In his first weekly column for Big League, Andrew Webster reflects on his early days in the press box!
When I was a young reporter covering rugby league in the 1990s, mobile phones were the size of a brick and laptops were the size of a suitcase.
Only the most senior of writers from the leading mastheads were afforded them. Most of us just scurried off after fulltime to read our stories down a landline to copytakers before calling in quotes from the coaches and players that night.
“Try again,” one confused copytaker told me after stuttering through the intro of my very first match report.
I’ve been thinking about those days a lot as I write this debut column for Big League, the institutional match- day program first published in 1974. What an honour.
Sitting nervously at the back of the press box in those early days of my career, I watched veteran scribes mark up late changes to the magazine’s team lists an hour before kick-off.
Each time a try was scored, a little “T” went next to the name of the player. A goal kick was represented with a “G”, a conversion with a “C”, and scrums and penalties marked in the small box on the side of the lists.
After a hiatus of some years, Big League is back with six print editions and weekly digital editions for the 2025 season.
It starts with the NRL rocking the neon casbah of Las Vegas for a second year with a season- opening quadruple-header at Allegiant Stadium.
The Canberra Raiders clash with the New Zealand Warriors while four-time defending premiers Penrith Panthers rumble with the Cronulla Sharks.
A Super League showdown between Sam Burgess’ Warrington Wolves and Wigan Warriors will
be held for the first time, as will a women’s international between the Jilaroos and England.
I was halfway through an interview with ARL Commission chairman Peter V’landys during last year’s match between Souths and Manly when
the Roosters’ NRLW star Jessica Sergis leaned in and spoke into my digital recorder.
“They must have a women’s game here next year,” she grinned, although firmly enough for the chairman to listen. It will be the second-last match of the evening.
Rugby league’s decision to open the season for five years in the United States — the world’s most competitive sporting market — is its most ambitious. The NRL isn’t taking it lightly, but it’s in it for the long haul and determined to make it work.
Anyone who attended last year’s matches in Vegas will tell you it was one of the greatest moments of their rugby league lives.
In Old Vegas, Fremont Street heaved with a memorable fan-fest on the Thursday. In New Vegas, the Strip became increasingly packed with fans wearing the jumpers of their club.
For decades, this city had been owned by boxing and gambling and, more recently, NFL transients the Raiders, who call Allegiant Stadium home.
But for a few days in late February and early March, it belonged to rugby league.
And it will again with ticket sales already exceeding last year’s attendance with more than 10,000 coming from the United Kingdom.
For what it’s worth, I’m expecting lots of tries from all four matches; a try-a-thon in a city where fortune favours the brave. Or the lucky. Or the stupid.
For those of us marking up our Big League with each point scored, it’s going to be a busy, memorable day and night.
