- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Just like the post-work lunch hours on a Friday afternoon, so too has the NRL off-season entered into a torturous, unproductive time warp.
While the thick, humid summer air saps all the energy from your body, something very similar occurs to your grey matter as you try to wade your way through the pre-season journalistic junk shop that pollutes the sports media landscape.
“(Player name) is the fittest he’s ever been.”
“(Coach name) brings a lot of (noun) to the club.”
“Professional sportsmen are exercising hard and sweating profusely.”
The stories are as old as the game itself, and almost amusing in a crappy clichéd Grandpa Simpson sort of way when there was something decent to watch on telly in the Ashes.
Now though each article feels as difficult to conquer without vomiting as any seaside sandhill.
To date the most interesting off-season yarn has been about an ex-representative player and barely coherent commentator coming out of retirement to play in a modified game’s tournament, as well as a few new jersey announcements and players behaving like boneheads pieces.
Until yesterday that is.
Fans were given a rare glimmer of interest when Titans centre, occasional wrecking ball and aspiring Double Dare host Jamaal Idris was granted a release by the Gold Coast to return home (not Brisbane funnily enough) on compassionate grounds.
Idris was quickly snapped up by Penrith in a pre-orchestrated move, and in return the Titans received Panthers centre Brad Tighe and probably a few extra leftover sandwiches at the team’s next training session.
Interestingly enough it wasn’t just Panthers boss Phil Gould screaming “Yes yes yes yes yes!” when the news broke, but just about anyone with even a passing interest in footy.
Here after all was a story of actual substance that may have some sort of bearing on NRL season 2014.
And there should be more stories just like it. Many, many more.
If the dearth of any real rugby league events in the hotter months highlights anything to fans, it’s that the ‘off-season’ needs to get benched and be replaced with a ‘swap season’.
You want to sign for a new club for next season? Be my guest… but save it until the post-grand final swap season.
No doubt the Players’ Association will moan that players don’t have enough time to find a new house, school, tattoo parlour etc in such a limited time frame.
To which I argue that NRL players having too much time on their hands is pretty much the worst thing for them, if some of the player indiscretions doing the rounds this week are anything to go by.
Chuck them a $10 thousand dollar moving bonus, they’ll quickly sign on the line.
Plus, as if players managers don’t sort this sort of thing out for them anyway.
In the world of the 24-hour news cycle and social media, the idea of an ‘off-season’ is something that belongs in the era of Scanlens footy cards and the magic sponge.
It should be dumped, just as it already has been essentially dumped by the clubs themselves.
Competitions like the NFL with much shorter playing seasons have managed to create an environment where worthwhile and important stories are produced 365 days a year, many of them surrounding player movements.
Sure, an NRL draft is about as likely as Terry Hill reading the six o’clock news. But why not control what we already have to elongate media exposure for the game and save fans from being dudded when their star player signs for a new club halfway through the season?
And more importantly, give us something decent to read in January!
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.