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Some people would say that rugby league has undergone enough change recently. After all, we have a commission, a new CEO who is slowly being joined by a new management team and several new rules.
So it would seem odd then to suggest the thing the game needs most is more tinkering.
It’s actually not so much tinkering as sending the game back to a simpler time.
It’s fair to say the code’s peep over the garden fence into perceived greener pastures hasn’t exactly delivered the type of earth shattering fulfilment imagined.
Bulldogs chief executive Todd Greenberg will soon swap Belmore for the inner-city bustle of Rugby League Central as the new Head of Football and his to-do list should contain the following:
Get rid of fixed scheduling
12 months ago, if you gave every rugby league fan one wish, they would’ve asked the genie for fixed scheduling.
The two rights holders, Fox Sports and Channel Nine, were given the impossible task of predicting the fortunes of the 16 clubs for the first 20 rounds of the season.
Friday night and Sunday afternoon football, as a result of injuries and poor form that Nostradamus couldn’t have seen coming, has tossed up some games that aren’t worthy of the time-slots.
It’s time to start picking the games five to seven weeks ahead again.
The game is funded by a billion dollar television deal and the coverage, selected in conjunction with the current fortunes of the clubs, actually adds to the narrative of the season.
Yesterday, the NRL trumpeted “blockbuster matches, Saturday afternoon games and stand-alone Thursday and Friday night clashes,” for rounds 21 to 26.
Even head office sounds excited about putting away the crystal ball.
Go back to one referee
The whistle blowers will cop criticism regardless of whether there are two or 20 of them on the field, but coaches either need them to be consistently good or consistently bad.
Coaches dislike interpretations because they’re something they can’t control.
The hardest thing for the men in the box, whose livelihoods can be tied to the application of those interpretations, is trying to work to not one, but two sets of opinions.
It’s impossible for two referees to have exactly the same interpretation of the rule book.
The game is played at such a rapid pace that even the slightest variation, particularly at the ruck, can cause that red vain in a coach’s forehead to bulge.
Expansion
The E-word hasn’t been spoken about recently.
The game grew up with its big television deal and now it’s time to start giving serious consideration once again to laying down roots in far-away lands (or at least outside of New South Wales and Queensland).
Bidders from Perth and several sites in Queensland are sitting and waiting to see what direction the game will take and when it will step outside its traditional borders again.
Once upon a time the thought of putting a club in Melbourne would’ve seemed like absolute lunacy, but that has turned out alright.
The existing clubs need some help with good governance structures and some monetary assistance as well and Dave Smith has already waded into those waters.
Still, the slow ships can only halt the pace of the fleet for so long.
Brisbane is crying out for another team. The best stadium in Australia needs more rugby league and the game’s premium Queensland time-slot needs a Bronco-free option.
Perth is laying the ground work with a growing junior base and professional structure with the odd fixture also playing into the hands of the large population of east-coast ex-pats.
It’s time to start this discussion again.
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