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After many impassioned debates on The Roar over the last year I have taken the bait and put together my five-point plan for moving the NRL forward.
These are five ideas that myself and some friends have been kicking around for a while now. Most of them have probably been mentioned before, but I haven’t seen them brought together in this manner.
1) Relocation
This is a no-brainer. There are too many teams in Sydney. For rugby league to become a dominant code it needs to extend its reach nationally. Perth, Darwin, Adelaide and even Cairns could support teams, and SE Queensland could easily support another team, particularly if it was based in the west.
The Sharks and the Tigers immediately spring to mind, but I also think a more difficult decision to move the Rabbitohs would pay dividends as well. Sydney just can’t support that many teams.
I would move the Bunnies to Perth, the Sharks to Cairns, the Tigers to Adelaide and look at expanding new teams to Darwin and Toowoomba/Ipswich.
2) Relegation
The Queensland and NSW cups are strong competitions. Strong enough that with planning and foresight, I believe the NRL could adopt a relegation system over time. This is not an overnight idea, but it is something that could be done.
The lower grades could play in a conference, the winner of which plays off against the bottom of the NRL. It would bring much needed excitement to the back end of the season, with the prospect of a team losing its place in the NRL, and a new one taking its place.
Realistically it would take a pretty special Cup team to beat even an ordinary NRL team, so it’s not like it would happen regularly. But it would keep players and coaches in the race for the wooden spoon on their toes and be a huge incentive to teams playing in the second tier.
3) Reduction
The time it takes to complete a tackle is ridiculous. No one wants to see it. Speed it up. Reduce the amount of time players are allowed to lay on top of a tackled opponent. If there are three men in a tackle, make them get up in one second, two in a tackle they get two and one tackler means it is an automatic dominant tackle.
Reduce the interchange to six. Six is plenty. I haven’t seen an exhausted player in 15 years.
The tackle count should be reduced to five. I, and everyone I know are not interested in watching 80 minutes of one out passes to forwards who take a hit up, play the ball and repeat.
By taking away a hit up you essentially deprive a team of 10 metres which would hopefully lead to more scheming in the middle. By combining these three things I believe it would open up the game to the kind of enterprising play that made rugby league the greatest game on the planet.
4) Renegotiation
The current deal with Channel 9 and Fox is not good for the game. In my opinion they would have been better off taking half the money and dictating terms to the broadcaster. There needs to be at least three live free-to-air games per week.
As a minimum. Foxtel is a rip off and it will die once fast internet is widely available.
The NRL should set the schedule, not the broadcaster. Commentating is hard I guess because Andy Raymond and Warren Smith are about the only ones worth listening to.
Ben Ikin is also good, but more for his sharp mind and interesting insights. If the NRL had accepted less money, but negotiated more control, they could have greatly increased fans/viewers which means you would have a much more valuable product over the medium term. It won’t happen until 2017, but hopefully it will happen.
5) Revolution
The final and most exciting part of the series, revolution! NRL needs a revolution and it should come from the top down. Dave Smith is alright, but have you ever seen him excited about anything? Shouldn’t he be?
Shouldn’t a fan of the game be running the game? If you run sport like you run a bank you will end up with a bank. How attached are you to your current bank?
Rugby league is tribal, it’s passionate, it’s parochial, it’s about a siege mentality, us versus them, it’s a throwback to the colosseum and while I’m sure Mr. Smith has made the game more profitable it has come at the expense of the most important asset, the fan.
So I think it is up to every single fan to get up, take back their sport and make it the best in the world again.
Oh, and bring back the shoulder charge. There have been more injuries this year than I have ever seen.
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