Class act from Knights during fires

The Newcastle Knights have gone above and beyond to help bushfire victims around the NSW mid-north coast. Popular forward Mitch Barnett, whose family owns a farm in Wingham in the heart of the danger, has been the driving force behind the move. Barnett and a host of Knights players went to local supermarkets in Newcastle and filled their cars to the brim with groceries and the like. Fans also got behind the campaign, leaving non- perishables at the Knights offices. Barnett then drove a a semi-trailer full of much-needed goods to the Wingham area over the weekend, distributing provisions to the luckless locals, many of whom had lost everything they had. A good news story that deserves to be told in this time of players behaving badly.

Fainu speaks out for Manager

Rising Manly star Manase Fainu has plenty to worry about at the moment, with his freedom - let alone his football career - in limbo. Fainu is fighting charges relating to an alleged stabbing and is now out on bail - but he reached out to Wide World of Sports this week. Not to protest his own innocence, but to plead for the reinstatement of his manager Mario Tartak. Tartak, who was instrumental in getting Fainu out of jail, has been suspended by the NRL over a bankruptcy claim and is not allowed to deal with players. But Fainu is desperate to see Tartak get his accreditation back. "Mario has helped me a lot, been through court and put his own problems aside and worked on me just to get out of jail. That's the type of person he is, putting others before himself," Fainu said. "He has helped me get my life sorted after football, because money gets chucked at us footy players and normally us Polynesian boys just go spend and buy the latest cars and shoes, but he spoke to me with my parents and told me start saving and buy properties. "He is more like a family member to me than a manager and I feel for him - he is going through hell." Meanwhile, Fainu is putting on a brave face as he fights his own legal battles. "I know a lot of the fans are asking about me," he said. "Tell them I'm coping well, surrounding myself with family and friends … I go to training at Manly to hang around the boys and get my mind off things and I am doing OK considering the circumstances."

Wests Tigers could claim union giant

A former Queensland Reds rugby union forward is set to make the jump across to league with the Wests Tigers. Waita Setu, younger brother of former Dragon Lagi Setu, was born in New Zealand and moved to Australia to play in the Storm and Broncos junior systems. The 27-year-old loose forward then switched to union, where he played several games for the Reds in Super Rugby before moving to England. He played last season for Brisbane City in Australia's National Rugby Championship and is currently trialing for a contract with the Tigers. Having lost Ryan Matterson and Ben Matulino and with Russell Packer on the outer, the Tigers have vacancies in the pack and Setu, a 110kg giant, could prove a handy addition.

Storm star set to return to NRL after shock mid-season walkout

Former Storm winger Young Tonumaipea has cut short his Mormon mission and wants to return to the NRL next season. The Samoan international shocked the Storm when he walked out on the club mid-season in 2018 to serve the Mormons in Germany. But Tonumaipea, still only 27, has decided to return to the game early and will be back in Australia in April. His manager Michael Cincotta has already had expressions of interest from around four NRL clubs - including the Storm. "He has been running every day in Germany and keeping fit," Cincotta told Wide World of Sports. "He has decided to cut back a bit of his full two-year term with the Mormon mission and is very keen to come back and re-establish himself in the NRL."

Wests Tigers launch appeal with NRL over Farah deal

The Wests Tigers have submitted a response to the NRL in a bid to lessen the severity of punishment they face for alleged salary cap breaches. CEO Justin Pascoe was sensationally deregistered and the club was hit with a $750,000 fine and a salary cap reduction of $639,000 for 2019 when a post-career deal with club legend Robbie Farah was deemed to be illegal. Since the breach notice was revealed on December 19, Pascoe has been unable to have any communication with the club. The Wests Tigers had until January 31 to respond to the proposed sanctions, but The Daily Telegraph has revealed the club has already filed their response to get a speedy resolution to the chaos. The NRL has alleged the club made an undisclosed deal with Farah to become an ambassador for Wests Tigers in retirement as an act of goodwill for the club legend who departed on bad terms. The salary cap reduction of $639,000 relates to the value of that four-year deal. There is no suggestion Farah has done anything wrong.

Broncos need to give Oates some help

Plenty went right for Brisbane in 2018 with some brilliant young forwards unearthed and their halves making big strides but after an unceremonious exit in week one of the finals and a new coach heading into 2019, on obvious area of improvement is their outside backs. The Telstra Premiership season just gone could best be described as 'fair' for the men from Red Hill; they were widely tipped to find a place somewhere in the bottom half of the eight and they duly managed that but got no further.Winger Corey Oates had a wonderful year;
desperately unlucky not to be picked for the first two Origins (but victorious in his only outing in Game Three) he piled on the metres for the Broncos at 152 per game and racked up 18 tries including one of the most incredible put-downs of the year.His opposite man Jamayne Isaako had an excellent rookie season with 88 goals and 217 points and a couple of match-winning players.Unfortunately for Brisbane, Isaako's 100 metres per game made him the only other Broncos backline regular to average 100 metres per match with NRL.com Stats finding every other NRL club had at least two, and in many cases four or five, backline regulars who averaged over 100 metres (for this analysis a 'regular' is a player who played at least five NRL matches in the 2018 regular season).

Possession key as Dragons still can't shake fade-outs

Sorry Dragons fans, you knew what this one was going to be. So what actually went wrong for the Dragons? Blaming State of Origin would be an easy excuse, particular with high work-rate forwards like Jack De Belin and Tyson Frizell getting heavily sapped over that period.But the club had non-Origin players whose form also dropped off. Whether that is a flow-on effect from reduced go-forward from the rep players is up for debate. What do the stats say?Virtually all the relevant statistical categories dropped away in rounds 17-25
compared to 1-16. Obviously, points scored and conceded is the end result but it looks like it all came from the back of one fundamental – failure to control possession.For 16 rounds the Dragons commanded an imposing 53.7% of possession on average according to NRL.com Stats; some weeks it was up close to 60%. They just weren't giving opponents a chance to get into the game.In that period they ran 1600m per week and made just 300 tackles.Over the final nine games that completely flipped on its head. In that period they held just 46.4% of the ball – almost a direct reversal. Suddenly, what they were doing to other teams was being done to them.

Dragons Back-end woes

Sorry Dragons fans, you knew what this one was going to be. The Red V started the 2018 Telstra Premiership like a runaway freight train, winning their first six games on the bounce and seven of their first nine to sit pretty in top or equal spot every round from one until round 17.But Paul McGregor's men won just three of their last nine to slip to seventh and despite a
commanding win in week one of the finals they had left themselves too big a task and were eliminated the next weekend.It's a familiar story for the Dragons faithful, one that has not only been a hallmark of McGregor's tenure but pre-dates it, with the club finishing every season since their 2010 premiership anywhere from slightly to dramatically lower on the ladder than their mid-season peak.

Stat to Fix - Warriors scoring points at home

The Warriors exceeded expectations in 2018, making the finals and finishing just a win behind minor premiers the Roosters.That came largely off the back of a wonderful away record. Were it not for a struggle to put points on the board on their home patch, things could have been far brighter.Steve Kearney's men finished with a lofty 8-4 winning record in away games – equal-best along with the Roosters, Storm and Sharks.However their 7-5
home record, while fair, fell short of the 9-3 managed by Souths, Brisbane and St George Illawarra.In some ways, it's a mark of the evenness of the 2018 Telstra Premiership but for the Warriors, who went winless in home games between rounds nine and 22, it's a huge missed opportunity.Those four straight home losses saw them outscored by a tally of 92-31 and was a major contributor to their season record of just 17.8 points scored per game at home for the year.By comparison, the NRL average was comfortably higher at 21.6 while the top four finishers managed 25 points per game at home.

Ultimate guide to the 2019 NRL pre-season: Roosters

Squad: Mitchell Aubusson, Egan Butcher, Nat Butcher, Lindsay Collins, Boyd Cordner, Angus Crichton, Cooper Cronk, Joshua Curran, Poasa Faamausili, Jake Friend, Ryan Hall, Luke Keary, Brock Lamb, Bernard Lewis, Isaac Liu, Joseph Manu, Latrell Mitchell, Brett Morris, Victor Radley, Billy Smith, Sio Siua Taukeiaho, James Tedesco, Zane Tetevano, Daniel Tupou, Sitili Tupouniua, Jared Waerea-Hargreaves. Coach: Trent Robinson

What needs work?: Winning the premiership ensures a difficult pre-season as the team tries to go to a new level despite reaching the summit — not to mention the World Club Challenge headache.

They have lost Blake Ferguson, Ryan Matterson and Dylan Napa and will use Brett Morris and Angus Crichton to help plug the holes. Not too shabby.

Talking point: There is always talk of whether a team can win back-to-back titles in the current era. Expect plenty of it with this star-studded squad.

Trials

February 18, 6am (AEDT)

v Wigan Warriors at DW Stadium

February 23

v Panthers at Panthers Stadium

March 2, 7pm

v Sea Eagles at Central Coast Stadium

Round 1

March 15, 7.55pm

v Rabbitohs at Sydney Cricket Ground

Scott Bolton has learned his fate after pleading guilty

NRL veteran Scott Bolton has escaped conviction after pleading guilty to the common assault of a woman in a Sydney bar. The North Queensland Cowboys prop, 31, had formally denied a charge of indecent assault against the woman at Bondi Beach Public Bar in May 2018. In Waverley Local Court on Monday,

following discussions with police, that charge was withdrawn and Bolton entered his plea to the lesser charge of common assault. He was handed a 12-month conditional release order and escaped conviction. “Mr Bolton is not placed on a pedestal by the court, he is expected to behave as any other member of the public behaves,” magistrate Greg Grogin said.

Top 10 Wingers Heading into 2019

Top 10 Wingers Heading into 2019: 1 Nick Cotric (Raiders), 2 Josh Addo-Carr (Melbourne Storm), 3 Suliasi Vunivalu (Melbourne Storm), 4 Josh Mansour (Panthers), 5 Blake Ferguson (Eels), 6 Corey Oates
(Brisbane Broncos), 7 Anthony Don (Gold Coast Titans), 8 David Fusitu’a (New Zealand Warriors), 9 Shaun Kenny-Dowall (Knights), 10 Jordan Rapana (Raiders)

St George Dragons: 2019 Round 1 predicted team

St George Illawarra Dragons: 2019 Round 1 predicted Team: Gareth Widdop, Zac Lomax, Euan Aitken, Tim Lafai, Jordan Pereira, Corey Norman, Ben Hunt, Paul Vaughan,
Cameron McInnes, James Graham, Tyson Frizell, Tariq Sims, Jack De Belin, Blake Lawrie, Jacob Host, Luciano Leilua, Korbin Sims

Corey Allan to pinch Rabbitohs No.1 jumper

Alex Johnston has been the Rabbitohs’ fullback for the past two seasons, except for two months of footy in 2017 when Cody Walker was shifted to the custodian role. Now he’s got a real challenge on his hands to retain the No.1 jumper, with highly-rated Brisbane product Corey Allan making the move to Redfern. So exciting is the Logan Brothers
junior, that he was the first player ever selected in the Australian Prime Minister’s XIII side without having played an NRL game. He’s been a mainstay in Queensland junior rep sides, and played alongside Rabbitohs young gun Cameron Murray for the junior Kangaroos in 2017. Wayne Bennett is acutely aware of what the 20-year-old has to offer, and Johnston has far from been assured of his role at Redfern since the coach swap began.

He hasn’t coached for 20 years: Griffin breaks silence

Despite Penrith sitting fifth on the ladder at the time, the club decided to sack coach Anthony Griffin.It was turned out to be just one of a number of coaching upheavals in the NRL this year, but this axing was quite extraordinary given that the club were headed for finals footy.Panthers supremo Phil Gould believed Griffin couldn’t take the team to the next level because of his “old school” approach.Griffin was able to have his say in an exclusive interview on Fox League’s NRL 360 where he fired this one back at Gould: “He hasn’t coached for 20 years. He hasn’t had his head in the fire for 20 years.“If there’s anyone old school in the conversation — if I’m in the conversation about being old school, he’d need to be there as well.”

Now it’s time to think about the grand final: Billy Slater cleared by judiciary

Will he or won’t he?It was the story that dominated the week leading up to the 2018 Grand Final and we finally got our answer on September 26 when Billy Slater was cleared to play in the decider.Slater seemed at long odds to get off the grade one shoulder charge, but between the Storm star and renowned lawyer Nick Ghabar, the duo were able to convince the three-man judiciary panel he was not guilty.Fox Sports’ NRL chief reporter James Hooper, who attended the hearing, said Slater “mounted an absolutely brilliant argument”.This article also housed our live blog for updates from the judiciary so it all contributed to it being our biggest story of the year.

Quote of the year

"I was happy to be sacked. I’ll just leave it at that, I was happy." Wayne Bennett after finally being let go by Brisbane to join South Sydney. Newcastle coach Nathan Brown on Bennett, a comment which he later regretted: "The reality is when Wayne came to town, if he thought with his big head rather than his little head, I wouldn’t have had to rebuild the joint." We’ve contacted your family members because they have been targeted as well. Don’t leave the hotel. We’ve picked up hundreds and hundreds of messages and they are death threats." Referee Matt Cecchin tells Herald colleague Andrew Webster about the phone call he got from police  after the controversial World Cup semi-final between Tonga and England.

Broncos hold a minute's silence for Terry Mackenroth

A former Queensland deputy premier and treasurer and long-time independent director of the Queensland Rugby League. Mackenroth was appointed to the QRL board in 2006 and among many accomplishments, played a key role in the establishment of the ARL
Commission in 2012. Mackenroth spent 30 years in Queensland parliamentary life before lending his experience to the QRL from 2006 until he stood down in late 2017. He died on April 30, aged 68.

Cowboys to win the premiership

They could only do it once while Immortal-in-waiting Johnathan Thurston was pulling the strings, and yet I’ve tipped them to win the competition in their first year without him. That would be bold, if not for the masterful recruitment effort of the Cowboys ahead of the 2019 season. Kangaroos lock Josh McGuire adds aggression, mongrel, go-forward and most importantly 100 per cent effort to their forward pack. Even Wally Lewis admitted he was in shock the Broncos let him go.

With McGuire joining the likes of Jason Taumalolo, Jordan McLean and Matt Scott, plus back-rowers of the ilk of Coen Hess and Gavin Cooper, they’ll have the competition’s best pack. Michael Morgan has always played his best football when he’s the dominant playmaker, and they also have no shortage of big bodies in the backline to get their sets rolling from out of their own end. With Ben Barba putting the polish on their attacking plays, and the two best finishers in the game outside him in Nene Macdonald and Kyle Feldt, they are in for a bumper year.

Cronk's bravery shines in another year of scandal

It is hard to go past Cooper Cronk's unbelievable bravery to play with a broken scapula in the Sydney Roosters triumph against his former club Melbourne. The Roosters went above and beyond to keep everybody guessing about whether Cronk would play. The halfback himself remained unsure all week, so to remain on the field and bark orders the
way he did will never be forgotten. Cronk's evil glare at former friend Cameron Smith after he tried to hammer his shoulder was just as memorable. As club doctor, Ameer Ibrahim, said of Cronk's injury at the time: "It’s the most heroic thing I’ve ever seen. That fracture is what you see with motorbike accidents and car accidents. That's 11 out of 10 pain."