Unfortunately for my sanity, I have ideas on rugby league like brainwaves from Stephen Hawking hooked up to a nuclear power station.
But what’s ground-breaking discovery on gravitational super-novae compared to reform to the NRL schedule?
At the moment, in the UK at least, the rugby league transfer period appears to run from 24th July to the next year’s 23rd July, which, while falsely exaggerated (a bit), is ridiculous!
To show you of its negative effects, because our schedule was effectively demised by an Antipodean administrator while drinking away his sorrows wondering what went wrong with his life to end up working in the armpit of Yorkshire living in a grubby four by two in Brighouse, and is thus split into two parts, Wakefield, who were all but mathematically doomed to a dogfight in the second stage (at which time the points from the first part of the season are wiped clean) were able to pretty much buy a new team and avoid relegation.
This is not the only reason I think the transfer period should be shortened. In an environment characterised by mergers, relocations, EU centralisation, CBD stadia, TTIP, dual registration and the rest, club loyalties and identities are wavering.
This is not helped by the fact that a player can leave at any time, and while football (which for some reason, you lot call soccer) is struggling from a lack of loyalty (as well as other things that aren’t safe for kids to read or see), it does benefit from the fact that once August has past, they must commit until that club (at least until January).
A transfer period will not solve all of these problems, it won’t ease the Gold Coast question, or make the St George Illawarra merger any more tolerable, or make your Republican leader seem amicable, but it can do good.
I advocate the introduction of a transfer period from the end of the season, say, the start of December (so that the international period, should Australia ever decide to become involved) is not bogged down with player negotiations, and run to the end of March (because not even football has a cut off period before the start of the season, and as FIFA has proven, football is the sport that all others should aspire to).
I also think that there could be a mid-season window, say throughout the month of July, for the obvious reasons of maintaining squad harmony, a chance to re-evaluate and improve and what not.
This does however, come with risks. The transfer deadline day has seen some financial blunders that our Chancellor would be proud of, such as paying £35 million for one Andrew Carroll, a striker that has pushed my stance against plastic surgery to the limit. And it’s not exactly like our sport is blessed with brilliant administrators (cough Newcastle cough).
That’s why I want to take another idea from our round-balled friends (and not the one about rewarding the World Cup to an uninhabitable desert), and that is Financial Fair Play.
FFP sees clubs have to balance the books. In that, they can only spend in transfer sums and wages what they earn from TV income, tickets, sponsorship et al. This prevents not only a club from splashing out on transfer sums beyond their means, but stops the clubs from going cap-in-hand to NRL HQ.
And it’s not as if anyone will be harmed. The clubs can benefit with more control over their all too often outspoken and rowdy players, while TV, in a sentence I promise will not have any sly remarks about Rupert Murdoch, can use it to their advantage.
With Fox’s introduction of a 24/7 rugby league channel next year, they can follow the precedent set by their slightly less insane British cousins at Sky, whose Sports News Channel provides coverage on transfer deadline day, with correspondents at all grounds to provide breaking news. This day is a huge ratings success, outscoring the other instant-news outlets as well as becoming a televisual force in its own right.
So that’s it. Do we want to help squads foster unity, build club loyalty and create financial prudency? Or do you just fancy plodding along like mindless sheep? I’ve always thought more of Australians than the Kiwis.
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