The Roar
The Roar

The Roar

Tony Harper

Editor

Joined July 2021

3.53m

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621

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3.3k

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Tony has been writing about sport since making a debut at the Queensland Times, Ipswich, in 1989 with a column entitled 'That's What I reckon Sport!' He has since worked as a reporter and editor with organisations including Fox Sports, Fairfax, AAP, The AP and ACP magazines, covering four Olympics, three FIFA World Cups and WC's in cricket and rugby. Favourite team: Arsenal. Favourite question: 'Did you even watch the game?'

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Lovely job Thomas. Thanks for sharing this with us. I, for one, have goosebumps!

Australia, England and football's long journey to acceptance – hold on to this moment, because it's what we've been waiting for

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Football
 
Today

Thanks Mike. In news that will come as a shock to absolutely no one, the referee and VAR from the Man United fiasco have been dropped for next week. One week in and we’re back with reffing scandals.

What the EPL?!: Ange's big day, Claret blues and trouble at the bottom on opening weekend

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Football
 
Today

It means Hoops is still training for the WC but Quade’s future is uncertain. He hasn’t spoken yet and isn’t in the Aus A squad just selected

'Sums up his career': Waugh reveals how Hoops reacted to RWC snub, and the Quade hope that didn't transpire

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Rugby
 
1d

Hey Cookie, Phil was on the podcast and no he wasn’t asked that

'Sums up his career': Waugh reveals how Hoops reacted to RWC snub, and the Quade hope that didn't transpire

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Rugby
 
1d

I was somewhere near Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.

What three hours in a bar taught me about RWC contenders - including the 'most confident 0-4 team on the planet'

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Rugby
 
4d

Glad to be of service

What three hours in a bar taught me about RWC contenders - including the 'most confident 0-4 team on the planet'

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Rugby
 
4d

Your best pun yet PS

Panic at Tedesco but captain Kangaroo still No.1 option at fullback despite high hopes of in-form rivals

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League
 
4d

But can’t you stop, fan boy?

Wallabies winners and losers: Eddie's ruthless RWC squad is full of double standards - but we had been warned

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Rugby
 
5d

Saw another good conspiracy theory today – Suli was chosen to make the code switch more desirable to a few NRL targets on the boil.

Wallabies winners and losers: Eddie's ruthless RWC squad is full of double standards - but we had been warned

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Rugby
 
5d

I just asked Christy. He said Greg Davis. I said you’ve made that up. Turns out he didn’t. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Davis_(rugby_union)

Eddie has done what was needed four years ago and ripped the bandaid off. Now he's breathed life into Aussie rugby

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Rugby
 
6d

Well yes, except all these reports stem from just 2 reports – Christy’s here and the one in the SMH. The other 5 are just rewrites.

Exclusive: Quade, Hooper to miss World Cup selection as Jorgensen rockets into squad

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Rugby
 
6d

Eddie has been outright refusing to talk about players who aren’t selected. Hopefully he makes an exception to explain some of these calls

Exclusive: Quade, Hooper to miss World Cup selection as Jorgensen rockets into squad

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Rugby
 
6d

Not so Don. The players are all told and players have families and friends. That’s a lot people who know who aren’t at RA. It’s in RA’s interest to protect it for Stan and their own social channels at 6.35pm. It’s in our interest to find out what’s happening first, and Christy is exceptional at that.

Exclusive: Quade, Hooper to miss World Cup selection as Jorgensen rockets into squad

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Rugby
 
6d

Why assume it’s RA leaking? It’s in RA’s interests to keep it locked down.

Exclusive: Quade, Hooper to miss World Cup selection as Jorgensen rockets into squad

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Rugby
 
6d

Hi all, just to give a bit of an update on what to expect today.

The Wallabies will announce the team at 6.35pm AEST on Stan and their YouTube channel and we will have the confirmed squad story live at that time.

You can watch that here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4Y6lpmGz2rkbOVdrOhjgvQ

Eddie will then give a press conference at 7pm AEST which we will have up in full on site asap.

Exclusive: Quade, Hooper to miss World Cup selection as Jorgensen rockets into squad

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Rugby
 
6d

Was a fabulous experience even if my eyes were tested way up in the top of the sixth tier. Mostly grateful for that wonderful Fowler through ball that shut up the woman behind me who was bagging out Fowler for the first half hour.

The noise was Kerr came on was crazy. The only very minor note of disappointment is that our 75,000 fans are unable to create a coherent atmosphere. ‘Let’s go, Matildas, let’s go” isn’t cutting it.

Next match for me is England v Colombia/ Jamaica and reckon that will be a step up in noise.

Foord Fiesta! Caitlin and Raso fire Matildas into quarter finals as Kerr makes long-awaited return

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Football
 
1w

Thanks NoMates. I look forward to the daily PeppaPig updates

Foord Fiesta! Caitlin and Raso fire Matildas into quarter finals as Kerr makes long-awaited return

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Football
 
1w

She would have needed to build up with some game time to regain some match fitness and sharpness. The question is do you start her in the next game or go again off the bench – keeping in mind the potential for extra time.

Foord Fiesta! Caitlin and Raso fire Matildas into quarter finals as Kerr makes long-awaited return

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Football
 
1w

Hi guys, happy Friday and Bledisloe II eve to those in the southern hemisphere. I interrupt the chat on this typically erudite piece from HJ to share a bit of news. (Apologies for the hijacking H)

Our numbers for July are in and the Roar Rugby audience (users) and content consumption (views) are both at record levels for the site. A year-on-year comparison to the England series last year puts us more than 35 percent ahead this year on last year.

Firstly thanks to the loyal; and regular readership for coming here for your rugby news and views each week, and adding so much more with your honest appraisals of the sport, the players, the administrators and our coverage. And also to the many many thousands of new readers we’ve picked up this year.

We know that while we have a couple of hundred hard core commenters our stories are reaching numbers in the 10s of thousands at times. It’s so pleasing that they’re discovering and enjoying our work.

For me, the results are proof that maintaining quality writing and best in the rugby business news breaking through our regular experts – Harry, Brett, Geoff, Jim, Jamie and Christy – aligned with interesting perspectives from others writing and commenting from the Crowd is a formula that is working and working well.

There are other sites that have some components of what we offer, and some good writers and contributors out there too – but I’m proud to say no one else is doing as much coverage of Australian rugby from Australian angles – giving insight and breaking news. Quantity of quality is clearly what people are coming to us for.

This is such an exciting year – there will be four Roar correspondents on the ground in France providing content for you.

We can’t wait.

It's not Eddie's first rodeo, but old school methods could leave behind a trail of broken bodies

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Rugby
 
2w

Yes, Eddie mentioned Suli in his presser – I figured he was just trying to troll The Roar readers and didn’t want to encourage him

'Load of rubbish': Eddie slams Carter critique ahead of ABs rematch, says Wallabies must 'invest' in young 10

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Rugby
 
2w

He has answered that question the same way a few times so we’ve given up asking – “I don’t talk about players who aren’t in the team, mate.”

'Load of rubbish': Eddie slams Carter critique ahead of ABs rematch, says Wallabies must 'invest' in young 10

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Rugby
 
2w

They enjoyed it. They just found some of it annoying and baffling. I went to the France-Panama game last night. So much happened but all the VAR stuff was largely impossible to understand as an in stadium fan. I had my phone streaming Optus Sport so I could see replays.

Give us back football's soul: Why FIFA must listen to World Cup's bandwagon fans and end this joy-sucking disaster

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Football
 
2w

😂

Give us back football's soul: Why FIFA must listen to World Cup's bandwagon fans and end this joy-sucking disaster

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Football
 
2w

Nah, we good. I need to know what I’m doing wrong with the child raising… who else is going to be that honest?

Give us back football's soul: Why FIFA must listen to World Cup's bandwagon fans and end this joy-sucking disaster

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Football
 
2w

Thanks for that. I can’t do it though. There’s always a nagging doubt and I don’t want to over commit!

Give us back football's soul: Why FIFA must listen to World Cup's bandwagon fans and end this joy-sucking disaster

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Football
 
2w
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