Sunday afternoon in Brisbane, and my friends insisted it was finally time. After dipping my toes into AFL earlier this year, the other side of this country’s great sporting divide was calling. The Brisbane Broncos were hosting the Penrith Panthers in a Preliminary Final: a rematch of 2023’s Grand Final that had the whole city buzzing. Kick-off was set for 4:05 pm, the late-afternoon sun setting the perfect stage for a Queensland rugby league blockbuster.

It was absolute scenes at Seffiert Oval last Sunday as we set our sights on a five-match grand final day. But as the time rolled closer to 3:30, the sea of red, black, light blue and many more colours turned into only two – maroon and white and blue and white for the match of the day, the Queanbeyan derby, Blues and Roos.

This week is a special edition of the CRRL Wrap, where last Wednesday was the night of nights for Canberra Region Rugby League (CRRL) with their annual Les McIntyre Medal Presentation Night.

Welcome back to the Canberra Raiders Cup Wrap. This week is the Washout Round edition, where Round 7 back in May was rescheduled to last weekend due to severe wet weather.

Mikayla Kerin Welcome to the Wrap, as we report on an exciting second last round of the regular Canberra Raiders Cup. Match of the Round...

Welcome to the Round 16 Wrap, where we are getting into the pointy end of the regular season.

Welcome to the Round 15 Wrap of the Canberra Raiders Cup, where we had some interesting, unexpected, and downright surprising results.

Welcome to Round 13 of the Canberra Raiders Cup, which was a week of high scores and must-see games.

Welcome to Round 12 of Canberra Raiders Cup, a Saturday afternoon full of solid wins and straight up ‘laying on the points’ type of games.

Welcome to Round 11 of the Canberra Raiders Cup, where we had a mix of results with a couple of close matches, a solid win, and a draw, as well as milestones all happening in the space of a couple hours.

It is officially the second half of the season in the Canberra Raiders Cup with a stacked line up of matches occurring across the Canberra region on Saturday afternoon.

Round 8 of the NRL was one for the history books, and not just for the scorelines. A staggering 18 players were sin-binned, the most ever recorded in a single round, as officials cracked down hard on high shots and foul play. Amid the chaos, the ladder shifted dramatically, with shock results shaking up the pecking order.