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Dear Australian selectors, this letter was going to have a very striking, cool introduction: “for the sake of rugby league, lie to us”.
The gist of what I was going to say, which I touched on in this column a few weeks back, was about one S Radradra.
No doubt you have been advised by the NRL to forget your own personal opinions on which country Mr Radradra should represent. You have been told to consider him Australian.
It has been explained to you that Semi cannot play for Fiji until after the 2017 World Cup, regardless of that being the country you think he should represent because he is only in Australia as a professional footballer.
You have been told to consider him on form – and he is probably the best winger in the competition. He is close to selection.
You may or many not appreciate the fact there are only 32 full-time professional rugby league clubs in the entire world and 30 are in Australia and England. That means if Australia and England pick players on residency, they can pick anyone and the rest of the world gets leftovers. We’ll not get a fourth competitive nation in our lifetimes.
If you disqualify Semi from selection based purely on his ethnicity, when he qualifies under the residency rule, you could leave yourself and the NRL open to legal action.
What I was going to ask you to do in this letter, gentlemen, was to do just that but don’t tell us. Don’t even discuss it with each other. Just don’t pick him, for the sake of rugby league.
Be fearful of the negative legacy you will leave the game if you do select him.
In 1995, Australian selectors were ordered by a court to consider Super League aligned players for the World Cup. So they did – and found that Allan Langer, Laurie Daley, Steve Walters and Bradley Clyde weren’t up to it!
You can do that.
But then I began to think about the position I took on Ben Barba at Canterbury and on South Sydney players being locked up in Arizona.
I recalled how I argued in favour of an objective truth, and that it’s our job to tell you what happened and the public’s decision whether it cares.
One year I’m saying I have no faith in rugby league to be transparent and truthful anymore, and hang up at least one of my boots, and the next I’m asking rugby league selectors to lie to me because it suits my own little hobby horse.
That just won’t do.
So I am addressing this specific piece of advice to one selector, the big one. Big Mal. Here’s what Mal Meninga should say when he is asked if Semi Radradra, left out of the Anzac Test, was considered.
“No he wasn’t. The Australian team management has made a decision that for the time being, we will not be utilising the residency rule because of the damage doing so would cause to the international game.
“We believe that by picking Semi – and this is nothing personal against him – we would be encouraging all NRL players to desert their country of origin as soon as they thought they could make our team and that would do irreparable damage to many other countries.
“It is not that we don’t recognise immigrants to this country as Australian. It’s that we want to encourage our fellow rugby league playing nations by giving them access to the best possible talent pool.
“We understand our position is open to being challenged in jurisdictions outside of sport. If we are ordered by law to consider Semi, we will do so and if necessary change the team.
“We hope Semi understands this is an important decision for our entire sport and not a slight on him.”
Remember, in 1995 the best players in the world were “considered”. So make Semi take the NRL to court, having told the world that Australia DOES care about the international game.
Radradra has tried to back Australia into a corner. He has thrown at least six Fiji Test jumpers in the figurative garbage bin and dared Mal Meninga not to pick him.
He’ll have a few days to get an injunction.
So if he gets one in the week leading up to Anzac Test, you selectors are free to wash your hands of the whole thing having made a statement and stood up for what you believe. If some kid gets kicked out of the team on a court order, it’s not your fault.
Or, like you did in 1995, you can take the court order on board and leave him out anyway.