The pre-season has been completed and like always some teams, on the basis of trial form, are about to win the premiership. I do not take too much from the trials and as I have said before repeating a learned colleague’s “trials are only for crooks and sheep dogs.” None more so than the Eels. They won the pre-season competition just as the Broncos did last year. As always, after a solid performance and 100k, the Eels fans are going into raptures about how their side is going to perform in ‘26. Interestingly the Courier Mail on Monday, the first Monday before the season proper starts, failed to have anything on the Broncos on pages 48,47 and 46. The headline on the back page was around Cleary’s head high tackle, and the other story was around the Cowboys and Las Vegas. The Broncos must feel poorly about this lack of publicity by their owner. They had to wait until page 45!
Whilst on the Broncos, it was interesting to watch their performance in the World Club Challenge. In the first half the Broncos looked like a team that hadn’t played a game all season whilst Hull KR looked like a team that were well prepared. Clearly the benefit of playing three games beforehand allowed them to get a great start against what can only be described as a fairly rusty Broncos outfit. The second half of course was completely different. From the moment Hunt came on the field at hooker the Broncos had better direction and were a better side, and some of their key players started to click into action.
Walsh in attack looked particularly dangerous and did throw the last pass on three or four of their tries. His defensive positional play, on the other hand, could be questioned a little at this incredibly early stage of the season. Maguire would have been happy with their defence overall as all the Robins’ tries came from either kicks or Broncos mistakes. Watching the last five minutes of the match was a little like watching some of the horses I have backed over the summer. I was praying for my horses to hang on, just as the Hull KR supporters were praying for their side to hang on. Fortunately for Hull, their horse provided a better finish than most of the chaff bandits I have been backing.
Who cares about Vegas? Well, it seems like a hell of a lot of Aussies! The first round now means the Las Vegas experiment and, by all reports, Australians are going there in numbers. It was reported that the Canterbury club offered all employees of the football club the opportunity to go, and are taking about 85 people. They even shouted their players a night with the Eagles and, unfortunately, most of the players would not know Don Henley is the only original member, and the D Frey is not a typo but the son of G who passed away in 2016. Their residency at The Sphere is the longest running show in Vegas and, at $700 for the cheapest ticket ,I hope the players enjoyed it.
Just for our Rugby League Rock’n‘Rollers, the Eagles have done okay given they started as a back-up band for Linda Ronstadt. For the record, Joe Walsh replaced Bernie Leadon in 1975; Timothy B Schmit replaced Randy Meisner in 1977; and Vince Gill and Deacon Frey joined after Frey’s passing in 2016. Interestingly, Gill told Henley he’d rather not play his own hit song ‘Whenever You Come Around’ (which, I must admit, we should all be eternally grateful for as any song that gets angels, pretty eyes and heartache in the first verse won’t make my playlist) with the band as a show of respect for the Eagles’ material.
It has clearly been a tremendous promotion for rugby league with casinos full of Rugby League loving Aussies, and Americans falling in love with our game (supposedly.) With the footy about to start in earnest, we can forget about 15% tariffs and Winter Olympics medal tallies and start to focus, or at least spare a bit of time, for footy.
The off season this year seems to have had less problems than in previous years. Most probably the biggest shock of the pre-season was firstly (not such a big shock) David Fifita going to the Rabbitohs, but then the major shock that Payne Haas had signed for the same club from season 2027. Rugby League is not known for keeping secrets but if ever there was a well-kept secret, this was it. On the Sunday morning of the announcement of Haas’ shock switch to the Rabbitohs, the Sunday Mail had run a 1and a 1/2-page feature on how he was about to sign with the Broncos. In some ways I guess it is good for the Broncos, as he has been a tremendous player for them, however each year the stories are always there that he is about to leave. At least now they know they have him for one more year and then his sizable contract chunk will be made available for other players. Finally, the player that was most important to the Broncos in both getting to the grand final and winning it was clearly Reece Walsh and the earthquake of him leaving would be of a much greater magnitude than that of Haas. Enough said. (I’m not going to mention the Lomax debacle.)
So, to the Vegas games we head with a range of treats available for the visitors. You can get a specialty cocktail during Happy Hour, which is the first hour after the gates open at 3pm, and you can follow that up with some famous Aussie and British eats including meat pies, sausage rolls, Tim Tam brownies, lamb burgers and bangers and mash. What a great feed for the traveler from Australia! I hope the cocktail isn’t the famous old Lakes Creek Cattle Train (recipe below for the rum-hearted) because if it is, there will be some drunken Aussies at the stadium come 10pm.
The first game has Hull KR up against the Leeds Rhinos as they play their third-round competition game in the Betfred Super League. The Robins are coming off a major winning season last year and their defeat over the Broncos in the World Club Challenge demonstrated they are a good footy side. I have not really seen enough of the Super League yet to give too much of an indication of how this game may go, however, given Hull KR beat the Broncos, you would think they might be a bit strong for the Leeds Rhinos. Certainly, May was particularly good for them at halfback and showed that he most probably still could direct a team around in the NRL (Tigers?). Leeds on the other hand is coached by Brad Arthur who has a lot of experience and his team includes well known NRL players like Maika Sivo, Brodie Croft and Keenan Palasia. They also have a number of young English players looking to promote their cause. I am going to go with a victory for Hull KR in the early game with absolutely no confidence.
This year’s double-header certainly places Rugby League Life in the Fast Lane of Sin City and sees the Knights matching it with the Cowboys in the early game and the Dragons playing the Dogs in the second match. No team can afford to ‘Take It Easy’ because a loss would seem like the preseason was ‘Wasted Time’. After last season, neither the Knights nor the Cowboys are teams that can afford a ‘Peaceful Easy Feeling’ going into the season opener. Coach Payten is a ‘Desperado’ in search of early wins to keep his job. Meanwhile, Holbrook is a ‘New Kid in Town’ and he will be looking to improve the performance of the lacklustre Knights. On last year’s performances, both these coaches will be in ‘Heartache Tonight’ if they lose this early game.
Canterbury and Saint George, on the other hand, are looking to improve from the 2025 season where the Saints were ‘On the Border ‘of the eight and the Dogs in the four. Former Bulldogs hooker Reed Mahoney is ‘In the City of Vegas’ with the Cowboys and was questioned about his acrimonious exit from the Dogs. He refused to air any ‘Dirty Laundry’ but instead said he was really enjoying his new club. In this first game of the season, they really need to ‘Take It to the Limit’ and mark their territory for the season ahead. For all four clubs, a loss doesn’t mean the season is ‘Already Gone’ but ,given the build-up and importance of the whole spectacle, the Coaches would be aware of the need to ‘Get Over’ It (a loss) quickly because ‘After The Thrill Is Gone’ it is ‘The Long Run’ to September for all the clubs.
Post-match this season, and ‘I Can’t Tell You Why’, will only have the coach presenting to the media, saving the captains from teams having to front. That will be one less set of ‘Lyin’ Eyes’ from the losing team.
It is certainly going to be ‘One of Those Nights’, and I see the Cowboys and the Dogs placing the Knights and Dragons into the ‘Sad Café’.
Top 8
Picking the 8 based on trial form is like picking the Melbourne Cup winner in July, but here I go!
Top Eight (in no order):
Penrith, Melbourne, Brisbane, Cowboys, Canterbury, Roosters, Cronulla, Souths
Lakes Creek Cattle Train Cocktail Recipe (for 1)
11/2 nips OP Rum, 1 nip Raspberry Cordial, 1 nip cheap Port (Golden Oak or the like), a teaspoon of Cocky’s Joy (Golden Syrup) and a dash of Bitters (preferably Australian Bitters Company Bitters or Angostura if you have them on hand). Shake with ice and pour into a Tin Pannikin. Don’t worry about cleaning the Pannikin as this cocktail will do it for you, Be careful using your old footy club player of the week lead pewter as this cocktail is known to leach lead, so the next day when you are crook you won’t know if it is lead or alcohol poisoning you are suffering from!
Tipping
As a special treat, you can compete against the Prop by the Sea in the tipping comp. Grubby Halfback from Struddys is doing an ‘I beat the Prop’ special edition T-Shirt for first, second, and third inside the Almanac comp if you can beat me – sign in at the address below and let me know your tipping moniker so I can set the weekly leaderboard up. Once you have joined and paid your $10 to the Almanac, see if you can beat the PBTS. Link and password are below.
https://www.footytips.com.au/comps/Footy_Almanac_NRL_2026?p=DickyRose06
Finally, on a sad note, Tommy Neale, the father of Paul (the Grubby Halfback) Neale passed away earlier this week. Paul, in his indomitable style, advised us that he “had checked out after a superb innings of 94”. Tom was a Foundation Member, Life Member, and a 20-year President of the Souths Sunnybank RLFC. A resolute Broncos supporter, he thought after the 2023 GF loss he would never see his Broncos win again. 2025 put a final Rugby League smile on his face. Our thoughts go out to Paul, his family, and Tom’s many friends.
RIP Tom, and may the wind be at your back.
Rugby League is no longer on Vacation – It is a Quest!
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