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Season 2017 of the National Rugby League comes at a time of great uncertainty around the game’s future direction and evolution.
The competition and code find themselves at a crucial point – on both their own road and within the domestic sporting environment.
Last year ended amidst a range of almost comical corporate and public relations dilemmas. And with the scandal count rising by the day, the pen-pushers at League Central need to get it together.
Entering the final year of the ARL Commission’s self-proclaimed five-year plan, the league is yet to finalise a collective bargaining agreement with its players beyond this season.
It’s also hard to believe that they only just sorted their financial agreement with the clubs late last year, in stupefying circumstances.
Rather than digest their actions, here are a range of things the NRL needs over the next 12 months.
A scandal-free season
This already appears blown, considering some of the craziness that has already occurred in 2017, but not since 2009-10 has there been a relatively scandal-free stretch.
During that period, Jarryd Hayne propelled the Eels to the grand final, St George claimed their first title in 30 years, and even Todd Carney turned his life around to claim the Dally M Medal.
Okay, so there was Melbourne’s salary cap scandal, but outside of that, the players and game appeared to clean-up its act and the sport thrived. Why can’t they do it again?
A future plan
As cited earlier, the ARLC’s five-year plan is coming to an end and results are not what they should be. The administration has failed to live up to its goals of achieving average crowds of 20,000, fan satisfaction measured at record levels, and members having grown to over 400,000.
The NRL needs to decide where it is going, what it wants to look like in ten years’ time, and who will be playing and watching the game. Expansion has been put on the back-burner for over a decade and it is surely time to capitalise on both existing and potential markets.
Brisbane and Perth are primed and ready, and it’s time to make it happen. The state leagues are setting themselves up as true reserve-grade competitions and two new teams can surely be created with introductory support.
To acknowledge competitors
Has anyone else noticed the amount of AFL posts in New South Wales’ country and regional areas? Rugby league has sat back and rested on its laurels for far too long. And it is because of dwindling participation figures that the boffin-heads at League Central are now ready to divert significant cash back into the grassroots of the game.
The A-League has made a footprint in Australian sport, making in-roads with sports fans. No, the Central Coast Mariners can’t pull a crowd over 5000, but football is playing a long-term strategy and it’s solidified its place in the city markets.
Now, women’s football, cricket, AFL and netball leagues have also become competition for the family dollar.
A great playing year
What seems to pull rugby league back together again after all the uppercuts it gives itself, is the phenomenal on-field performances delivered year after year.
The athleticism of the players has exploded, and after some minor tweaks to the rules, the style of play has come full-circle, with attack now back on coaches’ agendas.
In 2015 and 2016, the league was blessed with two first-time premiers, both winning in fantastic fashion. With a World Cup later this year, another blockbuster Origin series, which will likely be the last of the Queensland greats, and a season shaping up with some genuine hot-prospect teams, there NRL should be licking its lips.
If they get it together, season 2017 could well be one of the most successful and important on record.
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