''Rugby League Week'' (frequently abbreviated to RLW) was the highest selling

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

magazine A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...

, ahead of major competitor ''

Big League ''Big League'' was the official magazine of the National Rugby League. Its predecessor, ''The Rugby League News'', was first published in 1920; in 1974 it was rebranded as ''Big League''. In 2020, due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in ...

''. It was published weekly (on Wednesdays) during the Australian rugby league season, which runs from March to late September (roughly corresponding to the southern hemisphere

autumn Autumn, also known as fall in American English and Canadian English, is one of the four temperate seasons on Earth. Outside the tropics, autumn marks the transition from summer to winter, in September ( Northern Hemisphere) or March ( ...

and

winter Winter is the coldest season of the year in polar and temperate climates. It occurs after autumn and before spring. The tilt of Earth's axis causes seasons; winter occurs when a hemisphere is oriented away from the Sun. Different cultur ...

). The magazine was headquartered in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mounta ...

History

Rugby League Week was launched in 1970. In 2001 the magazine's name was changed to ''League Week'', to avoid confusion with

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

. It reverted to ''Rugby League Week'' in 2003. It is owned by

Bauer Media Group Heinrich Bauer Publishing (german: Heinrich Bauer Verlag KG), trading as Bauer Media Group, is a German multimedia conglomerate headquartered in Hamburg. It operates worldwide and owns more than 600 magazines, over 400 digital products and 50 r ...

. The former owner was

ACP Magazines Are Media is an Australian media company that was formed after the 2020 purchase of the assets of Bauer Media Australia, which had in turn acquired the assets of Pacific Magazines, AP Magazines and Australian Consolidated Press during the 2010 ...

. The last edition was published on 27 March 2017.

Content

The magazine contained news coverage of Australian rugby league, focused primarily on the first-grade

NRL The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

competition (previously the NSWFL) but with coverage also devoted to lower-level competitions. There were usually also several profiles of rugby league players in each edition. A number of league personalities, including Mark Geyer, Stacey Jones and Wally Lewis, had regular columns; unconfirmed rumours and miscellaneous gossip are reported in a column written by 'The Mole'. Each edition contains previews of the games to be played in the next NRL round, running from Friday to Monday. Details of every match from the previous round are also included: the games are assessed and each player who took the field, as well as the referee, is given a rating. Details of when and by whom points were scored are also included. (Before the formation of the

Brisbane Broncos The Brisbane Broncos Rugby League Football Club Ltd., commonly referred to as the Broncos, is an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Brisbane, Queensland. Founded in April 1987, the Broncos play in Australia's elite c ...

, these ratings and details were also given for the Brisbane Rugby League competition.) Results, but not ratings, are published for most notable rugby league competitions in Australia, as well as major competitions in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...

and

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

Player of the Year

Related to the rating of players ever since ''Rugby League Week'' was first published during the 1970 NSWRFL season has been its Player of the Year award. Since 1978, players have been rated out of ten for every game. To deal with absences from club rugby due to interstate and Test duty, the five lowest scores of every player are deleted from their final score. After these five lowest scores are removed, the player with the highest score wins the award. From 1970 to 1977, the method of judging was the same except that players were awarded points out of five instead of ten.

The Immortals

In 1981 ''Rugby League Week'' named 'The Immortals', four players that they considered to be the greatest in Australian history. In 1999 another two were added and in 2003 another one. At the end of the 2012 NRL season it was decided that Andrew Johns would become the eighth immortal. Currently numbering eight, The Immortals are: *

Arthur Beetson Arthur Henry "Artie" Beetson OAM (21 January 1945 – 1 December 2011

* Clive Churchill *

Bob Fulton Robert Fulton (1 December 1947 – 23 May 2021), also nicknamed "Bozo", was an Australian international rugby league footballer, coach and later commentator. Fulton played, coached, selected for and has commentated on the game with great succe ...

Reg Gasnier Reginald William "Reg" Gasnier (12 May 1939 – 11 May 2014) was an Australian rugby league footballer and coach. He played for the St. George Dragons from 1959 to 1967 and represented Australia in a then record 36 Tests and three World Cup g ...

Graeme Langlands Graeme Frank Langlands, MBE, (2 September 1941 – 20 January 2018), also known by the nickname of "Changa", was an Australian professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. and coached in the 1970s. He retire ...

* Wally Lewis * Johnny Raper * Andrew Johns

Ten out of Ten

Since the 1978 NSWRFL season, Rugby League Week has rated each player in each premiership and representative game on a scale of 1-10. There have been 17 players since 1978 to achieve the rare feat of being rated 10/10 for a game. Manly-Warringah second row forward

Terry Randall Terry William "Igor" Randall (born 5 February 1951 in Sydney, New South Wales) is an Australian former rugby league footballer who played for the Manly-Warringah club in the New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership. He is regularly na ...

had the honour of being the first player to be rated 10/10 in the opening round of the 1978 season.

Parramatta Parramatta () is a suburb and major Central business district, commercial centre in Greater Western Sydney, located in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located approximately west of the Sydney central business district on the ban ...

halfback Peter Sterling is the only player to achieve this twice while Brad Fittler is the only player to receive 10/10 in a representative game having done so in the second test of the 1995 Trans-Tasman Test series against

.League Unlimited - RLW Player Ratings
/ref> RLW's 10/10 ratings since 1978 include: *

( Manly-Warringah) vs

St George Saint George ( Greek: Γεώργιος (Geórgios), Latin: Georgius, Arabic: القديس جرجس; died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was a Christian who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to tradition he was a soldier ...

, 26 March

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd government). * January 6 ...

at Brookvale Oval * Geoff Foster ( Western Suburbs) vs St George, 2 April 1978 at Lidcombe Oval * Larry Corowa ( Balmain) vs Newtown, 2 April 1978 at

Leichhardt Oval Leichhardt Oval is a rugby league and soccer stadium in Lilyfield, New South Wales, Australia. It is currently one of three home grounds for the Wests Tigers National Rugby League (NRL) team, along with Campbelltown Stadium and Western Sydn ...

Graham Murray Graham Ernest Murray (6 January 1955 – 28 July 2013) was an Australian professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1970s and 1980s, and coached in the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s. A New South Wales State of Origin head coach, Murray c ...

(

) vs St George, 23 July 1978 at Cumberland Oval * Rocky Laurie ( South Sydney) vs St George, 29 March

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC. * January 9 – In ...

at Kogarah Oval * John Dowling (St George) vs North Sydney, 27 April 1980 at North Sydney Oval * Johnny Gibbs (Manly-Warringah) vs Cronulla-Sutherland, 9 August 1981 at

Endeavour Field Endeavour Field (also known by its commercial name PointsBet Stadium and colloquially as Shark Park during Cronulla Sharks matches) is a rugby league stadium in the southern Sydney suburb of Woolooware, New South Wales, Australia. It is the ...

Greg Brentnall Greg Brentnall (born 5 December 1956 in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales) is an Australian former rugby league footballer who played in the 1970s and 1980s. An Australian international and New South Wales representative and , he played for Canterb ...

( Canterbury-Bankstown) vs Manly-Warringah, 19 June

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street Bridge in Washington, D.C ...

at Brookvale Oval * Kevin Hastings ( Eastern Suburbs) vs Penrith, 3 April 1983 at Penrith Park * Peter Sterling (Parramatta) vs St George, 16 March

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal en ...

Parramatta Stadium Parramatta Stadium was a sports stadium in Parramatta, New South Wales, Australia, 23 kilometres west of Sydney's central business district. The stadium was the home ground of several western Sydney-based sports teams, at the time of closure ...

*Peter Sterling (Parramatta) vs Eastern Suburbs, 26 May 1987 at Parramatta Stadium * Bradley Clyde (

Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...

) vs Western Suburbs, 11 August

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phi ...

at Bruce Stadium * Brad Fittler (

) vs

(Test match), 7 July

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

Sydney Football Stadium The Sydney Football Stadium, commercially known as Allianz Stadium and previously Aussie Stadium, was a football stadium in Moore Park, Sydney, Australia. Built in 1988 next to the Sydney Cricket Ground, the stadium was Sydney's premier recta ...

Greg Florimo Greg Florimo (born 17 May 1967) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer and current rugby league administrator known for his lifelong association with the North Sydney Bears both as a player and CEO. Early life Florimo b ...

(North Sydney) vs Manly-Warringah, 30 June

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

at North Sydney Oval * Brett Kimmorley (Cronulla-Sutherland) vs Newcastle, 11 August

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

at Endeavour Field * Andrew Johns (Newcastle) vs

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metro ...

, 30 July

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; " Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discover ...

at Hunter Stadium *

Jarryd Hayne Jarryd Lee Hayne (born 15 February 1988) is a former professional rugby league footballer who also briefly played American football and rugby union sevens. Hayne began his career in 2006 as a er for the Parramatta Eels, winning the NRL's Dal ...

(Parramatta) vs

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...

, 23 July

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple Inc., Apple's first iPhone (1st generation), iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakis ...

Lang Park Lang Park, also known as Brisbane Football Stadium, by the sponsored name Suncorp Stadium, and nicknamed: 'The Cauldron', is a multi-purpose stadium in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, located in the suburb of Milton. The current facility co ...

References

External links

*{{Facebook, LeagueWeek 1970 establishments in Australia 2017 disestablishments in Australia Sports magazines published in Australia Weekly magazines published in Australia Bauer Media Group Defunct magazines published in Australia Magazines established in 1970 Magazines disestablished in 2017 Magazines published in Sydney National Rugby League Rugby football magazines Rugby league in Australia Rugby league mass media