Earlier in the week, Steve Mascord wrote on The Roar about the need for cultural change in rugby league.
The first thing I want to say is, great stuff Steve. The article was a good read.
This article will try to address and highlight the attitudes and cultural aspects some in the sport are worried about losing. The first point I want to make is that I don’t think there is a real risk of losing too much should we try and change aspects of the game’s culture.
If you look closely I think the Australian Rugby League Commission thinks this too.
There’s always some kind of outcry or upheaval when you shake things up. Rugby league has had this in spades to varying degrees over its lifetime. It’s billowing to the fore now. One thing I can see clearly is this huge change of culture will be more dynamic, beneficial and stable in the long term.
People may kick and scream at the moment, change is always hard, some may zone out, but more will enjoy the sport than ever before. I attribute factors like flat crowds to this very thing. But the curve will go up again after a time of settling.
See, I note Mascord mentioned losing touch with the man in the street. I think the same thing, but with one caveat – it will lose touch with those deluded into supporting the game in the first place. But their support was a narrow and limited (even if committed) support in the first place.
So if the price for these people to support the game was a shoulder charge, or concussion-inducing hits, or fighting, that’s their delusion and brings up questions about why they support the game. Those non-sporting aspects may have served the game but they can’t be a part of it going forward. If they can’t appreciate the other 99 per cent of the time they watch the game, then they are best left behind.
While it’s nice to have revolutionaries (who may be more likely to support such things as above) along for the ride, their time is done. The revolution happened, so step aside. In sporting terms, it’s time for an attitude change.
The rugby league life cycle is one that should be allowed to mature. And sure, the sport was ahead of many for a long time (by chance alone) in being openly professional, but when you can say your one non-administrative strength was arrived at by chance (before the ARLC, which is the next major advancement in terms of rugby league), then that’s a major problem.
Though the problem has been addressed there will still be those who think the sport still has a problem. Now is not the time to be narrow-minded about this great sweeping change in rugby league.
Not everything the ARLC does is of liking to myself for instance, but I realise at the end of the day that I do like the sport and I get on with watching it and supporting my team. I see the wider perspective as it progresses, and not everyone can be kept happy at any single point. But there is one defining characteristic of that, I’m not going to abandon the sport just because of superfluous things.
A corollary to the idea there, and by contrast in a sense, is the way the narrative in the media has panned out. Some want to solder people onto that previous culture. It’s most unfortunate this view has been allowed to fester.
Let me give you an extreme example that should highlight this. If the Sharks had to wind down tomorrow so that rugby league was better placed, more popular and whatnot, I’d say do it. On the one hand it seems drastic to say that, but on the other hand it has a certain amount of open mindedness about it.
Of course not everyone thinks the same way and it may not go down well with the public, and would require a massive PR campaign.
Much of the underlying cause is that I think people live in a veil out there in the world – busy with other things, they may not appreciate the fact that losing the Sharks may just make the international footprint of the sport better, and hence better for everything in the game.
Of course with the previously mentioned media narrative, people feel they are entitled to keep their lump of coal and that they don’t need the diamond.
That last sentence there is the biggest travesty this sport has been subjected to, without fail. This culture change Mascord speaks of must happen, and it probably will happen. Against all odds, after-all, the ARLC came into being. While we should listen to everyone’s opinion and take on board the things people say, we can’t let the collective limitations hold the sport down.
The game itself could be played in front of five people at the top level to two small towns in New South Wales, and it would still be largely the same as if it were played on the world stage.
This comes full circle to when I said I like the game. It won’t matter to me if that were the case, but it doesn’t take a genius to work out that a diamond is better than a lump of coal – especially in the modern, complex, developed market we live in.
That diamond can be swapped for much, much more than warmth and fire, which is about the only thing you will get from coal. That, and soot, which I liken to the effect of the rebellion attitude about the sport.
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