No one rode the play like the veteran caller and no one saw the game and its combatants like he didRay Warren was the feeling of rugby league as much as its voice. He called the game for so long and felt the game so deeply that it came to speak through him. That warm rumble that ran through Warren’s larynx as he rode the play – a trickle of adrenaline that could build to a torrent in seconds – made fans feel the crunch of tackles, the exhilaration of line-breaks, the desolation of defeat, and the pure joy of tries scored and sports battles won.After 55 years of broadcasting, 45 grand finals and 99 State of Origins, the “voice...
The former Rabbitoh returned to haunt his old NRL club with a hand in four tries, one of his own and six goals from six attemptsWhen Adam Reynolds ran onto Olympic Stadium on Thursday night, South Sydney fans were flummoxed. The local boy who had grown up a spiral kick from Redfern Oval, won a premiership with Souths in 2014 and captained the Rabbitohs to the 2021 grand final, had come home in a once-unthinkable form: captain and talisman of the Brisbane Broncos.It was a year since Reynolds announced he was trading Redfern for Red Hill. After nine years bleeding red and green the club had deemed him fit for only a one year extension. Reynolds believed he had more...
Latrell Mitchell chases inner peace while Nathan Cleary’s return signals the real start of Penrith’s pursuit of back-to-back titlesLatrell Mitchell is unlikely to view Friday’s clash between the Rabbitohs and Panthers in a re-run of last year’s grand final as a chance to provide any kind of atonement but deep down the emotional fullback will feel an added responsibility to carry South Sydney on his broad shoulders.Mitchell missed last year’s decider after he was suspended for six weeks following a shocking incident when Souths met rivals the Sydney Roosters. Mitchell aggressively hit former teammate Joey Manu high, leaving the mercurial Roosters centre with a facial fracture that ended his season. Continue reading...
Athletes and supporters are compelled to wait, with no guarantee of a satisfying resolutionWaiting and cricket go hand in glove. It is an instruction barked urgently as a defensive push scuttles towards a fielder. It is the next batter, padded up, visualising their fate. It is the commentator’s lament as rain pools on tarpaulin covers.Cricket does not have a monopoly on waiting in sport, but the duration of a Test provides room for the passage of time to take on great significance, so much so that a contest could be understood almost entirely in the context of waiting. The pitch? How could you know how it’s faring until both sides have batted, or seen how much it turns on days...
The failed switch to union, played out amid huge publicity as England were knocked out of the World Cup, has forged a better man and a better playerAs the world asked what was next for Sam Burgess after England’s miserable exit from last year’s Rugby World Cup, the wheels were already turning behind the scenes. Within weeks he was shuttling through Sydney airport. Returning to rugby league felt like the only logical answer to the question.To describe Burgess’s time in rugby union as a whirlwind is an understatement. He made his debut as a substitute centre for Bath against Harlequins on 28 November 2014. By 30 January he was playing for England Saxons against the Irish Wolfhounds; on 10 April...