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About Andrew Stevenson
About Andrew Stevenson
Andrew Stevenson has been a journalist for more than 20 years. He never played league, never coached it and has written about it for only one year. He reckons ignorance is bliss and helps maintain clear focus. When it comes to rugby league his motto simple: he knows nothing about it except what he likes. And what he likes is to watch the slowest blokes (invariably those with the fastest brains) do the scheming to set the fastest blokes (generally unencumbered by works of Sartre or Faulkner) free to run with the wind in their hair. All that, plus a rib-rattling tackle or two.
Beaten Dragons fighting out of their weight division
THE Storm ran away with last night's match against the Dragons in Melbourne - but not before an explosive first half in which four players were sent to the sideline, with the Dragons forced to play 55 minutes one man down.
Dragons go down with a fight
THE Storm ran away with last night's NRL match against the Dragons in Melbourne 26-0 - but not before an explosive first half saw four players sent to the sideline, with the Dragons forced to play 55 minutes one man down.
Bon voyage, Gaz … now who is next?
There is no salary cap in French rugby and, therefore, no limits to the cash on offer to poach the best of the best from league and union, writes Andrew Stevenson.
Eagles sore but still fly
PARRAMATTA limped into Brookvale Oval last night after a string of
poor performances and missing star five-eighth Feleti Mateo. But it
was Manly who spent the first half on one leg, losing captain and
playmaker Matt Orford, ruled out before kick off, new captain Jamie
Lyon, with a knee injury (after 18 minutes) and prop Jason King,
with a badly damaged ankle five minutes later.
What's the matter with Parramatta?
Much was expected of the Eels this year but they have not delivered. Andrew Stevenson asks five interested experts why they think the team is struggling.
Storm spoil the occasion for Hodgo
MELBOURNE STORM completed a breakaway by the top four sides in this year's NRL after defeating Wests Tigers in Campbelltown last night.
The Pacific solution
Polynesian parents are increasingly seeing rugby league as a
profitable career for their offspring - and the NRL is reaping the
benefits, writes Andrew Stevenson.
Rogue fans may get collared in undercover sting
UNDERCOVER security officers may be used at future Parramatta home games in an attempt to identify and prosecute fans who abuse players and match officials following the racial abuse of Petero Civoniceva.
Best of the west - Captain Courageous has earned his stripes
HE ran onto Campbelltown Oval as a skinny kid with dreams, thrilled to the eyeballs to make his first-grade debut on home turf for the old Western Suburbs Magpies.
Junior's junior joins ranks of the seniors
YOU would think that NSW's debutant halfback Mitchell Pearce, who
is about to become just the fourth player in State of Origin's
28-year history to follow his father's footsteps into rugby
league's annual interstate arena, would be nervous. Not a bit of
it.
Make-or-break time for Anasta
Braith Anasta's future hangs on his performance in the Origin
decider against Queensland.
Unfazed Mitchell ahead of his time
IN HIS already over-stuffed trophy cabinet, Mitchell Pearce has the
sort of memento every kid with the sniff of a rugby league dream
would covet: a pair of Joey's shorts.
From mall rat to Kangaroo: the evolution of Greg Bird
Greg Bird is emphatic when he says he didn't wake up one day and
think, 'I'm making a goose of myself'. No, it didn't happen like
that. Everyone else might have thought he was a mug lair and most
people might think he's pulled his head in from where it was a
couple of years ago. But there was no dramatic moment when a boy
began to be a man.
Big benches the fashion - but not for Warriors
WITH Friday night's City-Country match in mind, most NRL sides have
named enlarged benches for this weekend's truncated round, which
begins on Saturday afternoon when the Knights host the
table-topping Titans.
Neither side deserved to win: Sheens
IN AN unruly affair in which the lead changed six times in the
course of 80 often frantic but invariably frustrating minutes, the
Wests Tigers had their nose in front when the siren sounded at
Toyota Stadium yesterday.
Scrum thing's not right: farce leaving referees in a bind
RUGBY LEAGUE is a game in which two sides of 17 fit, strong men are
locked in mortal combat - except when they drape their arms over
each others' shoulders, lean forward and, obeying a strict
no-compete clause, play out a short-act farce.
For Manly, grand final revenge hinges on self-belief
NEAR the end of last season, Anthony Watmough was in the best form of his career, and when Ben Kennedy said the nuggety second-rower should be one of the first forwards picked for Australia, no one laughed.
Souths well placed - last
Most football coaches can make a half-empty glass seem half full,
but Jason Taylor took the skill up a notch yesterday after South
Sydney slumped to their fourth straight loss.
No driving forces - and that's leading to crashes
South Sydney resemble a late-model sedan - with no one at the
wheel.
Quicker game? Looks as if they're pulling a fast one
BIGGER, stronger but - surely not - slower?
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