How the Super League war began | The Matty Johns Podcast 

There needs to be a full documentary done on the Super league war.

I used to work in a high school in Townsville until 92. It was a really big RL school that had been really successful in the commonwealth bank cup. I remember talking to someone who still worked at the school who told me about a few of the ex students who were playing reserve and SG ball for the cowboys. Not one went on to play first grade but at the time they had been paid 160 grand to sign on to super league and play for the duration of their contract. Remember feeling for those greats who had just retired or were close to retiring..,, Stirling, Kenny, Lewis, miles, how much would they have got? I can also remember one footy show... brad Fittler had become the face if the NRL during the war. He turned up on the Sunday still hung over from the night before, looking still half cut, barely articulate. I thought at the time the ARL we’re screwed if he was their poster boy. In the end he turned out to be worthy. A book would be great about this saga.

This is awesome...it was a crazy time

6:59, “Joey’s on $15,000, I’m on $20,000.” Wow, what a difference compared to today’s million dollar salaries.

Very interesting discussion from three of the best on fox league.

It’s not a bad thing It’s a good thing

Was there an ARL state of origin that year? I remember the super league one

You sure do know your stuff Matty🤙

the more I think about it the more I think Superleague should of won the war

I find it great that they are talking about the super league war. It is a rarely talked about but highly influential phase in rugby league history... hopefully they make a documentary or docu-series on it.

Expecting an unbiased and honest view from 3 blokes on the News Corp payroll on a News Corp owned channel

is there a part 2 coming ? This is great stuff

The NRL is fucked, we need another super league. Sinbinned for slapping someone.....what a joke

Kenty the flog thinks he knows everything. One of the worst league journalists going around.

I love the matty johns podcast, both with block and kenty and the family one. I found this as one of the most interesting ones to listen since no one knew alot about what got told in these stories

Super league war did nothing to promote the game. The war diminished fans appreciation especially after the glorious and epic ARL 1990's finals & Origin battles.

This podcast was 1 of the best things I've listened too honestly was that good

You couldn’t force clubs to join together . You couldn’t take clubs from the fans. Create a bad guy and call him super league. What you got was clubs joining together. A perfect well orchestrated plan that fooled everybody to this day. 🙏

The Rugby League Digest podcast a good series on the super league very in depth Series

People compare this shameful time as similar to WSC. Not so. WSC was about players getting paid their dues and the establishment being brough to bear. Superleague was purely about Murdoch and his cronies making money for themselves aned their shareholders. Big contracts for the players was only about bragging rights for who had the better players. Thankfully common sense prevaied in the end.

can someone give the TLDR version? im not a massive footy fan but this sounds really interesting

Great chat, logged onto kayo to watch the whole podcast

Do people seriously not know how this happened? Goodness gracious the fanbase of this sport is young. Good to see. Holds it in good stead.

This is good info for those NSW people who seem to blame Broncos for the Super league, we were literally not the first club to sign up, but can you blame us with how NSWRL head honchos were treating us, they tried to shut the club up over how we were run even though we applied in our franchise for 1988 with the exact model we used at that point, we were a scape goat club for NSW and is another reason for our State of Origin chip on our shoulders. from our perspective it was either, some high earning league or a league that hated our guts, the fact we even heistated in the first place shows we atleast tried for a resolution.

The audio from fatty had me in stitches this morning.

1995 was a very exciting for Rugby League and Rugby Union but year later League wasn't the same for a 7 years later and despite the rise of Bradford the English League was poor.

World Series Cricket Murdoch style? I understand that premise but to divide the community and get rid of a communities focus and estrange them may be a price to high to pay...Players do need to be compensated for lost opportunities for a playing career which can be plagued with serious health conditions later in their life, but that was the whole reason the League was created in the first place? I wonder if a better scenario should or could of been tabled than to have the situation now where even more districts will be stripped of their identities they have been loyal to....the talk has already been discussed that even more Sydney Clubs face the axe soon...you do the maths.

First!!!

the year we had the reverse grade origin teams for QLD to win it in 95 with Brett Dallas lol

Greed, greed and greed it was that simple.

Blocker is looking old.

Bring back super league

Imagine if Perth reds existed