- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
There needs to be wholesale changes to the scheduling of representative rugby league in Australia. That much we can all agree on.
The system in place at the moment isn’t working, and recent attempts to fix things have been short-sighted and ill-advised.
Case in point? The Representative Round. What a mess. Ja Rule could have organised a more cohesive festival of rugby league.
The games themselves were entertaining, but why were we watching them? What was the purpose of staging one-off Test matches ten weeks into the season? The timing didn’t make any sense.
State of Origin is the problem. Let’s not beat around the bush. Every season, the NRL is held hostage by this much beloved and highly anticipated contest. We sacrifice almost a third of our regular season to placate this $100 million behemoth.
I’m not trying to trash Origin nor suggesting we should scrap it. Like every other self-respecting New South Welshman, I love the concept and look forward to it every year. But Origin is to rugby league what the Board of Cricket Control India is to cricket; an arrogant bully throwing its weight around to the detriment of the entire game.
So how do we fix things? Well, here’s my suggestion – and I’m the first to admit that it has more holes in it than the South Sydney defensive line.
(AAP Image/Paul Miller)
It all starts with State of Origin. If this annual series is truly the centrepiece of our game, then let’s treat it as such. No more mid-week fixtures. No more bye rounds, weakened club squads and lopsided draws. You don’t see the Bledisloe Cup or Champions League final played on a Wednesday evening, and there’s a reason for that. It’s a dumb idea.
I am proposing the NRL schedules three representative rounds each season, during which no club football takes place. In order to fit these three weekends into the schedule, the regular season would need to be reduced from 26 weeks to 23 weeks.
Through eliminating the byes, clubs would still play 23 regular season games, which is one fewer than they are currently playing.
Along with State of Origin, each stand-alone representative weekend would be a feast of rep football to cater for even the most discerning fan. This would include a round-robin Pacific Test series between Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and Papua New Guinea, a three-game Trans-Tasman women’s series, and in the mold of Origin, a best of three series featuring two New Zealand regions (eg North Island v South Island).
The weekend would look a little something like this:
• Friday – NSW v Queensland, NSW Residents v Queensland Residents
• Saturday – Tonga v Fiji, Jillaroos v Ferns
• Sunday – North Island v South Island, Samoa v Papua New Guinea
This would all set the stage for an international tournament held at the conclusion of the season. The teams involved would be Australia, England, New Zealand and a Pacific Nations team formed in a similar fashion to the British and Irish Lions.
There are a bunch of advantages to this approach. First, State of Origin is given the time and focus it deserves. Secondly, staging a similar contest in New Zealand will build the profile of rugby league across the ditch and strengthen their international squad. The same logic applies to Test matches featuring the Pacific Island nations.
Thirdly, each game throughout the three representative rounds would have genuine meaning, making them much more attractive to both players and fans. And finally, clubs are not disadvantaged by their star players withdrawing from regular season games.
The biggest hurdle to this approach is money. Broadcast dollars keep the game afloat, and broadcasters need content. The NRL regular season rates like the lovechild of Masterchef and My Kitchen Rules, which keeps the torrent of advertising and pay-television dollars flowing.
So the key to making this idea a success is to convince the broadcasters that the content on offer is worth investing in. And the best way to achieve this is through leveraging off the existing media hype generated by State of Origin. A constant stream of cross-promotion should do the trick. Channel Seven does it all the time.
In the end, it’s all about balance. We need to find a way to keep State of Origin as the showpiece of rugby league, maintain the NRL as one of the world’s premier domestic sporting competitions, and build the international game at same time. This solution ticks all the boxes.
(AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts)
Cooper’s blooper: Is there any room left for Cronk?
Cooper Cronk recently announced that he plans to leave the Melbourne Storm at the end of the 2017 season. After 14 years at the club, the halfback pulled a Bob Day, and put his family first. His fiancé is based in Sydney and Cronk is moving North for the sake of his relationship, earning more brownie points than Adriano Zumbo in the process.
In the days following his announcement, Cronk was inundated with questions around his future. Is he planning to sign for a Sydney club? Is he retiring? Is he moving into broadcasting? When is he getting his nose fixed? The standard media beat up.
Cooper was characteristically coy with his responses, and followed the Craig Bellamy doctrine to the letter. He divulged nothing, and shifted the focus back onto the Melbourne Storm’s current premiership campaign. The details, he said, could be sorted out later.
But can they? Or has Cooper overplayed his hand? Cronk refused to partake in the game of halfback musical chairs going on between the Sydney clubs. But now the music has stopped, and the Australian halfback has nowhere to sit.
So let’s examine Cronk’s options, limited as they are. St George Illawarra is out. They have already committed astonishing money to Widdop and Bent Hunt. The Tigers, Bulldogs and Eels have also opened up their chequebooks to Josh Reynolds, Kieran Foran (probably) and Mitchell Moses respectively, so they no longer have a need at halfback or the means to afford one.
Cronulla are set in the halves. So too are Manly and the Roosters. Penrith are in all sorts of salary cap pain, and already have Nathan Cleary on their roster. South Sydney? Maybe, but with Adam Reynolds playing a very similar style to Cronk, it doesn’t make much sense.
So that just leaves… Newcastle? It’s not such a crazy idea. The Knights have a couple of million dollars burning a hole in their pocket and no real options in the halves. Cronk would be an ideal mentor for the young Newcastle playmakers, bringing a level of preparation and professionalism not seen in the Hunter since Danny Buderus retired.
At the end of the day, it all comes down to Cronk and where his priorities lie. He remains one of the top players in the game, and still has plenty to offer a club like the Newcastle Knights.
But after achieving everything the game of rugby league has to offer, you could never hold it against him if he opted to hang up the boots and join Michael Ennis on the couch.
5th Tackle Option
Here are five quick thoughts on the action from Rep Round.
1. No matter how many times I watch it, I never tire of the Haka. The passion is mesmerising. Shame it doesn’t seem to translate into their performance on the field.
2. That was an insipid display from the Kiwis. With so much talent across the park, their fans deserved better than the lukewarm porridge dished up in Canberra on Friday evening. Australia played well, but the Dapto Canaries would have given New Zealand a run for their money.
3. Where was Jordan Rapana? The NRL’s leading try scorer and most dynamic attacking weapon was barely sighted. Perhaps he thought it was still Marvel Round, and showed up dressed as the Invisible Man.
4. I am a big fan of City-Country and am sad to see it go. While it isn’t a genuine NSW selection trial anymore, it’s still a worthwhile concept. The NRL shouldn’t be so quick to dismiss a fixture with over 100 years of tradition. I would take City-Country over the All-Stars concept or the Auckland Nines any day of the week.
5. I thought white line fever was something you got when you walked onto the field…