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The next chapter in rugby league looks set to begin in 2010, and while the symbolism may be huge, in reality it may just mean another day at the office.
With News Ltd and the ARL set to make way for an independent commission to run rugby league, many supporters are praising the heavens that they finally lose the Super League baggage of News Ltd and the many layers of seemingly pointless bureaucracy that comes with the ARL.
But it must be remembered that the independent commission, which I have praised in the past, shouldn’t be seen as an automatic answer to every problem in the game.
Colin Love hasn’t been able to stop the “alcohol fuelled incidents” during his time in nearly every executive position in the game, so I can’t see every player giving up the drink on the basis that Love is now anointed as the new high priest.
The very fact that Love is set to run the inaugural board should be a sobering moment for anyone getting caught up in the hedonism of change.
The board was meant to be about new ideas, new direction and new leadership, and instead we end with someone who seems to have attended every junket since 1908 and has been a part of many of the game’s great disappointments as he has been its successes.
The game is also taking something of a financial gamble.
They may well feel that it is a smart move, but the fact is, from day one, they lose $16 million dollars in News Ltd funding and it is then up to them into increase the new revenue by more than that in order to financially justify the change.
Some argue that that will be easy with the fact that News Ltd will now no longer be sitting on both sides of the negotiating table.
But trying to avoid News Ltd in Australia is likely trying to avoid your own shadow.
Amongst other things, News Ltd also own a 50 per cent stake in Premier Media Group, which owns Fox Sports and negotiated the first and last right of refusal on any pay-television deal until 2022.
The whole Murdoch business model is about owning every step in the production process so for those looking for a complete break may as well stock up on baked beans and move to the mountains.
The new commission is largely about administration and just because a sport suddenly has the same style of administration as the AFL doesn’t mean they have the same success in their administration.
Anyone who argues that fails to recognise the hard work and talent by the individual members of the AFL commission.
Rugby league is certainly doing itself a few favours by freeing itself from some of the nasty shackles of the past but its future is still down to the hard work and correct decisions made by the men in charge.
Perhaps if they want to replicate the success of AFL, they also need to replicate the relationship between the clubs who all seem to share the same vision.
In league, while each club is often hell bent on ensuring no other team receives an advantage, the AFL clubs seem to have been happy to support all forms of salary cap concessions for the good of the game.
Either that, or the leadership was strong enough to force it upon them.
It’s an interesting comparison when you ask yourself whether rugby league clubs would be as supportive of a new club in Perth in the way AFL clubs are welcoming of a side in Western Sydney.
You also can’t help but feel that it is nothing but scare mongering by the QRL, who claim the move could be the death of State of Origin.
Surely not even rugby league administrators are stupid enough to botch up the brightest jewel in the crown.
So a new set of business cards and a new logo for the rugby league world, but the challenges remain the same and the past is, well, prologue.
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