Fox Sports
Exclusive: Less NRL

Get a calculator out and find if the following equation is achievable.

See if 80 minutes of football action can fit into 90 minutes of allocated Fox Sports air time.

I?ll save you the trouble ? it can.

In fact it has been achievable since Fox Sports gained exclusive coverage of the NRL on Pay TV. And up until now Fox Sports have easily delivered their obligation of full replays of every NRL game every week.

But in 2006 for some reason delivering full game replays is no longer a priority at Fox Sports.

Anyone who has taped games from Fox Sports on Mon/Thurs may have noticed the absence of passages of play during the telecast. It seems Fox Sports are now cutting out a minute here and a minute there from the telecast for no apparent reason.

Here is just one case in point from the Manly v Nth Qld Round 2 Replay on Monday.

Steven Bell scored in the 17th minute and by the time the kick was taken by Matt Orford the game clock was into the 19th minute. Orford is then shown rushing back to get onside. But the next frame showed Orford feeding a Manly scrum on halfway and the clock showing 21 minutes have expired. Where have the missing two minutes of on field action gone?

Now yes this is a tad pedantic but I think it is a valid question to ask why are they cutting any of the on field action out of the replayed telecast?

Why not cut out the extensive replays for Video Ref referrals or breaks in the game for injuries, to fit the game into the allocated 90 minute slot. Bear in mind Fox Sports have NEVER had a problem with doing this in the past.

Now with Channel 9 on Sunday afternoons you can cop action being cut in cases when Golden Point Extra Time occurs - like the Dragons-Panthers on Sunday ? as they only have 2 hours (including a heavy set of commercial commitments to show) to get their 80 minutes of action telecast.

But Fox Sports have no excuse at all to cut any on field action in the replay format.

It is bad enough that NRL Scoreboard refuses to show all the tries scored in each game every weekend (making their claim it is a comprehensive weekend wrap-up a little weak) but why would they then deny us portions of on field action in the replays of the games.

If they didn?t have a problem showing all of the game last year then what has happened this year? Can a replay of the Tri-Nations of Lawn Bowls from the Murwillumbah Bowling Club not wait an extra 5 minutes to be shown on a lazy Monday afternoon?

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The NSC Almanac & League Player Ratings were launched last week and with a number of subscribers already ? what are you waiting for? (Lawn Bowls perhaps?)

For just $22 AUD you get the 2006 Almanac featuring the definitive guide to over 700 NRL players from all 15 NRL Clubs. Plus each week you will receive NSC Exclusive League Player Ratings of the 238 individual performances from each Round. And both products are formatted for easy printing making them not reliant on web access to view after download.

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If you subscribe before Round 3 you?ll receive Round 1 and 2 LPR in one delivery.

2006 LEAGUE PLAYER RATINGS

ROUND 2 LEADERBOARD

17 ? Andrew Johns, NEW

17 ? Johnathan Thurston, NQL

16 ? 5 Players tied