Leaderboard

They`re really giving this the best possible chance you would think. NRL Las Vegas: Andrew Abdo announces UFC partnership before 2024 season-opener double-header (smh.com.au) Las Vegas: The NRL’s bold foray into the US market has taken a gigantic step forward with the announcement of a critical partnership with the UFC – the biggest sport in Las Vegas and among the biggest in the world. While the first year of the deal will see the UFC share content and publicity opportunities with the NRL, it is envisaged a fight night will be held on the same weekend as rugby league in 2025. It is a significant win for the NRL because the UFC has never partnered with another sport. UFC chief operating officer Lawrence Epstein – who is considered one of Las Vegas’ most influential figures – said the UFC wanted to grow its audience in the Asia-Pacific region. “We know we have a tremendous crossover for the two fan bases,” he said. “The sports have the same ethos: hard work, dedication, sportsmanship and unexpected things happen all the time. We couldn’t be more excited welcoming rugby league to Las Vegas.” But the person who stole the show was retired UFC legend Forrest Griffin, whose gruesome fight in 2005 with Stephan Bonnar is considered “the most important fight in UFC history”, according to founder Dana White. “It’s an easy game to understand – and this is a beautiful place to do it,” Griffin, 44, said. “I love the pace of the game. You think about it: they get 80 minutes done faster than you can in 60 minutes of American football. I was also interested to learn there are only four replacements? For the whole game? That’s crazy.” Earlier, NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo made several key announcements about the event, which has attracted 20,000 ticket sales. A partnership with NASCAR, which is being held in Vegas on the same weekend, has been struck. A talent combine will be held at the Ed W. Clark High School earlier that day involving 15 male and 15 female college athletes. The top two will then trial with NRL clubs later in the year. Abdo also revealed the Vegas Nines, a grassroots tournament being run in conjunction with USA Rugby League, will be held on the Thursday and Friday. In another article UFC legend Forrest Griffin told how he had been watching a video of the NRL`s 100 greatest tackles and how he was loving it and that he thought how Americans would love the fact that they could see the faces of the players during the action, something of course they were unable to do because of the helmets worn in NFL. Interesting observation I thought.

I work in rugby environments of both codes, ranging all the way from U12 (and very occasionally primary school) all the way through to Open Age, and I can honestly say that one of my biggest challenges with young players is lack of catch-pass. The majority of youth rugby that I see, up to around U14/U15, is determined by which team has either the oldest kids (i.e. relative age effect) and/or most early onset puberty kids. I've seen games at U13 & U14 level decided by a team that gave the ball to their biggest player over and over again and that player does 80%+ of the work. That doesn't make for great learning outcomes for the other 12 players! Especially because give it to the big lad as a strategy only works for so long - loads of opportunity to learn how to read the game/play tactically/develop the majority of your players missed. My experience as a player and subsequently as a coach, as well as anecdotally from others, is that the players who have that initial physical dominance tend to either drop out when everyone else catches up in terms of physical maturation or find themselves unequipped in skill terms to hold their own any more. There is an effect where smaller players who matured later do find themselves with excellent skillsets (no doubt from trying to avoid getting tackled by the aforementioned physically dominant players) however, I wonder how many kids got stream-rolled at 8/9/10 years old and decided "rugby isn't for me." I think there's a bigger element at play than just the future professionals of the game - we need loads of kids playing and being involved in the game because they're our future supporters, volunteers and coaches as well as players, even if most of them will never progress beyond community rugby. More skilful players, and longer development time on those core skills of evasion and catch-pass will have positive outcomes in the longer term. I don't believe it will have a long term detrimental impact on the game - in fact, by having players start to learn the complex multi-faceted movement patterns involved in tackling later on in life, they're likely going to be better at tackling in the long run.

There are clearly the usual negatives around brand and identity in this adventure but also some positives. On the negative side, when we see a sports broadcaster not knowing the difference between 'rugby' and Rugby League then we have an identity problem. We have ceded the name rugby to the other code and so we are in the odd position where a player has to say they are not rugby players. I mean, that's just crazy. And in an interview about Rugby League, we have to see a League prop discuss the scrum (which he doesn't care about and we don't care about). All this means that any success we have, the Union lot may well benefit from, as no-one over there currently knows the difference (we should do more of that in reverse). But... there are positives. The NRL has canny leadership and marketing people and they will lean heavily into the NRL brand (rather than the name Rugby League) and the club identities. I would normally be frustrated with the NRL being sold rather than the sport as a whole but in this case I think it is 100% the right thing to do.

Nope. I believe that player welfare is paramount.

I'm not an expert. However as we were always told in coaching courses skill breaks down under pressure and fatigue. So if a player is fatigued they are more likely to tackle incorrectly and get injured.

Of course, the structure of the leagues below SL is due for discussion and determination early in 2024. When the outcome reveals that the two leagues will merge into some sort of mixed format then any spectre of relegation to C1 will disappear. For those clubs with not much of a shout for the play-offs this is sure to affect their strategies for the 2024 season, maybe even giving coaches a bit of a longer ride. Wakefield should win the league at a canter, and probably the play-offs as well. Notwithstanding that they should regain SL status for 2025. The consensus for places around the play-offs looks about right, although I reckon Fev are much weaker than before, albeit in a weaker league and Toulouse may well flatter to deceive once more, concentrating more on enhancing their IMG grading. Doncaster, York and Bradford have recruited strongly and may reap the rewards of that, dependent upon their coaching. Sheffield have recruited strongly in the boardroom and this will show eventually. Swinton will struggle. Dewsbury have an experimental coaching setup as well as an inexperienced squad with lots of potential, but we know what can happen to potential. Batley are much weaker in playing staff and financially and will find repeating their feats of previous years difficult. The rest will bobble around, as always.

Do people care? I certainly can't imagine a new fan being miffed because the ref is from X rather than Y.

This is what is good about sport in how individuals foster different opinions, my take on it is not for hankering for what has passed but of the experience of being subject to different styles and rules for what I consider to be the best option delivering a more entertaining spectacle for paying customers. In an instant I would move the defensive line back to 5mtrs and reduce the number of interchanges to a max of 3 and let 'fatigue' play it's part in the game, and once a player is replaced he cannot return to the field, and further more without the constant refreshing of the 'behomoths' it would provide a safer environment for those taking part.

A little more information on the combine and Nines Tournament to be run by the NRL in America. The combine seems a little gimmicky, but heck, if it garners more publicity why not. The nines tournament I think has more potential, interesting that Abdo says union clubs have been invited to form a League nines team and have a go. “We are going to be working with local partners and we will be going out to the male and female college athletes and they get to apply,” NRL boss Andrew Abdo said. “The top 50 male and female applicants will come down for an intensive session. We will have our high-performance team, who will be filtering and monitoring the statistics and the testing on the day. “The output gets captured in a report. That information gets sent off. A short-list develops on that day.” Jillaroos coach Brad Donald will oversee the combine along with the game’s high-performance unit. The college athletes will take part in a range of fitness and skills drills at Ed W. Clark High School in Las Vegas. From there, the NRL will choose two female and two male athletes and give them an opportunity to travel to Australia to train with teams. Clubs will then be given an option to offer a player a full-time development deal. With regards the Nines Tournament: The NRL will also stage a two-day nines tournament in Las Vegas on the Thursday and Friday before the double header on Saturday, local time, between Manly and South Sydney, and the Sydney Roosters against Brisbane. There will be an under-18s and open competitions for men and women. “It’s exciting for us to open this up to the rugby league community which exists already,” Abdo said. “We are working with USA Rugby League. We are putting together nine’s tournament. We’ve had a huge response and 27 teams have already entered. “It’s not just for rugby league teams. We think we can attract some rugby union teams. “It will be played across two days and there will be prize money for the winners. It’s about connecting them to the rugby league community. They will attend the game.”

The video you posted is absolutely full of players tackling high, throwing elbows into people's faces and thumping each other. Just watch the 3 minutes from 7:20 to 10:30 to see 3 or 4 events with people lying on the floor holding their faces after being walloped. Look, I get the frustration with the wrestle (although Rugby League isn't and never has been '5 drives and a kick') but there was plenty wrong with previous versions of the sport. We don't need to go back, we need to think forward and produce something better. And that isn't the French RU version as tackling waist and below and one tackler only is overkill.

Really like this Dutch kit

A few points to pick up here: The mouthguards (IMGs) are not new. Collision impacts were measured initially in NFL using sensors in the helmet. These were inaccurate as there are not directly connected to the skull (layperson's terms). Papers analysing the effectiveness of IMGs in measuring head impacts have been around for 10 years. Analysis comparing IMGs with video footage in matches and training was published in 2018 by Stanford University using College American Football. The video analysis was far more in depth than the RFL study. In the Stanford study all video footage was multi- angled and the head impacts went through two rounds of assessment. (The RFL-Beckett's study goes into nowhere near the same depth and often uses single angle camera events which are not reliable) The Stanford study also noted that the IMGs only picked up 71.2% of the Head Contact Events picked up on video. Also in a NFL study as well as the sports science researchers all "events" had to be watched by two "former athletes" with more than 10 years' experience (i.e., they knew something about the game that they were assessing). The IMGs issued in RU and RL last year had a pretty low take up by players. This is because they are uncomfortable. In American Football the player can spit it out after 5s and wait 50s until the next "down", RU & RL are more continuous As far as I am aware the newer IMGs (v2.0 as opposed to 1.4) as worn in the WXV will be issued. The chip is in a different place and the mouthguard is more similar to a "normal" dental mouthguard Having said all this. Most people, including the Beckett's researchers, are still obsessing re tackle height and reducing "head to head contacts" leading to "one off" concussion events. This is a "straw man" and easily knocked down. Lower tackle height, fewer concussions equals safer game mantra. CTE is linked to the accumulation of micro "sub-concussion" events. The effect of these cannot be measured by IMGs, they just give you an arbitrary "load"

Former work colleague of mine Emma Breheny ran the touchline with her youngest son Cameron today. Her eldest son Liam was the ref.

This just isn't true. Neutral referees are a standard thing in major international sport. Of course, not all the time, but in reality most major sports will use them where they can. RL is unique in that we rarely develop players from outside a small handful of nations, so we aren't going to spend money on developing refs.

I always find this an odd thing for people to point out as though it is an insightful view. Of course Sky paid millions to provide content to fill their channels. That's what they do, and it's also what they spend billions on football for. To fill their channels.

Errm predictions anyone?

And the award for the most over dramatic and defensive post of the year goes to..........

Definitely not a top 4 team at the moment,but if we can add a couple of forwards before the season starts i i can't see why we can't be challenging for the top 4.

WI played England at cricket yesterday. All 4 umpires and the match ref were from the WI. Zimbabwe are playing Ireland, 80% are Zimbabwean and the other 20% is SAfrican. We have to be realistic and again, who cares!? I don't know how you managed to enjoy the Tr-Nations given your mind was elsewhere. Well done.

20000 with two and a half months left to promote the matches? And people are being negative?

The development and growth of football in the North was the single factor behind the breakaway of clubs in 1895. Tony Collins numerous books analyse this perfectly for me.

I`m just wondering how many teams this Rugby League nines tournament could cater for and how big it might get, whether we might start to see teams sent from all over the Rugby League (and haha) rugby union world, culminating in the mother of all tail-gate parties the afternoon before the double-header. The winners presented to the crowd at the double-header. Two-event-for-one tickets for all attendees of the proceeding days UFC and Nascar events of course. As you say, makes for a compelling lead up to the game, and could ensure a bumper crowd year-in year-out if this becomes a regular fixture line-up with who-knows what else they are thinking of.

Something perhaps needs to be changed, but it could be argued that the changes need to happen away from the field; the amount of contact in training etc. Is it definitive that 'head clashes' are the cause of concussion and related symptoms? I would have thought that other than a cut or a break, head clashes are ok relatively speaking and that the goal should be to reduce the number of collisions the head has against a hip, the floor etc. The problem with reducing subs and introducing more fatigue is then the possibility of incorrect tackle technique leading to concussion and related symptoms. James Graham is very comfortable with his decisions, an odd example to use. Sorry to pick on your post, but all i see across all of this thread is potential unintended consequences. The trail period wasn't long enough to establish what the proper outcomes are and we are potentially going down a rabbit hole of legislation / changes to the game.

Yeah, if you are new to RL (or any new sport) and are sussing the sport out, the more things the sport has that are similar to other 'established' major sports you know is important. As someone from who comes from playing nine years of junior rugby union, a lot of cricket and following association football all my life, it was a headsqueeze to get round Australians or British refs reffing Australia v GB games in Tri Nations games etc, when those other sports would have neutral officials in the most important international games.

You aren't missing anything. It's business, the business of running the club. Not every single detail needs to be published, and I still don't understand why it's expected to be.

As the game gets closer it’s interesting to see what additional content/ingredients - grassroots, Ed W Clark trial, UFC backing (Joe Rogan has also mentioned similar on his podcasts), NASCAR - are added, pre game. Makes for a compelling lead up to the game.

Not at all actually, which is unfortunate for your narrative. Playing numbers at colleges/universities have been steadily increasing and the rugby World Cup in 2031 is upcoming.

Yes. For the majority of clubs there will be no difference from the last 5 + years where they couldn't get promoted because they had a Toronto, Leigh, etc in front of them buying the league.

" you need to tell him it was a high tackle son" "Sigh, I know mam, i know".... "Just trying to help, I can stop helping if you want....."

No. I fully support the rules that have been brought in to improve the game.

No.

"We only have eight" yeah, far to many.

He was excellent in a very average team last year and deserves a go at SL. Whether he is ready is another matter but he works hard; has a high level of skill and can definitely kick goals. All of his tries from last season will be on the Whitehaven social media pages.

Really not sure regards the mouthguards and trying to force players to wear them is just not going to happen, I know most teams ive played on or coached have been way less than 50% of players that use them, I could never wear one they would just make me gip. I keep thinking of more points as the discussion goes along but another problem I see at amateur and junior level is regarding the state of pitches and you will see a number of concussions every season because of head contact with the ground. It's not a problem at pro level as we see most pitches will be well watered but games are usually called off for frozen pitches but have you ever heard of calling a game off in the middle of summer when most pitches are like playing on concrete?

Not guilty of choking a woman, but he is still guilty of being a massive “unpleasant chap who I disagree with most fervently” as far as I’m concerned. edit note: I love what my word “unpleasant chap who I disagree with most fervently” automatically changed to

Kibula wasn't yet under contract, he was a free agent. Meadows the same, Hodson signed for Cas yet saw out his contract. Don't have a problem with those. What's happened here is that a player under contract has then been approached by another club, we have been good enough not to stand in his way but as I see it, if London wanted him they could have approached him at ANY time, he was OUR PLAYER, signed on the dotted line, that to me signifies a transfer; for which a payment should have been made.

If Wests season is dependent on Sezer, 2024 will be a very long year. Surely the pack has to do better than last year : there are some decent players in Klemmer, Api, Utoikamanu (sp), Papalii and Bateman. Wonder if it would be worth playing Korisau at half back to manage the plays?

WAKEFIELD TRINITY legend David Fifita will play on in 2024 after striking up a deal with the Entrance Tigers. Fifita began 2023 with the Tigers,...View the full article

That was my thoughts as well, but on a little reflection I think it probably doesn`t matter, if we can get Americans to tune into the game they will discover very quickly that a) this game is very different to the `rugby` that they have already seen, or b) for those who are ignorant of any `rugby` they just enjoy it (hopefully) for what it is. This can all be aided and abetted by of course the commentators during the coverage making sure that everyone knows they are watching Rugby LEAGUE. Not dissimilar to Andrew Voss`s cry during the NRL Vegas promo "what a Rugby League try".

He might be an upgrade individually on O’Brien, but O’Brien was very important to how we played last season, and played just as big a part in our long winning run as any of the players that made the Dream Team selection. I’d rather we use the quota spot to get a new right winger to be honest

I think it is very easy to say that we should have neutral refs for all international games - but where are they coming from? We have a group of FT and PT English ref's here in the UK, the NRL has their FT Australian referees (I am not sure if they have any NZ ones anymore?), France would have their PT referees for Elite 1, etc. I am not sure if there is another FT referee in the world that isn't English or Australian.

If it does accur, then hopefully the BBC will show it, oh and have JJB summarising to explain what all the free kicks are for - with subtitles for when he gets excited he talks to fast and becomes inaudible.

yeah I do agree, A referee should never be referring their own country. I reckon that they weren't bothered to find refs from outside England for the series, but I believe it's very important that they do. They should have had French refs.

1993. It looked rubbish then as well

When did Halifax change colours?

People say they'll walk away over anything the RFL do. If they were offered a night with the celebrity of their choice, provided by the RFL, they'd find a reason to moan.