no, merge Newcastle and Manly 
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Nah. You need a Newcastle team, even if we are shit.
We can stand to lose a few Sydney teams.
Merge the Perth Bears with Manly, and call it the Northern Eagles. Oh… wait… 
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Absorb the Wests Tigers into the Bungendore Tigers.
Move the Bears to Braidwood (the Braidwood Drizzly Bears).
Absorb Manly into the Tathra Sea Eagles
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Should be noted the Storm were without reigning Dally M Medallist Jahrome Hughes that day.
They’ve only played three finals matches since Wayne Bennett left the club at the end of 2011, for two one-point losses (vs Bulldogs EF 2015 and vs Rabbitohs SF 2018) and a huge win over the Broncos at Suncorp (2018 EF).
In fact, the Dragons have lost three of their last four finals matches by one point (the other being when Darren Lockyer kicked the Broncos to a golden point win in what would be his final act as an NRL player in 2011).
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Panthers CEO Brian Fletcher announced yesterday he would retire in 2026, after a decade in the role.
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According to The Sunday Telegraph’s Phil Rothfield, Andrew Voss has been recording commentary for a new version of Rugby League Live video game, to be released later this year. Voss has been working in a studio for six hours each day on commentary lines for players, venues, attacking plays, tackles and goal kicks.
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Yet still has time to call games. I’ve heard stories saying that when it comes to these video game the voice performers get given a script the size of one if the old Sydney phonebooks.
As long as he can be muted.
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Wonder whether they’ve scripted some Sydney bias for true authenticity
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Queensland Rugby League has today announced the Queensland Maroons squad for Game II of the 2025 State of Origin series.
Kurt Capewell, Corey Horsburgh, Jack Howarth and Ezra Mam come into the 20-man squad for the June 18 clash at Perth’s Optus Stadium after earning their spots through their strong recent form in the NRL.
Daly Cherry-Evans and Beau Fermor have not retained their spots following Game I, while Jesse Arthars and Kulikefu Finefeuiaki will take their Camp Maroon learnings back to their respective clubs.
Queensland head coach Billy Slater will speak to the media this morning as the squad prepares to enter camp on the Sunshine Coast.
Nine:
Maroons team, skipper to be announced tomorrow
Notable about the Maroons announcement this morning was they announced the squad in general, rather than the team.
There was also no captain named - Slater said that will come tomorrow.
“Today we announced the squad, teams don’t need to be announced until tomorrow lunch time,” he said.
“We will make everyone aware of who the captain is tomorrow. We have quite a few club captains, quite a few leaders in the team … whoever is named captain they are going to get a fair bit of support from the leaders around them.”
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Not surprised they dropped DCE, that will probably be the end of his rep career. His failure to close out the game against Newcastle last Thursday probably the death knell for him.
Has had a great 26 game Origin career though.
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My money would be on Harry Grant being the skipper.
DCE’s omission also means the end of an era with not one player from their 2006-13 series winning sides to feature in the Game II squad.
He was the last link to that dynasty, having debuted in Game II, 2013.
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Yeah why change a winning combination. The only change was a forced one
#BREAKING: Queensland coach Billy Slater has confirmed Cameron Munster will captain the Maroons for Game II in Perth next week, after Daly Cherry-Evans was axed from the must-win clash.
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Jarome Luai has replaced Mitchell Moses in the NSW Blues team for State of Origin game 2 in Perth. Moses suffered a calf strain at Blues training today.
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Excerpts from The Sunday Telegraph interview
(The appointment of Anthony De Ceglie) came about when (Peter) V’landys and De Ceglie were both at the Sydney wedding of talent agency boss and mutual friend George Moskos.
“We were talking about the Bears,” De Ceglie said. “And I said to PVL, ‘you need someone in the job who knows Perth’.
“Nothing works in Perth unless you know the city.
“As we were talking, I told him I might be interested in being part of it. So he told me to go and see Andrew Abdo if I was serious, which I did. It all came from there.
“I fell in love with rugby league when I was deputy editor of The Daily Telegraph.
“When you’re an editor in chief or news director you become very good at having knowledge about a lot of things, rather than being an expert in any one specific thing.
“I can’t wait to become a rugby league expert.”
He has plans outside of more traditional sports media practices to win fans over from AFL.
“I actually think the Perth Bears could become the most innovative and most media-savvy sporting club in Australia, doing it from the ground up with an open-door policy to have access to the coaches and the players for the fans and the media like they do in major sports overseas,” De Ceglie said.
“I’m also thinking about a documentary. Could we become Australia’s version of Wrexham? I think it’s a no-brainer for us with the comeback of North Sydney and Perth.”
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A man had been charged by police after running on to the field following the Titans’ win over Manly on Friday night, and wrapping his arms around Daly Cherry-Evans.
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Not wanting to make light of the situation but i wonder if he was a Titans supporter who is still mad at him that he backflipped on going there to stay at Manly