League

Team spirit: how Blues can reach Origin nirvana

Roy Masters When NSW coach Laurie Daley finalises his team after this weekend's NRL round, he will try and include as many fit players from the Blues 2012 Origin squad.

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LEAGUE

Stars and young hopefuls growing apart

Roy Masters The recent deaths of two young players raise questions about the disconnect between an NRL team and its feeder teams, compared with the days when there was strong mentoring by senior players across...

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League

Daylight separates quick and dead slow

Roy Masters With the top four NRL teams threatening to break away, the challenge is to bring them back to the pack.

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League

Wests unite as joint venture remains anything but cosy

Roy Masters A $2.3 million debt has triggered personnel changes at Wests Tigers, with a more significant long-term realignment of ownership expected when joint venture partners, Western Suburbs, are asked to...

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League

Hot topic: should the season kick off at night?

Roy Masters Islands in the oceans may drown and the Antarctic ice shelf melt but climate change takes on an immediate meaning for coaches when it affects the scheduling of games.

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Coaches, not subterfuge, are the finals X-factor

Roy Masters 'They obviously want an all-Sydney club grand final,'' one NRL club official texted immediately after the Sea Eagles' controversial victory against the Cowboys a week ago.

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Canterbury's crafty defence has opposition seeing double

Roy Masters THE Bulldogs have one of the best defensive records in the NRL, preventing the opposition scoring tries from within 20 metres of their own line.

Not one or two? Your chances are limited

Roy Masters Finishing first or second on the premiership ladder is a colossal advantage under the new finals system.

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Grant defends crackdown on shoulder charge on finals eve

Roy Masters ARL Commission chairman John Grant has defended the decision to take tougher action on the eve of the finals against tacklers whose shoulder makes contact with the head of an opponent as Cronulla's...

War looms over top job

Roy Masters ANOTHER rugby league civil war is on the distant horizon unless the ARL Commission appoints a football person as its chief executive.

Why succeeding often means failure

Roy Masters IT'S preferable to be the coach who follows the coach who follows the legend. Just ask anyone who followed Jack Gibson, particularly after his appointments at Eastern Suburbs (two premierships) and...

The brain game provides one of many challenges for today's coaches

Roy Masters A neurologist friend tells me there is a part of the brain that actually grows in adulthood.

The more things change, the less they stay the same in three decades

Roy Masters David Gallop has held the NRL's top job for a decade but there has been a revolving door in clubland, with a record number of club chief executives and coaches exiting in the past two years.

Roy Masters

Fox pundits' ignorance just isn't bliss for code's tragics

Roy Masters NO NRL season has ever opened with as much will to win from the players and coaches as we witnessed in round one.

Fullbacks on the rise in the modern-day pecking order

Roy Masters Magpies greats, such as Noel Kelly and Tom Raudonikis, will gather at the SCG today for the foundation club's annual reunion, before shuffling across to Allianz Stadium on arthritic knees to watch...

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Roy Masters

Expansion connected to new TV rights deal

Roy Masters Strong interest by broadcasters in a second Brisbane team may prompt the ARL Commission to ask TV networks to lodge a separate rights bid for an 18-team competition.

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Quite a blue: battle of the breweries brought to a head as Origin adverts become a XXXX-nightmare

Roy Masters AUSTRALIA'S two biggest breweries have resolved their dispute over Cameron Smith, skipper of the XXXX-sponsored Queensland team, being used in advertisements to promote the sale of VB, the sponsor of...