Thu 25th Jul: WNRL: Newcastle v Sydney Roosters KO 10:45am UK time (Sky/WatchNRL)

[Futtocks]

What a rarity - a Women's NRL match that doesn't kick off long before sparrow's fart over here in the UK!

Looking forward to it.

[BroncoFan]

What a game to kick off the season.

[RBKnight]

Apparently in a prime time TV slot, with an anticipated five-figure crowd - exciting times !

[Farmduck]

I wonder what the longer-term plans are regarding TV scheduling. It's a bit of a problem to sell 2 products to any channel if they are running simultaneously and NRLW will need to get prime time slots if it's going to grow into a major sellable product. It's easy enough to put NRLW on another Ch9 or Fox channel but it will still be cannibalising their NRL audience, certainly for the live broadcasts.

[Futtocks]

4 hours ago, Farmduck said:

I wonder what the longer-term plans are regarding TV scheduling. It's a bit of a problem to sell 2 products to any channel if they are running simultaneously and NRLW will need to get prime time slots if it's going to grow into a major sellable product. It's easy enough to put NRLW on another Ch9 or Fox channel but it will still be cannibalising their NRL audience, certainly for the live broadcasts.

Nice to have this game on at a sane UK time.

As the NRL playoffs start to whittle down the teams, gaps will appear in in the schedule and I hope they would be filled by WNRL action.

[Futtocks]

Newcastle lead 10:0 at half time. A few disallowed tries, but overall the home side's defence is very effective.

[Futtocks]

54 minutes ago, Futtocks said:

Newcastle lead 10:0 at half time. A few disallowed tries, but overall the home side's defence is very effective.

The Roosters got more into the game in the second half and almost drew, but for a missed conversion in the dying seconds.

NEW 12:10 SYD at full time.

[BroncoFan]

Roosters looked a team of great individuals but not great as a team.

The Knights’ defence was great but geez they were dumb in attack, constantly turned the ball over and it almost cost them.

Roche tackled well but didn’t ever command the ball, very disappointed with her non involvement.

The Knights continually went right to Southwell but Roche didn’t assert herself at all.

[unapologetic pedant]

10 minutes ago, BroncoFan said:

Roche tackled well but didn’t ever command the ball, very disappointed with her non involvement.

The Knights continually went right to Southwell but Roche didn’t assert herself at all.

Rinse and repeat.

[unapologetic pedant]

Redolent of one of our less eventful big-4 WSL games where defences are too good.

Was looking like the Roosters would be nilled. Took something special to get them on the board.

As mentioned above, Georgia Roche still peripheral.

[unapologetic pedant]

The two Saturday NRLW games were afflicted with stultifying refereeing. 

Refusing to allow quick taps, making everyone "wait, wait, wait" at handovers and restarts till the defence is fully set, going to the bunker for needless confirmations.

All designed to slow the game down and suppress variety. They appear to think their job is to prevent the players from doing anything out of the ordinary.

There's only so far even elite female players can go with regimented attacking patterns. They need to be given more opportunity to play fast and break the game open.

Edited July 27, 2024 by unapologetic pedant