The Rocket

@Whippet13 hit the nail on the head, a rather silly attempt to cover their embarrassment with hubris.

Panthers confident of fan support as English teams snap up Vegas tickets (smh.com.au) Panthers officials are backing themselves to be the best-supported club in Las Vegas for next season’s opening round match after being the only club to have tickets left in their supporters’ bay. English Super League Club Warrington needed just nine minutes to snap up all their tickets released to members on Wednesday, while it did not take long for fellow English team Wigan, as well as NRL clubs Canberra, the New Zealand Warriors and Cronulla to follow suit. Tickets for next year’s quadruple-header at Allegiant Stadium go on sale to the general public on Friday morning. Ticket sales are already estimated to be well in front of where they were same time last year.

NRL to reach out to NFL legend Tom Brady as commentator for 2025 Las Vegas extravaganza | The Australian In the greatest broadcasting coup in Australian rugby league history, an NRL game in Las Vegas next season will be broadcast into 125 million US homes on America’s premier free-to-air FOX channel. It is the first-time ever a rugby league match has been broadcast on a free-to-air network in the US. This year’s two Las Vegas games were shown behind a paywall on FOX Sports 1, a subscription channel on the FOX network which shows Major-league Baseball, college sports and soccer. FOX, which covers the NFL, is beamed into 125 million US homes.

PNG as shared host as a lead in to them having a team enter the NRL in 2028? Could we seem the same thing with NZ hosting in 2030 and NZ2 entering in 2032.

I think we can be pretty sure that the Tax office has been consulted.

I`m starting to see that this might just work. Blokes and girls will sign up for a couple of years on good money combined with hefty tax advantages and as V`landys has said recently it need be only for a couple of years. The club may become a bit of a revolving door but that won`t matter as long as the players keep coming, and some will probably stick around for longer anyway, like players do once they get settled and make friends etc. As for the claims by the bid that sponsors are lining up, I think there may be some truth in that as well. New Guinea may probably lack those small to mid-sized companies that make up a large chunk of mainland clubs sponsors but PNG has no shortage of multi-nationals that may be keen to be associated with a PNG Rugby League team in the NRL.

Just give the fumbleball sh*t a rest.

Hardly a post where the other "code" isn`t mentioned, but that`s fumbleball fans for you, like Seven Day Adventists they have a compulsive need to tell everyone how good things are inside the cult.

I think 3 or 5 would be prime.

Yeah, I`ve heard of people using similar reasons for reading Playboy.

I tell you one thing that is a dead eye cert , a lot of their sports `chat` shows on our national broadcaster the ABC are definitely fumbleball centric, some of the hosts seem to even have a hard time saying the words `Rugby League`, it`s like asking them to say a dirty word. This latest show `Monday Experts` on prime-time monday nights is hosted by the ever politically correct and pea-brained ex-fumbleball player somebody Armstrong, it`s fumbleball this and fumbleball that, any angle they can bring it in on. I gave it one episode. Thank god no one watches the ABC.

I think we can expect to see a lot more stuff like this. A couple of kids signed from last year`s tour and a couple more this year. What a great opportunity to come over not only for the League opportunities but for the educational opportunities as well. Great to see the girls` team do so well, winning all three of their matches. NRL clubs eye Tongan talent as schools tour inspires participation explosion | NRL.com Would be great if we could start to see the same sort of thing coming out of Ghana and wherever else your clubs have ties with.

It`s absolutely not true that V`landys is obsessed with getting the Bears back, he has made it clear several times that he likes the idea but at no point that it is a must have for the Perth bid. On top of that several people involved with the Perth bid have made it clear that they would rather be a stand-alone entity, but are sensible enough to see what the Bears can bring to the table. A lot of it is a media beat-up, V`landys has fuelled this because he knows it`s a headline grabber and a t no point has he said a must have. Having said that if done right the Bears do have things they could offer a new team. They have existing full pathways, juniors, a League`s club and other businesses and are based in a wealthy part of Sydney with a large central business district that could provide sponsors. The socio-economic profile of the North Sydney region could provide that hipster type of fan-base that would get behind some sort of retro-team and as much as this type of fan is criticised we don`t have enough of that type of fan in the game. All this working though depends on the Bears knowing their place in this proposed merged entity and getting the balance right in retaining those fans with out necessarily playing any regular season games at North Sydney oval. This could be tricky but if I think if done right could be done.

I think fumbleball`s most recognized image is pale skinny white blokes with pencil necks and arms.

For someone who can`t stand the game you seem to watch an awful lot of it. I can take about 20 seconds and am reminded that it hasn`t improved.

That`s what I read and it would certainly be V`landys style to if not own the thing, then certainly to own parts of it. This is not a one-way street in New Guinea, the NRL would be telling the Gov`t we are doing you a massive favour even contemplating a side based out of that country. Hence I expect they are demanding plenty of sweetners, having a stake or owning the compound maybe be part of that.

If there is one saving grace from this madness that is the P.N.G. franchise it is that the NRL will own the multipurpose compound being proposed and it will include a hotel amongst other things, all paid for by the Federal Government I believe. If the Franchise folds or whatever this has to be worth money especially with the large mining operations and such operating out of P.N.G. these days and certainly something which is only going to get larger and provide further income for the NRL. So not all bad.

I still like Perth or W.A. Reds with the iconic Red Kangaroo as their emblem, also ties in with the red of the deserts over there.

"Ariel bombs." is my guess.

By yesterday Sydney had received the equivalent of its` usual entire average annual rainfall for the year. The fact that crowds have held up like they have is remarkable really. Cruelly though the southern latitudes of the nation remain in one of the worst droughts in living memory.

Exactly.

Mate the headlines alone are worth it. To the casual sports fan and our fumbleball rivals seeing headlines all week, front and back page, " Another Wallabies star leaves rugby union for League " only increases the public perception that League is the unstoppable behemoth now so you better take notice. I`m sure this flows onto tv eyeballs, spectators and sponsorship dollars. I agree with your argument that we can rely on this sort of thing alone to generate publicity and growth but there`s no reason why it shouldn`t be part of our armoury in taking League to the number one winter code in our region.

So committed to returning to Queensland that he held talks with Newcastle Knights.

Couple of years in League and he`ll go back to union three times the player he is now. Maybe then he could nail down the spot- I believe he was a number 10, whatever that is - he had lost after the Aussie`s dismal union world cup showing.

With the salary cap dispensation he`s probably not going to cost them much, so definitely worth a gamble. Things must be really dire in union, I heard their CEO the other day, somebody or other Waugh, saying that he was hoping that the players from the defunct Melbourne Rebels would go to the wooden-spoon winning Waratahs, btw, he didn`t actually mention the wooden-spoon part. I also heard several other senior and ex-wallabies urging Carter Gordon to go there as well, so much for that.