Stuart departs early as the Storm keeps raging

Someone has to drive the bus & organize the Barbie....

You're reading into too much.. the point that cross-coder makes it specific to sydney. When the bears fell over, alot of people vowed to never support the NRL ever again and switched to rugby or the AFL. You know where the majority of swans supporter live? The north shore, former north sydney bears terrority (mind you, the popular code out there has been rugby union for some time)... To put it into perspective - if North Melbourne was culled by the AFL - would kangaroos supporters continue to support the afl? Chances are, supporters would look to the storm or the rebels, giving that code an influx of potential supporters.

Willy - re ownership, exactly, RL has been getting "unders" on its TV deal as a consequence. However, you'll find that the next TV deal will be negotiated by an independent NRL (2013 rights to be decided in the next 18 months, current IC due date is Nov 2010)

RedB I am stating removal of a club the Sharks in the shire ,where i am domiciled and have been for yonks,wtih a huge junior soccer base,will not be embracing other NRL teamsby supporters of the Sharks within the shire.The void slack call it what you will would be taken up by soccer,or ru and just as has happened(when the Bears were ousted) on the Nth shore of Sydnye AFL.I know of at least 3 disparate Bears fans,who swithced to ru and one to the Swans. I just wish also MichaelC who lobs in with you in tandem at times,understands that is the case.and precedents have been set You will also both note i referred to other codes in my notation.the fact i mentioned"" ä great marketing "ploy for the AFL was just that in jest. It must be just me LOL,as soon as the 3 letters AFL are mentioned in any story,the sporting equivalent of parking police, arrive on cue.

I thought you must have been a Dragons or Manly fan. I agree that Manly were the club most hurt by SL and I don't really want to bash them. I would say that the thing that has most hurt the Sharks has been the Cronulla riot which has turned the press and the PC police against them. Cronulla is now seen as a national symbol of redneckism whereas before the club had a squeaky clean image with ET and was noted as a christain bible belt full of surfers. I do get sick of people belittling the Sharks and the Shire's football heritage however. It is still a League stronghold with strong juniors and as part of the Dragons area the Shire won 11 straight premierships, a run which was only ended by the creation of the Sharks in '67. That the Sharks have survived in the face of that legacy with no money depending largely on local juniors has shown a lot of ticker and resilience. That Karma comment is just crap.

Take your point JVGO, and yes I should have said that in the 90s the Sharks bit the hand that fed them in the 80s. I can accept that the Sharks probably saw that they had little choice but to side with Super League but the ARL clubs were forced into survival mode by the whole fiasco. It was also a little galling that the Sharks thought they could help Super League pick and choose the clubs that should have been offered SL spots. Let's face it, in the unlikely event that Manly HAD gone to SL it would have been a huge coup for News Ltd, given the Sea Eagles were the reigning premiers and the strongest club of the time. I'm not sure of your point with karma in regards to Manly and the Broncos. Apart from being successful, what exactly have they done? When Manly had money, they used it to buy players. That's not illegal or unethical in a professional sport. The Broncos are probably the reason we have a salary cap but all the advantages from being a one team city are there to be used and they have done, guided for the most part by easily the best coach of modern times in Wayne Bennett. Super League sent Manly broke, and irrevocably damaged almost every other ARL side before the "truce" of '98.

Thanks Scott, and Steve, that was insightful. I just remember thinking on Stuart's emergence as a coach that he was a good mix of "old school" and modern but he has definitely gone wrong since I thought that.

Ricky Stuart, as well as being an Australian Schoolboys RU player from St Edmund's in Canberra, was a senior Wallaby in their tour of Argentina. The only people who touted Ricky Stuart as a possible coach of the Wallabies were Danny Weidler and Phil Gould from the Sun-Herald!

A few years ago, they were seriously touting Ricky Stuart as Australian Rugby Union coach (I assume because he was a Junior wallaby) How the mighty have fallen. On the coaching topic, I always remember what Jack Gibson said when asked why he wouldn't consider being the Kangaroo Mentor...he replied "Why would players that good need a coach - they don't need coaching." I guess that begs the question, what does the word "coach" mean exactly? Disciplinarian? Mentor? Life Coach (Bennett)? Puppeteer? Tactician? All of the above? I reckon different clubs require different kinds of coaches, and its all down to the kind of money they have? Stuarty did well at cash rich, Fittler-Morley Roosters, but goes down the swannee at the pauper sharks. Would Stuart have brought the same to the Dragons if he had the Bennett gig? I think he would have. Its down to dough, plain and simple. Oh and re the Storm - Indict Rupert!

apaway A few things. I honestly think I could have coached the Roosters to win the comp that year as it was a hot side led by Fittler and moulded by Gould. The Blues side was similar and was like the current Maroon side. He has had a rails run from day 1 and as soon as Gould and him split he started to struggle and the Roosters went backwards. He was lucky when he went to the Sharks as Kimmorley is a coach in his own right as we will see officially one day, but Ricky had the great idea to replace him and finally settled on Tim Smith. I analyze the NRL for a living and I have constantly shook my head at some of the players he has sacked and brought in. Also, you can only scream at players for so long before have get a gut full. I did a rating for coaches at the start of the year and rated Ricky 5/10 which copped some flack, but I made the rating based on what I see. Any club that hires him I would have to question that they know what they are doing and as for Geoff Carr, he should have been gone long ago, but he is the CEO of the NSWRL and Ricky is his mate.

Storm Salaray cap stuff is a yawn now. Sticky did the right thing by stepping aside, he should have done this earlier in the season. I don't think his Sharks tenure ( last 2 seasons ) shouldn't rule him out of the Origin job. If he doesn't have a Club gig he can focus fully on restoring some credibility to the Blues campaign. Yes his recruitment / retention record is poor particularly at the Sharks. However Origin is about motivating your players, getting the best out of them in a short period of time and I think Stuart can still do that.

Willy your right Melbourne should Stand on its own two feet, So when they negotiate the next TV rights deal they should do two (we pretty good at doing two Contracts LOL) one without Melbourne and one with and any extra money goes straight to the VRL, this would guarantee the storm survival and give VRL war chest to compete with AFL

So what you meant to say was that in the 90's the Sharks bit the hand that fed it in the 80's. Seriously Apaway the Sharks had no choice but to go to SL. If they hadn't they would be long gone. They had no friends among the ARL clubs who were busy desperately saving themselves ie looking after no 1. Sharks as usual had little money but a great batch of juniors and big spending Manly and Easts were circling Peachey, Rogers, Ritson et al. The Sharks didn't gain a single player from SL, they'd played SL and the rest of the decade with what they had and developed. If the Sharks fold it will have nothing to do with Karma, all to do with money, surprise, surprise. That is really the history of the Sharks. If these things had anything to do with Karma Manly and the Broncos would be long gone.

Has Flanagan said if he will be on coaching staff of NSW next year?

I remember the first part only vaguely JVGO, but in the early and mid 80s the Sharks were on the point of collapse, and were bailed out twice by the NSWRL, the governing body of the time. It could be said they owed their continued existence to these bail outs - something apparently not afforded to Newtown and Western Suburbs, who were both cut to make way for the introduction of Canberra and Illawarra (the Magpies appealed and successfully retained their place) When the Super League war began, (and this part is not vague) the Sharks "jumped ship" and released a series of inflammatory statements when it was rumoured that the last Super League franchise (which ended up going to the Hunter Mariners) was being reserved to court Manly - something that was extremely unlikely to happen given the coach of the side at the time was also the Kangaroos coach.

I expect you mean Cronulla went to SL in the 90's so that Easts and Manly didn't steal all their juniors, but whose hand did they bite in the 80's Apaway? Their highpoint in the 80's was winning the '88 minor premiership with 11 local juniors in the side.

Cronulla bit the hand that fed it back in the 80s and 90s. I believe their current predicament might be called karma.