By now we have all born witness to the birth of the NRL Commission, which after years of speculation and organising has finally formed.
I believe the seven inductees on this new governing council are just what the NRL needs.
We finally have a group of people who are prepared to make the tough decisions and act on them without hesitation and succumbing to pressure from the media and fans. This is a problem that has plagued the NRL for years.
A few weeks ago, Phil Rothfield of the Daily Telegraph wrote an open letter to the new head of the NRL Commission John Grant, asking he immediately act on 10 central issues that the NRL currently faces. I was very pleased that they did so and without any fuss.
One of these issues they fixed was changing the McIntyre system to a format that is very similar to the current AFL finals system. This way, the top four teams get rewarded more fairly and overall creates a much fairer system.
Other issues raised in his piece which need addressing include mid-year transfers, Golden Point, the current standard of referring, the schedule and the next expansion period.
There is also the massive issue of the new T.V. rights deal coming up which the NRL will be hoping to get a similar deal to the current AFL agreement of 1.25 billion dollars.
The fact that players and coaches are constantly negotiating with other clubs throughout the year is an absolute disgrace. The lack of restrictions is one of the reasons Sonny Bill Williams was allowed to freely walk out on his contract in the middle of 2008 without a seconds notice.
Last year at Manly, Des Hasler caused a media riot when he agreed with terms to head to Belmore in 2012, which then was over-hyped and blown out of proportion.
The free agent laws need to be changed so that NRL contracts actually mean something and are not just a piece of paper with a dotted line to sign.
Surely player managers and teams can also have enough patience and decency to wait until the off-season to negotiate with the players and adjust their playing rosters accordingly. You are still going to get the media blowing things out of proportion, but at least it would be a more structured and civil way of doing things.
While I feel the issue of Golden point needs its own article to explain the problems in full, the current standard of referring in this code is appalling. I’m pointing a special finger at the video referee who sometimes makes me so mad I feel like I’m back in the office at the end of the financial year.
The Commission will need to act fast on the way the NRL schedules its games for the year and also the weekly time slots for matches. Having an effective schedule will also make the process of getting the best TV deal possible much easier.
I see no absolutely no reason not to play a game on a Saturday afternoon and broadcast it live free to air. If you really want to start being serious about competing with the AFL, then having more than one live game a week is a must.
Having bye weekends in the same week as State of Origin is also the other issue that consistently drives me crazy. I don’t understand why teams such as Melbourne, the Broncos and St George have had to suffer over the last few years and pull kids up from their feeder clubs to make up the numbers against regular first graders. You could have it so each team gets a bye two out of the three Origin weeks and have a much fairer completion.
I wrote my own views on expansion in the NRL several weeks ago.
While I gave special mention to the Central Coast, as Phil pointed out, to make Rugby League a truly national competition Perth deserves serious consideration for expansion as well. However, I still maintain that this should only be looked at after the current financial problems surrounding existing clubs is properly dealt with first.
I am very confident that the new commission can bring these issues to the forefront and have them dealt with as quickly as possible for the good of the game.
hhk
Guest
Its about time the Council is formed, for the benefit of the game. Someone has to make tough decisions for the good of the game and the fans to benefit. All the best for members of the Council.
malcolm crowther
Guest
i agree it would be great for us people who live in south australia to see live televised games instead of watching replays at midnight channel nine have had the rights to long
Queensland's game is rugby league
Guest
I hope Network 10 get the rights to broadcast all 8 NRL games, state of origin and Test football. Nine Network Australia can be happy with the Queensland Cup and high school competition.
Crosscoder
Roar Guru
Just to clarify a few points Cattery made re ch10. Like many public companies of late ,they have taken a pounding.They still achieved(if that can be used cynically) an operating profit of $64m for the half year to February.They will be paying no interim dividend,that would not thrill shareholders and the share price dropped accordingly Fat Prophets senior analyst noted "the guidance highlighted the current tough advertising market and the networks struggles to rein in costs and lift IT"S SHARE OF ADVERTISING REVENUE" . Higher rating programs help revenue growth. Warburton CEO of 1o noted"The digital channels One and eleven had posted strong growth and were the multi channels most watched by the u50s". Channel 10 according to the D,T. Will be using analysts to compile a game-by-game ratings dossier from last season to determine the exact worth of matches. Determined not to pay massive money if given he h lesser games each week in a divided rights format. Making rugby league the station's number one target for 2012. Ready to televise some matches on One HD and Eleven (Youth channel) if the station secures all eight games each round. We don't have to come from outer space to understand both 9 and 10,have financial issues.But in both instances they have not outlaid money of significance to this stage for a winter sport.They need revenue ,the backers of 9 know it and ch10 knows it. They have to lift ratings to achieve that objective,and it appears rugby league is the objective. ch9 ( would be spewing ,knowing 10 is in on the act,and with that in mind will really have to sharpen the bidding pencil ,should ch10 beat them by 20% its every man for himself. I would also like to note, the advertising revenue drop expected is for 2012,the rugby league contract is not effective until Nov1 2012 thereafter. e have Foxtel waiting in the wings wondering hat the! and ch7 thinking they might try a little SOO cherry picking.It's not all bad news for the code.Especially now Harold Mitchell the media buyer admitted ch10 coming into the bidding will change the landscape.
The Cattery
Roar Guru
The most pressing issue for the NRL and the newly formed commission is getting the TV rights sorted out over the next 6 months. The good news is that all FTA stations are looking likely to bid for bits of the NRL offerings against Fox, and that's a pretty good environment to extract maximum value. All FTA stations will bid for SOO (mentioned today in a couple of the dailies), and Ten are saying that they want all 8 NRL weekly games - but it's unclear whether that is exclusive or whether they would share with Fox, similar to what's happening now with the AFL. Although be warned, they are making noises about putting games on One and Eleven, and in order to do that, you'd think that the price would have to be kept relatively low - perhaps that would work if games are shared with Fox? Generally speaking, it would mean more money if two stations are paying for rights concurrently, just as the AFL achieved. I have read in the Business Age this morning that Ten have reported an earnings slump, and are looking to slash TV costs by $30 million this year - but they might will be viewing the NRL rights as a way of clawing their way back out of an earnings slump. This follows up on an article I read in the business section last week, that said that all TV advertising revenue was going to decline this year, with only Ch 7 forecast to retain stable earnings.