The Roar
The Roar

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Where rugby league's got it wrong

9th June, 2017
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NSW Blues players celebrate a try. (AAP Image/Dan Peled)
Expert
9th June, 2017
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“They’ve got it completely about-face by focusing on developing players, rather than developing clubs and teams.”

Let that sink in. Because it’s a bloody good observation that neatly condenses most of rugby league’s current ills from the ground up.

Usually, stories that stoke your anger are the quickest and easiest to write, spewing from the keyboard like frothing, molten lava. But this one has so many facets to it that it’s hard to know where to start.

The above quote from an old footy mate is as good a place as any to begin.

I rang my friend this week to talk about something topical in rugby league: largesse at the top and the distribution of funding throughout the game.

It’s not often I find myself genuinely riled by the reportage of the Daily Tittle-Tattle, but the accusation that NRL independent commissioners and their partners incurred $35,000 worth of expenses for State of Origin Game 1 certainly raised the hackles.

It did so, primarily because I believe – if business-class flights, five-star accommodation, and top-notch food and trappings are accounted for – it’s a figure that is probably close to the mark.

Why this claws so deeply at the soul is because it’s not only believable and indicative of detachment at the game’s pointy end, but it evokes the thought of what $35,000 could do for a battling club or two at the grassroots level.

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That’s enough for more than 23 sets of uniforms at the inflated prices that officially licensed suppliers set our junior clubs.

That’s enough to be a godsend for two modestly-sized clubs who field between ten and 12 different age teams per year.

But here’s the real kicker. It’d be enough for almost 50 sets of uniforms if the game’s administration was not already creating a false and inflated economy for the players and volunteers who nurture the game.

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Let me explain.

At present, the various localised league authorities – the NSWRL, QRL, CRL etc – have a list of licensed suppliers who are the only manufacturers who can put their logo on a playing garment. You need the logo of NSWRL, QRL, CRL or someone else on your playing equipment to enter in those competitions, so it’s therefore mandatory you purchase your kit from one of the chosen companies.

In orchestrating this, league administrators slap a royalty fee on each garment sold, which though not outlandish, is above ten per cent – a fair whack of which must be paid up front by the supplier.

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We’re talking advances in the tens of thousands of dollars by each supplier, which they then set about aggressively recouping.

So, right now, you’re thinking: “That doesn’t sound so bad. The game has to make money in as many ways it can.”

If, for example, a supplier was wholesaling a jersey for $25 and adding another $3 to cover royalties which then get reinvested in the grassroots, you wouldn’t complain so much.

Except well, instead of being sold jerseys for the completely achievable total of $28, a lot of junior clubs are having their jerseys sold to them for $50 each by a select cabal of operators who now have the power to set the pricing floor.

That’s even before junior clubs themselves face the difficult decision of whether to add a margin of their own to cover their operating expenses and the thousands of jerseys each year that go missing.

Effectively, the families we want to entice into the game are being pillaged from the get-go, especially those with two or three children now paying twice the uniform fee they should be. That makes it tougher on grassroots clubs for reasons twofold; firstly because it dissuades new players; secondly because the volunteers themselves often have to work relentlessly to stump up the over-inflated costs in advance before collecting payments from families.

As someone who has spent 25 years in community rugby league environments, I can assure you that chasing players and families for jersey money does not become more enjoyable or successful as time goes on – no matter their age.

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The added costs of shorts and socks have not even been touched upon.

At this point, I’ll defer to the words of my footy mate, who has an even greater wealth of experience working at the coalface with junior and senior players. This is a guy who is a successful manager away from football in a very competitive industry, and someone who has seen the game as a player, then coach, then administrator – and always as a fan.

“What we’ve seen, for the past decade especially, is systems being put in place that are focused on developing individuals,” he said down the line.

“Competitions are being changed, rules are being altered, teams are being ripped apart purely with the thought of creating better NRL and State of Origin players.

NSW Blues State of Origin NRL Rugby League 2017

(AAP Image/Dan Peled)

“They’ve become obsessed by it, and are so hell-bent on it that we’re forgetting about clubs and teams – the ones who sustain it all.

“The market manipulation happening with uniforms is just one aspect, and gee, wouldn’t you love to know where all that money is being allocated?

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“Paid administrators have a great leverage point in that there are people in the community who will do their groundwork for free.

“But I say to you, if you rely on volunteers your business model is intrinsically wrong.

“If a private organisation was run like rugby league, it would have gone into administration 70 years ago.”

My mate then proceeded to talk about a solitary junior age group in Brisbane where ten teams, equivalent to 250 players, disappeared in the space of a single year.

We diverted and started talking about the days where more than three or four teams could realistically win the state schoolboy competition – and the widespread excitement that created for kids who weren’t necessarily top-tier.

Honestly, when I read about NRL players and officials bickering over the sport’s budgetary allocations, I can see it from both sides.

Name me the last league chief who was widely praised? It’s a job when you’re on a hiding to nothing and most people won’t see half the issues you deal with on a daily basis.

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Similarly, for players, it’s an unforgiving game where participants deserve to be recompensed fairly. Rugby league athletes are still a fair way behind other sports when it comes to salary.

Yet I can’t help but think that whenever we talk about where money should go in rugby league, the very first image that should come to mind is of a mother or father checking their bank account, deciding whether to register their child for the first time.

“We’ve created a funnel for the sport that’s the wrong way up,” was my mate’s parting thought.

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