GO THE BUNNIES....

2010 will be the year of FOR BLOODY SURE... take whatever odds you can get for a top 8 finish and seriously consider the TOP 4... SAM BURGESS and DAVE TAYLOR seem to be by far the best buys of any team coming into the 2010 season with TAYLOR really finding himself late in 2009 as the most exciting up and coming prop in the NRL... with BURGESS stamping himself the real deal over the TRI NATIONS our developing halves combination of SUTTO and SANDOW under the freeflowing game plan of JOHNY LEGEND LANG should have a lot more room to operate this year. Rhys Wesser back from a year off with injury should really fire us up from fullback which was a major problem for us during 2009... i think this could well be a massive year for the Bunnies and although ive gone off early i just cant bloody wait for it.... bring it on!!!!

Can someone explain how Darius Boyd got CCM? Surely Dean Young/Jeremy Smith/Nathan Fien/Jason Nightingale were more deserving??? I think the judging panel had something on Boyd.

Totally agree Nudge, Dean Young was my pick too followed by Nightingale or Creagh

Fien not Creagh. Ive got Creagh on the brain for some reason :S

%100 very odd ,just another day some would say.....at the time i was in the pub and every body looked at each other and were saying what the ???....boyd had a solid game but atleast 3 or 4 dragons had better games ....for mine jeremy smith was the stand out

big game nightingale ,massive game in fact ,now ive sat down and watched it again he was the clear standout ...

lol, i will happily trake my 10-1 pre season on top of my 9-1 minor premiers and let the millionaire with no brains drink himself into obscurity... giddyup dragons great win lads... happy days!!

NSW - Carney for halfback. Would have been nice to see campese next to him seeing as they have played together plenty but obviously Campese wont be there

Im dead keen on carney to return to the halfback role but my jury is still out on who should be 5/8th. But in all honesty, Carney 7/ Campese 6 would be great becasue they know each others game well.

...and Carney has been named as 'Backup halfback' for Australia which raises some questions. What 'criteria' does Cronk fit that Prince doesnt? What criteria does Carney fit that Prince doesn't?
I havent looked much at the news behind the Aussie team selections so please fill me in if ive missed something, but i think the selectors should stop bowing down to public pressure and just name Carney at halfback for Australia. He played his best footy for years with the Raiders at no.7. From 2006 -2008 Carney was pretty devastating. Imo he was the best 40/20 kicker and far and away the best at field goals. We saw it this year and back then how he can cut through defence quickly when he is first receiver of the ball.
In '08 every club wanted him as their halfback for '09 (Manly just missed out, damn!)

So 66 days after the big announcement, Greg Inglis has neither secured a release from the Melbourne Storm, nor signed a 2011 contract with the Brisbane Broncos.

On November 30, he will be due his first monthly payment from one of those clubs (approx $50k). It goes on someones salary cap. If the Storm release him before Brisbane sign him and Nov 30 passes, it stays on Melbourne's salary cap.

I couldn't see the News owned Broncos doing that to the News owned Storm, but if they want to save $50k next year from the cap............

hmmm, thats an interesting conspiracy theory. I like it!

How's the conspiracy theory going now............? This is from today's paper......

The Daily Telegraph has learned NRL auditor Ian Schubert is set to prevent the realisation of Souths' contract with Inglis, penned after his shock walkout on the Brisbane Broncos earlier this month, and the Rabbitohs may have their own Hollywood star and owner Russell Crowe to blame.

It is now highly unlikely Inglis will play for the Rabbitohs in 2011 with Schubert resolved to voiding the foundation club's proposed three-year deal for the injured centre, who still remains contracted to his original club, the Melbourne Storm.

The boast of Crowe on Jay Leno's Tonight Show in the US has helped skittle the deal with the NRL's alarm bells ringing after the Souths owner revealed Inglis had been secured for three years on a deal worth "roughly about $1.8 million".

The $600,000-a-season figure Crowe alluded to ridicules Souths' attempt to have Inglis squeezed under next year's salary cap on a base salary of just $190,000. It was to be topped up by numerous third-party deals that will now be ruled as obligatory under the salary cap.

The sobering reality of Inglis being lost to the NRL altogether is now the most likely outcome of his manager Allan Gainey's protracted hunt to find his star client a club with French rugby union left as his likely suitor.

"It must be frustrating for him Inglis but he has got an agent and frankly, that's what agents are for," NRL boss David Gallop said last night.

"I hope for Greg's sake it gets sorted out pretty quickly because we certainly want to see him be able to settle down and concentrate on his footy."

The Rabbitohs would have to shed a number of their blue-ribbon stars, headlined by club skipper Roy Asotasi, and Maroons Origin forward Dave Taylor to keep Inglis in their burrow in 2011. It remains unclear if the club is willing to do so.

"It's frustrating Souths paraded him in their colours when it's not resolved," Gallop said.

"It's true that Greg's contract position is not resolved.

"Everyone involved has known for some time he is under contract with Melbourne Storm and needs both a release from that contract and the approval of the salary cap auditor."

The ineligible Rabbitohs deal shapes as another huge blow to Inglis who will undergo hip surgery today after earlier reconstructive surgery on both shoulders ruled him out of the Four Nations. His weight has already ballooned to 118kg.

Just weeks ago, Inglis had appeared to finally find a new club after his shock walkout on a written agreement to join the Broncos from the Storm on "compassionate grounds".

If forced out the door at Souths in wake of the NRL's stance Inglis may opt to accept offers from overseas with neither the Broncos or Storm willing or able to take him back.

Would be great to see the racist sent overseas,no room for him in australian sport.

Could you expand on that comment, lasance? Not sure what you mean.

Spot the redneck.

Whiz, do you reckon that if Russell Crowe never said anything that it would have made a difference? Or do you reckon they would have 'got away with it'.
What are your thoughts?

I hope that the NRL has a good look at ALL new contracts. I'm 100% in favour of third party sponsors etc, but it can make the deals pretty complex. Lockyer is apparently only registered as $250,000 with the NRL....no reason the bunnies can't do the same with Inglis, or any other team. If it's "legal" of course.

With all the Storm stuff last year, and the Broncos revealing that they have 25 companies contributing to their wage bill outside of the salary cap.........well you'd hope the NRL are looking at every contract.

Gallop reckons that they haven't seen the official contract, so I wouldn't be blaming Russell. Clearly they can't give it the green light until then.
If they are only having a look at the GI deal because Russ told Leno about it, then we are in more trouble than I thought! I don't think it had any influence.

Whether they have "got away with it" or not we probably won't know until 2012/2013. If you sign a guy for $500,000+, then you have to shed players in the following years. Especially if the deal is back-ended, which this one no doubt is. Even if a stack of that money comes from outside sponsors, it reduces the ammo for recruiting/retaining other players. They've no doubt had a punt on the salary cap increasing with the new TV deal after 2012.

I hope it's all fair and good luck to them.

It's a good punt to take. If the salary cap doesn't go up thanks to the new TV rights deal, ill give the game away. The big question is how much? And that question itsellf stems from how much will the NRL get for the TV rights. I really hope they dont think 1 billion is too lofty a target. The key might be to sell State of Origin as a seperate product. Go hard Gallop.

I'm sure they will sell State Of Origin seperately. I'm also 99% sure Channel 9 will buy it. If they don't it makes every other match they broadcast a free add for the other station. That will cost a packet though, Seven and Ten will drive the bidding through the roof.

I reckon they are going to tweak the whole season before the deal is done. Or at least provide a few new blueprints for the potential suitors to check out. There are ways they can model the season to increase crowds/ratings/revenue. The conference system is an obvious one that has been floated for years and is very successful in other sports.

The salary cap is meant to stop clubs going broke......Well, Cronulla and Newcastle are still broke. Manly and Souths would be broke if they hadn't been bought. The Storm would be broke if they weren't owned by News Ltd. Easts would be broke if they didn't have Politis.

The new TV deal should ensure that no club will go broke.

Definitely but in my opinion they better get this independant commission sorted out so the money will be handled better. No club should go broke and not for a while either assuming the NRL does the smart thing and invest some of the money into long term financial assets.

Whiz do you reckon it would be a good time to add another team to the comp? Im mainly thinking Central Coast. (Either way I think this team needs to happen eventually.) With the money the NRL will be commanding it seemingly appears to be a good time to do it. Having 2 new teams would obviously mean an extra game and more cash.

3rdly, Do we sell the finals seperately???