By Steve Kaless
February 12th 2009 @ 7:21am
The lighter side of visa paperwork
God bless government bureaucracy! Until now, there was rarely any good news coming from the pen pushers and red tape merchants that patrolled our nation’s capital, but suddenly they are resembling the super heroes that reside in the Hall of Justice.
Fresh from writing us all cheques to save us from the perilous state the world’s bankers drove us into, it now seems that next in line for a treat is the National Rugby League.
Previously the game’s governing body could do little more than offer silent prayer in resistance to players leaving to ply their trade in the northern hemisphere.
But they seem to have found an ally in the British government, who suddenly seem less than keen to hand out visas to every player looking to up sticks and move to the land of warm beers and tanning salons.
Recently Todd Carney and Michael Crocker have found their pasts have again caught up with them with their applications for work permits being rejected on the grounds of criminal convictions.
There is something ironic about the British suddenly rejecting our convicts, but without going into the historical trends of migration of those on the wrong side of the law, it may have been the biggest assistance to the NRL as it attempts to crack down on player misbehaviour with the golden escape route of the English Super League suddenly in jeopardy.
However, the threat of bad publicity didn’t stop Bradford signing G. Bird (Gaol Bird?) on the line.
But it is not just the game’s bad boys feeling the pinch. The clean skins are also getting stung.
Despite the season already beginning, the Leeds Rhino’s new recruit Greg Eastwood is still waiting on his British passport (his dad was born in Huddersfield), while many clubs have been hit after their antipodean players went home for Christmas or the World Cup, or both, and suddenly found a once simple process getting very complex.
The talk around rugby league circles in England is that it may scare clubs off looking at high priced Australian talent. After all, there is nothing worse than if you have dedicated a large chunk of your salary to a player and they can’t get through the front door, which was, of course, a former intelligence test for prop forwards.
Those words must be music to the ears of Davis Gallop.
Maybe it is a centenary birthday present from the public service. After all, though it would be a year late, in Canberra that counts as being on time.
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Spiro Zavos said | February 12th 2009 @ 4:03pm | Report comment
All we have to do now is get the french rugby clubs on board and all this nonsense about Carney et al getting a free ride in Europe can be put to an end.
Sam said | February 12th 2009 @ 7:09pm | Report comment
The ESL in my opinion will never surpass the NRL. The English play is too direct and not creative enough. To much darting at the line and not enough lateral movement. Saying that if another Andrew Johns doesn’t come through soon, the NRL will have a few worries of its own.
james said | February 12th 2009 @ 11:59pm | Report comment
Its probably a good thing for the england international team aswell, maybe they can work on their development of players instead of poaching