- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
NRL clubs have been living in a false economy for decades, sucking up the massive profits from poker machines. But with the change in tax laws, many clubs are struggling for survival and aren’t creative enough to develop an alternative money stream.
The obvious alternative to poker machines is sports betting and the incremental cash that it will inject into the game. Betting on rugby league is booming and the NRL can “request” a product fee from the bookmakers who wager on the game.
The final details are likely to be inherited by the soon to be formed Independent Commission, who will likely be advised by the High Court decision in Canberra in June between big bookies Sportsbet and Betfair, who have protested against a 1.5 per cent tax imposed on them by Racing NSW.
Regardless of the outcome, the NRL have the benefit of observing the Racing Victorian model who has implemented a successful product tax based on gross profit.
There is a much bigger challenge for the NRL that has gained momentum since Bill Harrigan and Stuart Raper replaced Robert Finch as the new bosses of referees this season. What has happened is that we are seeing some “strange” results.
Harrigan and Raper have not introduced any new rules but they have instructed their referees to rule on them differently. Many players cannot comprehend the change and are constantly penalised for simple things like walking off the mark, playing the ball correctly, not walking over the line before a kick off, a drop out or feeding a scrum with both hands.
These rules are black and white and no player or coach can have a complaint, but the clamp down on the forward pass has been a shocker and almost on a weekly basis we are seeing forward passes that are not picked up and good passes that are ruled as forward.
This is not black and white and very much a human decision from a referee or linesman (assistant referee). This is not working for them or the game and they must re-evaluate how they rule on something that is often pivotal to the result on the game.
Maybe the video ref from a position of elevation can assist.
If a pass is flat then it should not be ruled on unless is it clearly illegal.
The other major gaffe that the game has inherited from the new NRL bosses is a failure to go to the video ref for another opinion. This is such a simple act to implement and will give fans what they want, the correct and just result.
Phil Rothfield reported that: “Sydney’s biggest punters have been scared off betting on rugby league by the poor standard of refereeing.” May I suggest to Phil that it is not just punters in Sydney.
You may be thinking “so what” or “who cares”, but if the NRL clubs are going to look at the punting dollar to replace the poker machine money train, then the Commission should take on board that literally millions of dollars a week, that were once invested in rugby league, are now going to the AFL.
The punters mentioned in Rothfield’s story are Eddie Hayson and Kingsley Bartholomew and are highlighted in my eBook “Living and Learning with the World’s Biggest Punters”, and both these guys love rugby league but importantly they are both highly intelligent, and when they decide to give their huge business to another sport the NRL and the Commission should ask why.
The simple answer is that the best team is not always winning because the referees are having too big a say. The best team in AFL games on the day is perceived to win with no adverse impact from the man in the middle with the whistle.
It is a fact that the NRL has drawn closer to rugby union since Harrigan and Raper took over. It had become more stop and start and penalties are crucial to who wins, not the best team on the day.
The world’s biggest punter Zeljko Ranogajec, lives in Sydney and is another NRL fan but he is known to be investing heavily into AFL and has instructed his software team to build a state of the art stats system.
Australia’s biggest bookie Matt Tripp, who also punts heavily on the NRL, sent me a text message last month during an NRL game when a try resulted from a clear ref error: “That will do me… that would never happen in AFL.”
Bill Harrigan can no longer front the media and say that he is happy with the way things are going. If these major players are turning away from the NRL who invest hundreds of million each year, that has huge ramifications in the future for the clubs when they ask for a product fee hand out.
You can be certain that many small punters will be following these big punters if we continue to see games that are decided by the ref and not the players.
I know these punters both big and small and they all cannot be wrong. Over to you Bill and Stu.
Reckon you can pick the winning team? Build your own dream team with Draftstars daily fantasy and compete on any match. For great odds on the NRL head on over to PlayUp. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.