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Israel Folau set for a switch to the AFL. (AAP Image/Dave Hunt)
A recent Daily Telegraph headline beamed: “Folau barred from running water for Tonga”. Apparently ARL boss Geoff Carr has become involved to ensure that Folau will not even be allowed to assist his home country as a trainer/water boy in the Four Nations.
“The ARL, in conjunction with the International Rugby League board, will this week step in and ban Folau from becoming an official Tongan trainer in Sunday’s Test against Samoa at Parramatta Stadium.”
What’s worse is they’re serious.
The Daily Telegraph’s chief protagonist Dean Richie exclaims: “He is the AFL’s $3 million poster boy, but Israel Folau will leave rugby league deemed unworthy to be a humble water boy”
I would have thought Folau will leave the NRL as one of the top try scorers for 2010!
The articles continues: “Tongan assistant coach and adviser Peter Pulou told The Daily Telegraph yesterday that Folau would “run the water” in the Test match, which is a curtain-raiser to Australia’s Four Nations clash against Papua New Guinea.”
Pulou is then quoted as saying: “Israel is very proud of his Tongan heritage. He is a good role model for kids.”
Bad karma there, ARL.
One of the reasons the AFL was attracted to Folau was due to his Polynesian heritage. Just recently the AFL has become much more serious about developing the game in the Pacific Isles and has set up academies and various tournaments some already gaining some traction.
The ARL would have better advised, having stopped him playing, just allowing Folau to ‘run the water’ or assist the team of his heritage. It would have barely raised an eyebrow and no-one would look foolish outside Parramatta Stadium.
Carr suggested he wanted to avoid giving the AFL’s poster boy with GWS any oxygen in a rugby league heartland. Funny, because I reckon he just did.
Carr said: “Why would we want to highlight and assist his new venture by having him run out in a match in western Sydney? He is the marketing face of another sport.”
So instead of a feel good story about Folau and Tonga all about rugby league, Carr turns a mountain into a molehill that generates an article mentioning both GWS and the AFL.
It may even cut a little deeper that given the snub could be viewed as mean spirited in the Tongan and possibly wider Polynesian community here and back home.
Carr had an opportunity to focus on grass roots sport and community, instead he decided to invoke commercial interests against a perceived threat which will potentially backfire.
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