I didn't quite get it. The coaches didn't put him in the bottom three yet when he got swapped they then voted him out. It did seem really harsh.

Really enjoying the series so far. I think they could tweak it and improve it by showing a bit more of the matches and maybe a bit more of the players down time but overall it certainly beats watching most other rubbish on the box.

I thought it was the rest of the team that pick the bottom 3, the captain can then choose if he wants to swap one of them out. the coaches then decide from the bottom three.

I'm enjoying the series, the captain's runs so far have been brutal!

I think the coaches come to a decision of their weakest rookie. But the players vote for the bottom 3 so then the coaches select their lowest rated rookie from the bottom 3 and he leaves.

I think the coaches may have binned off Elias if the bottom 3 had Karo been kept in it. Freddy didn't seem impressed with him running it on the 5th twice and said that if he wants to play union he should go back to it.

Must be down to watching him in training every day as the captain did say he was struggling as a half back.

Also the rookies must have players in reserve right. How are they putting out 13 players when players are injured. Must have players on bench to interchange

How many player are actually left? They went from 28 to 14 right and 3 have gone so that only leaves 11.

I was wondering that. It seems like quite a flawed elimination process when they have to play a game every week. Really enjoying it as a series though.

would be incredibly flawed if you've got one in each position, and you lose all your forwards or all you backs in a row, knackers up the entire show.

They should have just maintained the 9s approach and have full time limits.

Think it's 12 isn't it, they brought Matt Johnstone back in the second episode.

Had 13 then brought back Johnstone after Goreman was injured for match 1 to take them up to 14. But since then they've lost Jesse Shearer, Daniel Caprice and Matty Goreman.

This has been pretty successful.
The first episodes were shown on a back channel - but now they are putting it on after games on their main channel and repeating it a few times - so must be rating well.

I suspect they'll do it again, but I hope next time they start with a much larger group from a lot of different backgrounds. Giving these young guys 3 months of top level coaching and training should turn out some very good prospects.

This year it looks like they are doing it on the cheap because they didn't know if the show would rate, but it's clear the show does rate, and could do a lot better if they spend a bit more money.

Yeah they must have local players filling in the gaps who are just their to fill up the 13.

It's a good show though no doubt. The union player who run on the last tackle play twice seems to be a right knob.

Actually kinda wish we had something like this for super league rookie on sky. If it was well produced I think it could do pretty well.

Honestly would not be shocked if we saw the other code do something like this first though

A stats sheet popped up for a second or two in the last episode and at the bottom of the list of names was 'player 7' and 'player 14' with the latter playing about 30 minutes so must be locals making up the numbers or giving the forwards a breather.

The NRL is the greatest rugby league competition in the world, and one of the greatest sporting competitions on the entire planet. It is better attended and more watched than the so-called Aviva Premiership. This program "NRL Rookie" may well be the most important piece of reality TV ever seen in the UK. We are all privileged and honoured to be able to witness it twice a week. Thank you Sky Sports. Thank you Rupert Murdoch.

While I will fight RLs corner as much as possible, even I couldn't agree with this.

So the players making up the numbers, aren't they having the opportunity to put themselves in the shop window as well?

They surely can't keep playing games, can they? before long they'll have more making up the numbers than actual players.

It's hard for us as viewers to get a feel for a players true ability because they generally just show a few of the highlights for each player and you're never sure about the quality of the opposition, but appreciate it's a tv show so they can only show bit's and bats.

The other difficult aspect is rugby league is such a together, team sport. You really need to work for each other, yet they are also competing against each other so there's always that potential for a player going for their own glory to the detriment of the play or the team. You got some legends of the game judging though i suppose and they are getting a read out of stats so it should be pretty fair.

I thought first week, 28 cut to 14 for second week, including Johnstone gone, and then he came back in the second week to take it up to 15, since when three have gone.