I'd love a British version of this. It'd cost less too given the relative size of contracts between SL and NRL. And the fact that you can travel along the M62 instead of having to fly to NZ and Canberra!

The wife nominates Paul Sculthorpe for the Brad Fittler role, which is a fair call. His supporting acts could be Robbie Hunter-Paul and Gary Schofield as the good cop/bad cop duo.

All you need is a big house near Leeds for them to stay in.

It's been a great concept, and it's drawn me in despite my general loathing of "reality" TV. Good way of getting some more people to register RL too.

Get it done RFL/SKY.

I also have a general loathing of 'reality TV', but this one has drawn me in too. I've said to our lass a few times that an English Version of this would be a great idea, but I'd want it to be more National and try and tap into some of the 'Kick and Clap' areas (Leicester, Bristol etc..) in addition to the RL heartland areas. Try and take some of the potential Union talent from them for a change instead of them taking our lads. There is some good young talent around the country and this would be a good way of trying to get them involved in league. The RFL seem to be failing in their other expansion plans, this may just be a way of getting people who don't watch our game to be interested in it.

A UK version would be great but man we have to admit that seeing the guys here do a challenge in Hull won't have the same effect as seeing the beautiful back drops of Brisbane and Sydney etc etc

No disrespect to hull by the way.

But yeah done the right way we could have a great series. Make it nationwide and you should see players from both codes appear for trials.

There are plenty of places to do tough challenges around the UK that would look good on the TV, and due to the harshness of the weather etc.. in some of the places (Scottish Highlands, Snowdon etc..) it could make the challenges even tougher. I think it could be a real winner done in the right way

If you follow the NRL on Facebook don't check your updates

Fair result IMO, deserves the contract, supposed only two clubs offered him a contract, wonder what would have happened if no one choose him.

I will be interested to see what happens to the other rookies, it would be good to have another episode in a few months with what they are up too.

Hope they do a 2nd season, but improve the timings.

Agree a British version would be great as long as it's done properly and not done on the cheap with them training on some council playing field in a small northern town.

Am I right in saying there were 15 "rookies"?
Get some from all round the country. Obviously a core from the heartlands but get a couple of Welsh in there, a couple of maybe Union players from the South, a couple from London and maybe even a couple from France.

Get a wide spread of people and train etc in impressive locations and it'd be just the kind of programme RL needs.

It missed a trick in my opinion by not being complete rookies.

If it were to be done here it should be people who have literally never played the game. It would mean all were starting from the same level, the improvements would be more obvious, it can go a bit more in depth about some of the less obvious aspects of the game, and it shows the game as inclusive.

Also, it just seems like there is a pretty obvious reason a group of 24-27 year olds who play RL and have done for years havent got a pro contract. Its unlikely all these players were missed, more likely they just werent good enough.

First season NFL players are known as Rookies in their first season, and they've turned professional.

Over 1000 applied worldwide, 200 were chosen to attend trials in Australia and NZ, 28 rookies were then chosen from 200 trialists.

The NRL rookie ended up being way more popular then channel 9 thought it would be. Will be interesting too see if it just as popular next year.

I read an interview with one of the rookies who said they had a masseuse visit them every two days. Had coaches review video with the players every day.

Said they were treated like professional players. Not sure a version here would be like that.

If it done cheap then no point.

London Broncos did their "Prop Idol" contest way back in 2003 ! https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2003/ ... richardrae

London Broncos did their "Prop Idol" contest way back in 2003 ! https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2003/ ... richardrae

A british rugby league version is a total no go.

Exactly the same concept..........but for premier league football would be a massive goer.

So, the majority of the clubs must have given him 3 points to enable him to come first yet, only 2 clubs wanted him???
Didn't understand that.

Remember sky did one for football few years back and it flopped miserably

From what I remember the production and vision of the show was pretty poor.

Just watching the final on catch up now. Fair play to sky, had no idea they were showing it live.

I was confused. I thought they said he got a choice of all the clubs, so he got to choose of the 16. Not they say oh yes we'll have him then he chooses who's left.

I'd also like to know if more of them would have taken Jordan or Chris.

The clubs basically vote for who they think should win but no who they want. Clubs must have decided before they arrived they wasn't interested.

Remember the clubs will have seen all the video tapes/stats and not just the 9 weeks of TV. Plus I have no doubt the clubs would have had scouts watching this players in there A grade competition after filming ended

They had 1000 applications last year. I am guessing they will have lots more for season 2.

In regards to a UK version it would need the super league to put money behind it. The NRL would have put money behind this and not just channel 9.

Like I said few weeks ago, I wouldn't be surprised to see rugby union do something like this before super league.

If I was a super league I would definitely invite Chris Hyde over for a trial

Interested to see how the NRL rookie has rated on sky

Really enjoyed the programme overall but this live final went 10mph for over an hour then 100mph for the last 10 min. Hate it when they do that.

A few commercial breaks wouldn't have gone amiss either

There's no reason the next season couldn't be a joint UK/Aus/NZ event.
You could have UK trials and NZ trials and have the finalists meet in Sydney for a 12 week camp.
The first series had 2 guys from the UK and 4 or 5 from NZ. There is no reason it couldn't be 10 guys from the UK.

like the idea but we all know the NRL wouldnt do a joint competition with super league clubs.

I do think questions will be asked on how only two clubs wanted the winner.

Lou Goodwin comes from Canberra's catchment area and has already been training with the Mounties (Canberra's reserve grade side). He was never going anywhere else. I don't know why the Titans bothered.

Enjoyed this. The shame was that in each episode, there really was usually an element of suspense about who was going to be cut. But Lou Goodwin has been the certain winner since about four episodes ago. You could tell by the way Freddie Fittler spoke about him. Couple that with his dad being an ex-pro, and the fact that he'd already been a junior at St George who left of his own accord, rather than because he wasn't good enough, and the rest were making up the numbers from the start. I guess that's why the TV producers kept him very much out of the spotlight for the first episodes - to create the sense of a real competition.

I agree that there are advantages to having it restricted to those who've never been on the books of a pro club, but the problem in Australia is that their talent development pathway is such that all likely players get spotted. It wasn't a coincidence that in the final we discovered that all three of the finalists had been juniors at NRL clubs. In the UK, that'd work better, because RL clubs get to see only a fraction of the possible talent available.

More importantly, though, if they're going to decide that 28 is too old (!!!), then they need to restrict the age of the competitors before they start. Otherwise, what was the point of leading Chris Hyde on?

Finally, I was also a bit bemused about how the majority of clubs must have voted for Goodwin, but only two were willing to sign him. That's a huge flaw in the concept. The clubs have to be willing to play along, even if they think they'll never use the recruit as anything but a squad filler till the contract runs out. I assumed that the contract doesn't count on their salary cap, and they're under no obligation to play the recruit if they don't want to. The NRL could surely incentivise them to be a bit less churlish about it all. There should be a rule that whoever they vote for as their top choice, they will automatically be offering a contract to if chosen.

Or just invite the SL clubs to be there at the end as well. Because all three of those guys would be better than the current wings/second rows/hookers of at least one or two SL clubs!

Anyone else find it funny how they literally shoved the contract in the winners face and said sign it now.

Least let the guy have his legal team read the terms. Lol

I'm guessing that all three had read the T&Cs before the final episode.

I did wonder about the voting, but my first thought was he could've won by being a lot of team's second choice and a few team's first.