Peter Byrne

Roar Rookie

Joined April 2010

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Rob,

I can’t help but feel that the current angst regarding the NSW Cup is at least, in part a self-fulfiling prophecy fueled by perception.

For each coach who claims an “over-reliance” on Toyota Cup players how many available Qld or NSW Cup players did he overlook during selection? Has he kept an eye on these players? If not, why not? It’s this general ignorance of 2nd teir open age players that seems to reflect an incorrect perception that their level of football is substandard “Park Footy”, that Toyota Cup is the real “second teir” competition and that you are “washed up” if you haven’t made First Grade by 21. This perception has a lot in common with the searing prejudice against the UK Super League.

I find it hard to agree with the pervailing perception as very little has changed in this level of football other than the fact that many “Reserve Graders” now put on a different jersey on the weekend to represent their NRL club’s feeder. I really challenge the idea that NSW Cup now has a noticeably lower standard than the Premier League or Reserve Grade competitions that came before it… how could it? It’s made up of precisely the same pool of players minus a couple of the teenage prodigies. Was Wentworthville 2009 worse than Parramatta Premier League in 2007 and 2008? The only difference was the colours they wore.

One of the things that is wrong with this debate is that people like Phil Gould and others in the media, who seem to be the main protagonists in this, are really in no place to comment on the standard. Gould himself has said on several occassions that he doesn’t watch “Reserve Grade-standard” football and he constantly refers dismissively to “Park Footy” – I doubt that he’s ever sat through a Super League match. I’d be surprised if any of the journalists telling us how there’s a crisis in the NSW Cup takes even the slightest notice of the competition let alone specifically point out its shortcomings. Let’s change the attitudes and re-calibrate our expectations and perhaps we’ll find the perception won’t stand.

I do concede that there may well be problems at the moment related to the salary cap and which of those NSW Cup players are available for NRL selection and which aren’t. NSW Cup already has a cap as well as a number of standalone clubs as feeders and we need to either look at how the cap is spread between an NRL club and it’s standalone feeder to ensure maximum player availability. Perhaps we could look at discounts for dual-registered players? The reality is that club finances will dicatate that the standalone feeder clubs and joint ventures are here to stay – they are a benefit for NRL clubs and diversifies the base of those investing in the development of players – so let’s make it work.

I agree wholeheartedly that the NSW and Queensland Cups have great commercial potential (as does the Toyota Cup) that is yet to be realised and this will not be achieved by moving them to NRL game day or allowing Toyota Cup to swallow them. You need only to look at the relative popularity of the television broadcasts on Fox and ABC Brisbane for these competitions to see the potential in a competition with a less structured style of football, played by traditional, local teams playing at boutique suburban grounds with the regular NRL guest star. However, I wouldn’t bring in too many regional sides as these should stick to keeping their CRL Groups strong.

Cheers
PB

Re-connecting with grassroots rugby league

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2010