2026 NRL General Discussion Thread

Big Pete said:
RIP Chris Phelan

Phelan was before my time, but from what I understand he was a hard-working forward who could play on an edge or through the middle. He was the type of player who did all the tough stuff and all the good coaches wanted him in their team. He was a part of Gibson's Eels during their run in the 80s and Bennett brought him to Souths to help topple the Wally Lewis led Seagulls who were the competition heavyweights.

Of all the players Bennett's coached, I don't think I've seen him give a bigger rap than the one he gave Chris in his second book.
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Played in six Grand Finals in a row.

80- Souths
81- Souths
82- Eels
83- Eels
84- Eels
85- Souths

Phenomenal career, started out as a winger and then played front row through the Eels golden era. Only came down here from Townsville because his brother Pat came down to Souths in 77 and then drowned in the Brisbane River. Chris decided to come down then too and do what Pat didn't get to do. He passed to Meninga to win the 81 GF with seconds to go. His family only came to Australia when he was 12- so to pick up the game and be successful at it in a short period of time is unbelievable.

Chris coached at the Broncos too.
 
Some people might not find this interesting, but I do...

Ponga, who im sure is sponsored by them, has been wearing a whoosh band, and wore it during the game last week, and shared his heart rate stats, etc on his socials.

Would love to see more of this data published somewhere as clubs themselves obviously track all of it.

Anyways, I found it interesting
 
Brocko said:
Some people might not find this interesting, but I do...

Ponga, who im sure is sponsored by them, has been wearing a whoosh band, and wore it during the game last week, and shared his heart rate stats, etc on his socials.

Would love to see more of this data published somewhere as clubs themselves obviously track all of it.

Anyways, I found it interesting
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Interesting, I bet he’s getting paid a bundle.
Remember the likes of Benji wearing those rubber wrist bands type things about ten years ago? They were hyped to improve performance but found to be totally useless.

EDIT: Power bands way back in 2010.
IMG_4214.jpeg
 
ivanhungryjak said:
Interesting, I bet he’s getting paid a bundle.
Remember the likes of Benji wearing those rubber wrist bands type things about ten years ago? They were hyped to improve performance but found to be totally useless.

EDIT: Power bands way back in 2010.
View attachment 39304
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I used to work with a guy who actually bought one.
 
ivanhungryjak said:
Interesting, I bet he’s getting paid a bundle.
Remember the likes of Benji wearing those rubber wrist bands type things about ten years ago? They were hyped to improve performance but found to be totally useless.

EDIT: Power bands way back in 2010.
View attachment 39304
Click to expand...
I was working in sports retail when these were a thing. They sold like crazy until it got debunked. From memory they were a decent chunk of change for what they were too.

The whoop at least does something I guess, showing steps/HRM etc 😂
 
ivanhungryjak said:
Interesting, I bet he’s getting paid a bundle.
Remember the likes of Benji wearing those rubber wrist bands type things about ten years ago? They were hyped to improve performance but found to be totally useless.

EDIT: Power bands way back in 2010.
View attachment 39304
Click to expand...
What were they supposed to do?
How did they improve someone's performance?
 
Brocko said:
I was working in sports retail when these were a thing. They sold like crazy until it got debunked. From memory they were a decent chunk of change for what they were too.


How much did they actually cost and what year was that?
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The Strapper said:
What were they supposed to do?
How did they improve someone's performance?
Click to expand...
They were around $60/$70 from memory, and as Tommy said I think they were marketed as improving things like stamina, but also balance. As it was just a rubber bracelet with a sticker on it essentially, it didn't take long for their to be $2 'knock offs' all over the place too.
 
1910 said:
Played in six Grand Finals in a row.

80- Souths
81- Souths
82- Eels
83- Eels
84- Eels
85- Souths

Phenomenal career, started out as a winger and then played front row through the Eels golden era. Only came down here from Townsville because his brother Pat came down to Souths in 77 and then drowned in the Brisbane River. Chris decided to come down then too and do what Pat didn't get to do. He passed to Meninga to win the 81 GF with seconds to go. His family only came to Australia when he was 12- so to pick up the game and be successful at it in a short period of time is unbelievable.

Chris coached at the Broncos too.
Click to expand...
Hey 1910 didn't Chris Phelan at one stage coach the Broncos Colts side that fielded players like Paul Hauff, Willie Carne, John Plath, Alan Cann, Bob Conway and Ray Gagai(Dane Gagai's father)? Or am I thinking of someone else?

Nevermind saw your comment at the bottom dunno how I missed that lol
 
So an obstruction is when a player without the ball runs in front of the player with the ball, but what happened to a shepherd call where the player with the ball runs behind a player that happens to be “just standing there”? Tedesco scored a try from one last night and doesn’t do a kick return without utilising random Roosters players standing in the defensive line. Slater made a career from it and Edwards loves a good old fashioned shepherd. But they don’t get called anymore.
 
Cult said:
So an obstruction is when a player without the ball runs in front of the player with the ball, but what happened to a shepherd call where the player with the ball runs behind a player that happens to be “just standing there”? Tedesco scored a try from one last night and doesn’t do a kick return without utilising random Roosters players standing in the defensive line. Slater made a career from it and Edwards loves a good old fashioned shepherd. But they don’t get called anymore.
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They've changed the rules that many times nobody knows what the rule is. The Tedesco one was obviously a sheppard and to over-turn the on-field interpretation was wrong but nobody has a clue.

However they've been struggling with it for over 20 years now. Berro got away with a couple during the Broncos 06 run so until it ruins a nice narrative for the media we won't hear anything about it.
 
This may be the 4 scotches talking, but:

Vlandys claims that everything he has done because of record high TV ratings. now I have no idea if the TV ratings are at record highs or not ... but one thing we can be sure of is the TV ratings aren't coming from die hard rugby league fans. they are coming from bandwagoners and neutrals.

and alienating your core customers / audience to pander to bandwagoners / neutrals is not a smart way to run a business. you may get a short term gain, but eventually the bandwagoners / neutrals drop off and that will lead to an inevitable crash because you've pushed away your core base.
 
What are those said scotches?

1 - Taliskar
2 - ??
3 - ??
4 - ??
 
Season 2026 is breaking records set in the last year of U20's Holden Cup and the horrendous 2021 season.

We are officially in new territory

www.espn.com.au

Uncharted territory: NRL has broken 118-year points-scoring record

The NRL has officially entered uncharted points territory, with high-scoring shootouts and lopsided results now even more common than in the final year of the old under-20s competition.
www.espn.com.au www.espn.com.au
 
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