News
10 June, 2026
Geoff has rugby league ink in his veins
These days, when 85-year-old Geoff Prenter watches the rugby league on television, he turns the sound completely down.
These days, when 85-year-old Geoff Prenter watches the rugby league on television, he turns the sound completely down.
He’s not deaf. He just can’t stand the sound of modern-day commentators trying to create something from nothing.
“They try and make drama when there is no drama there,” Mr Prenter told The Southern Wire.
“They’re telling you everything you can see without analysing it,” he said.
That’s change. Geoff comes from an era when newspapers were still printed in black and white and when football games for radio were called from the sidelines.
Big name players and big name commentators back then – Geoff included. He spent his days mixing with the likes of Richie Bernaud (cricket), Ray Warren and Col Pearce (NRL).
It was a time when the commentators commanded as much respect as the players themselves.
Geoff was talked into leaving his job at The Sun in 1970 and starting Australia’s first newspaper dedicated solely to rugby league. His friends and colleagues at the time told him he was crazy.
But he had a simple formula for success and it worked.
“I would write what I wanted to read – and it worked,” he told The Southern Wire.
It wasn’t easy – he was working 16 hour days, seven days a week for the first few years - but within years Rugby League Week had a circulation of 120,000 a week – making it the biggest sports newspaper (on a pro rata basis) in the world.
The cover price in 1970 was 20 cents.
Ten years later media mogul Kerry Packer came in and changed everything.
“He tried to turn it into the Women’s Weekly with glossy colour,” Geoff said.
“There was nothing glossy about what I was doing.”
Geoff knew a submission for his OAM had been submitted three years ago but said official notification still came as a surprise.
“It doesn’t put ketchup on your hot dog, but it still gives your heart a bit of a beat,” he said.
Geoff has now technically retired, but like most journalists can’t give the game away and still watches eight games of NRL a week (as well as an AFL game when the Sydney Swans are playing) and has a regular spot on the local community radio station.
He is also involved with the local Combined Probus club as well as the Uniting Church and volunteers for the C3 church in Bowral on a regular basis – when it’s not his turn to walk the family dog.
Does rugby league still bring the same ‘buzz’?
Unfortunately, no.
“The game is not nearly as good as what it used to be,” he said.
“It doesn’t have the same skills.”
He blames rule changes and the referees.
“There’s far too much emphasis on home-town decisions,” he said yesterday.
But would he change a thing? No.
“There’s probably nothing else I could have done,” he told The Southern Wire.
‘I couldn’t hammer a nail into a piece of wood.”
· Mr Prenter was recognised with a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) when The King’s Birthday 2026 Honours List.
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