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Jeff Lima in action during the NRL, Round 19, Parramatta Eels v Melbourne Storm match at Parramatta Stadium in Sydney on Monday July 20, 2009. Eels won 18-16. AAP Image/Action Photographics, Robb Cox
When an independent commission takes control of the game, what should the name of the new rugby league competition be?
Here is a very brief history lesson in regards to the names of the governing bodies of rugby league over the past century.
The Australian Rugby League (ARL) was formed in 1924 to administer the running of the national team, the Kangaroos.
The premier first grade rugby league competition in Australia had been run by the New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL) from its first season in 1908 until the end of 1994.
With further expansion of the competition implemented for the 1995 season with the inclusion of the Western Reds, Cowboys and Warriors, the NSWRL passed control of the competition to the ARL.
The National Rugby League (NRL) was formed in the aftermath of the 1990s Super League War. Its a joint partnership between the ARL and News Corp controlled Super League, after both organisations ran premierships parallel to each other during the awful 1997 season.
So what about a new name for the game?
News Ltd have stated they will only leave rugby league if the current ARL board also relinquishes complete control of the game. So do we go back to the Australian Rugby League (ARL) name, but with a completely new board and structure?
Some have argued that the NRL brand has been tarnished in recent seasons due to off-field behaviour and the NRL name should be discarded. And considering that the NRL name was only created as a peace treaty between the warring sides, then why keep a name hastily created under such negative circumstances?
With the new governing body will come a fresh start and a bright future, so the game deserves a new name. The name should encompass all that it represents now and into the future. And rugby league should start to think big.
This is why I believe in naming the new governing body we should bring back a new AR: the Australasian Rugby League.
When the NSWRL passed control to the Australian Rugby League it acknowledged that rugby league had grown beyond a Sydney competition. The new Australasian Rugby League branding will acknowledge that the game has now grown beyond the eastern seaboard of Australia.
Rugby league fans often look west into AFL territory when they think of growing the game. And quite correctly an independent commission will look to grow the game in the southern states by further investment upon the great work of the Melbourne Storm and also possible future expansion into Perth.
But some of the greatest growth and immediate potential for the game is in New Zealand and the Pacific.
If the new board are serious about growing the game they should govern a competition that incorporates not just Australia but all of Australasia.
The region of Australasia includes Australia, New Zealand, Oceania, PNG, and neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean, such as Samoa and Tonga.
If you don’t think Oceania has enough potential for the new administration to include it in its future, you only have to look at the large precense of Polynesian players in the game today.
As stated in a Sydney Morning Herald article earlier this year “forty per cent of NRL players are of Tongan, Samoan, Fijian, Maori, Cook Island or indigenous heritage – but over half of the code’s elite under-20 league and two-thirds of junior representative players from western Sydney are of Pacific Island descent.”
How crazy is it to suggest that the new name should represent all of the current players in the competition?
The Pacific Cup should be played every year and its winner (this year it was PNG) should join Australia, New Zealand and England in an annual Four Nations Competition.
France has long since lost it international competitevness against the big three.
The Australasian Rugby League should not over extent itself by spending excess money in Europe but should look to invest in the game in our region first.
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