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When we talk about modernising rugby league, what does it mean and what are the catalysts for it occurring?
In the case of on-field changes, aesthetics are a major driver of change. We got rid of the breakaways back in 1906 to open up some space. We introduced limited tackles, four-point tries and eliminated a dozen rules and interpretations which allowed for negative, boring play.
The other big catalyst for rule changes is player safety – the introduction of replacements, head bin, blood bin, punching and shoulder charge bans.
What about off-field changes? What makes us change competition structures, numbers of teams, geographic expansion and representative programs?
Sometimes it’s the changing demographics of our fans and players. State of Origin represents a smaller percentage of players in the premiership than it used to, because of the wider net being cast. by clubs, the relative influx of players from Super League and the rise of the Pacific nations.
But the biggest impact on the decisions the sport makes off the field is made by one thing: money.
Which brings us to reports that Greg Inglis being shopped around to French rugby union clubs.
Why are our top AFL and rugby league players residing in Australia while our best soccer, golf, baseball and basketball practitioners live overseas?
The economies of AFL and the NRL are artificially isolated and protected from international predators by the virtues of the rules of those games.
We play some weird sports in this country, and therefore the athletes involved cannot transfer their skills in a way that allows them to make the most of their natural talent on the global stage.
That little market advantage has made our domestic football codes complacent.
But thanks to Sonny Bill Williams, Jarryd Hayne and Sam Burgess, the walls are coming down. Our athletes are now recognising the existence of the barriers described above and are setting about demolishing them.
My point here is this: Central contracting, salary cap concessions, marquee player schemes and the like are bandaid solutions to the player drain problem.
The game, as it exists now, will send itself broke trying to compete with European rugby union. If Hayne is successful, it’s not even worth trying to match American sports franchises. But an athlete drain is just another catalyst for modernisation.
What if you put another competition on top of the NRL, with an International flavour, big money TV contracts and played in super stadia?
Imagine a third of the season devoted to a trans-hemisphere provincial comp, for example.
Normally, we’d be dragged kicking and screaming to such a scenario because of tradition and vested interests.
But if we lose our best five players year after year, then such a measure would eventually become a necessity to stop rugby league becoming mere stepping stone to real sporting fame and fortune,
As much as we might panic, The player drain is just part of our evolution as a sport, in the irrevocable direction of where we need to be.