AT 4:25pm last Sunday, and with just 4 minutes remaining before halftime, Panther’s star halfback Nathan Cleary was the victim of a “hip-drop” tackle that shockingly saw him lay motionless, knowing instantly the magnitude of what had just taken place. A terrible compound fracture of his ankle saw an instant hush around the ground, and […]

AS the weather warms this Spring the footy appears to do the same. Over the 4 finals games in the first week of post competition action, 3 of them lived up to the hype, one of them was just like a competition proper clash.  Let’s look at the four games that were played last weekend, […]

Father’s Day with Ace. THOUGHT I’d ditch the footy chat this week and concentrate on one of the best days of the year. This Sunday, Father’s Day!  Of course, Mother’s Day supersedes it because hey, we all wouldn’t be here without them, but I feel that our dads often get the short straw.  My dad […]

A couple of weeks ago I spent four days in Perth as the guest of the NRL’s new franchise the Perth Bears. The occasion was the unveiling of their new jersey, plus a day at their new home ground HBF Park, to watch the Storm take on Manly.  I must say I underestimated the grandeur […]

Photo: Penrith Panthers facebook AFTER 22 rounds of rugby league this season, there are growing opinions that the winner of this year’s competition has narrowed down to two stand out clubs. Penrith (West) and the Roosters (East). After the weekend of footy it’s hard to argue. Obviously, there are other clubs who have looked likely […]

LAST Monday the 20th marked a year since our great friend Toby Hughes left us. I couldn’t think of anything else to write this week that had more importance or emotion than his memory so I’ve decided to ‘republish’ the words I had for “Brother Bias” 12 months ago. We love and miss you lots […]

Tom Jenkins. Photo: Panthers Media A FEW years ago, I did a guest speaking tour of the country areas of our state. My first stop was at a place I had never heard of called Boorowa. “You know Tom Jenkins is from here,” one of the crowd members said. “And that’s his brother over there,” […]

WITH the teams for the blockbusting third and deciding game of origin to be picked next Monday the 29th, I thought I’d have a stab at throwing up my NSW team as well. After going down 44-24 in game two at the MCG, I’ve made five changes from the team we watched last start. 1. […]

Photo: Pauly Foster AS we’re whistling through this season like a favourite at Rosehill some things from this past round stood out more than most. With that, here is my Good, Bad, and Ugly from the round just played. Good – The Panther Juggernaut! What a mood they were in last Sunday against the hapless […]

 Photo: Pauly Foster  WITH the origin series upon us and the Dally M judging now going behind closed doors, it usually signals the half way point of the season proper. I thought I’d have a look at every team thus far this season and give them all a rating out of 10. I’ll also nominate […]