Dead In Goal DeadInGoal

We break our long offseason, and well, season silence to find out if James has indeed become a Queenslander! Also this week: are Wests the league equivalent of the girl everyone gossips about in high school (8:48)? In our Twitter question: what would most surprise a footy fan about the NRL today if they had been in a coma for 30 years (25:15)? And lastly, a nod to the road Warriors, finally clear to play home games (39:03). 

We begin our 100th episode with a look back at the pod's origins (2:53), which explains why we have a siren open each instalment. Also: we talk Roy Masters' piece on the divergent demographics of the big footy codes (8:41), the chatty resolution to the Brandon Smith signing saga (31:18), and league players you'd most like to have a beer with in our Honesty Session. And with Bathurst looming, we recall James' encounters with motorsport legends (49:31). 

James reports back from Penrith's victory parade (2:36) and says this is the way of the future for all premiership winners, which leads to a question: which club would have the quickest bus route? (9:14) We also talk about fan loyalty and how the NRL's one-year-in-advance contract rules are no help (24:01). The Honesty Session sounds our listeners out on the World Club Challenge (33:11), and we end with Tim Paine, which brings up discussion of James's grave (51:36). 

James descends from the highlands to talk the Panthers' upcoming victory parade (13:33), and why it shouldn't involve mass chaos. Our Honesty Session asks our listeners for their best rugby league gags (29:14), and we end on a discussion of the game's administration, inspired by the Prof (43:31).

To begin this week, James reiterates his disdain for the peculiar theatricality of soccer (1:46). We then get into our main topic: are NRL players properly compensated, which we discuss at length (11:06) before getting to our listeners' thoughts on the subject in the Honesty Session (42:53). Lastly, Andrew Johns, burgeoning legend (55:42).

We start with James' continuing series looking back to 1986 through the pages of Big League (3:05). With the rookie draft hitting the league agenda once again, we get into a highly involved discussion about how talent is distributed across the NRL (19:48), and whether equalisation is really important to the comp. We also recall your most memorable rookies in our Honesty Session (49:47).