I’m baffled, bemused and bewildered. Everywhere I turn there is the use of the initials IC in rugby league. Now this mythical beast, the IC, must be an amazing thing, after all everyone is so excited by it.
Rugby league fans on mass have decided that this will revolutionise the game; all of a sudden we will be able to spin pure gold from the fog off the Blue Mountains, the rain clouds over ANZ/Telstra/Stadium Australia/ [Insert naming rights for failed stadium here] will drop diamonds, hopefully not cut as that would get messy in the uncovered sections, and everyone person in Shanghai will be able to associate the number six with a five eight.
The only problem is no one seems to actually know what the IC is. Oh sure we know it is an Independent Commission, but outside of that we are clueless. Most of us would be able to more intelligently answer questions as to the social structure of regional China in 1422 than how the IC will be formed.
It is like a real estate agent has come up to us and said we have a million dollar house for sale and we’ve bought it without knowing where the house is, how big it is or what condition it is in.
Apparently who runs it, how they are appointed, how they are held accountable, to whom they are accountable, what it will be focused on and how much it costs to run are questions that need not be answered before we throw the full weight of our support behind it.
The only model I have seen that has had enough detail to be remotely credible has been the clubs electing the commission which means a sport which has thrived on being able to deliver new exciting juniors every year is going to be directed by clubs so short sighted that they needed a hard salary cap to stop themselves from imploding under the weight of their own stupidity.
But this is the brain child of the wunderkind Mr Searle surely it can’t fail. After all we’ll just ignore that Searle is so consumed by the grand vision of his legacy that he has been willing to risk the financial future of the Titan’s.
Though I shouldn’t worry, this is apparently the great fail-safe model that has been trotted out across the big American sports, the NBA, NFL, MLB and NHL.
But in each of those models the league does not have control of junior development and is serviced via a draft. Yet we are handing over junior development blind folded to the IC.
Under each of those models the sport has had a season called short or completely abandoned due to a strike. Yet we still cry poor over super league where at least we actually had a season of rugby league to watch.
Each of these models runs the game exclusively for the benefit of the clubs not fans. And yet we are calling for this to try and change the attitude of the exact clubs we are going to empower.
I’m not against the IC in principle, but wouldn’t it be nice to know what it actually is before we rubber stamp it?
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All the team list information for Round 8.
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