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Chairmen and chief executives from all 16 clubs will meet with NRL CEO David Gallop in Sydney today and you get the sense the wheels of change are in motion. It has been a long and slow march towards the Independent Commission, but with the invitations to the inaugural commissioners reportedly in the mail the signs are good.
There’ll be no shortage of discussion points, with just about everyone in club land keen to find out if they’ll be able to dive head first into a sparkling new, giant sized financial pie.
That will only happen, of course, if Gallop manages to land a billion dollar TV baby. If he can do it without the promise of expansion in 2013 it would surely be the highlight of his time in charge of the game.
But after the spreadsheets are done away with and the pie charts explained there’s a couple of minor issues that should be discussed.
One of them is how the finals series is run.
Former Newcastle and Cronulla five-eighth Matthew Johns, who is now a co-host of 2MMM’s breakfast radio show The Grill Team, raised an interesting point this week.
Johns, speaking about the looming finals series, said week one of the play-offs could use a re-jig.
Johns says the top three teams should be able to choose who they play in week one of the finals with the fourth placed team taking on whoever is left.
The McIntrye system, currently used by the NRL, has plenty of critics and in just over a month the annual debate about its merits will predictably roar to life and dominate print, radio and television.
Whether or not this system is better is also debatable, but it does provide plenty of intrigue.
There’s two ways coaches could approach the situation.
One option would be for the minor premiers to stick to playing the eighth placed side.
The other – less travelled path – would be to choose an opponent on form.
As a supporter of your club would you rather have the man in charge pick an opponent that only just made it into the finals or a team that may have lost three straight and finished fifth or sixth?
It certainly adds a bit of mystery and an extra layer of interest.
At least no-one would be able to complain about being the victim of an unfair process.
Coaches would live and die by their own choices.
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