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March 23: Ross and White star in Fight Club; League's biggest challenge
On this day, Brett White and Ben Ross are marched in a spiteful Storm-Sharks clash and league faces its greatest ever threat from a foe no one saw coming.
2003
Manly legend Cliff Lyons comes out of retirement at the age of 41 to play for the Hornsby Lions in the Manly-Norths junior league, making him eligible to be called up by the Sea Eagles.
2008
Rival front-rowers Ben Ross (Cronulla) and Brett White (Storm) are sent off by Tony Archer in an explosive match at Olympic Park.
In the 66th minute of the match Ross hit Cooper Cronk late and high after he had got a kick away and White rushes in to stick up for his No.7.
White pushed Ross to the deck and when the Sharks big man rose to his feet he was flattened by two punches from White.
Both men were marched by Archer before the Sharks prevailed 17-16.
2012
Brisbane winger Jharal Yow Yeh suffers a compound fracture of the ankle as the Broncos down Souths 20-12 in Perth. A crowd of 15,599 attends the match.
2020
The NRL’s resolve to play on despite the rising tide of the coronavirus is shattered by governments in NSW and Queensland shutting down all but essential services and closing restaurants, bars, clubs and gymnasiums and recommending parents keep children home from school.
Queensland premier Anastasia Palaszczuk announces the closing of the New South Wales-Queensland border. ARLC Chairman Peter V’landys announces that in the face of alarming information from its biosecurity and pandemic expert, the game has no option but to shut down indefinitely.
It is the gravest threat rugby league has faced in its history. "I don’t think we have ever, ever come across a financial crisis like this," V’landys said. "It is probably the biggest challenge the game will ever face."
2021
Former Cronulla prodigy Bronson Xerri is officially suspended for four years by the NRL for steroid use. Xerri is banned from all professional sport until November 2023. The sentence is backdated to the date that he provided his original sample to regulators on November 25, 2019.
This article contains information from the official records of NRL historian David Middleton
