Why being an NRL All Star just isn’t enough
Roar Guru By League Freak, 3 Feb 2012 League Freak is a Roar Guru
- Tagged:
- NRL, NRL All Stars, NRL Indigenous All Stars, Rugby League
In the history of top grade rugby league in Australia, there are only 16 players since 1908 that have played 300 or more clubs games.
Think about that for a moment. For the thousands of players who have pulled on one of the famous rugby league jerseys of either an NSWRL, ARL or NRL club, only 16 have had a career that has spanned longer than 300 games.
It is a testament to the intensity of the competition and it is seen as a great honour to be one of the select few to surpass the universally recognised milestone.
So considering that even an above average NRL star is looking at 300 games ceiling on their career, is it any wonder why they would be less than enthusiastic to throw their bodies into a contest whose meaning, while well intended, ultimately won’t have any impact on their overall career?
The NRL All Star game on paper is a fantastic concept, but it is one that is fractured in the sense that it offers a very different outcome depending on which side you get selected for.
For an Indigenous NRL All Star player, the meaning of this game is very clear. The chance to celebrate the history and contribution that Aboriginal players have had on rugby league is one that every selected player carries with great honour.
In this sense, the All Star game is a fantastic concept and the NRL has led the way for all Australian sports in showcasing Aboriginal talent and using the game to push many great causes for Aboriginal people in Australia.
To balance this up, the NRL All Stars team boasts that it is a side selected by fans. A chance for players to feel a sense of recognition for their achievements in the game.
However it is clear that an NRL All Stars player is playing for a lot less than an Indigenous All Stars player, and that is something I don’t think the game can ignore any longer.
The NRL All Stars, at the end of the day, are on a hiding to nothing. When I watch the game as a fan, of course I want to see the Indigenous All Stars to get up!
To win the game really means something to them, and when it comes down to it, the ideal victory would come from a spectacular late try to give the Indigenous All Star team a famous victory and for us to all be able to celebrate with them, every, single, year.
If you doubt this is the game then ask yourself how long this concept would last if the NRL All Stars team racked up a few big wins in back to back season. How many of those could the All Star Game concept actually survive? Three, maybe four lopsided games at most?
NRL All Star Players are rightfully proud when they get chosen by fans to represent their club and the game in general in the All Stars Game. However, as the pre season starts coming to a close and players start to focus on the club season ahead, the NRL All Star game goes from being an honour, to being something of a distraction. Well intended, but still a distraction.
At this point of a player pre season preparation, how many of them really want to take a good week and a half away from their NRL clubs and spend that time focusing energy on something that isn’t the ultimate goal of winning an NRL title?
How many want to put in all the time traveling, doing media and charity work, breaking their regular training routine and possibly risking injury for a game that, come September, few will put any real value into?
If you thought you maybe be able to only do something 300 times, and by October if everything goes well, you maybe have ticked 20-30 of those occasions off your total forever, wouldn’t you be hesitant in when and where you applied yourself?
When it comes down to it, there is simply not enough incentive in the grand scheme of things for a player to really want to go out of their way to play for the NRL All Stars, and with every withdrawal of a selected player, the honour diminishes for appearance that puts you on a hiding to nothing anyway.
Some have suggested that you can get over this with offering more money to players that take part in the game, but this is a short sighted band aid fix that would not only cheapen the entire game and make it prohibitively expensive to hold.
You also have to consider that, with the NRL salary cap about to rise considerably, one off appearance fees are going to become less of an incentive anyway when compared to a players growing overall salary anyway.
I personally believe the way you save the All Star Game concept is to give the opponents of the Indigenous All Stars team something to play for. Their own cause. Their own reason to be proud.
I would have the Indigenous All Stars team playing against a Polynesian All Stars side.
Imagine having a chance to celebrate two groups of players who both contribute so much to the game. You’d be giving players of Polynesian decent a chance to play in a big time representative fixture while at the same time honouring them for the incredible and growing contribution they make to the game as a whole.
With recent work the NRL has been doing with Polynesian leadership camps, it would be a natural progression to see a Polynesian team coming together as a representative side anyway.
Who knows, an All Star Team may become a stepping stone for a combined Polynesian Test side that would be able to take on the likes of Australia and New Zealand on a regular basis and provide a much needed point of difference in international rugby league.
While in an ideal world the likes of Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, the Cook Islands and so on would play as individual nations, the reality right now is that the interest from sponsors, clubs and television just isn’t there for these teams to get the exposure to the top level that they truly do deserve.
As a combined side however, they become a top draw. Try arguing against a Polynesian test team playing against New Zealand if you can get 20,000 people into a stadium in Auckland to watch such a game.
The Polynesian community is crying out for representation. Having been at the 2008 rugby league World Cup when Tonga played Samoa, it was incredible to see how two massive communities got so excited and come to a game, not so much to see who won, but just to have a chance to see themselves represented on a big stage like that.
Maybe a Polynesian All Star side is therefore the way to go, with having the longer term goal to have the side playing test football until such time as the game can afford to give Pacific Islands nations the chance to stand on their own two feet and play the likes of Australia an New Zealand themselves.
What ever the case, the current All Star concept come off as a half finished product, with one side having everything to play for, while the other is asked to be happy just to be there.
In a brutal game like rugby league, the truth is that an All Star jersey just isn’t worth burning a 1 in 300 chance on.
@LeagueFreak
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February 3rd 2012 @ 10:40am
Steve said | February 3rd 2012 @ 10:40am | Report comment
I was actually thinking of a game with teams made up of players with Scottish grandparents playing against players with a Greek mother and an Australian born father.
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February 3rd 2012 @ 11:05am
Seano said | February 3rd 2012 @ 11:05am | Report comment
I’m pretty sure people from the cook islands and Fiji are Melanesian. And people from PNG are Paupauen, which would leave just Tonga and Samoa, oh and Hawaii!!
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February 3rd 2012 @ 12:15pm
allblackfan said | February 3rd 2012 @ 12:15pm | Report comment
FYI, Seano
Cooks Islands are Polynesian. The language they speak is a form of maori (who are also Polynesian as are any island group east of Fiji like Hawaii, Tahiti, Easter Island, Samoa, Tonga).
Fiji is special; Polynesian in the east and Melanesian in the west (Solomons, PNG and Vanuatu are Melanesian)
Then there’s Micronesia (Palau, Marshall Islands etc). Hope this helps:-)
February 3rd 2012 @ 10:09pm
Seano said | February 3rd 2012 @ 10:09pm | Report comment
Thanks mate, I knew it didn’t sound right when I read it though!!
February 3rd 2012 @ 11:06am
Big_Marn2000 said | February 3rd 2012 @ 11:06am | Report comment
I wonder if Josh Dugan would agree with you that there is no point of putting your body on the line for a game with supposedly very little meaning (unless you are Indigenous). Dugan used last year’s match to catapult himself into Ricky Stuart’s Origin calculations. I would go as far as to say that without the All Stars game, Josh Dugan would not have played Origin last year. For guys like Josh Dugan, the All Stars match is an opportunity to show that you can match it with the best in the world. It is also a learning opportunity for up and coming stars. These guys get to train with the likes of Marshall, Smith, Hindmarsh, Cronk, Blair, Gallen etc. and they get to train under the best coach in the world today (and arguably the best EVER) Wayne Bennett. Not to mention the fact that they get to be part of the incredible showcase of rugby league that is the All Stars match. There is plenty about the All Stars concept that benefits BOTH sides.
February 3rd 2012 @ 11:12am
Das Boat said | February 3rd 2012 @ 11:12am | Report comment
I agree with alot of what you have said, particular a Polynesian v Indigenous match up. I get the feeling the All Stars will try harder in years after they have suffered a loss under the current system, but it wont be true passion about the game
However I think you are confusing ”big stage” with extremely small stage when describing the 1998 world cup
February 3rd 2012 @ 11:16am
pennypanther said | February 3rd 2012 @ 11:16am | Report comment
So tell me what is the point of having trials? If I was footy player I’d rather play in the All Stars game than play in a trial game out in woop woop!
February 3rd 2012 @ 11:22am
Tom, Sydney said | February 3rd 2012 @ 11:22am | Report comment
State of Origin started under the same pretences for NSW – Why play a State of Origin match when its only a game for the Queenslanders to help them win a game. What was the incentive for NSW players to playing a mid-week game and risking serious injury where the real prize was the premiership. Now look at SoO – it is the game that all other games are measured against and aguably given Queenslanders that superiority complex over all things blue. The All Stars game (there could be a better name for it rather then this Americanised marketing) in a ten years time will be one of those great contests right up there with state of origin and a true test for the indigenous players against the best the world can throw at them. An Indigenous All Stars game against a Polynesian Team would not draw 20,000 people in Auckland, Sydney Brisbane anywhere. Ridiculous – does the writer think that the average punter are just waiting for these guys to announce the game and then we will turn – up. The current All Stars game concept is successfull because its the biggest stars of the game celebrating the original inhabitants of Australia and their contribution to the great game of rugby league and Australia – we should not change the concept now or ever!
February 3rd 2012 @ 11:26am
B.A Sports said | February 3rd 2012 @ 11:26am | Report comment
I some how don’t think George Rose will be striving to play 300 NRL games….
February 3rd 2012 @ 12:10pm
Pacific All Stars said | February 3rd 2012 @ 12:10pm | Report comment
The Indigenous side needs to play every year. Playing against a Pacifc Islander side makes sense.
Hell, a combined Pacific Islander side could even beat the big three given the right amount of preparation.
February 3rd 2012 @ 12:30pm
The Greatest Game Of All said | February 3rd 2012 @ 12:30pm | Report comment
People forget that the game itself is the least imortant part of the week leading up to it, the match is just a celebration, the big party.
The week is about promoting a healthy lifestyle in the Indigenous community, its Greg Inglis saying I was just like you and you can be just like me. Equally important, its guys like Wayne Bennett and Darren Lockyer showing their support and saying the same thing. To say that the NRL All Stars have nothing to play for is an insult to their integrity, Paul Gallen doesnt have to play, neither Benji Marshall, and yet they do.
The players themselves, from both camps, enjoy the week and the game, they embrace it, why cant the ‘haters’, do the disgruntled public know better than the All Stars?
The All Stars concenpt probably does more for the Indigenous community than any amount of Government planning, its bigger than the game of Rugby League. Leave it as it is.
February 3rd 2012 @ 12:56pm
Renegade said | February 3rd 2012 @ 12:56pm | Report comment
Well Said, totally agree.
The NRL all stars have their chance to prove themselves in a high quality match and showcase their skills…..the game was developed after all to bring communities together while showcasing the great game of rugby league.
Add the fact that the fans are allowed to be so involved in the concept (picking the teams) it’s absolutely brilliant.
Need to stop trying to look for negatives and focus on all the positives about the all stars game.
February 3rd 2012 @ 1:30pm
B.A Sports said | February 3rd 2012 @ 1:30pm | Report comment
Agree.
You can’t “bring the community together” if you only have one or two sections of the community involved. Its about bringing everyone together and creating awareness of indigenous issues among the non-indigenous.
February 3rd 2012 @ 2:11pm
League fan said | February 3rd 2012 @ 2:11pm | Report comment
Excellent article I believe a pacific all stars would be a much better alternative to the current all stars. It would have a lot of meaning for both teams as they will both be representing their people.
As it is not an international the Kiwi and Kangaroo players such as Manu Vatuvei, Tony Williams, Akuila Uate etc will be eligible for the pacific team. What a fantastic mouth watering contest to start the season.