Have you ever read The Ringer and wished there was an Australian equivalent? Rugby League (‘n stuff) will kind of be like that, except rather than being backed by HBO and Bill Simmons, it’s run by one prematurely bald man with a bad back and a savings account lower than Buzz Rothfield’s footy IQ.
There’s plenty of great writing online. But a lot of the writing about rugby league — and sports in general — that I see is soulless and boring and in many instances (ahem, James Hooper) barely writing at all. There’s no fun. No spirit or adventure, and very little creativity. That’s because there is sales targets to hit, clicks to measure and often, bosses to make happy.
This newsletter is intended to be an antidote to that.
I aim to write articles about rugby league (‘n stuff) that you will enjoy. I’m not trying to compete with Fox Sports or NRL.com or Sporting News. They can do their thing. They have resources and money and access that I don’t. But I don’t have News Corp to suck up to or wealthy stakeholders to please. I get to write what I want and what you want to read. The only people I have to please, are you, the readers.
That means there will be some serious articles with statistics and graphs and player interviews. There will also be some not-so-serious articles like casting a Netflix horror movie with members of the Gold Coast Titans, or asking what mascot wins an NRL battle royale? and who’s the biggest villain in NRL history?.
As for the (‘n stuff) part? That refers to the fact that each newsletter will be chock full of references to action movies, rap songs, video games and countless other pop culture minutia with nothing remotely to do with rugby league. Sometimes that will mean a long-form rugby league article sprinkled with references to The Last of Us. Other times it will mean the newsletter comes with a 1,500-word essay on the legacy of the Rocky series.
If that sounds like something you may be interested in, then Rugby League (‘n stuff) is for you. Especially if you’re looking for something that:
isn’t straight news reportage
doesn’t have a media agenda
doesn’t use clickbait and intrusive ads
makes you laugh or at least smirk or say ‘that’s funny’ in your head
celebrates rugby league, movies and other fun things.
teaches you about rugby league history in a silly way
