Benji Marshall kicks the ball. AAP Image/Action Photographics, Colin Whelan
NRL administrators have found themselves in the stocks of late as players and fans vent their frustrations at the perceived failings of those charged with running the game.
I often find myself playing the role of defender for those charged with making the tough calls in rugby league, but an incident this week pushed me over the edge and has forced me to pick up and hurl a rotten tomato.
First of all, fresh from the NRL CEOs meeting, Roosters boss Steve Noyce announced an idea that players should wear individual numbers rather than their positional numbers as per tradition.
The idea was that apparently lots of kids would be keen to buy jerseys if they could get their favourite players number on the back. I believe the term income stream may or may not have been used.
Fair dinkum, what are they teaching in MBA’s these days?
While the idea was sold as part of these whole new wave of shrewd management thinking sweeping the NRL at present, it’s far from original. Not only is it a straight rip off from American sports, but also has been pinched from the old Super League days.
Yep, good old Super League, which is meant to have had the sort of affect on traditional rugby league supporters as garlic to vampires was exhumed (pardon the continuing undead pun) to bring out that brain wave.
I refuse to believe that suddenly Wests Tigers jerseys will be flying off the shelf because Chris Heightington is wearing the number 36 (chosen due to the fact that’s the amount of penalties he gives away over two matches).
Of course, it didn’t take long for someone to suggest a superstar, ala Benji Marshall, wearing the number 23.
Ah 23!
The number Michael Jordan wore is still the number marketers pluck for, even though he’s been retired for eight years, which strikes me as the last time many CEOs had an original idea.
Sorry, but if someone is wearing a Wests Tigers jersey with number 6 on the back, I’m pretty sure they’re a big Benji fan rather than being a one man movement to have Daniel Fitzhenry installed at pivot.
The other reason I know that the idea to turn the rugby league field into a massive roulette table will fail is history. In Super League, it didn’t work.
Sure there is some novelty value with the big guns having a weird number, although why wouldn’t Darren Lockyer just choose ‘6’.
But it then means you get Brad Morrin in 27 and Shaun Fensom in 44. What is the friggin’ point?
I’ll concede it would be gold to see Jarrad Hickey wearing 88 so someone can shout “Two fat ladies!,” but it’s hardly worth all the effort.
So while the announcement was rubbish, it was also a symptom of the problem with the NRL.
Here we have the NRL CEOs meeting, a time when every man and his dog is talking salary cap overhaul, player departures and Independent Commission, and what’s the first press release we get from the game’s most powerful?
What about a change in jersey numbers.
For F*%$’s sake!
I know it wasn’t the key issue discussed at the meeting, so why not come out swinging with a bold plan to tackle the game’s challenges rather than coming out and trying to get everyone to look away from the burning vehicle by shouting, “Look Michael Bani in jumper number 33!”
There was no talk of a step towards the Independent Commission (the target date of November 1 quickly becoming best case scenario as the meetings drag on), no talk of tackling the salary cap problem anymore than wheeling out the same old tired clichés.
The old arguments have merit, but you still need to show that some thought is being put into problems.
Perception is reality for the punters. People perceive many NRL CEOs as just a bunch of suits keen for another meeting and another lunch.
I know that’s not the case. I know some very smart and very hardworking people work in rugby league. But the message constantly sent to public is off a tired old group living off the goodwill of fans and players.
When the player’s behaviour off the field wasn’t up to scratch, they were given a kick in the pants from those who love rugby league.
Now it’s the administrators letting the game down with their rabbit in the headlights impersonation.
As an old coach of mine used to say: “It’s time to lift or f%$& off!”
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May 7th 2010 @ 5:00pm
Terry said | May 7th 2010 @ 5:00pm | Report comment
The bottom line is league has a saturation point. The is no where for it to go. What happends when the Super 15 decide to stick a game on friday night or the AFL is played live on Friday night ( Qld). The number for the league will drop. There simply isnt enough $$ in the game to keep trying to get the big $$$ for players. There has to be a cap. There isnt the opportunity for players either. Union and soccer both have many competitions out side of Australia where player can ply thier trade. The top NRL players has a couple of French Clubs and English Super League.
League players are one of the best athelete going round for bulk and speed, but often great players are left in the wings.
You have to give some ground and I think the way to keep players is to introduce a payment system from another club.
Falou goes to the Rebel the rebels have to pay out Brisbane 250K. Half the money goes to the club the other half get split into the rest of the clubs. Brisbane can them add that $125K to there salary cap.
Admitting that you are not the biggest fish in the pond is the worse mistake, one you get over that you are small fry you then can accept that player will go. The A- League has to deal with this, a recent sale of Tommy Oar and 2other players to a dutch club for 1.8 million means the club survives.
NRL should sell and look for profit,
May 7th 2010 @ 5:59pm
karlos said | May 7th 2010 @ 5:59pm | Report comment
Terry, perhaps you have been hibernating for a while, but Rugby League has plenty of room to expand. However to add to the original article we have this all too familiar story of the ARL killing the game.
Darwin Rugby League scrapped by ARL
By Kristy O’Brien
Posted 53 minutes ago
Map: Darwin 0800 The Australian Rugby League administrator has announced that the Darwin Rugby League will be scrapped today after weeks of discontent in the code.
The ARL says it hopes all Darwin club presidents will sign-up to be administered by the Northern Territory Rugby League by this afternoon.
If they do not, they face being kicked out of the competition.
The ARL’s Graham McNaney says some of the clubs are not happy with the decision and have threatened to pull out.
“At the end of the day it’s a participation sport so I would certainly hope that the affiliation agreements would be signed today so that games will be held this weekend.
“We’ve got a flourishing competition up there.
“Who a club is affiliated with should make no difference to a player.”
The arguement as I understand it from here in Perth is that the clubs and players want to play on Saturdays. This allows the clubs to make more $$ via bar sales etc and the players have more beer, more comarardary, more fun and more time to recover before work the next day. The ARL wants them to play Sundays because???They do. I tell you, the amount of idiots in our game at the upper levels is amazing, We have lots of people working hard and smart to promote and expand the game at a grassroots level and then we have idiots kicking them in the guts just to be an authority figure.
i am sure we have all seen it at a local level somewhere were ARL, CRL etc have destroyed whole competitions and clubs too show everyone who is boss. The usual thing is the ARL etc want to push a competition or a club to do something that not benefit or suit the people on the ground doing the actual work of expanding and strengthening our great game and the tossers tell them to do as they are told or stop playing Rugby League.
The usual thing is that these idiots are wanting acceptence as big fish (in little seas) and they dont care if the sea gets smaller and smaller, just so long as they are at the top. Saw this happen in Perth with dozens of clubs told to join other (bigger) clubs to create an elite setup like the NRL over here. It was all about good business sense and following best practice of streamlining and reducing costs without understanding that people put their heart and soul into creating and nurturing clubs for their local area (tribe) and rugby league growth does not follow business best practice rules. People are in it because they love the game and that is what it grow from. The result of this business idea above was that dozens of clubs folded as did competitions.
May 9th 2010 @ 12:22pm
col the bear said | May 9th 2010 @ 12:22pm | Report comment
Graham McNany.. hmm now there’s a name from the past that will make every Bears supporters whince.. wasn’t Graham the inaugral CEO of the Northern Eagles..
May 9th 2010 @ 12:49pm
col the bear said | May 9th 2010 @ 12:49pm | Report comment
and wasn’t the former Manly player Magilla Thompson.the CEO of the NE . after McNany..
and you wonder why the Bears never excepted the one sided hybrid club..
Manly colours, Manly name, Manly staff, Manly CEO, Manlys oval.. etc etc etc etc etc etc….
Norths voted for Manly to come into the 1947 competition..lets see if the manly club will do us the same services when our turn arises….some how I doubt it..But it won’t make a differance to us.. because Here come the Bears..
the organising of the CCBears rally is well under way for next Saturday.. seaFm has been plugging it constantly for the past 2 weeks..we’ll try and fill 3 bays this time..for the Easts/Newcastle game..
May 8th 2010 @ 9:31am
oikee said | May 8th 2010 @ 9:31am | Report comment
Saturation point, mate, rugby league has not even touched 3 states yet. W.A Sth OZ and Victoria still dont know what rugby league is, we have not even scrapped the surface of promotion and growing the game, these guys and our t/v partners have vertually held the game back for 10 years, imagine where we would be now if these other states had coverage.
The game has been run like a bad porn movie, nobody allowed to see what it is all about unless you have a beta video.
1st thing they need to do with any t/v deal is to make sure they show 2 live games in every state, every week. Origin live, tests live. Look, if i owned the game, i would be licking my lips with the future of rugby league, its a goldmine, waiting to be discovered, hopefully the dinosaurs can finally be put to rest.
May 7th 2010 @ 11:32pm
Hansie said | May 7th 2010 @ 11:32pm | Report comment
Jarryd Hayne lost me this week with his whinging about not getting enough free tickets for the test match. Seriously, he’s on about 10 times the salary of the average league fan, who has to pay big dollars to watch him play, and he’s whinging about not getting enough free stuff!
May 8th 2010 @ 6:26pm
col the bear said | May 8th 2010 @ 6:26pm | Report comment
Hey steve, in the initial season of super league in 97.. they had quite a few different rules to the ARL comp..what i’d like to know, what were those initial changes.. because I think if you have a look a lot of those changes over the past 12 years quite a few of them have been bought into the NRL games..I think individual numbers was one of those ideas.. I completely detest this idea.. we might as well put in a quarter back to throw some forward passes…
May 8th 2010 @ 8:38pm
berra boy said | May 8th 2010 @ 8:38pm | Report comment
individual numbers are not an American phenomenon. The AFL is as old as American Football and players choose there numbers here.
May 8th 2010 @ 8:39pm
berra boy said | May 8th 2010 @ 8:39pm | Report comment
And anyway Col – the NRL already has a quarterback – Cameron Smith hasn’t thrown a backwards pass from dummy half for 5 years
May 9th 2010 @ 8:20am
col the bear said | May 9th 2010 @ 8:20am | Report comment
May 10th 2010 @ 9:27am
JJ said | May 10th 2010 @ 9:27am | Report comment
I don’t know what the problem with individual numbers is…
I can understand people wanting tradition, but at the moment you have people playing in number 20 shirt due to changes after the initial team was announced. If every week the starting 13 wore jerseys 1-13 then that would be ok, but they don’t.
And in the English Super League, the perceived top starting team at the start of the season tend to have jerseys 1-13. Then the rest of the squad have jerseys 14-29 or whatever the total number of players at the club. Players don’t pick their number and you wouldn’t have people wearing jersey 69 or 88 because you don’t have that many people in the squad.