This Month
Rear Window’s year in review: scoops, scandals, and power plays
This week on The Fin podcast, Rear Window editor Myriam Robin on the megalomaniac trying to solve Australia’s housing crisis, the column’s scoop of the year and the Clubland rebellion.
NRL team confirmed for PNG in $600m deal that comes with a catch
The deal, bankrolled by taxpayers, will collapse if the Pacific country signs a security agreement with China. Anthony Albanese argues it’s an investment in Australia’s security.
- Updated
- Andrew Tillett and Zoe Samios
- Opinion
- Rear Window
Peter V’landys bogged down in a multibillion-dollar property play
The influential CEO of Racing NSW is staring down allegations aired confidentially by purported whistleblowers to a parliamentary inquiry.
- Mark Di Stefano
November
- Exclusive
- Online gambling
V’landys slams gambling probe, claims NRL betting is least damaging
Peter V’landys doubled down on past claims racing and sports betting are less harmful than lotteries and slammed all 31 recommendations of the parliamentary inquiry.
- Ronald Mizen
October
The Everest is becoming a Victorian’s nightmare
Rival horse races meant high-powered executives had to choose: Sydney or Melbourne. The King didn’t make it, but many others voted with their feet to Randwick.
- Mark Di Stefano
From dead quiet to $100m economic boost: How Everest is changing racing
It was a move to get the media’s attention and take on the Victorian racing elite. But Australia’s richest horse race has achieved far more.
- Zoe Samios
The media storm behind the NRL’s next billion-dollar play
Peter V’landys and his chief executive Andrew Abdo want a mammoth broadcast deal to shore up the code’s future. Will they bring an NFL-style model to Australia?
- Zoe Samios and Sam Buckingham-Jones
Who’s up and down in this year’s Power List – and who wanted to get out
This week on The Fin podcast, political editor Phillip Coorey and AFR Magazine editor Matthew Drummond take us behind the scenes of the 2024 Power Issue.
August
Plan for 25,000 homes on racecourse site a ‘fantasy’: inquiry
Peter V’landys and Mark Latham clashed in a fiery hearing as the Australian Turf Club blamed a “high Indian population” for declining Rosehill racecourse crowds.
- Gus McCubbing
March
Not even 100,000 Americans watched the NRL’s Las Vegas matches
Rugby League boss Peter V’landys says the key to success in the US is TV audiences, but the sport’s big splash in Las Vegas struggled to attract viewers.
- Zoe Samios and Matthew Cranston
Glitch and glitz as NRL kicks off Las Vegas gamble
The NRL’s ambitious launch of the 2024 season in Las Vegas suffered a TV hitch, but otherwise met expectations, as some 40,000 turned out for the double header.
- Matthew Cranston
Manly put on second-half show to beat Souths in Vegas
In the city of bright lights and late-night shows, Manly’s 36 points gave them the equal-highest score by a team in a season-opener in nine years.
- Scott Bailey
February
Audacious V’landys outlines plan to turn NRL towards Britain, hotels
The NRL chairman has set his sights on expanding to England and turning the league into a major hotel operator – and handed his board a big pay rise
- Zoe Samios
- Exclusive
- Business of sport
State leagues preparing legal action against NRL over funding
The NSW and Queensland rugby league bodies are fighting the NRL over money. The dispute is expected to escalate.
- Zoe Samios
December 2023
The NRL takes its biggest gamble yet
Documents obtained by AFR Weekend provide the clearest insight yet about what exactly the league is planning in its big push into the lucrative US market.
- Zoe Samios
Minns in racing leadership scramble as V’landys condemns ‘lies’
The NSW government has walked away from a contentious plan to extend top racing administrator Russell Balding’s term to 14 years.
- Updated
- Samantha Hutchinson and Zoe Samios
November 2023
Reporters dragged into Racing NSW’s internal war
A dispute over the chairmanship of Racing NSW has descended into accusations that each side used its preferred media outlet to attack the other.
- Zoe Samios
Gai Waterhouse enters the Racing NSW fight
The decision to change laws to reappoint Racing NSW chairman Russell Balding has exposed deep rifts about the future of racing.
- Zoe Samios and Mark Di Stefano
August 2023
Rival sporting codes want to be part of Matildas fever
Rival sporting codes are hoping the Matildas’ dramatic win against France in the World Cup quarter-finals on Saturday will inspire more girls to play sport.
- Mark Ludlow
NRL hands players 37pc pay increase, resolving two-year dispute
The NRL and its players’ union were at loggerheads for two years. This week’s crisis talks have drawn the dispute to a close.
- Zoe Samios