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Warren Young barracks for the Eels, works as a rigger and talks footy with his mates over beer. There would be no more typical footy fan.
One morning Young was frigging with some rigging on a frozen Canberra morning when he decided to craft a blueprint of his vision for rugby league for, like many fans, Young long railed against how the game is run.
He reads the papers, watches The Sunday Footy Show and props up the bar and opines, sometimes loudly, that the NRL couldn’t raffle a chook.
Yet where Young may differ from those of you nodding along is that Young heeded his wife’s advice to “stop whinging and do something about it”.
He got home, took out a scrapbook and began scribbling. And, after a few months, with the help of wife Barbara, a former speechwriter for former Attorney-General Robert McClelland, he produced a 24-page document entitled Draft Proposal for the NRL Independent Commission – by Warren Young. And he sent it to everybody – coaches, administrators, media.
It was seen by David Gallop and Graeme Annesley. He received letters from Roosters chief Nick Politis and Melbourne Storm boss Frank Ponissi. Raiders CEO Don Furner rang to say he was sending the document up the food chain.
Johnny Gibbs at 2UE wanted to be kept in the loop. Jimmy Smith from Big Sports Breakfast sent a one-page email. Matt Cleary – oh, that’s me – wrote a feature piece for Rugby League Week with a picture of Young in a hardhat cradling his baby.
Young himself even wrote a piece for this very journal detailing what it was all about.
What was it all about?
A draw, basically, with some structural modifications to counter the negative effects of State of Origin on the comp, clubs, players and fans.
Young proposed the NRL be an 18-team, 20-round competition (welcome back Bears, hello Brisbane number two) bookended by ‘rivalry’ rounds and last-round ‘wildcard’ match-ups picked from a hat.
After ten rounds there’d be a six-week suspension of the season proper for fortnightly State of Origin matches and ‘Origin Cup’, a separate competition like the old KB Cup, with conferences, derbies and bonus points to encourage tries.
There’d be a reserve grade meshed with under 20s. City-Country was scrapped (this was eight years ago, mind), a ‘Four Nations’ would happen every second year and the one-off Anzac Test would follow State of Origin, which remains, surely, as logical a piece of scheduling as having first grade after second.
“The idea is to get better games for television and less games for rep players,” Young told League Week. “I hate the word, but I wanted to make a better ‘product’ for television.
“Club footy loses a bit over the Origin period because the best players aren’t available. But there’s still six competition points available.
“When they come back they’re playing busted or tired. They shouldn’t treat rep players like mules.
“And the fans should see the best their club can trot out.”
Again – this was eight years ago.
The ‘Origin Cup’ would be a 20-team, five-week competition with regional conferences; an adjunct to the main draw as the FA Cup is to the English Premier League.
Like everyone who read it, footy coach Brian Smith reckoned parts of Young’s proposal had merit, parts were worth considering and other bits didn’t cut mustard.
“Any sort of proposal like this is worth considering,” said Smith. “I can understand where he’s coming from, but it would need to be looked at from all the angles. And someone would have to do the sums.”
Then chief operating officer Annesley reckoned “playing rep games back-to-back would take a heavy toll on the players”.
“The speed and intensity of games at that level would make it very difficult for players to back up each week,” said Annesley.
As Young said, it was a draft. There would be issues, teething and ongoing, with any system, just as there are issues – big ones – with the status quo, which sees clubs suffer, the NRL suffer, fans suffer and players suffer and an Australian Test team playing a month before the natural selection process that would be a three-match series between the two states of Australia that play rugby league.
So why not, as Cowboys coach Paul Green mooted this week, suspend the comp for an ‘Origin’ period? And why not host a separate, KB Cup-like comp, in conferences?
Would coaches, as Des Hasler and company have treated City-Country, simply rest their best?
Is there a risk that should teams lose several games early in the competition their remaining games could become meaningless?
Would such a long break in the NRL competition risk losing momentum and interest? Super Rugby could attest to that.
Yet surely playing the Test match after State of Origin, after the season’s done and dusted some time end of October, as a double-header with the Bledisloe (just a thought) would be a logical piece of scheduling. Surely state games should count as selection towards the national team?
Should the NRL get on the phone with my man Woz?