I just don’t get it. The final round of the NRL season was played over four days, ensuring that clubs would be disadvantaged by the eventual finals draw no matter how the final eight ended up.
It is an ongoing problem that rugby league has to bow to the demands of their television masters, to the detriment of fans – who still yearn to attend fixtures live.
The flow-on effect is a finals series that begins this week where some clubs are markedly disadvantaged by having two or three days less preparation time than their opponents.
Manly, Penrith and Canterbury face the sternest Tests in week one of the finals. The Sea Eagles play a ‘home’ final at the Sydney Football Stadium against Souths on Friday night on a five day turnaround. The Sea Eagles get no reward for finishing higher in the premiership table than the Rabbitohs, who will have seven days to recuperate from their 22-18 loss to the Roosters last Thursday.
Penrith’s reward for securing a top-four finish is to face the minor premiers the Roosters – with three days less rest. The Bulldogs make the trip south to face a Storm side who will have two extra days to prepare for the visit of their 2012 grand final opponents.
It’s a mess. No doubt Channel Nine were sweating on a Penrith win so they could secure Souths, a proven TV ratings winner, in prime time on Friday night.
Had the Warriors beaten the Panthers, Manly and Souths would have been the Saturday night game, with the Roosters taking on the Cowboys on Friday. I’m not sure why it would have been unfair on the Cowboys, but that is what was reported on Fox Sports.
It doesn’t matter which way the NRL went, teams were going to go into the finals on less rest than their opponents. Don’t get me started on scheduling Manly to play at the SFS on a Friday night – it’s like the NRL are hell-bent on ensuring Sea Eagles fans can’t or won’t make it to the game.
But I digress…
When are the NRL going to grow up and realise that the last round of the competition needs to be played on the same day, much like in the English Premier League.
I know – there are a billion reasons why that won’t happen, as TV executives jump up and down and stab nicotine-stained fingers at the words ‘TV Deal’ in block letters.
But if the last round was to go ahead on the one day, at least all the top eight clubs would oppose each other on equal rest times in the finals.
The Premier League routinely trades individual players for amounts equal to the entire NRL salary cap, and have TV deals with BSkyB, Setanta Sports and BBC which total 2.7 billion pounds.
Yes folks, that’s pounds, or about 4.68 billion Aussie dollars. Yet the EPL somehow manages to ensure that the last round of their competition always kicks off on the same day at the same time.
How can this be? Why aren’t they being held to ransom by the needs of the TV audience and the media moguls who have splashed such whopping amounts of cash out for the right to broadcast the game?
Is it because somewhere within the cynicism of astronomical player salaries and billionaire club ownerships, the integrity of the game still matters?
The NRL will deny they have made a Faustian pact with the TV devils. And I get that TV money is keeping the game alive. However, it should not be at the expense of fairness, player preservation and the fans.
Otherwise, it looks distinctly Faustian.
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