Great weekend of League

[thebrewxi]

Amazing. 3 of the 4 NRL games were gripping. Bit of Challenge cup. And rounded it off with Red Star V Partizan over in Serbia.

I'm still massively confused about the Serbian League. I only thought there were 4 teams in the first division. I've just read on some Facebook post the owner of Red Start saying there are 8 teams. Another post hinted that Partizan are now top. But I just can't find any detailed info. It's a shame as I've got quiet into it this year without and Our League games to watch on Sundays.

[Futtocks]

1 hour ago, thebrewxi said:

Amazing. 3 of the 4 NRL games were gripping. Bit of Challenge cup. And rounded it off with Red Star V Partizan over in Serbia.

I'm still massively confused about the Serbian League. I only thought there were 4 teams in the first division. I've just read on some Facebook post the owner of Red Start saying there are 8 teams. Another post hinted that Partizan are now top. But I just can't find any detailed info. It's a shame as I've got quiet into it this year without and Our League games to watch on Sundays.

I've just watched highlights from the opening round of the women's NRL. It has been a good weekend all right.

[thebrewxi]

22 minutes ago, Futtocks said:

I've just watched highlights from the opening round of the women's NRL. It has been a good weekend all right.

not even got around to that yet. too early for me this morning. Busy catch up week this week as week then by the looks of it

[langpark]

It is not so clear cut in Serbia right now. But there are definitely 5 active men's teams: Red Star, Partizan, Novi Beograd, Dorcol Tigers and Radnicki Nis in the south. 

Not sure how their format is this year, but they usually get some of their youth teams playing against the senior teams, whenever they need an 8-team format. 

[Futtocks]

3 hours ago, langpark said:

It is not so clear cut in Serbia right now. But there are definitely 5 active men's teams: Red Star, Partizan, Novi Beograd, Dorcol Tigers and Radnicki Nis in the south. 

Not sure how their format is this year, but they usually get some of their youth teams playing against the senior teams, whenever they need an 8-team format. 

I think they run 13-a-side and 9-a-side competitions, so maybe the youth teams compete in the latter. That's just a guess, though.

[Futtocks]

Here's something from the Serbian juniors.

 

[The Rocket]

2 hours ago, Futtocks said:

Here's something from the Serbian juniors

Great stuff,  that kid no.15 throwing that flick pass, they have must been watching SLE or NRL to learn that stuff. Surely their not just doing that stuff off their own bat.

[Futtocks]

2 hours ago, The Rocket said:

Great stuff,  that kid no.15 throwing that flick pass, they have must been watching SLE or NRL to learn that stuff. Surely their not just doing that stuff off their own bat.

YouTube search "Benji Marshall highlights", I'd expect.

[unapologetic pedant]

5 hours ago, Futtocks said:

Here's something from the Serbian juniors.

 

All those reckless offloads. That was all on first tackle. Come on lads - complete your sets, get to your kick, build pressure.

And what about the ref? Half the passes were a mile forward, and there had to be a knock-on in there somewhere. (As the experts say on Fox League).

[langpark]

1 hour ago, unapologetic pedant said:

All those reckless offloads. That was all on first tackle. Come on lads - complete your sets, get to your kick, build pressure.

It takes a while to instill those habits. Most of these kids would have been playing the game less than a year. Most important thing at this point is that they are enjoying their footy (which they seem to be, judging by this video) and stick with it through to senior level. All the clinical/boring stuff can be taught later on. 

[Eddie]

On 05/10/2020 at 12:24, Futtocks said:

Here's something from the Serbian juniors.

 

This is just great in so many ways, under 16s playing RL in Serbia, clearly loving it, and a decent level of skill too. Some of the lads in blue are rapid. Such a shame that there isn’t funding available to help this sort of activity. 

[The Rocket]

Watched the replay of the preliminary final in the Western Australian NRL last night. George William`s Dad coached Rockingham Sharks came from 18-12 down, to level the scores with 10 minutes remaining, a 2 man cutout pass then from Sharks 5/8 to their slashing centre, who beat several defenders and ran 40 metres to steal the match with 2 minutes to go. South Perth Lions cleverly kicked the ball over the sideline from the kick-off and regained possession for one last throw of the dice and were attacking the line for nearly 2 minutes when the siren sounded. Twice the Sharks pulled off incredible one on one tackles when the Lions looked certain to score.

Bit of background, last week Rockingham Sharks defeated reigning 2 time premiers and Western Australian Rugby League powerhouse Altona Roosters with a 40 metre field goal in golden point extra time. After the match, when interviewed, the player who kicked the field goal said he had never kicked one from that far out in his life and had not even considered that this one would go over. And boy did it it just limp over.

Rockingham Sharks will now meet minor premiers Joondalup Giants in next weeks Grand Final.

I have said this before and I am starting to sound like a broken record but I have been watching Rugby League for over 45 years and the improvement in standards away from the main competitions boggles my brain. In the last 20 years the standard of these periphery competitions is unrecognisable. I have come to the conclusion that the advent and rise of pay/ satellite television has allowed League players and fans from all over the world to witness how the game is played at the highest levels and this is being reflected in the way they play the game themselves. There has had to be some corresponding increase in coaching standards as well though. The fact that Rockingham are coached by George Williams Dad, who I believe is a journeyman coach, is probably indicative of what is going on in the wider world of Rugby League. Where perhaps a job and a bit of money for coaching a local team has lead to ex-players and coaches of not quite top level picking up work all over the place. I suppose Phil Economidis ex-first Grade Oz RL coach at Red Star Belgrade is another example.

 

[unapologetic pedant]

6 hours ago, The Rocket said:

Watched the replay of the preliminary final in the Western Australian NRL last night. George William`s Dad coached Rockingham Sharks came from 18-12 down, to level the scores with 10 minutes remaining, a 2 man cutout pass then from Sharks 5/8 to their slashing centre, who beat several defenders and ran 40 metres to steal the match with 2 minutes to go. South Perth Lions cleverly kicked the ball over the sideline from the kick-off and regained possession for one last throw of the dice and were attacking the line for nearly 2 minutes when the siren sounded. Twice the Sharks pulled off incredible one on one tackles when the Lions looked certain to score.

 

 

It was actually nearer 20 minutes remaining when the scores were levelled. And the "slashing centre" passed to the winger for the winning try. You really ought to make notes when you know there are people like me lurking. To be fair, it was going dark towards the end.

I was grateful to South Perth for providing further evidence for one of my tactical pet beliefs. Namely, that if teams routinely tried, in various ways, to get the ball back from re-starts, they would gain from the policy across the eighty minutes.

In FTA Nine Gem TV ratings (when they`re not suspiciously listed as 0) the Perth figure is often lower than Adelaide. Which is extremely odd given that grass roots RL is much stronger in WA than SA. Is this because Perth League fans buy Fox subscriptions? Whatever the reason, seeing 5 or 6k in Perth for some Nine NRL games will not make Pete V. relent from his anti-WA NRL franchise stance.

[The Rocket]

4 hours ago, unapologetic pedant said:

It was actually nearer 20 minutes remaining when the scores were levelled. And the "slashing centre" passed to the winger for the winning try. You really ought to make notes when you know there are people like me lurking. To be fair, it was going dark towards the end.

I was grateful to South Perth for providing further evidence for one of my tactical pet beliefs. Namely, that if teams routinely tried, in various ways, to get the ball back from re-starts, they would gain from the policy across the eighty minutes.

In FTA Nine Gem TV ratings (when they`re not suspiciously listed as 0) the Perth figure is often lower than Adelaide. Which is extremely odd given that grass roots RL is much stronger in WA than SA. Is this because Perth League fans buy Fox subscriptions? Whatever the reason, seeing 5 or 6k in Perth for some Nine NRL games will not make Pete V. relent from his anti-WA NRL franchise stance.

Yes I put the telly on today and it was the same channel I had left it on last night and lo and behold the same game was on . I saw that try get scored with 18 to go and I thought damn, do I have to go back and fix that post, but I thought ###### it , I`ll take my chances. Should have known better. I was also wrong about the two try saving tackles on the tryline they must have been earlier in the half.

I am pretty certain about the centre though because I have been watching him,  Fuwi and his opposite Levi, I am guessing the spelling, but both were very exciting and were obviously Aboriginal. You may have caught the end of the try where he drew and passed to the winger. Any way doesn`t matter.

Perth and Adelaide are always a drag on the metro figures and combined with the ridiculous figures they get in Melbourne always puts the afl up  by 250 000+metro nationwide. The League in Melbourne has been out rating the afl`s comparitive figures in Sydney lately, but both figures haven`t been real flash. Queensland is where the figures have been more concerning, but I am hoping once the hoopla of having the afl based up there earlier and the lions bomb out things may return to normal next year. They have this really old Chairman of the QRL, Hartcher , a real ###### dinosaur, they have to get that other  club up there, in reality there is probably room for a couple more, I hope that old **** isn`t blocking them to protect the Broncos. We need progressive administrators.

A team in Perth would probably make a difference but I suppose they are not game to risk it. Better to stick with the Pacific and New Zealand for the time being. After I watched that wallabies test on the weekend I said to my son, that is one country that is ripe for the picking.

 

[Hela Wigmen]

Any games on this weekend across the globe that can be watched in addition to the Cup Final and NRL play-offs?

[unapologetic pedant]

52 minutes ago, The Rocket said:

 

I am pretty certain about the centre though because I have been watching him,  Fuwi and his opposite Levi, I am guessing the spelling, but both were very exciting and were obviously Aboriginal. You may have caught the end of the try where he drew and passed to the winger. Any way doesn`t matter

 

Quintin Fui. Almost certainly of Maori or Islander heritage. Probably the former. Was in the West Coast Pirates SG Ball Cup side playing full-back. Covid cut their season short so all these young blokes just have the local comp this year. The Pirates were on the wrong end of some big scorelines in the games they got to play, which demonstrates how hard it is for WA to develop players in their isolation, however good the raw, natural talent.

[thebrewxi]

We've gone massively off original topic here. But love it. What's the WA comp called? "Better than smoking premiership" or something mad like that? I watched a bit of it a couple of years ago streamed on youtube. It was really enjoyable, and on at a nice time if you're in the uk. 

Is it still streamed? 

[The Rocket]

10 hours ago, Hela Wigmen said:

Any games on this weekend across the globe that can be watched in addition to the Cup Final and NRL play-offs?

 

4 minutes ago, thebrewxi said:

We've gone massively off original topic here. But love it. What's the WA comp called? "Better than smoking premiership" or something mad like that? I watched a bit of it a couple of years ago streamed on youtube. It was really enjoyable, and on at a nice time if you're in the uk. 

Is it still streamed? 

Yeah, we are way off topic, by about a week, we could call it now 'Great Next weekend of League`. But the Western Australian NRL GF is on this weekend, I get it on Indigenous TV over here but if the Pedant is watching it he`ll probably tell you where you can get it. I`ll remind him to put it up if he doesn`t notice so you can have a look.

And it is called `The Better than Smoking` Premiership, bit hard to have a smoke at half time when you`re playing in the " Better Than Smoking ` Premiership.

I think Wigmen you`ll be impressed with the standard of play and you probably know this but George Williams dad coaches Rockingham Sharks.

[unapologetic pedant]

8 hours ago, The Rocket said:

 

Yeah, we are way off topic, by about a week, we could call it now 'Great Next weekend of League`. But the Western Australian NRL GF is on this weekend, I get it on Indigenous TV over here but if the Pedant is watching it he`ll probably tell you where you can get it. I`ll remind him to put it up if he doesn`t notice so you can have a look.

And it is called `The Better than Smoking` Premiership, bit hard to have a smoke at half time when you`re playing in the " Better Than Smoking ` Premiership.

I think Wigmen you`ll be impressed with the standard of play and you probably know this but George Williams dad coaches Rockingham Sharks.

I watch WA RL on the blandly titled YouTube channel "Local Media Services Company". It says on WA RL`s Facebook page that GF day is being livestreamed, so presumably this is where.

The channel doesn`t show many RL games (mainly Fumbleball), but they had the two games you`ve given a nod to. I refrained from picking you up on "Altona Roosters", but they`re in Victoria. It`s Fremantle Roosters in WA. Cockadoodledoo. They looked to have a very healthy crowd for their game against Rockingham.

The first of the 4 GFs on Saturday is League Tag. In WA, contact and non-contact are fully integrated in their clubs. Very encouraging.

[The Rocket]

5 hours ago, unapologetic pedant said:

I watch WA RL on the blandly titled YouTube channel "Local Media Services Company". It says on WA RL`s Facebook page that GF day is being livestreamed, so presumably this is where.

The channel doesn`t show many RL games (mainly Fumbleball), but they had the two games you`ve given a nod to. I refrained from picking you up on "Altona Roosters", but they`re in Victoria. It`s Fremantle Roosters in WA. Cockadoodledoo. They looked to have a very healthy crowd for their game against Rockingham.

The first of the 4 GFs on Saturday is League Tag. In WA, contact and non-contact are fully integrated in their clubs. Very encouraging.

When I hear League Tag can I safely assume the full field variant. I haven`t seen a game yet. There are some real positives with this contact, non-contact integration, I think that there was a real positive energy in that TTRL thread that we may have been onto something.

From what I`ve seen of the N.T. and W.A. RL`s they should be able to put together handy rep teams  and I am looking forward to the clash.

You mentioned that I was a late comer to Womens RL, it`s not so much that, it`s more that even I have limits on how much RL I can watch. But I will watch their GF and wouldn`t miss women`s SOO for quids.

I did flick it on briefly on saturday only to hear the idiot male commentator bellow, " it`s the battle of the rugby sevens players. " I felt a surge of annoyance, something I wouldn`t have noticed before. Thanks.

Even better though, on the ABC a couple of weeks ago on the night of Benji`s last game they ran an extended story of it being his last game, nice enough, good to see on the national broadcaster, however I had to laugh instead of showing a montage of some of his famous runs or passes, they showed Benji being armchaired from the field by two trainers  while the commentator roared in the background: " he`s copped three separate injuries from that one tackle ". Rugby League. You got to laugh.

Thanks for putting that info up where the other blokes can watch it.

 

[unapologetic pedant]

11 hours ago, The Rocket said:

When I hear League Tag can I safely assume the full field variant. I haven`t seen a game yet. There are some real positives with this contact, non-contact integration, I think that there was a real positive energy in that TTRL thread that we may have been onto something.

 

You mentioned that I was a late comer to Womens RL, it`s not so much that, it`s more that even I have limits on how much RL I can watch. But I will watch their GF and wouldn`t miss women`s SOO for quids.

I did flick it on briefly on saturday only to hear the idiot male commentator bellow, " it`s the battle of the rugby sevens players. " I felt a surge of annoyance, something I wouldn`t have noticed before. Thanks.

 

 

Definitely League Tag. That`s the advantage of Tag being run alongside Tackle in RL clubs. They have access to full-size fields and goalposts where Oztag do not. Despite this year`s disruption, WA RL had a 9-team women`s LT comp and a 7-team girls` LT comp. There were also smaller female Tackle comps.

What this shows is that by combining contact and non-contact almost all WA RL clubs are maximising participation in their female sections. If a club establishes a female section with only a Tackle option, the danger is, if injuries mount through the season, they start defaulting and eventually have to abandon their season. Thus, they have little to show for all the time and effort. When a club offers League Tag, and attract good numbers at the start, it`s virtually certain they`ll fulfil their fixtures and at the end of the year have built a platform for further growth. So, the club sees a reward on their investment.

I had a further pop yesterday on the NRLW thread at the "idiot" you`re alluding too, after Charlotte Caslick was ruled out of the rest of the comp. It`s not a pleasant thought, but I`m quite relieved she`s injured. Although I suspect we`ll still be invited to bow down before the lesser-known "Rugby Stars". This is an incurable disease in RL.

BTW, thought you didn`t have pecuniary "quids" in Aus any longer. There is another definition of "quid" meaning a sort of cud. Which could be tobacco or that Betel Nut they`re fond of in PNG.

[The Rocket]

On 16/10/2020 at 11:31, unapologetic pedant said:

BTW, thought you didn`t have pecuniary "quids" in Aus any longer. There is another definition of "quid" meaning a sort of cud. Which could be tobacco or that Betel Nut they`re fond of in PNG.

I think we have safely established that you are from P.N.G., no need for further hints, the give away of course being your intricate, despite the occasional slip up, knowledge of the English language, not uncommon amongst those who have studied it as a second language.

If they did ever have a get together for this forum at the George Hotel before next years WC, I`ll keep an eye for the bloke with red teeth but you better leave your traditional ------ gourd at home.

[unapologetic pedant]

On 14/10/2020 at 11:05, Hela Wigmen said:

Any games on this weekend across the globe that can be watched in addition to the Cup Final and NRL play-offs?

 

4 hours ago, The Rocket said:

I think we have safely established that you are from P.N.G., no need for further hints, the give away of course being your intricate, despite the occasional slip up, knowledge of the English language, not uncommon amongst those who have studied it as a second language.

If they did ever have a get together for this forum at the George Hotel before next years WC, I`ll keep an eye for the bloke with red teeth but you better leave your traditional ------ gourd at home.

I`ve put up on the dedicated thread that unless I`m mistaken Sunday 18th is Digicel Cup GF day. 

There`s something funny going on. Up until a fortnight ago there were regular highlights packages on YouTube on the Loop PNG channel. Since then there seems to have been a mainstream media blackout. I`ve only been able to find out anything from desultory social media posts.

At first I wondered if the top quote above was mischievous, given that the final is between Lae Tigers and... Hela Wigmen. No possibility of watching it. Indeed, judging from the last couple of weeks, it won`t be easy to follow it at all.

Note to The Rocket. -  There are some forms of pidgin English still in common usage across the Anglosphere. Papuan, Australian, each has its own distinctive charm.

 

[Sports Prophet]

‘Smarter Than Smoking Premiership

[The Rocket]

On 16/10/2020 at 11:31, unapologetic pedant said:

Although I suspect we`ll still be invited to bow down before the lesser-known "Rugby Stars". This is an incurable disease in RL.

https://www.zerotackle.com/storm-forward-turns-down-rugby-offers-to-stay-committed-to-league-nrl-81133/

Reading this made me think that it`s not all bad referencing players union past. Ultimately may encourage young union stars , particularly in NZ where we want to grow the game, to see the opportunities in League and maybe `normalise` code hopping.