Manly launch at Harbord Hotel this Sunday
Thanks to Matt Cleary for organising the final NSW launch on this Australian stint.
One more NSW launch, eh?
Thanks to Matt Cleary we’re returning to a format that worked well at the Sackville in Balmain - a few beers and a chat on a Sunday afternoon.
Of course, Manly were half-responsible for the most important grand final of all time so it’s important we recognise them.
And for the clubs we’ve not yet visited from Sydney in 1997, such as Sydney City, Canterbury, St George, Penrith and Wests …. I’ll be back!
MONDAY NIGHT’S A SLOW NIGHT FOR FOOTBALL
Sun-Herald, Sunday September 9 1997
By STEVE MASCORD
MONDAY Night Football is to return to the rugby league scrapheap, another victim of the game's bitter civil war.
The ARL revived it last year, to big crowds and good TV audiences, but Super League has judged MNF a flop in 1997, television sources say.
The Elizabeth Street administration has asked Channel Nine to come up with a different night for its feature match, should there be two competitions next year.
Nine has suggested Sunday evening matches - something that has been experimented with only occasionally over the years.
The downfall of MNF is symptomatic of the game's woes over the past two years.
When Nine said it would televise Super League, rather than the ARL, on Monday nights the move was seen as potentially calamitous for the establishment.
But smaller than expected crowds this year and moving the telecasts to a later time-slot killed the momentum built in 1996.
Peace talks resume this week between ARL chief executive Neil Whittaker and News Ltd director of sport Ian Frykberg.
They are believed to be delicately poised.
Factions within News Ltd have been reported to favour pressing on with the war and unless Frykberg can deliver a face-saving deal, that may be what happens.