The departure of Dave Smith was roundly celebrated throughout the media and in league circles at the end of last season. Media experts could barely contain their glee at finally being rid of a man who “just wasn’t League enough”.
The former UK banker just didn’t have the qualifications the League journalists were after, they regularly criticised his lack of knowledge for the game as the reason he could not and would not make a good NRL CEO.
When the curtain finally came down, great interest followed on who would take the place of the unpopular CEO. After five months of searching and apparently interviewing and considering a number of applicants, even from overseas, the not-so-unlikely Todd Greenberg was appointed.
How it took that long to find a man who was already wandering the halls of NRL HQ was bad enough in itself but it gave some foresight into the comedy of errors that the NRL remains to be under the tenure of Todd Greenberg.
Then there is the bunker: a much-lauded, $2 million toy that the NRL crowed would speed up and improve the game. After the first two weeks the honeymoon was over and the fans wondered just what the money had been spent on.
Not on brokering deals to reduce the cost of transport to a game, not on subsidising ticket costs for NRL clubs to attract more fans, not on spending it at the grass roots level. No, spending it on a piece of technology that does not work.
The Roosters on Monday night was a case in point as Daniel Tupou was robbed of what looked to be in real speed, a try, sent up as such too. Or Luke Patten inventing rules to declare a Panthers field goal legal. Were the Titans chasers onside for the field goal that was disallowed for the Rabbitohs?
Then there was ANZAC day where the bunker all of a sudden became judge, jury and executioner on foul play. And the NRL trots out the line of reportable offence. Define that for me. An offence where a player hits another too hard? Or too high? Or in view of the camera? Or if it looks nasty? But even if it’s not reported or penalised it can still be reported and the player will be penalised next week. Blake Austin deadset looked like his nose exploded and that’s not reportable?
It’s bad to throw a water bottle too, worse than a chicken-wing tackle that can end a players season. Or a trip. And don’t dare touch a referee because they’ll pick it up, make light of it, and make a song and dance out of something that was innocuous up until that point.
Don’t take drugs at the Star either, you’ll be able to play until your day in court and then you’ll be stood down. Mitchell Pearce, who did nothing illegal, was deemed to bring the game into $125,000 worth of disrepute but recreational drug use is OK. Norman pled guilty, did anyone at the NRL bother to just ask that question and get him out of the game for disrepute?
Weeks later he would be the subject of an extortion attempt for a sex tape that he featured in, also staring another man taking drugs. If you don’t have to do something illegal to bring the game into disrepute surely the two incidents have similar connotations and repercussions.
Whether or not either incident fitted the punishment I cannot say, but surely they aren’t close to consisent with one another.
Then there is the RLWC draw sham of this week. Penrith CEO Corey Payne this week came out apologising for the absence of any games in Western Sydney. He outlined the lengths he had gone to, to secure games for what is one of the heartlands of league shared by four NRL teams.
Sydney itself gets just two games. No finals. NSW has 10 clubs and all Sydney gets is Australia vs Lebanon and England vs Lebanon. Australia will carve Lebanon to shreds and the kind of atmosphere either might produce is embarrassing in big heartless stadiums in what should be a showpiece event for Rugby League.
The reality is that fans are craving some clarity, consistency and common sense and it has not been forthcoming.
Areas of the game that really need some TLC just aren’t getting it. The bottom line seems to be just that, the bottom line. Making more money through TV and showpiece events is the priority and there seems to be an attitude that take care of this and the rest of the game will just take care of itself.
Well it won’t. And fans have had enough.
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Never change, Nick Cummins!
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