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A number of bad things happened in last weekend’s round of the NRL. If you ask Manly, the worst thing was Daly Cherry-Evans being forced from the field by the concussion rule.
If you ask the Roosters, it was Blake Ferguson getting a bad foot injury that will see him out for four months.
If you ask Dave Furner, it may be the crew at NRL360 on Fox celebrating Ferguson’s turnaround and putting it down to the loving care of his new coach – and noted humanitarian – Trent ‘leave a few bodies on the ground’ Robinson.
Everyone who has ever met Furner knows he is an uncaring and cold bloke who drove Josh Dugan and Ferguson to delinquency through his brutal treatment of the two poor lads. Thank heavens Blake found Trent is all I can say.
If you ask David Smith it may be that more than a few people voted with their feet by not purchasing State of Origin tickets at the newly inflated price. Rather than listening to well-reasoned advice about ensuring there is atmosphere at the showpiece event, it seems that the brains trust at NRL HQ are determined to fill the place with vaguely interested corporate guests who are more concerned with getting free food and booze.
However, all of these pale in comparison to the fact I couldn’t bring myself to watch my team play. I actively didn’t watch or listen to the Raiders playing the Roosters.
Why? Because I knew they couldn’t win. I didn’t even hold out hope.
So why should my avoidance of the game be the worst thing that happened? Because I’m a hardcore fan. I have rarely missed a game in over a quarter of a century.
My parents – both season ticket holders for 25 years – also didn’t watch. What happens if we, the rusted-on supporters, eventually decide not to go to Canberra Stadium, or to buy a Foxtel subscription? Does anyone care?
My dad loves a quote about our English football team that was in a magazine years ago, “Bolton Wanderers are a great team to follow, as long as you don’t care who wins.” This could now be said about the Raiders. They have won just 38 of their last 100 games. Of the 62 games they lost, 39 were by margins of 13 or more. And the thing is that I do care who wins.
How many other Green Machine zealots didn’t want to destroy their Sunday getting angry about the blatant inequity of the NRL being displayed by a side boasting ten state and or/country representatives beating the hell out of a side that kind of has two?
Deliberately choosing to watch a side that has appeared in over a third of the past 15 grand finals, thrash a side that hasn’t played a grand final for two decades is a little like going to watch your small child get beaten up by the school bully, while a crowd roars its approval.
It isn’t entertainment and it certainly isn’t sport.
I also really didn’t want to get furious hearing the commentators lauding Blake Ferguson for “turning his life around” while he smashed over my young lads in green.
He hasn’t turned his life around. He just changed clubs.
Possibly encouraged by others, he walked out on his contract with the Raiders and treated them and their fans with utter contempt. Sure they sacked him, but it was just a formality. He had no intention of coming back. Is it fanciful of me to even consider that he deliberately set out to be sacked so he could shop himself to other clubs? Is it just a wild conspiracy theory that his last game in lime green was playing against the Roosters at the SFS and then he disappeared like a fart in the wind – only to turn up subsequently in their side?
You want me to agree that he’s turned his life around? Let’s see him come back to play for the Raiders and repay what he owes the club.
I still want him to succeed. I want him to be the star I know he can be. I want him to turn into a great man and role model for the many other young kids who’ve had or are having hellish upbringings. I just wanted it to be done in a green jersey.
There was a John Cleese movie made years ago called Clockwork where the central character is desperately trying to achieve a mission, while the universe throws obstacle after obstacle at him. At one point he says in anguish, “It’s not the despair that gets you, it’s the hope.”
For long-suffering Raiders supporters, the key is getting some hope. If you have hope that things can come good then you’ll keep turning up and tuning in. If you have no hope then you might just disappear.
When my friend asked me earlier in the week if we had a chance against the Bondi Boys I told him only if the Roosters suffered a send off and some catastrophic injuries. That’s not hope, that’s just fanciful dreaming.
The NRL gave the Novocastrians hope last year when they bailed out the Knights after the Nathan Tinkler debacle. Earlier this year they gave the Titans hope when they took over the embattled club.
At risk of repeating myself, if the NRL have any concern for the future of the Canberra Raiders whatsoever they must do the following ASAP:
1. Introduce big salary cap concessions for developing your own juniors
Last year, around the time that Anthony Milford (a junior the Raiders had developed from the age of 13) decided he wanted to go home to play for Brisbane, the NRL CEO David Smith assured Canberra fans that he was looking at introducing concessions for home-grown talent.
Smith met with the Canberra board at length on Wednesday July 2, 2014, and convinced them that the salary cap concessions would be introduced by the start of the 2015 season. At the time it was like closing the gate once the Milford had bolted – but there was hope.
Now, four matches into 2015, that hope is unfulfilled. Will you now stand by and watch as Jack Wighton gets poached Mr Smith?
2. Either enforce the salary cap or abolish it
The official literature says that the salary cap exists in part to try and ensure a level playing field, while also stopping clubs from over-extending themselves financially. Great in theory, but in practice the third-party deals, marquee allowances and god knows what other ‘payments’ mean that the playing field is clearly unlevel.
Both the Raiders and the Panthers have highly profitable clubs behind them. If they were allowed to use those funds to compete with the big end of town it might make a difference.
Alternatively, how about actually enforcing the salary cap and stop making loopholes? Trying to stop players leaving for the bigger money of European and Japanese rugby is like trying to hold back the tide. In the long term it is a far better bet to make an even and healthy competition.
3. Sling some of that discretionary funding the Raiders’ way
The Raiders could really use some big bucks to lure a few names to town, and Mr Smith has the money and power to do it.
How about he helps them make the likes of Boyd Cordner, Ben Hunt or Alex Johnston offers that they can’t refuse? Or is that a forlorn hope, as that money only gets used to get Sam Burgess to Manly or keep Greg Inglis at Souths?
I know that most of you Roarers probably don’t care about the Raiders one bit. But if the NRL can stand by while my club suffers these inequities, how long will it be until it is your club?