There have been some great rugby league teams that have graced Australia’s sporting landscape over the years. Teams whose skill and tenacity have wowed spectators, captured imaginations and gone down in footy folk lore. The 1992 Parramatta Eels were not one of these teams.
After the glory days of the 80’s the new decade had been cruel to the blue and golds, and the 1992 season was akin to watching a former runway supermodel all faded and washed up calling the bingo numbers at the Dunedoo RSL.
Sure the effort was still there, but the sparkle had gone and things were beginning to stretch and sag in all the wrong places.
Parramatta won seven games that year. However, the only one you will ever hear Parra Jesus and his disciples talk about was an against all odds victory against the touring Great Britain Lions side (their only loss to a club side on the tour), the best team to come out of the UK in 15 years, and one that would go on to defeat the Kangaroos in Melbourne soon after.
In a bleak year it became the club’s most famous victory.
Fast forward to last week and both Sydney, South Sydney and Wests Tigers CEO’s have voiced their disapproval of a proposed six match Lions tour at the end of the 2012 season.
Souths CEO Steve Richardson puffed out his chest and bellowed about “player protection” and how that with the incoming Independent commission (ETA 2046) “decisions just won’t be made by the International Federation without the approval of clubs.”
You know, like they are with other tin pot organisations like, I don’t know, FIFA, the IOC etc.
With this sort of short sightedness the Rabbitohs should play out of Jurassic Park, and all this a week after Souths team owner Russell Crowe continued his one man international rugby league crusade by negotiating a deal to have Origin 1 beamed into homes in the USA.
For starters there hasn’t been a real Lions tour since 1992 not counting 3 or 4 Nations and the World Cup. Fans would love a proper rugby league Ashes series on Australian soil. Absolutely love it.
Sure the English haven’t shown a great run of form lately but I believe they would come good in a three game series rather than just a one off four nations match.
Secondly it’s only a six game tour, not six months and that includes New Zealand as well as Australia. Australia are supposed to play an end of season Test from now on anyway, so how much more burnout will there be in an extra one or two games (and how many Souths players will make the Australian side anyway)?
Lastly, by playing England (as it will be now) we are helping them with their development in the year before a World Cup, but what happened last World Cup where the Kangaroos had the post 2007 season off to ‘avoid burnout’? That’s right, we lost for the first time since Jonny Raper had hair!
People may decry international rugby league but it is an important part of the game’s fabric which can actually make a fair bit of money, as witnessed by the fact that the ANZAC Test held at a small stadium (don’t start me) made $7 million dollars for the Gold Coast, all with a third of the promotion Origin 1 received.
Ignore it and in 10 years the NRL clubs will be contacting the Irish Hurling association to discuss a hybrid game or playing rugby league 9’s against the New Caledonian rugby union team or something equally daft.
So here’s the memo CEO’s: stop telling us what you and your prehistoric pal Geoff Carr want and start listening to what we want. If the Australian or New Zealand players really don’t want to play rep football at the highest level and get paid handsomely to do so against Australia’s oldest foe, I know some blokes who will.
The Illawarra and Newcastle rep teams. Northern New South Wales Selection. Country. Far North Queensland. Western Australia. Combined Brisbane.
And given the year they’re having, I imagine probably the Parramatta Eels.
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