Nrl Grand Final
An NRL superstar is a hero to the town of Whakatane, on the coast of New Zealand’s North Island. His name is Benji Marshall.
Marshall grew up there. Part of his family still lives there. He went to the local school until he was offered a scholarship to play for a rugby league team on the Gold Coast when he was 16.
“He’s a legend mate,” says the events manager for the Whakatane district council, Mike Van Der Boom. Marshall and his team didn’t make it through to this evening’s Grand Final. But with the New Zealand Warriors through to only their second rugby league grand final ever and the country hosting a Rugby World Cup where the All Blacks are strong contenders for the title, football fever is in the air in Whakatane.
Continue reading "Kiwis flapping their wings, and they might just take off" »
JARRYD Hayne brought two left boots to the Grand Final. Has there ever been a more tragic footy omen?
The kid from Minto, whose whole life had been preparing for this night, chucked his gear in his kitbag, got on the bus and only realised when it was too late that his signature red boots were both the same.
Parra officials ran around looking for spares. The Eels were gone before the band struck up the national anthem.
Continue reading "It had its moments, but the NRL final was a snore" »
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Pissed Off with this article! says:
absolutely agree with Riharna Thomson & Josh.. . . Whoever wrote this acts like they were the Star of “League” before . . .lyk.. WTF??!! . . . Obviously. . you gys need to get someone who isn’t a “from the beginning” a Parramatta HATER… to write the follow up… Read more »
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Riharna Thomson says:
if you think it was a snore you need a good “PUNCH” Read more »
When Fuifui Moimoi was penalised for stripping the ball from holding on to Billy Slater in last night’s NRL grand final, it brought a sudden halt to a late surge by the Eels with four minutes to play.
Moments earlier Moimoi had scored in the corner, carrying two Storm players over the line with him on his hulking frame after barging through the defence in a 22m run. It marked the apogee of the Eels’ resurgence against a Melbourne side that was in control for most of the game.
Before the penalty, the Eels needed a converted try tie the game and force extra time. The way they were playing it looked possible. But with ball now in hand, the Storm kicked downfield and calmly positioned themselves for the field goal. Greg Inglis delivered. Job done for the Storm; fairytale over for the Eels.
Continue reading "When does a bad refereeing decision really count?" »
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Micha says:
Aw, poor little Parra warra. Even if they did get the penalty, where’s the garantee they would have scored? They would have to convert it to stay in the game and Burt had missed one earlier from the side. And you forget, even if you had scored and converted, it… Read more »
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Ben says:
Killah Kiwi I Think people are referring to Physics, more than anything, that is a ball hit a wall (object) it to some extent bounces back, not the Rugby rules themselves, that Slater was facing his goal line seems rather suggestive unless the ball hit his back, it almost certainly… Read more »
The Eels fought back bravely in the second half, but Melbourne Storm were ultimately too good in a blockbusting NRL Grand Final at Sydney’s ANZ Stadium. There’s a match report here and you can see how our coverage unfolded in the live blog over the jump.
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rob says:
replay proves ball was knocked out of slaters hand replay does not lie ingles coat hangerd on try line that was not payed even if slater was penilised the best parra could have done was put game in to extra time parra got two penalties that they should not got… Read more »
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Zac says:
@Karl…obviously massively one-eyed. Parramatta got a penalty 5 minutes earlier for a Billy Slater drop that went backwards. How does that work??? And the penalty against MoiMoi shouldn’t have been against him, it should have been against the Parra player that clearly knee’d the ball out of Slater’s hands as… Read more »
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