Category: Sports

A Set small text size A Set the default text size A Set large text size Five years ago I pitched an idea to the chair of a Sydney-based NRL club designed to generate perspective among NRL players and provide them them with something meaningful to be involved with away from the game. The idea had been nurtured through watching mostly immature men perform dopey act after dopey act and wondering whether very well paid and time rich young NRL players were living in harmful bubbles. Based on the endless stream of unsavory and silly moments that continued to occur, ... Read more

The NRL finals are finally here with eight clubs still in the hunt for the trophy – here is how each team is shaping up. Finals Week 1  teams All times AEST Qualifying Final: 2 Panthers vs 3 Roosters at BlueBet Stadium: 7.50pm, Friday September 13 Panthers: 1. Dylan Edwards 2. Sunia Turuva 3. Izack Tago 4. Paul Alamoti 5. Brian To’o 6. Jarome Luai 7. Nathan Cleary 8. Moses Leota 9. Mitch Kenny 10. James Fisher-Harris 11. Scott Sorensen 12. Liam Martin 13. Isaah Yeo 14. Trent Toelau 15. Lindsay Smith 16. Liam Henry 17. Luke Garner 18. Matt Eisenhuth 19. Brad ... Read more

It’s always difficult to judge a coach from the outside. We have so little knowledge of what goes on behind closed doors, of what the coach is trying to achieve, how he’s trying to achieve it and of what kind of connection he has with the players, that getting a real handle on how he’s performing is no easy task for the external observer. Or at least, that would be the case if we cared about any of that. Given that we don’t, it’s actually extremely easy to judge a coach, especially when you start from the default position that ... Read more

It is that time of year again when the cream of the NRL and the AFL go head-to-head in their respective “best of the best” finals series. In an age when the encouragement of mediocrity is always a good topic for high school debating teams all striving for a participation ribbon, it is worth asking are we really watching the best of the best? The AFL introduced the eight-team finals format in 1994 in a 15-team league. The “best of the best” could finish in the bottom half of the table. In that first year, Collingwood finished eighth, quite literally ... Read more

A Set small text size A Set the default text size A Set large text size Sydney captain Callum Mills will miss next week’s AFL preliminary final at the SCG because of a hamstring injury. Mills tweaked his hamstring at training on Tuesday, the club’s first major session since defeating GWS in an epic qualifying final. Scans on Wednesday confirmed a minor strain for the academy graduate, who had battled through a bout of gastro to tackle the Giants last Saturday. Win a Ziggy BBQ for Grand Final day, thanks to Barbeques Galore! Enter Here. The club confirmed the star ... Read more

A Set small text size A Set the default text size A Set large text size Good grief. The Wallabies find themselves back at square one, squandering a 17-point lead in the 30th minute to lose 67-27 against Los Pumas in Santa Fe, conceding the most number of points EVER in a test match. It was a brutal comedown for Joe Schmidt’s men and the results were well reflected in the votes cast by The Roar‘s audience this week, with SIXTEEN fail marks handed out. Only seven players managed an average score of 5 or higher, all of them in ... Read more

The demise of the Melbourne Rebels and the reduction of Australian Super Rugby Pacific teams to four has seen a considerable shakeup in the player stocks for the surviving clubs. In this evolving article The Roar will track player signing and departure news as it happens before the Super Rugby squads are confirmed in early 2025. (Note the 2024 squads listed below were those with which the clubs began last season, not the squads they had at the finish. New squads will be announced early in 2025) There has been significant movement among the Australian franchises with the carve up ... Read more

Pain following surgery left Tyson Gamble wanting to cut his hand off but the Newcastle five-eighth insists he is now fully fit and ready to act as the Knights’ super-sub in the NRL finals. Gamble made a miraculous return to the field on Sunday only 18 days after surgery to repair a broken hand, starting from the bench during a 14-6 defeat of the Dolphins that confirmed Newcastle’s finals berth. Gamble had broken the third metacarpal in his right hand making a tackle on Ronaldo Mulitalo during the Knights’ golden-point loss to Cronulla last month, and had a metal plate ... Read more

A Set small text size A Set the default text size A Set large text size Aston Martin have won the race for the prized signature of legendary designer Adrian Newey, with the 65-year-old confirmed to join the Lawrence Stroll-bankrolled outfit after a near two-decade stint with reigning world champions Red Bull Racing. The announcement came from the new state-of-the-art AMR Technology Campus, with Newey being revealed as Managing Technical Partner of Aston Martin as well as a shareholder, starting his new appointment on March 1 2025. Win a Ziggy BBQ for Grand Final day, thanks to Barbeques Galore! Enter ... Read more

A Set small text size A Set the default text size A Set large text size The NRL finals are finally here with eight clubs still in the hunt for the trophy – here is how each team is shaping up. Finals Week 1  teams All times AEST Qualifying Final: 2 Panthers vs 3 Roosters at BlueBet Stadium: 7.50pm, Friday September 13 Panthers: 1. Dylan Edwards 2. Sunia Turuva 3. Izack Tago 4. Paul Alamoti 5. Brian To’o 6. Jarome Luai 7. Nathan Cleary 8. Moses Leota 9. Mitch Kenny 10. James Fisher-Harris 11. Scott Sorensen 12. Liam Martin 13. Isaah Yeo 14. ... Read more