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NRL Thread
- Thread starter James90
- Start date
lord_of_darkness
Cricket Web XI Moderator
How is he doin? he will be back when he starts missin the whanau and the nz atmosphere
steds
Hall of Fame Member
Yeah, he's doing okay. London have hardly got a great team for him to work with and only him and Bradley-Qalilawa on the wing look the only players really likely to hurt the good sides, but they have some hard working forwards and with Leuluai controlling the play they're sat in 6th.lord_of_darkness said:
...and he recently signed an extension to his contract to keep him there until the end of 2006, so you might have to wait a tiny bit longer for him to go back
lord_of_darkness
Cricket Web XI Moderator
Wohoo go the Blues.. what an awesome game of footy last night.. haha go Johns..! 1 all in the State of Origin!
Blaze
Banned
HISTORY REVISITED FOR BRONCOS CLASH
The Vodafone Warriors are planning one of their biggest promotions around the NRL encounter with the Brisbane Broncos at Ericsson Stadium on June 26.
It's a special anniversary occasion marking 10 years since the club's historic first appearance in the then-Winfield Cup against Brisbane.
More details about the day's events will be released soon but one of the most notable aspects will be the appearance of this year's team in a replica 1995 playing strip.
Players from the side that appeared in that very first match will also be special guests.
Here's a feature from the latest issue of the Vodafone Warrior on why the Broncos mean so much to the Vodafone Warriors:
New Zealand sport was blessed with some of the most indelible sporting images and memories in 1995.
Anyone with an even tenuous grasp of history will equate the year with Team New Zealand winning the America’s Cup and someone by the name of Lomu trampling all over a lilywhite England fullback with a feline-sounding name.
But a few weeks earlier on March 10 that year, rugby league had gifted New Zealand sporting history with another moment in time when the Warriors ignited the country’s introduction to what was then known as the Winfield Cup and today answers to the title of the NRL (National Rugby League).
Every one of the 31,500 at the ground that Friday night remembers it, not to mention an audience of a million watching television coverage up and down the country. It was the moment when captain Dean Bell and his players emerged from a tunnel at the north-eastern corner of Ericsson Stadium, flames flickering on either side of the entrance way, to walk past Maori warriors forming a guard of honour. Big-time rugby league had arrived in New Zealand.
While the crowd went delirious, Bell conceded he was overwhelmed at that instant.
“Standing there at that tunnel I could hear and almost feel the roar (of the crowd),” he said in his book Dean Bell — Warrior.
“There was an overwhelming feeling of pride knowing what was happening. And, experienced as I am, I did have to hold back the tears walking through the flames. It was very emotional.
”Using the tunnel was a great idea. It gave us that sort of grand entrance, especially with the way they had the two lines of flames. It made you feel like you were walking out onto a stage.
“But I was incredibly nervous, so nervous I nearly tripped over as I ran onto the field — which would have gone down really well with the crowd.
“The match was very much like my first Challenge Cup final appearance (for Wigan) at Wembley in 1988, that feeling of going into the unknown. I’d never played a Winfield Cup match with those players before. We just didn’t know how things were going to go.”
This wasn’t just big, it was huge. In the countdown to the match, the Warriors led television news bulletins, then-Prime Minister Jim Bolger spoke of his excitement about the club’s debut and nearly everyone it seemed had a view of what it meant.
For Bell and 16 other players it meant even more. While so much had gone on before to make the club a going concern, the real litmus test came down to what would happen on the field in that very first outing.
This wasn’t an encounter against one of the lesser lights in the Winfield Cup; this was against the exceptional Brisbane Broncos, led by the amazing Allan Langer and boasting many of the biggest names in the game including Glenn Lazarus, Steve and Kerrod Walters, Michael Hancock and a couple of players by the name of Thorn and Sailor who are still in circulation today.
After a late kick-off time of 8.30 (to accommodate Australian television requirements), the Warriors were the first of four new teams on show in the competition that year along with the North Queensland Cowboys, the South Queensland Crushers and the Western Reds.
What followed was all but sublime, coming back from a 0-10 deficit to lead 16-10 at half-time and 22-10 soon after. Australian Phil Blake had the distinction of scoring the club’s debut try in the first half of a match that had so much going for it. That moment lives on, too… centre Manoa Thompson creating room for left winger Whetu Taewa who scythed down the touchline before finding Blake on the inside for a quality try.
But for Allan Langer spoiling things with his man of the match tricks, this would have been one hell of a start to Winfield Cup life. Even with a 25-22 defeat it was still more than useful.
Now the modern-day Vodafone Warriors are going back to the future for this year’s Ericsson Stadium encounter with the Broncos on June 26. General manager Spiro Tsiros says the club will replicate some of the features of that trailblazing occasion 10 years ago, starting with a specially-commissioned retro strip for the Vodafone Warriors.
“Since 2001 we haven’t paid too much attention to the club’s past but now we want to embrace that history,” he said.
“We want to celebrate what has happened along the way. The ex-players’ box we’ve put in place for home games this season is one example of that and celebrating the anniversary of that very first match in 1995 is another one. It’s an event a lot of New Zealanders still talk about and remember so we want to make this a truly special occasion.” Warriors-Broncos matches have always had an extra edge, although it took six years before victory was savoured. That was in the first season under Eric Watson’s ownership, the Vodafone Warriors snatching a dramatic 13-12 win in one of the most riveting contests the club has been involved in (now numbering 250).
That one result triggered a run of impressive form against the Broncos, extended by the second round 24-12 win at Suncorp Stadium in March. That was the sixth win over the original foes in the last nine clashes, three coming in Brisbane and three at home in Auckland.
Think Warriors-Broncos matches at Ericsson and there’s usually something to remember.
If it wasn’t the 1995 match, it might be Kevin Campion dealing to Shane Webcke, Webcke flattened by a missile name Richard Villasanti or Brent Tate being felled by a blur in the shape of Francis Meli. There’s also the pulsating melee in 2003 when Bill Harrigan stood back and watched players going at it.
Throughout there has been a string of quality football, especially in the back-to-back home wins on 2002 and 2003 when the Vodafone Warriors charged towards the finals.
That’s why it’s worth celebrating history.
This is going to be awesome.
The Vodafone Warriors are planning one of their biggest promotions around the NRL encounter with the Brisbane Broncos at Ericsson Stadium on June 26.
It's a special anniversary occasion marking 10 years since the club's historic first appearance in the then-Winfield Cup against Brisbane.
More details about the day's events will be released soon but one of the most notable aspects will be the appearance of this year's team in a replica 1995 playing strip.
Players from the side that appeared in that very first match will also be special guests.
Here's a feature from the latest issue of the Vodafone Warrior on why the Broncos mean so much to the Vodafone Warriors:
New Zealand sport was blessed with some of the most indelible sporting images and memories in 1995.
Anyone with an even tenuous grasp of history will equate the year with Team New Zealand winning the America’s Cup and someone by the name of Lomu trampling all over a lilywhite England fullback with a feline-sounding name.
But a few weeks earlier on March 10 that year, rugby league had gifted New Zealand sporting history with another moment in time when the Warriors ignited the country’s introduction to what was then known as the Winfield Cup and today answers to the title of the NRL (National Rugby League).
Every one of the 31,500 at the ground that Friday night remembers it, not to mention an audience of a million watching television coverage up and down the country. It was the moment when captain Dean Bell and his players emerged from a tunnel at the north-eastern corner of Ericsson Stadium, flames flickering on either side of the entrance way, to walk past Maori warriors forming a guard of honour. Big-time rugby league had arrived in New Zealand.
While the crowd went delirious, Bell conceded he was overwhelmed at that instant.
“Standing there at that tunnel I could hear and almost feel the roar (of the crowd),” he said in his book Dean Bell — Warrior.
“There was an overwhelming feeling of pride knowing what was happening. And, experienced as I am, I did have to hold back the tears walking through the flames. It was very emotional.
”Using the tunnel was a great idea. It gave us that sort of grand entrance, especially with the way they had the two lines of flames. It made you feel like you were walking out onto a stage.
“But I was incredibly nervous, so nervous I nearly tripped over as I ran onto the field — which would have gone down really well with the crowd.
“The match was very much like my first Challenge Cup final appearance (for Wigan) at Wembley in 1988, that feeling of going into the unknown. I’d never played a Winfield Cup match with those players before. We just didn’t know how things were going to go.”
This wasn’t just big, it was huge. In the countdown to the match, the Warriors led television news bulletins, then-Prime Minister Jim Bolger spoke of his excitement about the club’s debut and nearly everyone it seemed had a view of what it meant.
For Bell and 16 other players it meant even more. While so much had gone on before to make the club a going concern, the real litmus test came down to what would happen on the field in that very first outing.
This wasn’t an encounter against one of the lesser lights in the Winfield Cup; this was against the exceptional Brisbane Broncos, led by the amazing Allan Langer and boasting many of the biggest names in the game including Glenn Lazarus, Steve and Kerrod Walters, Michael Hancock and a couple of players by the name of Thorn and Sailor who are still in circulation today.
After a late kick-off time of 8.30 (to accommodate Australian television requirements), the Warriors were the first of four new teams on show in the competition that year along with the North Queensland Cowboys, the South Queensland Crushers and the Western Reds.
What followed was all but sublime, coming back from a 0-10 deficit to lead 16-10 at half-time and 22-10 soon after. Australian Phil Blake had the distinction of scoring the club’s debut try in the first half of a match that had so much going for it. That moment lives on, too… centre Manoa Thompson creating room for left winger Whetu Taewa who scythed down the touchline before finding Blake on the inside for a quality try.
But for Allan Langer spoiling things with his man of the match tricks, this would have been one hell of a start to Winfield Cup life. Even with a 25-22 defeat it was still more than useful.
Now the modern-day Vodafone Warriors are going back to the future for this year’s Ericsson Stadium encounter with the Broncos on June 26. General manager Spiro Tsiros says the club will replicate some of the features of that trailblazing occasion 10 years ago, starting with a specially-commissioned retro strip for the Vodafone Warriors.
“Since 2001 we haven’t paid too much attention to the club’s past but now we want to embrace that history,” he said.
“We want to celebrate what has happened along the way. The ex-players’ box we’ve put in place for home games this season is one example of that and celebrating the anniversary of that very first match in 1995 is another one. It’s an event a lot of New Zealanders still talk about and remember so we want to make this a truly special occasion.” Warriors-Broncos matches have always had an extra edge, although it took six years before victory was savoured. That was in the first season under Eric Watson’s ownership, the Vodafone Warriors snatching a dramatic 13-12 win in one of the most riveting contests the club has been involved in (now numbering 250).
That one result triggered a run of impressive form against the Broncos, extended by the second round 24-12 win at Suncorp Stadium in March. That was the sixth win over the original foes in the last nine clashes, three coming in Brisbane and three at home in Auckland.
Think Warriors-Broncos matches at Ericsson and there’s usually something to remember.
If it wasn’t the 1995 match, it might be Kevin Campion dealing to Shane Webcke, Webcke flattened by a missile name Richard Villasanti or Brent Tate being felled by a blur in the shape of Francis Meli. There’s also the pulsating melee in 2003 when Bill Harrigan stood back and watched players going at it.
Throughout there has been a string of quality football, especially in the back-to-back home wins on 2002 and 2003 when the Vodafone Warriors charged towards the finals.
That’s why it’s worth celebrating history.
This is going to be awesome.
age_master
Hall of Fame Member
Michael Crocker is apparently moving to Melbourne for 250k a year
Simon
Request Your Custom Title Now!
if he plays like he did last night its a waste, if he plays like he did in origin 1 is a bargain. its definately a risk for melbourne but they need to take it, their fowards are soft.age_master said:
i was under the impression he was a certainty to go to Souths or Bulldogs, oh well...
age_master
Hall of Fame Member
well the dogs wont be able to afford him until Anasta buggers off but after that they will have a little room - thats a month away though.broncoman said:
lord_of_darkness
Cricket Web XI Moderator
We could recruit Mason!
lord_of_darkness
Cricket Web XI Moderator
We actually need someone more like the impact of Ali Lautiti had on the team in that season we went into the finals..
lord_of_darkness
Cricket Web XI Moderator
^ I would think Meli too!