Sep 28, 2026 · 48 min · 13 segments
This week on The Big League Podcast, Nathan Limm and Michael Burgess look back on the incredible Preliminary Final between the Newcastle Knights and Penrith Panthers that saw Newcastle turn their team…
Michael BurgessHost
Nathan LimHost
In Rugby League, we are deciding punishments for players based off injury and emotion rather than the act itself.
The Newcastle Knights have produced a fairy tale, playing out one of the greatest games of Rugby League that we have ever seen.
Underdogs, every week of the finals, the Knights have beaten the top two seeds away from home in consecutive finals.
They are into the NRL Grand Final for the first time since 2001, and they did it with 12 men.
The halfback stretched off the field with a broken ankle, leaving his revered Panthers team floundering in his absence.
I thought he'd spend 10 in the bin, get put on report, and probably miss the grand final.
We see hip drop tackles in almost every game, and the punishments for very similar tackles seem to vary greatly.
Jackson Ford suffered an ankle injury from a hip drop tackle against the Dolphins a couple of weeks ago.
is the fact that it's Nathan Cleary who everyone loves on the receiving end influencing the referee as well yes absolutely it is if it's Freddie Lussac instead of Nathan Cleary are we as emotional about it afterwards no I don't think we are all I'm asking for is consistency if that is a clear sending off fine but ref it like that the entire year Michael Burgess, senior New Zealand Herald writer, should Crosland have been sent off? You've just answered it yourself,
The first thing you say is you've got to feel really sorry for Crosland in that he must be devastated.
He's going to miss the grand final and players never go out to inflict that sort of harm on a fellow player.
And as the referee said, he twists the leg at the last minute as clear as falling.
In Rugby League, we are deciding punishments for players based off injury and emotion rather than the act itself.
The Newcastle Knights have produced a fairy tale, playing out one of the greatest games of Rugby League that we have ever seen.
Underdogs, every week of the finals, the Knights have beaten the top two seeds away from home in consecutive finals.
They are into the NRL Grand Final for the first time since 2001, and they did it with 12 men.
The halfback stretched off the field with a broken ankle, leaving his revered Panthers team floundering in his absence.
I thought he'd spend 10 in the bin, get put on report, and probably miss the grand final.
We see hip drop tackles in almost every game, and the punishments for very similar tackles seem to vary greatly.
Jackson Ford suffered an ankle injury from a hip drop tackle against the Dolphins a couple of weeks ago.
is the fact that it's Nathan Cleary who everyone loves on the receiving end influencing the referee as well yes absolutely it is if it's Freddie Lussac instead of Nathan Cleary are we as emotional about it afterwards no I don't think we are all I'm asking for is consistency if that is a clear sending off fine but ref it like that the entire year Michael Burgess, senior New Zealand Herald writer, should Crosland have been sent off? You've just answered it yourself,
The first thing you say is you've got to feel really sorry for Crosland in that he must be devastated.
He's going to miss the grand final and players never go out to inflict that sort of harm on a fellow player.
And as the referee said, he twists the leg at the last minute as clear as falling.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.