The Rocket

The Dolphins introducing the uninitiated. Introducing new players to the game through League Tag has already been successful. “We have been able to create some really good relationships with local leagues, schools and clubs within the Wide Bay region,” said Blair. Our League Tag days are really popular for the sport for those looking at getting into the game, and it is usually the first steps for them. “The idea was that we would put in a Dolphins League Tag to get people involved on Friday afternoons as part of their school sport. “There were five schools involved and 24 teams across boys, girls and mixed teams and they played over five weeks.”

Yes, I beg your pardon I may have got my RFL`s and ERL`s mixed up, but either way, Samoa tour next year, Ashes in Oz 2025, good prep for playing in Oz conditions for the following year`s WC and then inbound tours from OZ and NZ the following two years, sounds like a pretty damn good international calendar to me.

That`s a really petty shot. Maybe the ERL will step up theirs. A couple of days ago you were saying the IRL has never been weaker than under Troy Grant, now we hear that he has convinced Samoa to reconsider touring next year for the sake of the development of Northern hemisphere Rugby League and given the paucity of viable options in your own backyard how important it is. Mate a little bit of credit where credits due wouldn`t go astray. Make it a ripping tour and maybe there will probably be plenty more.

Belt and road initiative ? bloody hell, first we were fighting off Chinese influence in the Pacific, now it`s the South of France as well.

A little unrelated but definitely newsworthy; following on from the abandonment by the companies Harvey Norman and Etoro`s of their respective multi-million-dollar sponsorship of Oz union, and rumours that main sponsor Cadbury are reconsidering theirs, it is being reported that West Australian rugby union team owner and union benefactor Andrew `Twiggy` Forest of Fortescue Minerals is about to make his first venture into sponsoring Rugby League: "Billionaire mining magnate Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest is poised to take his first steps into rugby league after finalising a multimillion-dollar partnership with the St George Illawarra Dragons. "The Dragons, one of Australian sport’s most iconic brands, are on the verge of signing off on a $1.2m-a-season major sponsorship deal to advertise Forrest’s renewable energy company, Squadron Energy, on the front of their jersey from 2025. "The deal with the Dragons will be Forrest’s first foray into rugby league. Australia’s second-richest person, Forrest has been one of Australian rugby’s biggest supporters, having poured millions of dollars into Super Rugby franchise Western Force since 2017. "The NRL is aware of the pending deal and has welcomed the news of Forrest’s venture into the 13-man code due to the financial and emotional investment he has previously given rugby union. "Forrest has an assessed net worth of $33.29 billion according to the Financial Review 2023 Rich List and sits behind only Gina Rinehart on Australia’s rich list."

So is Las Vegas going to be our `shop front window`.

You`d have to think that for any fledgling Rugby League competitions in the US, the ability to now say, in any of the local (or otherwise) press coverage they may get, ` that is us` and point to the Las Vegas double-header, coud only give those competitions a leg-up.

Thankfully the NRL are in the financial position to take a gamble on ventures like this now, if they pull it off, interesting times. I`ve also read in the League press over here a couple of times lately that the purchase of another investment property is imminent and that the NRL are soon to announce another massive operating surplus for the season gone. Some chatter as well that the USA team may get a place in the Pacific Bowl tournament at some stage. Happy days Irish.

Mmmm...not sure about that one, the Kiwi`s drubbing of the Aussies in the final of the Pacific Championship was just the tonic the international game needed down here, the Australians were humiliated and will be itching for revenge and are no certainty of exacting that revenge, another loss next year and we could have the rivalry that will replace the Bledisloe, then we may see the return of the mid-season international. My sister knows him personally through politics, when he was appointed IRL President I asked her what she thought of him as a character, she called him something equally disparaging unfortunately.

The NRL has finally locked in a date for their launch in Las Vegas as they look to use the Raiders home game against the Minnesota Vikings and some A-list celebrities to gatecrash America. Sport Confidential has seen a document sent to clubs outlining their schedule for their US media launch and PR tour. Each of the four clubs playing in Vegas – Manly, South Sydney, Brisbane and the Sydney Roosters – have agreed to fly one player over for the week, which begins with an appearance at the Raiders home game against the Vikings at Allegiant/ It is understood the game is being televised by Fox Sports in America and the NRL hopes to be included in the coverage. The plan is then to have the official launch on December 12 at Allegiant Stadium with US media in attendance along with celebrity ambassadors and NRL athletes. You`ve got to give it to them, they really are giving this a red-hot go. Be great to see the NRL game promo on the big screen during the NFL game. 'No pads, No helmets!' NRL Vegas AD | Fox Sports Videos

In my quiet moments @The Future is League it`s the sort of future I dream of for rugby union in this country one day.

SP I can`t always help but feel with your posts sometimes there is a little bit of schadenfreude towards Rugby League in this country, do you do the same on the fumbleball forums, probably not - there I`ll answer for you.

Yeah got me thinking that maybe I`m just so tuned out of A-League that possibly there has been articles but they just haven`t registered when browsing through the sports` pages headlines. Very concerning for the soccer though that lack of cut through.

I was shocked when I saw on the news the other night that the A-League comp had been running for several weeks, the lack of media coverage is quite astounding, and that`s from someone who reads two papers a day and watched the news on Tv.

The greatest problem for me with the Challenge has that it has seemed to encourage more knock-on calls from the referees, knowing that if they`ve made an error, the captain of the team that the call was made against can challenge it and it will be overturned. It`s so easy now for ref`s to call knock-on for this reason and it`s a blight to the flow of the game. I`m sure it wasn`t designed so ref`s can abrogate responsibility for making definitive knock-on calls. Other than that abuse, I think it can add to the drama and I haven`t minded it.

Basically what you`re saying: “The NRL needs to be looking for athletic, powerful athletes,” said NRL sports agent Chris Orr, whose firm Pacific Sports Management has run rugby league combines in Australia for the past five years and also was engaged by the NFL in 2018 to run the inaugural NFL International Combine, along with attending the NFL combines over the past decade. “I don’t think the NRL would be looking for a spine player, in the same way the NFL pathways aren’t searching for a quarterback. We are looking at wingers, centres, back-rowers and props. “There’s about 14,500 athletes who have trained like professionals for four years in state-of-the-art facilities and played in front of 100,000 people, who have come to the end of their sporting journey. “Any college player being considered needs to be identified immediately, so they can be given rugby league video drills, online education and data on what they need to achieve so they can show off their best selves come next March. ”Orr, who works closely with colleges and NFL clubs, feels top American college footballers could make the transition to the NRL with the right guidance. “What I do know about college American athletes is that if you give them a task and set them goals, they will train their butts off to achieve them, especially if you give them a professional contract as a carrot,” he said. “Imagine if we did it five years in a row, that we brought five or 10 or 15 players at a time. They could filter through all our grades and competitions and you would start to get Americans watching the code. That’s what you need if you want the American audiences to buy in.”

My hope is that the teams will really be up for this given the location and event and we will see an Origin (or Test match ) style game which importantly will be officiated accordingly. i.e. plenty of mad charges into the ruck, met by plenty of big and legal (keep your head Victor) hits. That may pique the interest of a new audience especially that opening ten minutes of the game.

From 1985 to 2023 the population of England has increased by 20 %, have Rugby League crowds increased by a similar amount. I don`t know the spread of that population increase, but given more disadvantaged areas often have higher birth rates may some of the areas in question even actually increased more than the national figure. In fact a quick look at West Yorkshire pop. figures shows a 25 % increase over the same period.

League and its` stars obviously aren`t completely unknown in the U.S. and he does feature rather prominently at the end of that advert they are showing on U.S. Tv. NBA gives Cleary the red carpet treatment SPOTTED: Penrith halfback Nathan Cleary courtside at the NBA match between the Philadelphia 76ers and Boston Celtics on Thursday morning AEDT. Cleary is on holidays in the US and the NBA, we’re told, rolled out the proverbial red carpet for the three-time premiership winner, inviting him to meet some of the players before the match. It speaks to Cleary’s rising popularity that the NBA would give him primo seats for a match between two powerhouse teams. There you go. We got through an entire item about him without mentioning his love interest. Btw, Cleary`s (the sly dog) relationship with boom young Matida soccer star Mary Fowler has been attracting a lot of headlines over here.

Jesus mate, `tracks` are Australian, `trails` are for the Yanks. Kokoda Track. Btw, I could see this type of tourism venture in New Guinea getting a significant boost if they do get an NRL team, especially around ANZAC day time of the year.

Don`t trust them as far as you could throw them, even the clown ftsmmns writing in today`s Herald what almost reads like a white flag: When Peter V’landys met Hamish McLennan: Why rugby union and rugby league should end player raids between the rival codes (smh.com.au) "Does it make sense for both codes to go at each other right now, and steal each other’s players?" They got one of about six they seriously went after, even with their "exciting runway of events" and now they`re saying we don`t want League players anyway and we`ll stop, so should you. Spare me. There`s something rotten in the state of Oz rugby.

Sport Confidential: England rugby star Henry Arundell on NRL radars | The Australian "One of the most exciting young stars in English rugby union has made it known he wants a crack at the NRL – and he could benefit from any potential war chest the game brings in. "English flyer Henry Arundell, who played at the most recent World Cup, is flirting with the prospect of making the move which could be fast-tracked as early as 2024. "Sport Confidential understands that Arundell has come onto the NRL’s radar in recent weeks after parties on behalf of the 21-year-old reached out to a host of clubs to flag the potential switch of codes. "NRL clubs are already seriously interested. It comes as NRL bosses flirt with the prospect of a massive salary cap dispensation to attract players from different codes across the world. Henry Arundell (C) makes a break while playing for Racing 92 in the French Top14. Picture: AFP "Arundell, an outside back, is considered one of England’s best emerging talents. He will be a free agent before the NRL’s June 30 mid-season transfer deadline once his commitments with French rugby side Racing 92 come to an end. "It is understood clubs will step up their pursuit of Arundell once he formally commits to moving to the NRL. Arundell became a free agent when his former side London Irish fell into administration in early June." Even if he`s only using it to drive up the prices for union players I don`t mind, but if he really wants to come over and test himself, well, welcome aboard.

It`s a funny old world, there is something of the gangster in V`landys, fitting that his first job in the racing industry was when he was chosen as a largely unknown to clean up Harold Park Raceway (something he did very successfully), a track brought to its` knees through race fixing and organised crime, the main individual involved being famous/infamous SP bookie and organised crime figure George Freeman. Dearly departed George was my cousin. And you talk about not missing, when Freeman was shot in the head and survived in 1979 my father said to me at the time the bloke that did that won`t last 5 days, turns out he lasted two, murdered personally by George`s associate Lenny MacPherson two days after the event. You better not miss.

Worth repeating this, because this is exactly what this is all about, not promoting Rugby League, not expanding the player pool. After their negotiations with private equity collapsed - the firm involved withdrew their offer - the aru have been forced to take out a $60m dollar loan to survive, with profits from the up-coming British and Lions tour and hosting the union world cup being used to repay the loan, money I might add that was going to be used to future proof the code. Now the NRL know that the aru being a top-heavy organisation, failure by the wallabies in these up-coming two events could mean failure for the code as a whole, due to its` precarious financial position. Hence, and I suggest being done in cahoots with multi-billionaire Roosters supremo Nick Politis, this sudden interest in wallaby for dinner. Yes, so despite headlines being about attracting the best sports people from other codes, this is really aimed squarely at the midships of an already listing Australian rugby union.

Your beat before you start mate.