The Roar
The Roar

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New commission will make the right calls for NRL's future

Roar Pro
22nd February, 2012
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Roar Pro
22nd February, 2012
5

By now we have all born witness to the birth of the NRL Commission, which after years of speculation and organising has finally formed.

I believe the seven inductees on this new governing council are just what the NRL needs.

We finally have a group of people who are prepared to make the tough decisions and act on them without hesitation and succumbing to pressure from the media and fans. This is a problem that has plagued the NRL for years.

A few weeks ago, Phil Rothfield of the Daily Telegraph wrote an open letter to the new head of the NRL Commission John Grant, asking he immediately act on 10 central issues that the NRL currently faces. I was very pleased that they did so and without any fuss.

One of these issues they fixed was changing the McIntyre system to a format that is very similar to the current AFL finals system. This way, the top four teams get rewarded more fairly and overall creates a much fairer system.

Other issues raised in his piece which need addressing include mid-year transfers, Golden Point, the current standard of referring, the schedule and the next expansion period.

There is also the massive issue of the new T.V. rights deal coming up which the NRL will be hoping to get a similar deal to the current AFL agreement of 1.25 billion dollars.

The fact that players and coaches are constantly negotiating with other clubs throughout the year is an absolute disgrace. The lack of restrictions is one of the reasons Sonny Bill Williams was allowed to freely walk out on his contract in the middle of 2008 without a seconds notice.

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Last year at Manly, Des Hasler caused a media riot when he agreed with terms to head to Belmore in 2012, which then was over-hyped and blown out of proportion.

The free agent laws need to be changed so that NRL contracts actually mean something and are not just a piece of paper with a dotted line to sign.

Surely player managers and teams can also have enough patience and decency to wait until the off-season to negotiate with the players and adjust their playing rosters accordingly. You are still going to get the media blowing things out of proportion, but at least it would be a more structured and civil way of doing things.

While I feel the issue of Golden point needs its own article to explain the problems in full, the current standard of referring in this code is appalling. I’m pointing a special finger at the video referee who sometimes makes me so mad I feel like I’m back in the office at the end of the financial year.

The Commission will need to act fast on the way the NRL schedules its games for the year and also the weekly time slots for matches. Having an effective schedule will also make the process of getting the best TV deal possible much easier.

I see no absolutely no reason not to play a game on a Saturday afternoon and broadcast it live free to air. If you really want to start being serious about competing with the AFL, then having more than one live game a week is a must.

Having bye weekends in the same week as State of Origin is also the other issue that consistently drives me crazy. I don’t understand why teams such as Melbourne, the Broncos and St George have had to suffer over the last few years and pull kids up from their feeder clubs to make up the numbers against regular first graders. You could have it so each team gets a bye two out of the three Origin weeks and have a much fairer completion.

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I wrote my own views on expansion in the NRL several weeks ago.

While I gave special mention to the Central Coast, as Phil pointed out, to make Rugby League a truly national competition Perth deserves serious consideration for expansion as well. However, I still maintain that this should only be looked at after the current financial problems surrounding existing clubs is properly dealt with first.

I am very confident that the new commission can bring these issues to the forefront and have them dealt with as quickly as possible for the good of the game.

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