| The NRL Rookie | |
|---|---|
| Genre | |
| Presented by | Erin Molan |
| Starring |
|
| Country of origin | Australia |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 10 |
| Production | |
| Production locations | |
| Running time | 60 mins |
| Production company | McGuire Media |
| Original release | |
| Network | 9Go! |
| Release | May 31 – August 2, 2016 |
The NRL Rookie is an Australian National Rugby League reality television series that aired on 9Go!.[1] The Rookies were coached by rugby league greats Brad "Freddy" Fittler, Mark Geyer and Adrian Lam. The winner of the show will be drafted to one of the 16 Australian National Rugby League (NRL) club's rookie list.[2][3] The series was won by Lou Goodwin, who chose to be drafted to Canberra Raiders over the Gold Coast Titans.[4][5]
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.
| Ep | City/State | Location | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ep 2 | Sydney, NSW | Olympic Park's Australia Tower | |
| Run up the tower to the roof, Jump off the roof (75 metres) in a harness, when they reach the ground, do 100 Military grade push ups or sit ups | |||
| Ep–3 | Queensland, Australia | Moreton Island | |
| Kayak around the Tangalooma Shipwreck, then dive down underwater to retrieve a flag. With the flag in hand, complete kayaking to the shore, then get to the very top of a steep sand dune | |||
| Ep–4 | Abbotsbury, NSW | Calmsley Hill City Farm | |
| Shepherd a flock of sheep into the pen in the quickest time | |||
| Ep–5 | Waiheke Island, Auckland NZ | Ecozip Adventures (Ziplining) | |
| Climb across the zipline, on the other side they grab a bag of footballs, with the footballs on them, they go back down the zipline and must try to hit 3 targets with the footballs, every target hit knocks 30 seconds off their time | |||
| Ep–6 | Sydney, NSW | Cockatoo Island | |
| Power & Pain (individual challenge): Round 1 - Do as many squats as they can in 1 minute, the 3 rookies who do the least are out of the challenge. Round 2 - hold up ice weights for as long as possible, the 3 rookies who let go first are out of the challenge. Round 3 - move a 100kg sled over 200m in the fastest time, fastest rookie to do so becomes captain. | |||
| Ep–7 | Londonderry, NSW | Fire & Rescue Brigade | |
| Enter a building with a real simulated fire & rescue, find the fire and put it out, then find the casualty (dummy) stuck inside the building and pull them out, all to be completed in a 15 min time limit | |||
| Ep–8 | Sydney, NSW | Parsley Bay | |
| Each rookie get locked in a single steel cage in the ocean, they must hold onto the under side of the cage and wait for the tide to come in and they must try and breathe whilst the water washes over their faces, last rookie left in their cage becomes captain | |||
| Ep–9 | Moore Park, NSW | Mount Steele | |
| Each rookie had to carry a pyramid of 9 besser blocks (one at a time) from the bottom of the hill to the top and remake the pyramid, the first rookie to do so becomes captain | |||
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.
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.
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.
Daniel Caprice had previously represented England in rugby sevens while Lou Goodwin, Jesse Shearer and Jordan Martin had fathers who played first grade (Matt Goodwin, Dale Shearer and Paul Martin respectively).[6]
Following the filming of the show, Luke Frixou, who had previously represented Cyprus in rugby union, was signed on a trial contract by the Salford Red Devils.[7]
| Name | Age | Born | Living | Hometeam | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lou Goodwin | 24 | Australia | NSW | Mount Pritchard Mounties RLFC | The NRL Rookie[8] |
| Jordan Martin | 21 | Australia | ACT | Woden Valley Rams RLFC | Runner-up[8] |
| Chris Hyde | 27 | Australia | NSW | Macquarie Scorpions RLC | Cut from squad in the finale[8] |
| Reece Joyce | 24 | New Zealand | Waikato | Bombay Rugby | Cut from squad in week 9[9] |
| Gary-John Hill | 27 | New Zealand | WA | West Scarborough Rugby | Cut from squad in week 8[10] |
| Roydon Gillett2 | 24 | New Zealand | WA | North Beach Sea Eagles RLFC | Cut from squad in week 8[11] |
| Peter Lee | 23 | Australia | QLD | Sunnybank Rugby | Cut from squad in week 7[12] |
| Elias Power | 25 | Australia | QLD | Easts Tigers Rugby Union | Cut from squad in week 7[13] |
| Matt Johnstone1 | 27 | Australia | NSW | Cronulla Sharks, NSW Police League | Cut from squad in week 6[14] |
| Luke Frixou3 | 21 | UK | UK | Derby RFC | Cut from squad in week 6[15] |
| David Andjelic | 21 | Serbia | NSW | St Patricks JRLFC | Cut from squad in week 5[16] |
| Karo Kauna Junior | 25 | Papua New Guinea | PNG | Port Moresby Vipers RLFC | Cut from squad in week 5[17] |
| Matthew Gorman | 23 | Australia | QLD | Bilambil Jets RLFC | Cut from squad in week 4[18] |
| Daniel Caprice | 25 | UK | NSW | Picton Magpies RLFC | Cut from squad in week 3[19] |
| Jesse Shearer | 24 | Australia | QLD | Maroochydore Swans JRLFC | Cut from squad in week 2[20] |
| Rookie | Elimination Chart | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 1[21] | Wk 2[22] | Wk 3[23] | Wk 4[24] | Wk 5[25] | Wk 6[26] | Wk 7[27] | Wk 8[28] | Wk 9[9] | Grand Final[8] | |
| Lou | Top 14 | CCW | CCW | CCW | IN | IN | IN | IN | Btm 4 | Winner |
| Jordan | Top 14 | IN | IN | IN | IN | IN | Btm 3 | Btm 3 | Btm 4 | Runner-up |
| Chris | Top 14 | IN | IN | IN | IN | IN | IN | Btm 3 | Btm 44 | CFS in the finale |
| Reece | Top 14 | IN | IN | IN | IN | Btm 3 | IN | CCW | Btm 4 | CFS in week 9 |
| Garry-John | Top 14 | IN | IN | IN | IN | IN | IN | Btm 3 | CFS in week 8 | |
| Roydon | Top 14 | IN | IN | IN | IN | IN | CCW | CUT | ||
| Peter | Top 14 | IN | IN | IN | IN | Btm 3 | Btm 3 | CFS in week 7 | ||
| Elias | Top 14 | IN | Btm 3 | Btm 3 | CCW | CCW | Btm 3 | |||
| Matt J | Top 28 | IN | IN | IN | Btm 3 | Btm 3 | CFS in week 6 | |||
| Luke | Top 14 | IN | IN | IN | Saved | CUT | ||||
| David | Top 14 | Btm 3 | IN | Btm 3 | Btm 3 | CFS in week 5 | ||||
| Karo | Top 14 | IN | Saved | IN | Btm 3 | |||||
| Matthew | Top 14 | Btm 3 | Btm 3 | Btm 3 | CFS in week 4 | |||||
| Daniel | Top 14 | IN | Btm 3 | CFS in week 3 | ||||||
| Jesse | Top 14 | Btm 3 | CFS in week 2 | |||||||
| Cut From Squad | None | Jesse | Daniel | Matthew | David Karo |
Luke Matt J |
Elias Peter |
Roydon Garry-John |
Reece | |
| Safe | David Matthew |
Elias Matthew |
David Elias |
Matt J | Peter Reece |
Jordan | Jordan Chris |
Lou Chris Jordan | ||
| Guest | Episode | Challenge |
|---|---|---|
| Adam "Mad Dog" MacDougall | Ep 2 | Physical Strength & Endurance - Weights & Boxing session |
| Ep 6 | Captain Challenge | |
| Darren Lockyer | Ep 3 | Captain Challenge |
| Wally Lewis | Ep 3 | Captain Challenge |
| Billy Slater | Ep 4 | Game Day |
| Robbie Kearns | Ep 4 | Game Day |
| Ruben Wiki | Ep 5 | Game Day |
| Anthony Minichiello | Ep 6 | Game Day |
| Danny Green | Ep 7 | Boxing Session |
| Paul Gallen | Ep 7 | Game Day |
| Jonathan Thurston | Ep 8 | Game Day |
| Episode | Timeslot | Airdate | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "The Big Cut" | Tuesday 7:30 pm |
31 May 2016 |
| 2 | "Dizzy Heights" | 7 June 2016 | |
| 3 | "Sunny Queensland" | 14 June 2016 | |
| 4 | "Farm Challenge" | 21 June 2016 | |
| 5 | "New Zealand Challenge" | 28 June 2016 | |
| 6 | "Cockatoo Island Challenge" | 5 July 2016 | |
| 7 | "Fire & Rescue Challenge" | 12 July 2016 | |
| 8 | "Parsley Bay Challenge" | 19 July 2016 | |
| 9 | "The Final Cut" | 26 July 2016 | |
| 10 | "Grand Final" | 2 August 2016 | |
Each episode airs five times during the week on free to air television across the Nine Network and multichannel GO!
| Day of Airdate | Timeslot | Channel | Cities |
|---|---|---|---|
| Premiere Episode | |||
| Tuesday | 7:30 pm | 9Go! | Sydney Melbourne Brisbane |
| Encores | |||
| Wednesday | 10:30 pm (After The NRL Footy Show) | Nine Network | Sydney Brisbane |
| Saturday | 1:00 pm | Brisbane | |
| Sunday | 2:30 pm (before Sunday Football Coverage) | Sydney | |
| Monday | 11:30 pm | 9Go! | Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth |
The series broadcasts internationally on Duke (NZ), Sky Sports (UK), NBCTV (PNG) & FijiTV (Fiji).[1]