Nine snubs Melbourne Storm again

[moto748]

So are NRL games screened all over Australia? What if you live in Perth or somewhere?

 

[Aucklander]

So are NRL games screened all over Australia? What if you live in Perth or somewhere?

Outside of NSW and QLD the fta coverage is shit. If you live outside those areas, get foxtel or move interstate.

 

[moto748]

Thanks. I've just been watching the convincing win by the Broncos over the Sharks. A much more entertaining game than I expected.

 

[moto748]

BTW do they screen Challenge Cup games in Australia these days? Nowadays it's the only free-to-air League we see in England. Unfortunately both games screened last week were one-sided affairs.

 

[Aucklander]

Haven't seen a challenge cup game in ages. I'm actually not sure if it's on, but I would doubt it.

 

[Castres Treize]

ch nein showed the weekend Challenge cup games on Sunday and Monday this past week at 12:30am.

 

[moto748]

Pah! I would kill for the amount of league youse guys see on TV! Thanks, anyway, Castres. I guess they probably take the BBC feed, in which case it would have been Leeds v Hull and Huddersfield v Hull KR.

I don't know if you heard the comment by Hudd boss Nathan Brown (himself a less than shining success in the NRL, I thought?), that David Fa'alogo (ex Souths?) was "too good" to be playing in England? I have to say that he looked a class act on Sunday, and was defivnitely one of the stars of the show. I always like to watch Brett Hodgsoon when Hudd play too. He might be getting on, but he sure is a quality player; one of my favourites to watching in SL.

 

[Castres Treize]

I missed the Giants v HKR game, but the Leeds Hull FC wasn't bad.

Here's a link to all the games that will be played in England, Wales, France and Scotland this season, we should get these same games bar the Championship matches (you can watch those online early Friday mornings anyway )

http://www.rugbyleagueontv.co.uk/

List includes Challenge cup games, SL and the magic weekend matches, plus maybe an international or two.

 

[moto748]

Unbelievable! Like I said, youse guys are so spoilt!

They used to have the Magic Weekend in Cardiff, which is only an hour away from me, and was a great venue, as the Welsh like their rugby. Now, for some God-unknown reason, they stage them in Edinburgh. The Scots aren't even interested in RU, let alone RL. There's no hope of spreading the game there, whereas in Wales it is realistic.

Hudd weren't bad, with their skinny No. 6 Brown and Fa'alogo the stars of the show,. But like Leeds, their opposition was frankly poor.

St. Helens and Leeds will always be worth a watch, and of course the Challenge Cup Final is always a great occasion; I go every year. And the new Wembley holds about 90,000, I think. Why isn't there an equivalent knock-out competition in Australia?

 

[Castres Treize]

We had several comps over the years, the panasonic cup, Amco Cup, Tooth Cup, KB Cup, National Panasonic Cup and so on, I loved it as you'd get to see different teams playing and all on neutral grounds midweek.

http://dazrl.awardspace.info/h_midweekcup.htm

We need to bring something like this back.

The mid-week cup or Amco Cup (also known by various other sponsors' names including the Tooth Cup, KB Cup, National Panasonic Cup and Panasonic Cup) was a mid-week rugby league competition held in Australia between 1974 and 1989. The format was usually a straight knock-out, but various group formats were used between 1979 and 1982. It aired on Channel Ten with Ray Warren and Keith Barnes the commentators for many years.

The competition was essentially a "made for TV" event, featuring 4 x 20-minute quarters and a penalty countback rule in the event of a draw. Matches were played under floodlights (usually) on a Wednesday evening at venues. Initially Leichhardt Oval in Sydney was the main venue, though later matches were played at Lang Park in Brisbane, Parramatta Stadium and various New South Wales country centres. The competition was scrapped after the increasingly professional clubs resented the additional burdens on their players caused by the mid-week games. In 1990 it was replaced by a preseason challenge cup played for only by the New South Wales Rugby League premiership teams.

Games were played all over, I think the first Perth (1st grade) game was a Panasonic cup match.

Over the year teams like Newcastle would beat a team like Parramatta and St George even though they were not part of the NSWRL comp in Sydney.

 

[moto748]

Thanks for that. Perhaps the NRL is so primary now in Australia that a knock-out cup could never really take off in the same way. There's been an attempt too, I think, in England, to make the Grand Finals 'the' RL event of the year, but to my mind, nothing beats the history of the Cup, played virtually continuously since 1837! And I know it sounds corny, but at the Cup Final you really do feel a part of the League 'family', with fans wearing every shirt in Superleague, plus those of scores of amateur clubs (plus a few ill-advised prop-forwards dressed in tutus! ). No other sport has an occasion quite like it.