It was great to finally see some football on the weekend. But already there are concerns that the pace we play the game has dropped. and that was a issue when we need speedas well as power in the short form of the game. But we are back with the 33rd annual Charity Shield and with U16s, U18s, U20s and FG all on Saturday It lookslike a perfect way to kick off the new season.

Damien Cook already looks like he will be a winner. He is a dynamic hooker in the Issac mould and will thrive in and around our big forwards. The competition with McInnes will be great to see.

In the charity shield our fring talent will be on show as FG spots are up for grabs. Hunt has the jump on a few players after the 9s in the backline. It will be very interesting to see who partners who on bothe sides of the park in the backline.

Already we are seeing David Penna stamp his style on the up and coming U20s squad. Lots of new faces and players playing in different roles. A new year beckons.

The squads are now settled, teams selected and we head into a new season this weekend for our U18s and U16s sides. With what looks like a easier draw this year we need to make sure we don't get complacent.

The big news this week is that NRL clubs are running significantly in the red at $42.7 mil across the board with only Souths and Brisbane returning a profit. Two interesting observations. One is the removal of LC grants as revenue. This is utterly wrong as wealth LC clubs factor in spending based upon the extra they will get from the LC, where a LC holds onto the money and tops up a FC revenue to make it break even and avoid paying tax. Secondly is that JRL costs are sometimes included for FC's with some clubs directly funding JRL development from their NRL FC operation. Both of these have given a perception that RL is running at a big loss when in fact it really isn't.

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