I agree with Des in this regard also DOW. Especially after a decade of seeing so many golden point games come down to a team getting field position first and then winning via a field goal. A team that works away for 80 minutes and would have earned a point for the draw can have that undone by losing the toss when there is strong breeze. I remember hearing Peter Tunks say not long ago that GP isn’t delivering what was intended which is an exciting piece of entertainment. What the NRL wanted to provide was the desperate attack and defence that came with extra time football in the semi-finals. It has not worked out that way because executing a field goal set does not bring on desperate football.

Well researched and nicely written piece jamesb. I like the comparisons of 2002 and 2012. It’s a pity we had to endure a full decade between important milestones in the recovery of the game post SuperLeague and News Ltd.

Looking at the attendance figures, I found the Melbourne Storm numbers the most significant especially given that there is a group of fans who regularly question the value of their inclusion in the NRL. Their average home crowd is approx 33% up from 2002 for the regular season and the overall season attendance average is up to 14108 from 9088 which is a 55% increase.

It will be interesting to compare again at the end of 2013. This is the first season where matches are scheduled for the first 20 rounds of the season instead of releasing the schedule of each round just 5 weeks in advance. Many clubs have complained that they are unable to properly promote their matches and their members and fans have said they would attend more matches if they had a full season schedule.

Unfortunately the NRL can’t instantly behave like the AFL. They have only just become independent of News LTD. The commissioners with the exception of Chris Sarra and Wayne Pearce are corporate business leaders. Their decisions on expansion will be based on sound business principles. Any expansion team will present a degree of risk. They will assess the risk much like an investment.

A bid that has been on the table for 12 years has a broad range of corporate sponsors, with a compliant stadium, an existing membership base and a brand with history on a population footprint of 770,000 with a high pick-up rate is low risk. They do not want to have to bail out an expansion team. I don’t know the details of the Perth bid but they are very new and was not supported by the WARL. The leading identity was an expat to Perth with mining support only and they needed to get government backing to get a compliant stadium. It’s just a higher risk proposition.

Remember the ARLC is starting from ground zero with no accumulated wealth. Since the NRL was formed in 1998, they were never able to negotiate freely on Broadcast rights and sponsorship because of conflict of interest with News LTD. (Must have been like complaining to your mother-in-law about your wife!) The revenues they did get for 14 years were then divided in two with half going to News LTD in order to recoup the $850M lost on Super League.

All the while the AFL since 1993, have been negotiating freely and re-investing. They own Etihad stadium and have the money to employ more development officers in NSW than the ARL. Interestingly, prior to 2011 when the Gold Coast Suns joined, the AFL went for 4 new expansion teams in heartland areas (Perth and Adelaide), which are low risk and the two non AFL locations which were relocations(Sydney and Brisbane). The AFL saw the value in sustaining a known brand, to help mitigate the risk. They have only moved to the fully backed AFL bid in Gold Coast and West Sydney after nearly 20 years of building wealth and assets. That’s smart business.

This is a well written and concise article Beowulf. I agree with much of the content.

As you can see from many of the comments, there is a lot of passion within the Rugby League community about expansion. It is a shame there is such an ‘us or them’ attitude about expansion. Many of those who are against any individual new team do so because they see a decision on expansion at the expense of the team they wish to gain admission. Perth supporters are against a 2nd Brisbane team and the CC Bears. CQ supporters are against Perth etc.

Much has been written about the recently signed broadcast contracts removing expansion from the agenda. This is not true. The ARLC’s priority now is the recruitment of the new CEO. The NRL has given the AFL a 19 year head start (AFL formed a commission in 1993) and we are all impatient to see change to catch up on lost ground. The ARLC will address expansion and do what is best for Rugby League. They have much to do now they know their revenue stream enabling them to form strategy for any type of development.

Expansion will not be a one team proposition. With revenues in place, the ARLC will follow the lead of the AFL and come up with an expansion plan. The NRL does not yet have the accumulated financial resources like the AFL have, which allowed the AFL to fund their most recent expansion into Western Sydney and the Gold Coast.

The critical factor for a new NRL expansion club’s success, will be their business plan as they need to prove themselves capable of survival without NRL funding.

With this in mind the CC Bears are a solid proposition. Another Queensland team based in Brisbane and playing out of Lang Park would also be a likely successful business venture because of stadium and customers. The population foot-print for the Bears is approx 770,000 and offers a much higher pick-up rate than Adelaide or Perth. The Bears brand is known to many and engenders sentimentality within a very favourable demographic on Sydney’s North Shore. From a business viewpoint the CC Bears is a low risk expansion.

I would love to see a team from Perth. Prospective submissions up to this date seem to lack maturity and are reliant on individual wealthy sponsors. This is not a solid and sustainable way forward and recent history of A-League soccer clubs as well as problems recently at the Gold Coast Titans show the risk of this type of business model.

Agree Luke with your article.
There is no doubt that Bill Harrigan is an interesting figure. He has always been forthright and decisive. You can see and hear from his work for Lowes and his willingness to accept on-air interviews that he is socially very confident, relaxed and he can be very charming.

Unfortunately this can be a dangerous combination if it is not combined with good professional skills when the person is in a leadership and management position. Dangerous because they can lead you down into a hole and their personality strength delays their being held accountable. These sort of people are often good salesman.

Bill Harrigan was a police officer before becoming a professional Rugby League referee. He had a lifetime of power and control. He is now in a high level management position and head of a large department. The skill set required is quite different. It is similar to comparing playing skills and coaching skills.

The important skills for a person in Harrigan’s role involve people management and process management. He needs to be able to understand issues then design and implement solutions and processes within a large team environment. Dealing with the media, which he is good at, is a secondary skill but also a part of the job.

I think he can be a valuable part of the NRL in some function. The impression I get, not just from the poor handling of the issues around the ‘obstruction’ rule is that the refereeing department is dysfunctional. Also, the relationship between the referees and the process to have rules adjusted or written is also dysfunctional.

His efforts to clarify the rule failed. The 7 step checklist for referees is impossible for a referee to do in real time. At least 2 of the points were totally subjective and without clear definition.

I expect the problem to get worse because coaches don’t coach players to run behind a teammate who has run through and past him. It only happened rarely when the play wasn’t executed properly. Coaches are from a generation that know that’s not legal. Now that its been communicated by referees that you can do that, we will see more of it as the coaches will put pressure on the referees.

Your correct, the eligibity rules for reserves varied constantly, remember when Wests had a point taken in the mid 70s and missed the semis after MickLuibinskas came on as a reserve and had not played a full game in lower grades. The Interchange came with Super League and really never should have been introduced because the players went full-time at the same time so their increased fitness levels meant they didn’t need a rest.

I agree Gr8tWeStr. That’s why I limit it to 4 per game. I believe it is a vital development. If a player is clearly bleeding he should be able to get properly treated and return without impacting the team too much. Today trainers slap a blob of vasso on hope it helps. Minutes later the referee is sending the player away again.

Studies on brain injuries are progressing. When findings determine strict recovery guidelines and clubs knowingly fail to comply then we will see litigation. It is happening now in the USA with former NFL players. It’s a changing world and there is a duty of care responsibility between employer and employee.

Yes Steve, you are delving into the refereeing area with the foul play issue. There is plenty of discontent around the reluctance or misuse by referees of the send off and sin bin. Referees use the ‘on report’ option after ‘send off’s that resulted in the player being exonerated at the judiciary. The referees obviously are not confident in determining whether there has been foul play.

My proposal is directed specifically at the replacement issue. No team should find them selves at a numerical disadvantage due to an injury regardless of how the injury was sustained. It’s crazy really because that was the point of reserves when it was first introduced back in the 50s.

I should also add that I think that 10 interchanges is too many. My main point is to get the concept out there. 3 minutes may be too much or not enough for injury assessment and could need input from doctors to determine the correct duration. All my numbers are based on a conversion from the current system so I went with 7 interchanges and 3 replacements because its equal to the current 10 interchange movements. I wouldn’t argue with adjusting down to 5 interchange and 3 replacement.

Turbodewd, it’s a 39 page document. As I said it is comprehensive and also covers some other issues not mentioned in my comment. I don’t mind sending it to anyone who is interested.

This issue comes to the fore during SOO every year. As we all know, NRL governance prior to the ARLC had split ownership so any decisive leadership was almost impossible. Hopefully this will start to change now the ARLC is controlling things.

Early in 2011 I did a lot of work in creating a proposal for an alternative season draw. Apart from the heavy load on players during SOO period and the impact on clubs when their best players are unavailable, there is the problem of the draw being unequal. Teams play every other team once then some teams twice and for some reason a lot of teams play each other for the second time within the first 10 rounds of the season!

It is also fair to assume that at some point there will be an expansion of teams, probably to 18 much like the AFL. All the problems with the draw will only get worse with expansion so there is a lack of scalability with the current draw as well.

My proposal introduces a number of measures including a weekend right in the middle of the NRL season that is set aside as SOO carnival for the second SOO match. Structured like Grand Final day it would be a celebration weekend for RL with NSW V QLD for Under20s, state cup, Police comp, Tertiary league and an emerging states final for other states of Australia.

It is impossible to design a perfect system and the NRL is unique because it has club, state and International fixtures so whatever you do will be full of compromised solutions.

I actually put together a season draw for 2013 not just some conceptual ideas. There are 2 conferences of 9 teams to show that it will handle expansion etc.

It is comprehensive. I am happy to send it to any interested person. Just flick me an email on: neil@anahata.com.au

Good recruitment and talent spotting of youth are vital aspects of a successful NRL club. The Melbourne Storm model is there for all to see. It is ironic that the 2 clubs with the largest junior nursery are at the bottom of the NRL ladder while the club with the smallest nursery is at the top. Penrith and Parramatta juniors are juniors available to any club as shown by Tony Williams and Paul Gallen’s careers to date.

I have my doubts about both Parramatta and Penrith. The coach’s role is to get the best possible performance from his team during the season. Judge his performance at the end of the season against your pre-season expectations and take into consideration injuries to players in your measurement. Player development structures that may payoff in later years should not be a priority for the head coach.

Kearney was an assistant coach at Melbourne not the head coach. His greatest success came with the Kiwi’s World Cup final win after Wayne Bennet provided some assistance. The Warriors always seem to underachieve and their management let Cleary go early last year only for him to guide them last year to the GF. Did he suddenly find out how to coach or did the Warrior’s players just produce what we all thought they are capable of? I don’t know either of them personally and their knowledge of the game may well mean they can contribute greatly to a football club but to me neither of them appear to demonstrate a passionate approach to playing the game which I believe is an important ingredient in successful coaches who inspire their players.

The ‘it takes time’ response when teams under a new coach disappoint is a familiar one. No need for such a response this year at Canterbury where Hasler is having an immediate positive effect on the current group. Interestingly, their future playing roster is totally uncertain and they are also ‘building’ for a future but Hasler is focussed on the ‘now’.

Wayne Bennet at Newcastle is probably the most interesting case of an ‘it takes time’ scenario but let’s wait till October before we write the final report card.

Nice article Nathan. You have raised a lot of issues that interest me as well. I agree with the lack of football entertainment at the ground. I say this every time I watch a game and have to sit and wait for over 30 minutes between the Toyota cup game and the NRL match. If the Toyota cup finished 5 or 10 minutes before NRL kickoff many more people would arrive earlier and get to see 2 matches. Instead the crowd marches in as the 20s are finishing and then nothing to do but watch the players warmup. When ever a ground has an external warmup area it should be used by the NRL teams and the 20s should start and finish later.

On the Toyota cup youth competition concept. It is a good one but the age is too young and should at least be under21 and probably should be under23s. I personally know one former NYC player who has quit playing. He is a forward and about 4 years away from peak ability. Have a look at the Wests Tigers NYC squad which is on top at the moment. The percentage of Polynesian heritage players is way higher than NRL. No, I am not racist! It just that a players DNA will determine their physical peak and for males this is anywhere between 14 and 25 which is consistently earlier in some racial types. There is a no-mans land for many guys between NYC and NRL.

We all know that Sydney is over supplied with NRL teams. This is a real difficulty for any expansion of the NRL and a problem for the profile of NSW cup teams who essentially compete with the NRL as football entertainment in Sydney. A NSW Cup competition should have teams that include the main regional centres across the state such as Albury, Wagga, Dubbo, Queanbeyan, Tamworth, Bathurst/Orange, Coffs Harbour and Maitland. Clubs such as Wenty, Ryde-Eastwood, Newtown, Norths and Illawarra are NSW Cup level organisations within Sydney region.

Financing is always the issue and the NRL clubs would have no interest in having a feeder team in a regional centre if they have to foot the bill for player travel costs. The Melbourne Storm use Cronulla and Brisbane Easts as feeder clubs through necessity.

I submitted the following article earlier this month:

NRL grand final, Test matches and Origin for sale

In it I suggest that selling the ground rights for the first SOO game each year could be a revenue stream to directly aid the funding of the new regional NSW cup teams. Suggested NSWC/NRL pairs could be Albury/Melbourne, Wagga/Canberra, Dubbo/Penrith, Tamworth/Cronulla, Bathurst/Canterbury, Coffs/Manly, Maitland/Newcastle, Illawarra/Dragons, Wenty/Parramatta, Ryde/WestsTigers, Norths/Souths and Newtown/Roosters.

I also like the concept of NSW Cup winner Vs Qld Cup winner as a preliminary match on NRL Grand Final day.

We do get to see all their mistakes, often many times over in slow mo, so they might be no worse but our scrutiny is greater. having said that and as I stated in my article, I think the referees are let down by the processes above them.

They are probably a bit disfunctional as an organisation. It should be such that when a rule change is drafted that the referees are asked as to how it will be implemented in the game and when referees are having problems they should be able to feed back that there is too much room for interpretation and there needs to be guidelines so they can guess less. I am talking mainly about the difficulty of ruling on lost ball in the tackle.

How is it that there is more lost ball in the tackle now than there was when you were allowed to steal it! Logic says that the ball carrier is not protecting it enough. When a tacklers hand lands against the ball most often that gets a penalty. I want them to get more exact guidelines around what is ball stealing. The refs need help!

It would be a worth while exercise to get some hard stats on kick tries. It certainly feels like they are still increasing, take Origin in Melbourne for example, of the 5 tries, 3 were kick lottery tries and QLD ran in 2 tries. My worry with changing the rule to dropped ball instead of knock-on/back is that you might see less passing overall as a result which is the opposite of what people want to see.

My biggest dislike at the moment is the disconnect between the referees and the rule book. I made this point with this article: http://www.theroar.com.au/2012/06/02/nrl-fails-keep-pace-technology/

For some reason the game is allowed to evolve too much through ‘refs interpretation’. At the moment you see players loose the ball when they should be responsible for holding it and instead they get a penalty because a tacklers hand hits the ball but the referees will blow the whistle for what often could be play-on for a knock-back. I am very familiar with the rule book and its not applied by NRL referees in many parts of the game – not just scrums.

I agree that there is an issue with the predictability of work down to the 20m line and bomb to the edge tactics.I am thinking aloud here and havn’t thought it right through but it might be worth exploring the possibility of extending the rule of allowing defensive players who takes the ball on the full in their in-goal out to the 10m line or maybe respect someone who fields a kick in the field of play and is pushed back in goal can have the right to go and play it where he caught it. This means that the kick is not as attractive an option. Thoughts everyone?

Hi Brainwashed. I am keen on any concept to help the game in regional areas.

Setting up the NSW cup with teams in the main regional centres should build the game long term because there is a constant engagement with the NRL with a pathway for local players. Also there is a trophy with some profile to be won. I think those towns would value it more than the Sydney teams do.

I do like the idea of taking ‘one off’ matches to towns. They do create a spike of interest and the players can visit schools and clubs to promote game which is valuable. I like your idea but what about a ‘back to the future’ approach and turn our trial matches back into a knockout cup competition and take the matches to the country towns. The AFL does it successfully with a major sponsor and sells the broadcast rites as well. Another case of the AFL maximising their revenue capability.

Hi Pennypanther. Both Rugby League and Australian Rules were experiencing the same issue with interstate matches through the 1970s. There was more money for players in the VFL and the NSWRL so all the best players ended up in Sydney/Melbourne. A West Australian who was frustrated by the Victorian team which had a number of players originally from WA, beating the WA team, suggested the ‘Origin’ concept. In 1977 the first WA V Victoria match was played under ‘Origin’ selection rules. Ron McCaulife the QRL chairman of the time loved the idea and in 1980 it was trialled. As they say the rest is history….

Summed up perfectly Ryan. For a lengthy period he was the right man for the job. Other than scrapping the McIntyre semi-final system the IC has been quiet but this is a good sign that a new era really is about to begin.

I think David Gallop has been a good CEO during an very very difficult period for the game. From the 1st April 1995 through to the formation of the IC in January 2012 the running of the game has been compromised by business and poitics of association. At times when the games image suffered at the hands of poor behaviour from players you had to feel sorry for David.

I think the timing though is right for a new CEO. Gallop appeared to be good with day to day management but unlike the AFL’s Andrew Demetriou he probably lacks real vision for the future of the game. He often seems to make decisions by consensus rather than forthright leadership. The time is right now for a CEO who combines good business qualifications with sport management and with a history of being from within the game. Its a hard criteria to match and it will be interesting to see who gets the job.

Nice work Highshot.

Perhaps the best war analagy could be that which was depicted in the movie ‘Team America’! In fact someone should get to writing a screen play now. Actors pretending to be NRL players and protecting the heartland of western Sydney in a holy war against the evil foreign invaders from the south.

Seriously though, I think you are on the pulse at this moment with AFLs Giants in Sydney and the NRL going to Melbourne with Origin. Having lived overseas for a few years I came to the conclusion that we have in Australia the best football culture in the world because of this wonderful diversity. Occasionally I get excited by soccer but I wonder sometimes why countries like Germany, Holland and Spain can’t offer more than just soccer. I love league but when I meet someone who loves soccer, Union or AFL it doesn’t make me feel a lesser person and don’t feel the need to defend my position.