Sport Confidential: Channel 9 snubs Hostplus Cup grand final from broadcast
Channel Nine’s decision to wipe 100 years of Queensland rugby league history from its programming has coincided with the QRL’s call for more funding.
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Channel 9 has delivered a bullet to the Hostplus Cup after snubbing the grand final of Queensland’s top rugby league competition.
But Fox Sports is set to save the day and televise the premiership decider after the free-to-air broadcaster abandoned the biggest match of the year.
The QRL this week announced the Hostplus Cup and Hastings Deerings Colts grand finals would be played at Redcliffe’s Kayo Stadium on September 17.
However the broadcast details were “TBC” following Nine’s decision not to televise the clash.
Nine could not broadcast the game on that date due to NRLW finals commitments and asked the QRL to consider pushing the grand final back a week.
That wasn’t an option, but Fox Sports has shown interest in televising the match on Fox League and Kayo in the 5.30pm time slot.
The loss of a free-to-air broadcast is a blow for the Hostplus Cup, with QRL chief Ben Ikin appealing to the NRL to increase funding for the competition and abandon the idea of a national reserve grade.
“The Queensland Cup is underfunded in the sense that the clubs have been getting the same money for the past six years, through Covid, and they have been asked to deliver more programs,” he said.
“The Hostplus Clubs are delivering a lot with not much so what we are saying is if you invest in those clubs, you will have a network of rugby league academies giving better development across the board.
“If you bring back the national reserve grade then that would kill off our statewide comp as it currently exists. All you would do is narrow the pathway and centralise the investment.
“All that would happen is all players, staff and coaches go back into the organisations already getting $17 million a year from the NRL.
“The way the Hostplus Cup clubs touch their communities is inspiring.”
SLATER SAGA CONTINUES
Billy Slater’s future at the helm of Queensland’s State of Origin team is hinging on an upgraded contract extension following the Maroons legend’s stunning rise as a coach.
As revealed by this masthead, Slater has informed Queensland Rugby League chief Ben Ikin he would like to stay on as coach after guiding the Maroons to back-to-back series wins in his first two years in charge.
But Slater went to great lengths this week to insist he has not agreed to a deal as he chases an upgraded contract following a hot start to his coaching career.
Slater, 40, has been near faultless since taking over the Maroons’ top post last year, winning his first series in an epic decider before leading Queensland to a shot at a 3-0 clean sweep this year.
Slater’s rise as a promising elite coach is set to cost the QRL at the negotiating table after he took on the job with an initial two-year contract as an untested rookie.
He has since proven to be a quality young coach with a bright future who will have numerous opportunities in the NRL if he wants to go down that route.
Ikin said the QRL was in negotiations with Slater over a new contract and refused to put a timeline on the talks.
“I know Billy wants to coach the Maroons again. Now it’s just about determining what that looks like in terms of a deal,” he said.
“It’s good to hear that Billy wants to coach again, it’s fantastic that he wants to be with Queensland next year. The QRL is keen to keep him and now we’ll go into the next phase and try and get the deal done.
“He has won two series from two starts, but beyond that he runs a very well-organised preparation and well-drilled team. He is very deliberate about what he wants, he knows what it looks like and he knows how to go after it and the kind of players he needs to get the job done.
“The other thing we’re all proud of is how well he has connected the team to the rest of Queensland. He reminds the players who they are playing for.”
On the Billy Slater Podcast this week, Slater confirmed he was keen to coach the Maroons in 2024 but was adamant he had not agreed to a new deal.
“Ben Ikin came out and said that I’d like to coach on and I don’t think I’ve ever said that I wouldn’t like to help the Queensland rugby league team,” he said.
“I’ve just got to make sure that it works. Selfishly, I’d love to coach on, that’s the easy answer, but I’m a husband, I’m a father, I run a small stud farm, we do that ourselves as a family.
“I’ve got to make sure that everything works and I can commit that time to the Queensland rugby league team.
“My management has started discussions with the QRL and hopefully they progress further and then I’ll sit down with my family and work out how it all works.”
WAYNE’S WILD WEST EARTHQUAKE
Rugby league’s greatest coach Wayne Bennett has called for the NRL to expand to Western Australia – possibly as early as 2026 – even after his Dolphins endured an earthquake.
Bennett travelled to Perth with new franchise the Dolphins for last week’s double header at Optus Stadium and he returned to the eastern seaboard convinced it’s time for the NRL premiership to ‘Go West’.
Perth’s Western Reds were added to the ARL premiership in 1995, only to be killed off in 1998 as part of compromise talks to end the bitter Super League war.
Since then, rugby league officials in the west have been patiently devising plans for a return to the big league and WA premier Roger Cook has reached out to ARL Commission boss Peter V’landys seeking the code’s 18th licence.
Bennett sees merit in a number of regions being added to the NRL, including a Pasifika franchise and a Perth team.
“I think there is definitely a market for a Perth team in the NRL,” he said.
“The Western Reds were part of the premiership in the 1990s, we had a great crowd for the double header (last week) and they’ve had a sellout for State of Origin games here.
“Western Australia is growing as a state. I read somewhere recently that 60 per cent of Australia’s best companies are coming out Western Australia, that’s a huge corporate market we could tap into with sponsorship for an NRL team.
“All the corporate facilities were sold out for our game, so there’s an appetite for rugby league in Perth.
“I believe we have to keep expanding. I like how the NRL handled the Dolphins and we can make it work with an 18th team.”
The Dolphins lost to Newcastle in a controversial ending and that wasn’t where the drama ended.
The team’s hotel was shaken at 5.30am on Sunday following a 5.6 magnitude earthquake about 300km from Perth, with staff and players woken by the tremors.
It was an eventful trip for the Dolphins and Bennett, who has copped brickbats for his treatment of a journalist at a post-match press conference in Perth.
But what wasn’t seen was his pre-match promotion of the sport.
Three hours before kick-off in the Dolphins-Knights clash, Bennett was asked by WARL general manager John Sackson to spend five minutes meeting 50 local school teachers at a pre-match corporate function.
Bennett delivered a speech and stayed around for an extra 45 minutes for photographs and chats with the teachers.
DOLPHINS CASH SPLASH
The Dolphins are set to hit the NRL player market with a $5 million cheque book next year as more than half the foundation squad plays for their futures in 2024.
Change is already afoot at Redcliffe with prop Herman Ese’ese set to quit the club and take up a long-term offer in England after not activating a 2024 option in his Dolphins contract.
Oliver Gildart has already departed and Poasa Faamausili will also leave at the end of the season, while Brenko Lee is weighing up a move to the Super League.
And there will be major change at the expansion club following the 2024 season with 13 players coming off-contract next year.
The likes of Anthony Milford, Edrick Lee, Euan Aitken, Jarrod Wallace, Jesse Bromwich, Mark Nicholls, Ray Stone, Tesi Niu and Valynce Te Whare will be playing for their futures in 2024.
The Dolphins had to offer plenty of two-year contracts to lure players to the club for its foundation season in the NRL.
Those deals are expiring next year, freeing up a huge amount of salary cap space which will make the Dolphins the most active club in the player market.
They have already signed Broncos duo Herbie Farnworth and Tom Flegler along with Canterbury’s Jake Averillo for next season, but didn’t have a lot of roster spots available due to the two and three-year contracts for foundation players.
But the Dolphins will be able to launch huge poaching raids from November 1 to bolster their 2025 squad under new head coach Kristian Woolf.
STAGGS’ PGA PARTY
Broncos centre Kotoni Staggs will make the leap from ferocious fends to fairway-finder after edging teammate Corey Oates at the PGA of Australia’s Sporting Teams Challenge.
Seven Broncos players and assistant coach Lee Briers teed off on Wednesday for the chance to play in the PGA Championship Pro-Am later this year.
Captain Adam Reynolds, Kurt Capwell, Jesse Arthars, Marty Taupau, Brendan Piakura, Corey Oates and Staggs spent their day off competing at a windy Nudgee Golf Club.
Oates briefly held the clubhouse lead when he posted 32 stableford points but then had to watch on as Staggs stormed home.
Playing off a 17 handicap, Staggs navigated the final six holes in 3-over par – 15 points – to match Oates’s total and claim victory on a countback.
Staggs will now line up alongside Australia’s best golfers and other sporting identities at the Fortinet Australian PGA Championship Pro-Am at Royal Queensland Golf Club on November 2.
Skipper Reynolds was the raging favourite but Staggs pulled off a boilover.
“I’m stoked to beat ‘Reyno’,” Staggs said with a laugh.
“It was good to get out with the boys and have a hit. I love my golf, that’s what I do outside of footy.
“I just got the win. Me and Oatesy both had the same points but my best nine holes were better.
“I can’t wait to play in the Pro-Am, it’s going to be fun.”
HASLER’S HOLBROOK LINK
Justin Holbrook isn’t the only ‘Holbrook’ that Des Hasler has got rid of in recent times.
Hasler is busy preparing to take over as coach of the Gold Coast Titans after Holbrook was sacked in June for the two-time NRL title winner.
And it’s not the first time Hasler has offloaded a ‘Holbrook’.
A realestate.com.au story this week revealed Hasler once owned an investment property on Holbrook Avenue in the Sydney suburb Kirribilli.
Hasler and wife Christine bought the luxury apartment for $3.1 million in 2020 and sold it a year later for $3.38 million.
Hasler has been somewhat of a property mogul, owning and selling stunning homes in Sydney over the years.
He plans to leave his beachfront abode at Collaroy on Sydney’s northern beaches next month to move to the Gold Coast.
COWBOY’S NEW DEAL
The Cowboys have made a one-year contract extension offer to former Kangaroos prop Jordan McLean.
McLean, 31, is off-contract at season’s end and weighing up his next career move as he prepares to celebrate his 200th NRL game next weekend.
After some lean seasons in Townsville, McLean burst back to life last year and was agonisingly robbed of a NSW Origin debut by a hamstring injury at training.
The Cowboys are keen to retain him and have made an offer for the 2024 season.
TITANS ‘SPOON’ FAVOURITES
While the Broncos and Cowboys remain entrenched in the NRL premiership hunt, a battle of another kind is being waged by the Titans and Dolphins.
TAB has opened a special ‘Maroon Spoon’ market for the Queensland club who finishes the lowest.
With Gold Coast and NRL newcomers from Redcliffe locked together on 22 competition points the race is on with four rounds to go.
“We’ve priced the Titans as $1.60 favourites for the Maroon Spoon as they look to have the tougher run home of the two,” said TAB’s Rohan Welsh.
“The Coast have the Sharks (away), Panthers (home), Storm (away) and then Bulldogs (home) to finish with, which on paper looks harder than the Dolphins ($2.25) run of the Roosters (away), Tigers (away), Cowboys (home) and Warriors (home).
“Being the worst Queensland team in the comp is an unwanted title to finish with, especially when your nearest rivals are going so well and it could easily come down to the final round to see who claims TAB’s first Maroon Spoon.”
NRL CLUBS IN ORIGIN CAMP FURY
NRL club bosses are on a collision course with the Queensland and NSW rugby leagues as tension builds over State of Origin scheduling.
Sport Confidential can reveal several NRL chief executives raised concerns about the length of State of Origin camps at a meeting with Queensland Rugby League boss Ben Ikin on Tuesday.
While the meeting was primarily about Ikin detailing the QRL’s funding proposal to the ARL Commission, club bosses used the gathering as a platform to table grievances over the State of Origin calendar.
There is a view the 10-day Blues and Maroons camps are a waste of time and should be reduced to a week as part of a push to reduce the State of Origin period from six to four weeks.
That would minimise disruption for the 17 NRL clubs, who lose their best stars to Origin duties during a critical period of the season.
Ikin is happy with the status quo and believes 10-day camps can deliver better State of Origin spectacles for the fans.
“We have to be very careful we don’t undermine the quality of the product in any way,” he said.
“I don’t think the camps are too long. These days State of Origin has become so professional, so every bit of time the players are with coaching staff, it’s going to add value.
“The better the preparation, the better the performance from the teams and if that happens from two teams, you get a better product at the end of it.
“Coaches are the same. They are going to want more time with their players, that’s as true for club coaches as it is Origin coaches.
“The clubs hold a view about the impact of Origin on their seasons.
“The states want to make sure the quality of the product isn’t undermined and we will work together and land somewhere that ticks a few boxes.”
MIGHTY MOLONEY KO’S TSZYU
Australia’s latest world boxing champion Jason Moloney has capped a dream year by ousting Tim Tszyu as the nation’s No.1 fighter.
Moloney will be officially crowned 2023 fighter of the year at the Australian National Boxing Hall of Fame awards night at Melbourne’s Crown Casino on September 2.
While Tszyu clobbered Tony Harrison to claim the interim WBO super welterweight world title in March, Moloney won the WBO bantamweight title with his defeat of Vincent Astrolabio in America in May.
“It’s absolutely massive,” said Moloney’s manager Tony Tolj. “It’s recognition for all Jason’s sacrifices and hard work.
“Tim Tszyu and Liam Wilson had big world title fights this year, so for Jason to take out this award, it’s a huge honour for him.
“We’re blessed to be in a golden era of Australian boxing.
“Jason will be defending his world title later this year and we’re hoping to do it in Australia.”
In other good news, Moloney’s twin brother Andrew has made a full recovery after his sickening knockout loss to Junto Nakatani in their Super Flyweight world title bout.
There were fears Andrew Moloney might not fight again such was the force of the knockout.
“Andrew is in good spirits,” Tolj said. “Andrew has had a lot of tests, we did some MRIs that night and everything has come back clear.
“He has seen a concussion specialist to monitor everything.
“The fighter’s health and safety comes first, the Moloney boys are like family for us.
“Andrew is back in the gym and ideally we would like both of them on the same card and make it a mega show in Australia.”
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