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There are few better ways to waste away an afternoon than to engage the mind by obsessing over the many possibilities and deviations that exist throughout rugby league history.
They have the tendency to equally delight and fascinate as you ponder the potential permutations and possibilities, and to send oneself into a state of depression over what might have been.
These are just a couple of my favourites.
What if Wayne Bennett had stayed in Canberra?
Understandably, Wayne Bennett’s one-year stint in Canberra is often forgotten. In 1987 he and Don Furner co-coached the team all the way to the grand final, where a red-hot Manly side beat them.
Bennett was then poached by Paul Morgan to coach the newly-minted Brisbane Broncos.
But what if Bennett stayed? With the likes of Laurie Daley, Ricky Stuart, Bradley Clyde and Kevin Walters coming through, would Canberra have experienced even greater success in the 90s? Would Brisbane have enjoyed such sustained success? Would Bennett still be coaching today?
So much of Bennett’s success in Brisbane came as a result of his ability to find and develop new talent, and his belief ‘it’s better to let them go a year too early, rather than a year too late’.
Once the new millennium rolled around, Canberra experienced a downturn, while Brisbane experienced a renaissance on the back of young stars like Darren Lockyer, Tonie Carroll, Shane Webcke and Petero Civoneceva.
Would the Broncos have been as successful in the post-Super league years without Bennett?
What if the Johns boys left Newcastle?
In his excellent autobiography The Two of Me, Andrew Johns details a few of the offers he had over his glittering career to leave Newcastle.
The first of these was after his debut season in 1993, from the expansion Western Reds, and was a package deal with his brother Matthew.
The entire history of the Reds franchise could have been different. The whole team could have been built around these two exciting, charismatic young halves.
Conversely, without the strong team David Waite had built in Newcastle, along with the shrewd coaching of Mal Reilly, would the Johns brothers have developed as well as they did? In a city with less of a fishbowl environment, would Andrew Johns’ well-documented off-field issues be accentuated or alleviated?
There were a few other times when Johns entertained serious offers to leave the Knights (to Souths in ’98, Brisbane in ’00, Souths and the Waratahs in ’04), but the ramifications of this initial move would have been staggering.
What if it hadn’t rained in Gosford?
The passing of the North Sydney Bears is often overlooked amid the frantic rationalisation of the newly formed NRL in the latter years of the 90s.
The poor old Bears were set to relocate to the Central Coast, but torrential rain delayed the redevelopment of Graham Park in Gosford.
Norths were forced to play almost the entire 1999 season away from home (they didn’t play a game at North Sydney Oval until Round 13), which all but sealed the club’s fate.
However, if the planned move to Gosford had gone through, the Bears would have received a massive cash injection from the NRL, and could presumably count on increased crowds, which may have been enough for them to avoid the foolish Northern Eagles merger.
The NRL established a complex criteria system for inclusion in season 2000, which allocated each club a certain number of points based on things like average crowds, profitability, junior numbers, on-field performance etc.
If Norths had managed to avoid the chopping block, the team with the next lowest amount of points was the Penrith Panthers.
So if Norths stayed in as the Central Coast Bears, what would have become of Penrith? There is a famous quote by a Panthers executive (that is possibly apocryphal), which claims the only reason Penrith survived was because “it rained in Gosford”.
Would Penrith have merged with the struggling Western Suburbs Magpies, establishing a team that occupied much of Sydney’s west?
Or would Parramatta, who were keen to secure their future by merging with anyone who was available, have snapped them up?
What if Craig Bellamy picked Greg Inglis instead of Billy Slater?
The first season Craig Bellamy’s Storm cemented their place as one of the elite teams in the competition was in 2006, but it’s worth noting Billy Slater missed a large chunk of the that season following a long suspension for kicking, and an injury sustained in his comeback match.
Melbourne didn’t miss a beat though, mainly due to the fact that a skinny, gangly kid named Greg Inglis slotted straight into the role of fullback.
Inglis played some wonderful football at the back, scoring 10 tries in as many games in that position. But when Slater returned, Inglis was moved into the centres.
But what if Bellamy kept Inglis at fullback? Slater would have undoubtedly left the club in order to secure a permanent spot at fullback.
Imagine if he’d signed with the newly formed Gold Coast Titans, or signed with a struggling team such as Souths or Penrith?
Similarly, would the Storm have experienced more or less success with Inglis at fullback? Could Inglis have beat Slater out for the Queensland and Australia fullback role?
What is your favourite alternate NRL scenario?
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