''The NRL Rookie'' is an Australian

National Rugby League The National Rugby League (also known as the NRL Telstra Premiership for sponsorship reasons) is a professional rugby league competition in Oceania which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria (state), Victoria, the Austral ...

reality television series that aired on

9Go! 9Go! is an Australian free-to-air digital television multichannel, which was launched by the Nine Network on 9 August 2009, replacing Nine Guide. It is a youthful channel that offers a mix of comedy, reality, general entertainment, movies, anima ...

. The Rookies were coached by rugby league greats Brad "Freddy" Fittler,

Mark Geyer Mark Bradley Geyer () (born 7 December 1967) is an Australian radio host and former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000. An Australian international and New South Wales State of Origin representative ...

and

Adrian Lam Adrian Lam (born 25 August 1970) is a Papua New Guinean professional rugby league coach, and former player, who is currently the head coach of the Super League club Leigh Leopards. He played for the Sydney Roosters in the National Rugby Leagu ...

. The winner of the show will be drafted to one of the 16 Australian National Rugby League (NRL) club's rookie list. The series was won by Lou Goodwin, who chose to be drafted to

Canberra Raiders The Canberra Raiders are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the national capital city of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. They have competed in Australasia's elite rugby league competition, the National Rugb ...

over the

Gold Coast Titans The Gold Coast Titans are a professional rugby league football club, based on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. The club competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership, Australia's elite rugby league competition. Since 2008, the ...

Format

Captain Challenge

The Captain Challenges involves the rookies competing against each other in physical challenge of speed, endurance & strength each week. The rookie that comes first in the challenge will become weekly captain, they also cannot be ''cut'' from the competition during that week.

Game Day

All the rookies play as a football team to play a game of football each week. As they play the game, the 3 coaches will watch each rookie to assess the weakest from the strongest rookies and any improvements from previous weeks.

The Shed/The War Room

In ''The Shed'', the rookies have a peer-to-peer session with psychologist Kate Baecher, as well as a group feedback session, this is where the rookies call out who they believe was weakest for the week & then vote for the bottom 3 rookies for ''The Cut''. In ''The War Room'', the 3 coaches watch the session in ''The Shed'' on a television, this is where the give their final weekly assessment of each rookie.

The Cut

Every week, the rookies all stand on the field of Allianz Stadium as Freddy calls out the 3 weakest rookies of the week. The Captain Challenge winner has the option to swap a rookie for another or keep the 3 same rookies, one of the rookies will be chosen as the weakest of the 3 and be ''cut'' from the competition.

The Rookies

Daniel Caprice Daniel Caprice (born 20 October 1989 in Chatham, Kent) is a retired Rugby Union player who last played as Wing and fullback for London Welsh in the Aviva Premiership. Dan began playing rugby aged 8 at Medway Rugby Club, Rochester. He moved ...

had previously represented

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

rugby sevens Rugby sevens (commonly known simply as sevens, and originally seven-a-side rugby) is a variant of rugby union in which teams are made up of seven players playing seven-minute halves, instead of the usual 15 players playing 40-minute halves. R ...

while Lou Goodwin, Jesse Shearer and Jordan Martin had fathers who played first grade (

Matt Goodwin Matthew Goodwin (born 19 October 1960) is an Australian former rugby league footballer who played in the 1980s and 1990s. Playing career From 1983 until 1989 Goodwin played a total of 119 games for the Penrith Panthers, in the process scoring ...

Dale Shearer Dale Shearer (born 25 July 1965), also known by the nickname of "Rowdy", is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1980s and 1990s. A Queensland State of Origin and Australian international representativ ...

and

Paul Martin Paul Edgar Philippe Martin (born August 28, 1938), also known as Paul Martin Jr., is a Canadian lawyer and retired politician who served as the 21st prime minister of Canada and the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada from 2003 to 2006. Th ...

respectively). Following the filming of the show, Luke Frixou, who had previously represented

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

, was signed on a trial contract by the

Salford Red Devils The Salford Red Devils are a professional rugby league club in Salford, England. They play home games at Salford Community Stadium in Barton upon Irwell and compete in the Super League, the top tier of British rugby league system, British rugb ...

. ; Notes * Matthew Johnstone was originally in the top 28 but didn't make it through to the top 14. After Matthew Gorman was injured prior to week 2's game, Johnstone was given a second chance in order to even out the teams for the match. * Roydon was cut before the Captain's Challenge due to breaking curfew after a night out. * Luke was cut at the end of the first half of Game Day due to his lack of proficient rugby league playing skills

Results Chart

; Notes * Chris won the Captain Challenge for this week but since he was in the top four all of the rookies were up to be ''cut'' from the squad. : Rookie was Captain Challenge Winner and had immunity for the week : Rookie made Captain's Call : Rookie returned to competition : Rookie was placed in bottom three or four : Rookie was put in bottom three or four by Captain : Rookie was put in bottom three or four by Captain and Cut From Squad : Rookie was Saved by Captain's Call : Rookie was Cut From Squad : Rookie was Cut before the Final Cut : Third Place : Runner-up : The NRL Rookie winner

Guests

Broadcast

Premiere Episodes

Encores

Each episode airs five times during the week on free to air television across the Nine Network and multichannel GO!

International

The series broadcasts internationally on

Duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of Royal family, royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and above sovereign princes. As royalty or nobi ...

(NZ),

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

(UK), NBCTV (PNG) & FijiTV (Fiji).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:NRL Rookie, The 9Go! original programming 2010s Australian reality television series 2016 Australian television series debuts Rugby league television shows National Rugby League