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If the National Rugby League wants to continue to describe itself as ‘the greatest game of all’, it had better take a look in the mirror, grab the botox and remove a few wrinkles.
The game needs to continually strive to present itself in the best image possible. If it doesn’t, then it can’t make any such claim about being ‘great’.
A few things have started to tarnish the game over the past few weeks.
Posting an Instagram pic of you and your footy buddies having dinner with bikies gang associates and a bloke on charges for fraud and money laundering?
Yep, that will do it.
Hanging out with a “flamboyant”, “colourful” former brothel owner and “porn baron”?
Yep, that will do it too.
But there are other areas that the game can control.
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Firstly, put your hand up if you thought last week’s first State of Origin was a wonderful exhibition of rugby league? OK, I see a few hands – some former players, Phil Gould, anyone in the media with a stake in the television ratings and website clicks – anyone else?
I didn’t think so. Anybody I talked to agreed the game was tough, grinding and an ‘Origin style’ contest. It was physical at times, and the scoreline remained close.
Is that what makes an Origin game? It might be to many people, but it isn’t to me.
Rugby league’s State of Origin is unique in world sport for its concept and acceptance. Other sports and countries have state matches, but nothing like this, where we deliberately exclude some of the best players in the game yet paradoxically it’s more successful for missing big stars.
Sam Burgess, Semi Radradra and James Graham can’t get a start because of eligibility. That’s fine by me, it’s an exhibition game. More people in our region and around the world watch Origin matches while they wouldn’t normally watch any other game of league.
For this reason, the game has a responsibility to showcase the best that the sport can offer. Rugby league attracted more eyeballs globally to the match last week than any other in history. Yet instead of flair, ball movement, offloads and risk-taking, we had a grind up the middle of the park with one try apiece.
Sure, the coaches want to keep their jobs and the players don’t want to play in a losing team, but the sport is bigger than all of that. I hope the Suncorp Stadium match in two weeks’ time provides football worthy of its position as the most-watched game we can provide.
The second problem I had was not the game we provided on the park, but the image we projected from what we did off the park.
In Perth last Sunday – another showcase opportunity, to a smaller audience but in a niche market – we saw an epic contest between the South Sydney Rabbitohs and Gold Coast Titans. After skipping to a 12-0 lead at halftime and extending it after the break, the Titans found themselves getting reeled in by the Rabbitohs and the game went to golden point.
At that stage, both teams deserved a competition point, with one side dominating the most part of the game and the other launching a stunning comeback.
Yet the headline from the match was not the stellar game we had seen, but what the hell was South Sydney forward Nathan Brown doing stomping on Agnatius Paasi’s groin? He took a stomp at him and missed, but after taking a look down as Paasi started to roll away he copped another whack for his trouble, right next to the crown jewels.
The incident was missed by the on-field officials, and I can explain how that happened.
Two Titans were holding on to the upper part of Brown’s body, wrapping up the ball. That’s perfectly fine, but after the initial contact in the tackle, the referees’ focus turns to the ball and the hands on it.
The stripping law is so problematic and open to exploiting by the ball carrier that the officials are determined not to judge a lost ball incorrectly.
The control referee was beginning to set the ten-metre defensive line, the touch judges were moving upfield to assist, the pocket referee was moving forwards to clear the tacklers, and all the while the eyes were focused on the ball. This was in golden-point time, with the tackle on the Titans’ 30-metre line. A penalty here means game over and a Rabbitohs victory. The officials are acutely conscious of this.
The strike from Brown was late in the tackle, so the officials aren’t always going to see it. In fact, most of the time they won’t. If you factor in the touch judges being at least 30 metres away, with the refs so concerned about the ball and defenders’ hand position, I’m not surprised at all.
What did surprise me was the determination of the match review committee. The contact wasn’t “forceful”. It didn’t pose an “unacceptable risk of injury”. You can read Michael Buettner’s comments for yourself.
What nonsense. If it wasn’t forceful or wasn’t going to cause an injury, how about we just go with the unacceptable part and leave it at that?
Brown’s act was certainly an unacceptable look for the game. A player in possession stomped at a player on the ground. There was no question of contact and while any intent can’t be proven, the game’s image was tarnished.
Former first-grade players Brett Kimmorley and Gorden Tallis hit straight out at the lack of punishment. Rightly so, because even if the match review committee feels there might be no chance of injury, every parent of every league player who saw it has another reason to say: “If that’s rugby league, I’m not sure I want to be part of it.”
Let’s sell the game by protecting the game. Use its on-field vehicles like Origin to drive the exposure of rugby league.
And when some cretin behaves in a way unpalatable to every supporter, then let him know by means of a bit more than a formal warning.
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