Daly Cherry-Evans kicked 28 field goals in 352 games for Manly, many of them match-winners.
asserted
many → kick → them
To see him do it in a grand final for the Roosters would have evoked mixed feelings for the Sea Eagles, but seriously?
He gave so much to Manly, keeping them competitive year after year and week after week, often single-handedly (and double-footedly with those drop-kicks off his left or right),
asserted
He → see → left
that it’s a bit amnesic to begrudge him the joy of going out a winner.
asserted
it → ’ → joy
His recruitment, like Cooper Cronk’s in 2018, proved the difference for the Roosters in 2026.
asserted
recruitment → prove → 2026
Fifteen years apart, Cherry-Evans owned two grand final nights.
asserted
Evans → own → nights
Hull have got a good one.
asserted
Hull → get → one
Are all clubs created equal?
asserted
clubs → create → ?
The Roosters will just have to live with the fact that most of the rugby league community don’t believe they, already premiership contenders, were able to recruit Cherry-Evans and Reece Robson and remain under the salary cap.
asserted
they → have → cap
I don’t think they’ll struggle with it.
asserted
they → think → it
Another premiership trophy offers pretty warm comfort and a high hill to crow from.
asserted
trophy → offer → comfort
But in these polarising times, it’s difficult to imagine a grand final with two more divergent potential narratives.
asserted
it → ’ → narratives
Newcastle win, from last to first, and it gives every club heart.
asserted
it → win → heart
The Roosters win, and it suggests that the salary cap is not stopping wealthy clubs from hoarding talent.
uncertain
cap → win → talent
The Roosters’ counter-argument is that Naufahu Whyte, Rob Toia, Sam Walker and many more of its representative stars are one-club players; by which logic, Penrith wouldn’t have had to let go Stephen Crichton, Matt Burton, Jarome Luai, James Fisher-Harris and Viliame Kikau ...
asserted
Crichton → have → stars
Not since David Gallop was chief executive has the NRL responded seriously to concerns about the failure of the cap to help equalise the talent pool.
asserted
NRL → respond → pool
It’s a bit tough to swallow any “fans first” rhetoric while some clubs remain, like George Orwell’s animals, more equal than others.
asserted
clubs → ’ → others
Bring back the entertainment
It’s a rule of every sporting event that there has to be a “random Souths guy”, and on Sunday night, that role fell to Jai Arrow.
asserted
role → bring → Arrow
In all the debate about how appropriate it was to have a sad and sombre moment as pre-grand final “entertainment”, and the inevitable last squeeze of shared sentiment to take it across the line into sentimentality, there wasn’t much about the Souths-ness of the situation.
asserted
it → have → situation
In terms of tribalism, I’m not sure who was more put off: Souths, for having their man headline a Roosters game, or the Roosters, for having their grand final thunder stolen by someone from their enemy.
asserted
thunder → ’m → enemy
Of course, Arrow’s diagnosis with motor neurone disease has transcended tribalism and brought rugby league together.
asserted
diagnosis → transcend → league
But tribalism is more resilient and permanent than individuals, and the best that can be said about Arrow’s lap of honour, accompanied by Nathan Charles (a former rugby player with the same horrible disease), is that the league was making the best of a bad situation.
asserted
league → say → situation
With any luck, it will be a one-off, and the NRL will get its act together sooner about what it organises for its big night.
asserted
it → get → night
Brigginshaw will always be game’s first champion
Ali Brigginshaw, after nine seasons for the Broncos, four premierships, 13 Origins for
Queensland and 29 Tests for Australia, retired after the NRLW grand final with a legacy as the foundation stone of women’s rugby league in this country.
She is to the sport what Betty Wilson was to women’s cricket and Fanny Durack was to women’s swimming.
asserted
Durack → retire → swimming
As that first great champion, she can never be superseded.
asserted
she → supersede → champion
Brigginshaw’s final act as a player was to get whacked in the head as she completed a tough offload, still on the attack, looking for points even after Brisbane were well beaten.
What a career.
asserted
Brisbane → whack → points
The game will always owe her.
asserted
game → owe → her
Great Dane was a Kiwi all along
Having watched Dane Gagai torment NSW in 23 Origin matches for a decade, I’m sure I’m not the only one who thought he was a Queenslander.
asserted
he → watch → decade
Seven Kangaroos Test appearances confirmed he was Australian.
asserted
he → confirm → ?
But it turns out he’s a New Zealander.
asserted
he → turn → ?
In a convoluted judgment wrapped up in the cover-all “special circumstances”, Gagai has been granted his request to represent the Kiwis in the upcoming World Cup.
asserted
Gagai → wrap → Cup
At 35, he is following his Newcastle teammate Kalyn Ponga in dissolving the old rule that players could not switch their representation between “tier one” nations.
uncertain
players → follow → nations
Now, we all know that international rugby league has been turned into a thing by the steady decanting of what would previously have been Australian players through other nations.
asserted
what → know → nations
It’s smart business and is going to make the World Cup as credible as it can possibly be.
uncertain
it → ’ → ?
That said, New Zealand don’t need Australian defectors – they are good enough to win on their own.
asserted
they → say → own
In the Indian summer that Gagai’s career is enjoying, it would surprise no one to see him emerge next month with a winner’s medal in black and white.
asserted
him → enjoy → black
The Aporia
