The Rocket

Perhaps there is something in the rumours that an application for citizenship is in the offing, he really does seem to be at home here, be a certainty for an Origin spot as well.

Storm being welcomed by traditional dancers at the airport and making the front page of the local papers: Storm arrive for special week in Fiji - FijiLive Sellout crowds in New. Zealand. And the NRL`s Vegas adventure really getting under the skin of union types in Oz due to its` blanket coverage in the Oz media., and with one P. ftzsmmns demeaning himself today by penning a whole article in the Herald, " Don`t believe the Hype" dedicated to bagging out the venture. Btw, not a word about the opening round of super rugby pacific this Friday. It really is reaching fever pitch over here.

BIGHEAD HERBIE Herbie Farnworth’s ascension to the hottest player in the NRL has gone to his head – according to his Dolphins teammates. Farnworth was last week ranked No. 1 in The NRL Roast’s Hottest 100 of 2024 poll, pipping Broncos trio Reece Walsh, Jordan Riki and Pat Carrigan. And Farnworth hasn’t missed the results, according to Dolphins halfback Sean O’Sullivan. “He`s been non-stop,” O’Sullivan said with a laugh. “I had breakfast with him the other day and the first thing he said was ‘number one’ and showed me. “He’s been getting into Jordan Riki because he was fourth. Herbie has been sending him non-stop texts. “He didn’t need his ego boosted but they definitely did that.” The Dolphins will put up with Farnworth’s boasting if he continues his hot form with his new club this year. All in good fun.

Will safely do as he is told, not an original thought in his head, bit like Pierce on the commission.

Yeah, I love it too, even by just saying they do a very good job at promoting their sport he is implying that all the success that they do have is just down to their marketing, not the sport itself, which he has made very clear before he thinks is just froth and bubbles.

Master Coach Jack Gibson famously once said winning starts in the front office, I suppose the same thing could be said about the sport in general. NRL’s record revenue result declared as code dethrones AFL as biggest game in Australia | The Australian ARL Commission boss Peter V’landys has revealed his masterplan to make the NRL a $1 billion empire as the code celebrates the greatest revenue in rugby league’s 116-year history. V’landys boldly declared the NRL has dethroned the AFL as Australia’s No. 1 sport after League Central on Wednesday revealed a record income in excess of $700 million ahead of the code’s historic double header in Las Vegas. On a landmark day for the sport, the ARL Commission released the NRL’s financial performance for the 2023 season as rugby league’s on and off-field prosperity hit record levels. * The NRL’s total revenue reached a record $701.1 million; * The 2023 revenue represented a whopping $107.3m improvement and represented an 18 per cent increase on the previous season’s mark of $593.8m; * The ARLC announced a 2023 operating surplus of $58.2m, the third consecutive year League Central has recorded a handsome profit; * Since 2021, the NRL has banked $164.2 million in profits; * The NRL now boasts net assets in excess of $260 million, bolstered by the purchase of three properties, including Brisbane’s Gambaro Hotel near Suncorp Stadium; The AFL is widely regarded as Australia’s pre-eminent winter sports but V’landys is adamant the NRL is winning the battle of the codes. “To be honest, we are already the No. 1 sport. AFL is No. 2,” V’landys said. “They are behind us _ despite what they think. “In terms of viewing figures, we are No. 1, you can’t dispute that. “Look, the AFL has a national footprint and I respect them, they do a very good job at promoting their sport." “My aims during my next term is more expansion and getting a foothold in the American market. It’s crucial,” he said. “Moving into America has the potential to give us tens if not hundreds of millions. “I would like to expand to a 20-team comp in the coming years. “Because the game has never been in such a good position financially, we can look at more expansion and take a few risks. “We have made ourselves more cost effective. We have streamlined things. We have the lowest administration cost of any sport based on percentage of revenue which is outstanding.: “We have a very strong team and Andrew Abdo is the CEO presiding over all of this. “I absolutely think we can expand our national footprint beyond the eastern seaboard and that’s what we are looking at. “Expansion in 2026 or 2027 is absolutely on the agenda." Winning starts in the front office.

Flanagan is a winner and coaches like him don`t coach wooden-spoon winning teams. I haven`t seen the Saints look this fit for quite a while, and there`s some pretty bloody good players in that team, there is no way he`ll let that team finish bottom of the ladder. Go the Saints.

Listed tonight (Tuesday) at 10.30p.m. on FTA NITV the full replay of the Wigan vs. Castleford Tigers clash. National Indigenous Television (NITV) is an Australian free-to-air television channel that broadcasts programming produced and presented largely by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people Next week the Wigan/Panthers WCC is listed and it would appear that this is going to be on-going with a full replay of one match per week. The blurb for tonight`s game says: Castleford Tigers V Wigan Warriors NITV presents the 2024 UK Super League Rugby season, showcasing All the action from the best teams. Witness intense clashes, stellar plays, and unforgettable moments as the race for supremacy unfolds! Just can`t imagine them having got this for free, but either way, replay or not, great to see it on FTA in Oz. I know I`ll be watching.

I can save everyone their energy, V`landy`s said on radio last week that after reflecting on the matter the Commission has decided that if P.N.G. do have a team it has to be based out of Port Moresby and that there a lot of things to be done, he even mentioned housing, before even that could happen. I think P.N.G. has just unofficially slipped down the pecking order. ‘Preferred option’ for NRL expansion avoids a territory battle (archive.md) V`landys: "There’s discussion as to where the team would be based and we’re starting to lean to base it in Papua New Guinea – build some infrastructure there, build housing, build everything." "But the more I think about it the more I think they may be better based in Papua New Guinea." So the Aussie Government has said not in Cairns (or Oz for that matter), so New Guinea it is, and that stuff ain`t gonna be built over night, ten years minimum.

Wow !

Ironic isn`t it that union, that hotbed of capitalists and the `big end of town` should use a term that is normally associated with workers. Something from my experience they are normally only interested in crushing.

We might have lost Manu, but RTS is back. Big time. Just finished watching the Warriors`/ Wests Tigers trial match, and RTs is looking as world-class as ever - electric- great news for the Warriors and New Zealand. I know we hear the argument that the game goes on when one of the best players leave but it`s only when you see them back you realise what we were missing. Every time he touched the ball the crowd came to life. Welcome back Roger.

NZ2 really ramping things up now: NRL: Southern NZ Warriors fans brace for their own team in 2026 expansion bid | Newshub Hundreds have turned out just to watch NZ Warriors train before their pre-season encounter with Wests Tigers at Christchurch on Sunday - but soon they could have a team of their own. "A major announcement that will definitly put us in the boxseat to be the next club admitted into the NRL." said bid chief executive Tony Kidd. The demand is clearly there. About 15,000 Christchurch league fans will pack out Apollo Projects Stadium, just for a preseason match. "It's a proud rugby league area too," insisted Warriors coach Andrew Webster. "I think everyone forgets that." South Island consortium seek Hollywood celebrity to back NRL team bid | Stuff The group had forged relationships with “a non-NRL club in Australia and a Super League club in England, and would meet with American rugby league officials while in the United States. He was confident that the South Island could support a professional rugby league franchise and said the aim was to have a NRL men’s team and a NRLW women’s team in place for the 2026 season. Interesting.

Excuse me Damien, just wanted to use these two posts to point out to @unapologetic pedantthat it seems that it`s not only the Australians these days who are dropping the rugby from the name and just referring to it as " League", and not even "The League".

Don`t agree, Manu had a 1.2m dollar offer from St. George on the table which he rejected. These blokes are the best of the best in our game and would be continually told so, even that mouth breather Williams was saying the other day that players like Manu should be showcasing his skills to a much wider audience than he is getting in League. These are still young blokes , they`d believe that stuff, of course as long as the money is at least on par.

My sentiments exactly SP, the game is poorer without the highlights of Radrada, Manu, Gasnier etc. not to mention the bad message it sends out there about our sport. Part of the answer for me would be for us to have more glamour clubs, it`s no surprise that most of our defectors leave the game from clubs like the Roosters, Broncos, they are about as high as you can go in clubland, we need a big glamorous French club, we`re getting there, the Warrior`s to have the profile and success of the Broncos, and a couple of the Pommy clubs to be able to pay top dollar and have that glamour image like they used to. This will give superstar players somewhere to go and strut their stuff before they think about union.

Warriors win New Zealand`s sporting moment of the year competition. One New Zealand Warriors take Sporting Moment | Warriors "Another huge accolade for the One New Zealand Warriors tonight with the public voting the club the winner of 2023’s New Zealand Favourite Sporting Moment at the Halberg Awards tonight." Incredible, of probably all the great moments that happened in N.Z. sport this year a moment from way back on April 2nd in a clash against the Sharks, at Cronulla`s home ground no less, proved the most popular for the New Zealand`s sport watching public.

" Dang" worth having a look at this NFL fan`s reaction to the NRL promo featuring Russell Crowe. Starts around the 2 minute 45 second mark.

Hopefully with a bit of an acceleration in ticket sales now as the game approaches and the NRL ramps up its` promotion, add several thousand walk-ups which I believe is fairly standard in Vegas, we may crack the 40 000 mark.

Just to add a little more on this, the last time viewing figures were produced by Sky, admittedly on their pay-tv offering, off the top of my head - and this was a few years ago - games not involving the Warriors averaged about 30 000 and Warrior`s matches about 70 - 80 000. Interesting now that 18 matches not involving the Warriors have been given a prime-time Friday night time-slot, you`d have to think that to be given such a spot Sky must be fairly confident (or know) that interest has grown significantly. I`m not familiar with New Zealand tv viewing numbers but you`d have to think that to be given a prime-time Friday night spot in a country of five million, it`d have to be pulling over 100 000, and that`s being very conservative, possibly double that, also taking into account that the same game is being shown live on their Pay-tv station as well. If this is a success, and a Kiwi 18th franchise can get their finances in order, they would be very hard to say no to.

They were reporting in the Daily Telegraph over here today that almost 30 000 have been shifted now.

Several promising developments in New Zealand following the One New Zealand Warriors successful return home last year. One New Zealand Warriors riding commercial boom | Warriors Buoyed by the watershed 2023 campaign on and off the field, One New Zealand Warriors CEO Cameron George said the club is in its strongest commercial position in its history. “We’ve come off an exceptional year in 2023 when we sold out multiple games and achieved fantastic sales in our hospitality and merchandise areas but what’s happening now for 2024 is nothing short of phenomenal,” he said. In a further exciting development: Free-to-air sport: Sky announces Friday Night Footy, Super Rugby Saturday to bring more free matches to NZ screens (msn.com) Unprecedented. The introduction of Free-to-air Friday Night Footy will see 25 NRL games shown free on Sky Open (formerly Prime) this season, with seven of those being Warriors matches, plus three further additional free matches, for Anzac Day, Magic Round & State of Origin I. And to cap it all off a very confident former Canterbury Bankstown Bulldogs Rugby League club chair talking about some big announcements being made before the NRL`s Las Vegas weekend about an 18th NRL license bid coming out of New Zealand`s South Island city of Christchurch. Former Canterbury rugby league chair reckons the sport could expand to Christchurch (newstalkzb.co.nz) It`s all happening.

Really interesting article on pathways coming out of New Zealand: Kiwi-NRL Junior Spotlight: Under 19 Basics & The 1st 15 Pipeline — The Niche Cache (theniche-cache.com) "NZR will never lack rugby union depth but the dirty secret is that 1st 15 footy is a certified Kiwi-NRL pipeline". "the NRL pipeline is better for school leavers who have ambitions of being a professional footy player."

Mate, he didn`t need to be tested at the highest level and I assume you are meaning at the international level, what he was doing at Parramatta was the highest level, he was a special.

By the sounds of that 24 bottles isn`t going to be enough.