Rugby League
2003
The Official Yearbook of the NRL
by David Middleton
from HarperSports
"The
game has had its heart broken in an unexpected and tragic way."
The events of season 2002 soon fell into the shadows as the front-running
Canterbury Bulldogs salary cap crisis escalated during a dramatic August.
The game of rugby league had never seen anything to rival the Bulldogs
fall from grace.
The
NRL penalised the Canterbury club 37 competition points that took them
from almost certain minor premiers to the wooden spoon for "a quite
deliberate, elaborate system of payments to players designed to avoid
detection".
David
Middleton's 16th annual yearbook chronicles one of the most chaotic
period in the history of rugby league and sport in Australia by focusing
on the Bulldogs crisis.
Also
covered is the return of the South Sydney Rabbitohs to near sell-out
Sydney Football Stadium crowds at the Charity Shield and the first round
of the NRL premiership.
Seeing
97 year old Albert Clift and actor Russell Crowe ringing the bell first
used in 1908, will long live in the memory from that opening night.
Crowe had made sure he could be present, taking time off from his work
on the movie 'Master and Commander'.
Ironically
it was fellow foundation club Sydney Roosters (originally Eastern Suburbs)
who went on to win the NRL Telstra Cup in October.
David
Middleton covers both of these events alongside each NRL club's records
for 2002 and overall team and player stats.
An
interesting new feature is the inclusion of the team list for each club's
first game in premiership rugby league - and where applicable, the club's
final game.
Some
interesting interviews are held with Gorden Tallis and Eddie Burns.
Tallis talks about his return from a career threatening injury, becoming
the mainstay of the Broncos and Queensland now that Langer has retired,
and how he longs to go on a Kangaroo Tour - something that for all his
success has eluded Tallis.
Burns
is the last remaining player of the Canterbury side of the 1930s. He
reflects on the early struggles of the club in Sydney and dismays at
recent events and asks "how did they get in that position"?
Also
included are tributes to the Top 5 players of the year, a record of
the seasons events, full club reviews and representative statistics.
Every
game played during the 2002 season is covered in full - from the World
Club Challenge right up to the October Test match between Australia
and New Zealand.
With
2003 being a Kangaroo Tour year, David Middleton has taken the opportunity
to publish the full record of every tour since 1908-09 up to 2001.
At
a massive 345 pages of rugby league information and statistics it is
the most comprehensive volume of season 2002 and the game's premiership
records available.
No
true fan of rugby league can afford to be without their copy of David
Middleton's Rugby League 2003.
Rugby
League 2003 - David Middleton
Published by Harper Sports - ISBN 0 7322 7753 1
