"There has to be a body to represent the collective interests of the 16 clubs," Trodden said. "This is a body that gives everyone a voice. We've been regularly meeting for 12 months and we're now formalising a partnership.

"The clubs were the strongest advocates for the commission and nothing has changed."

That being the case, I asked Trodden why the new association was necessary when the 16 clubs are already members of the independent commission. "We are all members but so are NSW and Queensland and the commissioners themselves," he said.

"There was a view among the clubs we should have a formal relationship. We'll meet regularly. And if there is an issue we'll take it to the commission directly as one group rather than 16 clubs doing it individually."

The association has been a work in progress among the clubs for more than six months.

Heavyweights including Politis, Penrith's Phil Gould, Souths chairman Nick Pappas, Parramatta's Roy Spagnolo and Canterbury's Ray Dib have regularly lunched at the restaurant Beppis to draw up the battle plan to ensure they retain control and power under the new administration.

"It's good to show all the clubs are together and united," Spagnolo said. "We're looking to have our own presence in the game."The clubs will first and foremost be lobbying for a bigger share of the game's profits, according to one official. "And there lies the problem," the official said. "They are more concerned for their own interests and survival than the grassroots and future development of the game."

Trodden's email to the clubs was sent on Friday afternoon and has been obtained by The Daily Telegraph.

"If it is convenient, I suggest that we meet in the late afternoon on the day of the NRL Launch (next Wednesday 22/2) to discuss the document and, if appropriate, to approve it," he writes. "Sydney Roosters have offered their boardroom as a venue for the meeting."


http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/nrl/nrl-clubs-join-forces-to-take-on-rugby-league-independent-commission/story-e6frexnr-1226276404410

ARL to consider extra Storm funding

Greg Buckle
February 24, 2012 - 4:04PM

Australian Rugby League Commission chairman John Grant has left the door open for a possible funding boost for the Storm to help grow the game in Melbourne.

Grant says the Storm are a long-term club and deserve to be given every possible assistance.

"It's tough territory down here. This is AFL territory," Grant told reporters.

"It's a bit like AFL going to Greater Western Sydney.

"So they need a lot of support through the administration in order to be a team that's going to prosper over the long term.

"This is about sustainable footy clubs. When you put a stake in the ground around a footy club like this, this has got to be the 100-year footy club.

"So you've got to put in."

Grant, who attended the Storm's season launch in Melbourne on Thursday night, said the new commission was aware of the different challenges facing certain clubs.

"At the moment, the funding that comes from the Commission is pretty level across all the clubs," he said.

"Over time, we need to understand how that's working for various clubs because each club has different opportunities.

"The Broncos have got a bigger opportunity than the Melbourne Storm.

"So we've got to think about how we can help them get the best performance that they can do and then make sure we balance it up so they get sustainability.

"We will look at where the money's being placed today, what available money we can increase to make that grow and where we can place it tomorrow to make sure it gives the game the best helping hand.

"The Melbourne footy club is a long-term footy club so we've got to make sure it stays that way.

"Melbourne have been here for 15 years and they've been such a great club for that period of time.

"Melbourne's a very key part of our business so that's our responsibility to make sure that they know that we're thinking of them and they feel very included."

© 2012 AAP



Read more: http://www.watoday.com.au/breaking-news-sport/arl-to-consider-extra-storm-funding-20120224-1ttq5.html#ixzz1nHhna494

The new Tigers jersey is dreadful.



The alternative strip isn't too bad, might pick one up. Never bought a Tigers jersey in my life. :o

NRL's Gaza strip

by: Rebecca Wilson

From: The Daily Telegraph
February 25, 2012 12:00AM


FORMER AFL star David Schwarz co-hosts a sports radio show in Melbourne each afternoon where he and his colleagues admit to being very much more attune to the ways of the AFL than rugby league.

Each week they call me and find it difficult to conceal their horror at the stories that emerge from Sydney's league scene - the backstabbing, the personality clashes and the undermining of head office.

This week, they found it hard to believe that within minutes of the new commission being sworn in to office, 16 club bosses had opted to form their own organisation to operate outside the parameters of the new order.

Schwarz almost begged me to tell him it was not true, that these blokes who had pushed so hard to have an independent commission could have acted so early to undermine its assert their own authority.

The AFL commission is a bunch of footy fanatics with vast experience in business and a deep passion for the game. They have the respect of all the AFL clubs and go about their business in a way that inspires confidence in the game's stakeholders.

This week proved that the cultural divide between AFL and rugby league could not be wider. League might have a sparkling new commission with fresh faces and a shiny new building to house its now united inhabitants.

The commission even stamped its authority early with an announcement to mercifully revert to the old finals system so we actually see the best teams compete for the trophy in late September.

This is all for show. As the 16 club bosses showed the world this week, league has an underbelly that remains alarmingly subversive and self-interested.

The subculture of power mongering, of shoring up positions is alive and flourishing in club land.

Commission chairman John Grant has acted quickly to put his face in front of the cameras.

At this week's season launch he talked up the new finals system and boasted about the season ahead.

But he looked like a rabbit in the spotlight when he learned of the new club committee.

After months of consulting with the same club bosses in a supposed climate of conciliation, he had not been told what they had planned and neither had David Gallop.

No matter how you dress it up, league is still a deeply divided sport with the same old powerbrokers turning their attention to Grant and his seven commission mates. The club bosses who met this week are not going to let go of how they believe the sport should be managed.

Even though they have legally binding contracts with the National Rugby League, they still want to dictate who gets the funds from the impending television deal.

They have virtually said they would hold a gun to the NRL's head if they did not get what they wanted.

The unspoken threat is that the club bosses will form a breakaway movement and run their own competition if the NRL does things.

The 16 clubs have been convinced by several paranoid chiefs (keen to hold on to a semblance of their former power) that the NRL hordes money and siphons it away from those who need it most.

This, of course, is nonsense. But the real story does not seem to matter.

The commission has a chance to sift out underperforming clubs and set benchmarks for their survival.

The committee formed this week will undermine that process. With a week to go before a ball is kicked, league's problems took just a few pre-season days to resurface.

The commission may have created some optimism with naive observers keen to see signs of a clean slate but, as I said weeks ago, changing the names on the door means nothing when the personnel inside are the same.

Back in the mid-'90s, a group of club chiefs still bitter over Super League took their places in the ARL and a few years later agreed to form a new partnership called the National Rugby League.

They had seats on new NRL boards and promised peace. A decade later, they forced the old NRL towards an independent commission.

The faceless men had their way but it wasn't enough.

They know who they are.

Welcome to league's Gaza strip, Mr Grant. Nothing much has changed at all.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/nrl/nrls-gaza-strip/story-fn7r8ye7-1226281009111

Broncos fans hurt after grandstand collapses

Wayne Heming
March 3, 2012 - 9:00AM

Read later.Three men have been injured after a section of a small grandstand collapsed at a Brisbane Broncos fan day.

The grandstand wilted after several hundred people piled on to the temporary structure for a photo behind the senior team who were waiting in the change room.

As the crowd waited, a section of the grandstand at the rear gave way and several people fell as far as 2.5 metres.

The incident occurred just before 10am.

‘‘It just gave away suddenly,’’ an onlooker said.

A Department of Community Safety (DCS) spokeswoman said one man refused to be taken to hospital while another was still receiving treatment.

A third person sustained minor injuries.

‘‘They are still treating one person at the scene,’’ the DCS spokeswoman said.

Despite the drama the fan day continued.

The Broncos had just returned from Sydney where they opened the NRL season with a win over Parramatta.


Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/broncos-fans-hurt-after-grandstand-collapses-20120303-1u9d1.html#ixzz1o0m5HIHy

Im currently 0/2. Woo!

Im currently 0/2. Woo!