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If the NRL Integrity Unit clears Blake Ferguson to play for another NRL club in 2014, the Canberra Raiders might as well pack up shop and pull out of the NRL.
Ferguson pulling on a Roosters, Rabbitohs or any other jersey next season will send a clear message to the Raiders’ team, board and fans – NRL HQ doesn’t care about you.
And why would they?
In the money driven rugby league, the Green Machine simply doesn’t pull big enough crowds or TV audiences for the powerbrokers of the NRL to really be concerned about their wellbeing. They are making up the numbers.
Only having four of their games – two of which were finals – shown on free-to-air television in the last two seasons illustrates clearly how the game’s ruling body feels about them.
So what is the point of continuing the charade?
While the Raiders enjoyed a golden period between 1987 and 1995, those halcyon days were triggered by a set of circumstances that have long since evaporated.
When a young Wayne Bennett was lured down to Queanbeyan to help Don Furner Sr out with the coaching, he bought a few handy players with him. Along with the great Mal Meninga, there were also the likes of Steve and Kevin Walters, Sam Backo, Peter Jackson, Gary Coyne and Gary Belcher.
Added to a line-up that included Dean Lance, John Ferguson, Brad Clyde, Ricky Stuart, Laurie Daley and Glenn Lazarus, the Raiders became a powerful force.
When the Brisbane Broncos arrived in 1988 they caused a massive upheaval in Australian rugby league, and some of the biggest impacts were felt by the Raiders.
The first major hit was in Paul Morgan luring Wayne Bennett back to Brisbane to coach. The next was the ready supply of talent from Queensland either not wanting to come or heading home.
While Sheens ably took over the fantastic groundwork laid down by Furner and Bennett and won the ’89, ’90 and ’94 grand finals, it wasn’t long until that generation passed through.
By 1999 the Canberra Raiders were no longer a force – and they haven’t been since.
Next year will mark two decades since the Raiders last played in a decider and while the 2012 season showed promise, 2013 was dreadful.
The Raiders lurched from misfortune to disaster:
• Star Josh Dugan was sacked by the board for continued issues
• Blake Ferguson was suspended by the NRL after allegedly assaulting a woman in Cronulla
• The Raiders suffered their worst ever defeat – 68-4 at the hands of the Melbourne Storm
• David Furner became the first coach in the history the Canberra Raiders to be sacked
• Ferguson failed to turn up to training and games and was sacked by the Raiders board
• Star players Edrick Lee and Jack Wighton suffered season-ending bone breaks
• Up-and-coming superstar Anthony Milford sought a release for season 2014
• Sandor Earl was stood down following drug charges
• The Raiders lost their last six matches to finish 13th
For a season that had fans dreaming at the start, by the end it had been a nightmare.
While the arrival of Ricky Stuart and the contract extension of Jack Wighton have provided some optimism, the question must really be posed as to whether there is any point in the Canberra Raiders staying in the competition.
Consider these two major handicaps the Raiders have:
• The weather. Scott Prince told me a few years ago that he would never consider living in a place as cold as Canberra. Most other players feel the same. ABC Commentator Tim Gavel told me that a player once came down from Brisbane to discuss a possible Raiders contract but refused to leave the airport when he felt the cold.
• The location. Added to the weather, Canberra’s location is not attractive. It is neither on the coast, nor is it a major city. It is the only NRL club with both of these handicaps. There is little glamour or ‘scene’ to be had in the nation’s capital.
If the NRL’s annual player survey included a question on what team players would least like to play for, you can safely bet that the Raiders would be easily #1.
As a result, the Raiders are right up against it in attracting and retaining players and this has resulted in their poor results over the past 15 seasons.
The Raiders need assistance from the NRL in the form of extra salary cap room to lure and retain players – like the AFL did to help the Brisbane Lions and the Sydney Swans.
Further, the Raiders must be given considerable salary cap concessions to help them keep players they’ve developed from juniors.
The thought of Anthony Milford being poached by the Brisbane Broncos – now he has actually showed great return on the long term investment the Raiders have made in him – has Canberra fans beside themselves.
How is it fair that a side that is by far the richest in the land, has massive sponsorship, barely misses a week on free-to-air TV, has access to a massive grassroots talent pool and has players lining up to join them is now able to just take Milford from the Raiders?
Surely all NRL clubs should be given concessions under the cap for developing players, as the Raiders have with Milford from his early teens. These concessions would allow them to make him the sort of financial offer that entices him to stay put.
Given the Raiders’ difficulties in attracting and retaining players, the idea that they would let star players go without very good reason is ludicrous.
Under David Gallop, the NRL supported the Raiders’ sacking of Todd Carney by making him sit out the 2009 season. That sent a clear message that bad behaviour would not be tolerated and clubs would be supported if they took a stand.
In 2013, after all the Raiders’ troubles with homegrown star Josh Dugan that resulted in his sacking, the fullback was still allowed by the NRL to play for another side in the very same season.
That the NRL allowed it suggests that they thought Dugan and the Raiders had rugby league’s version of ‘irreconcilable differences’, and that Dugan’s issues weren’t deserving of wider sanction.
The Integrity Unit didn’t even have any issues registering his St George Illawarra contract after Dugan invited someone on Twitter to ‘end himself’.
Blake Ferguson, Dugan’s rooftop-Cruiser-drinking buddy, would have seen all this play out. So it is little surprise that the want-away player just stopped turning up for Raiders training and games.
His resultant sacking signalled the start of rumours that he was going to link up with the Roosters or the Rabbitohs in 2014.
And why shouldn’t he? After all he has found God, stopped going out drinking, hasn’t been arrested since June and it’s been over a year since he was last alleged to have spat on members of the public.
And you’ve got to feel sorry for him – he had to live in Canberra for two years…
By letting Dugan and Ferguson continue to play without further sanction, is the NRL not actually giving their anti-social behaviour the tick of approval?
Does it not say, “If you are a good player you can behave anyway you want”?
Further, if Dave Smith and Jim Doyle allow Ferguson to sign with another club for 2014, it may have great consequences in the player market. It will tell any player that if he wants out of a contract, he should just act appallingly until he gets sacked.
Then he can simply go to the new club that his player manager – those doyennes of integrity – has lined up for him.
Ferguson playing in 2014 creates a precedent that effectively lets clubs poach players. It is a safe bet that it will be the strong poaching from the weak too.
That has the potential to stop a club like the Raiders ever being successful again. And if that’s the case, then what is the point in continuing the Canberra Raiders at all?
The answer to this is found in Jim Doyle’s own words from the April 2012 issue of New Zealand’s M2 Magazine. The then NZRL Chiefs thoughts were as follows:
“If the NZRL runs a game in Auckland, they can be guaranteed there will be a certain income compared to holding it in Wellington, Christchurch or Dunedin where there will be less. But you have to in a sense share the games around. It’s not only just about the commercial side.
“If the games are always say held in Auckland, you are not going to be able to promote the game and develop the game anywhere outside of Auckland. We want more kids in the South Island to play but if we never ever take a high profile game there, how is that expected to happen?”
So by Jim’s own rationale rugby league having a strong and regular top level presence in the regions is just as important as the commercial side of rugby league. Now is the time for him to back those words up with action and support the sides in regional Australia.
There are only three sides in the NRL based in regional Australia: Newcastle (arguably), North Queensland and Canberra. The rest are in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and the Gold Coast.
The Raiders’ home of Canberra/Queanbeyan is surrounded by Goulburn, Yass, Young, Crookwell, Wagga Wagga, Temora, Junee, Batemans Bay, Moruya, Bega and Cootamundra.
It is a huge nursery of rugby league talent and one that anyone serious about growing Rugby League should be dedicated to. The Raiders are a great pathway for the up and coming talent of the entire region.
If Smith and Doyle actually care about the Canberra Raiders surviving as anything more than a bastard child of the NRL, then they must give them salary cap concessions for juniors they’ve developed and also to help them attract and retain players.
But if they let Blake Ferguson play in the NRL in 2014, the Raiders should just get the message and close up shop.