The news that England and New Zealand may be about to confirm their June 23 Test in Denver is but a small ray of light during a pre-season in which most of the portents are that rugby league is going backwards.
This week in the Sydney Morning Herald, colleague Roy Masters presented a bleak picture of the administrative changes within the Australian Rugby League Commission.
Proposed constitutional changes, Masters told us, mean that if the new NSW Rugby League representative on the ARLC and a couple of Sydney club representatives who are also on the NSWRL board decided not to go to a meeting, the commission could not vote on anything.
Furthermore, NSW and Queensland would be forever enshrined in the structure, to the exclusion of other leagues even though teams are already involved from Auckland, Melbourne, Perth and Canberra and will soon be added from Suva.
The Country Rugby League, which has more players than the NSWRL, is already completely unrepresented.
John Grant, to his credit, has seen the recidivist nature of these changes and sought to block them. Roy concludes that, if he is unsuccessful, the “cartel” nature of rugby league in Australia “is back”.
(AAP Image/Paul Miller)
In England, the 12 Super League clubs have replaced CEO Nigel Wood on the board of that body and he has now left it and the over-arching national body, the Rugby Football League.
But no sooner had he made that announcement than Wood was across the pond negotiating with three consortia seeking to enter new teams in New York, Hamilton (Ontario) and Boston. Why, when he was leaving? Suggestions are that Wood is staying on at the RFL as a consultant under a three-month contract from February.
And how can Toronto Wolfpack founder Eric Perez be involved in more than one of these bids when they appear to be in competition with each other? Yet he has been linked with Hamilton for months and has now been linked to the talks regarding NYC in a Times Square hotel.
Meanwhile, Wood’s interim CEO, Ralph Rimmer, is apparently calling a select media conference of sorts and telling reporters he wants the job full time.
According to the Press Association, he also said “that there were no plans to headhunt a successor to Wood”.
What? The interim CEO (who, admittedly, will not play a role in deciding on who gets the job) wants the post and there will be no attempts to search for the best candidate – just see who applies?
That would appear to rule out the successful and interested boxing promoters Barry and Eddie Hearn. One can’t see them posting in their CVs to Red Hall.
Meanwhile, Super League executive Roger Draper, who came with high credentials from lawn tennis, has left the sport again for no apparent reason.
The season in England is about to kick off without a structure for 2019 having been announced. In terms of promotion and relegation, teams in three divisions will kick off the year not knowing what they’re playing for.
Okay, let’s move onto the international scene.
There WAS a head-hunting procedure before David Collier was appointed the first CEO of the Rugby League International Federation. A rugby union official was offered the job and turned it down.
Collier, like Draper, chose to leave. Both appear to be career sports administrators with plenty of options. In both cases, one must wonder whether they saw the future as even more fraught than this column is painting it.
How is Collier replaced? By his chairman, Nigel Wood, who gets out of the RFL and into the RLIF as a full time job just in the nick of time. Oh, he was “interviewed” – in Sydney, at a meeting he was attending as chairman of the organisation that employed him!
So who is the new chairman? Sure, it makes sense for it to fall to an Australian representative now that the British man is leaving.
One problem: the “Australian” representative is about to have no connection to the ARLC because he has been forced out by NRL clubs!
“It’s a bloody good story if you can get someone to substantiate it but I’m certainly not in a position to do so,” Grant told me, on the record, in November, when asked about the stories doing the rounds of him getting Wood’s job and Wood getting Collier’s.
At the point he said this, you would hope the ARLC had not already officially endorsed him to continue on the RLIF after his departure.
The theme here is repeated appointments from within, or the suggestion of them, and outsiders being scared off.
All of this is not to say that the people mentioned above won’t do good jobs in their new roles or that they don’t care about the game.
But where is the transparency? Where is the due process? How is rugby league not going backwards when this stuff can occur?
Jeff Morris
Guest
Its a smart model IMO, as opposed to spending on an attempt at creating a new comp from whole cloth, which would require multiple attempts with repeated failures (see soccer, rugby union, etc) before possible success decades later.
Jeff Morris
Guest
Why would North America want a league of its own in a sport that the overwhelming majority have never heard of? A transatlantic Super League makes far more sense with far more chance of longterm success. Being part of one of the two major professional competitions in the world gives the clubs involved instant stature. Building the game from the top down actually makes sense in areas where its previously unknown. Look at the growth of ice hockey in the US sunbelt, its largely been driven from the top down starting with NHL teams being located in non-traditional territories. Now more kids are growing up aware of and wanting to play the game.
Percycutor
Roar Pro
Good read Steve. From my point of view the main contributor to the strangling of international rugby league is the 26 Rounds of the NRL. Add in the month of finals and the international game is bravely only left to the month of November to showcase national pride. It is just not sustainable, much like how SOO has outgrown the mid season battle that it is. The worst thing to happen to the game was the TV money for a certain amount of NRL games, that money will not come from elsewhere so the game is held to ransom, albeit a healthy financial one. However dropping NRL rounds to 18 would allow time through the season to break for international windows. Maybe two lots of 3 week intervals, but that would need a greater understanding of the future of the game and whilst the NRL bank the bucks they have no need to have such thoughts. Hence the international game suffocates.
duecer
Guest
I really don't see having 18 run on players as an advantage - if anything, this would be to the detriment - finding 18 kids each week would be a struggle and if you don't have enough of any age group would make it hard to field a full team at times, although I do agree that RL is already dying to a degree in Sydney - don't know whether it's a permanent decline or just a temporary blip.
RandyM
Guest
The beautiful thing about RL is that you don't need a huge oval, you don't need posts and you can play a game of tackle or touch footy with 3 people a side in a backyard. Not sure how AFL does it...
RandyM
Guest
Why would the people trying to set up games in the USA care about whats happening in Australia? You realize it's not the NRL trying to expand to the USA right?
Marco
Guest
Mmmm, Outside NSW and Qld the game is still struggling in this country. Instead of trying to build the game in Australia with some more rep games, they are experimenting in the USA. Interesting.
Dean
Guest
Steve, thank you for your very informative article. That would have to be one of the most compelling reads in a long, long time if you are RL fan. If this is the case, our chosen sport is going to slowly die. Sydney is already dying. There are so many ovals now and kids seem to taking up the once alien sport of AFL. The beautiful thing about AFL is it has 18 run on players compered to 13 in RL. It's easier for kids to get a game and they are being welcomed. I trust your article because of your reputation and your love of Rugby League and its health.
Oingo Boingo
Guest
Steve .... The world and the species that currently dominate the landscape are going backwards, why , when they are in control, would you expect any less. League , if? , it still exists in 20 yrs will be a carcass.
BeastieBoy
Guest
Steven, you just spoke to Governance Issues. However there are changes and challenges happening in the Day to Day. AFL is the Football leader in this country. League is in a battle to win the Mums and their daughters over and hence also their young sons. Do they want their sons playing a gladiatorial sport or an athletic one? I think the later. We hear we are going to have the Dogs of war again who are out to hurt the opposition. Is that what is wanted? We have a player who has had to chop their finger off to play. Players are tattooed up to the jaw line. With the collisions there are the long term effects of concussion. Will all that win the Mums over? NO! Quite the reverse. I have not even mentioned the off field drug, domestic violence and bubbler effect. These are the REAL issues confronting how the game is perceived.
Peter Phelps
Guest
"Not this year maybe in 2 years time" ...... LOL
Crosscoder
Roar Guru
The day rugby league officialdom can see beyond their own navel gazing,can rid itself of the eternal infighting, at times incompetence, learn how to market their games,is the day one can actually state openly and unashamedly, it is going forwards at pace.This applies to the International and local leagues. ATM it is in a one step forward, mark time, two steps backwards mode.
Peter Phelps
Guest
"IMO throwing money at rugby league teams in America is a fools errand. Especially when there is so much more room to grow it in places where there is already a presence" You mean like some forgotten corner of outback NSW that used to have a team and a fan base of about 3 but got merged. America will be hard work but there is interest and if you crack that market, it will really shake things up.
Peter Phelps
Guest
Checkout the Toronto team following. Considering they were in their first year and in the English third division, they aren't doing too badly.
Big Daddy
Guest
Steve, It's the old story of the tail wagging the dog. In hindsight the world cup will still be run by the poms. In any world sport the plot never changes. Just look at Olympics and FIFA.
Manfred
Guest
Yet despite all this RL staggers on (in a small niche) though it still struggles to expand.
Peeeko
Guest
Congrats, take you all day to think if that?
Jim
Guest
Another good column thanks Steve, insightful as always and from the information of individuals having the latitude to find jobs for themselves within their own organisations I would say that cartel antics are already in play. 2017 was tough year for RL fans from NZ given the woeful Warriors and under performing Kiwis so I'll take the brighter news of growth and potentially more growth in North America as inspiration to keep motivated for my commitments to grass roots rugby league. Cheers
matth
Guest
Yep, anyone person who doesn't cater first and only to the existing elite NRL clubs is doomed to be 'not part of football'.
matth
Guest
Well the passing all backwards anyway... Seriously though, the issue is tension about whether the Commission is supposed to represent all of Rugby League, or just benefit the NRL competition. I struggle with it attempting to be all things because the goals of the NRL members and those of country football, amateur and lower tier football and even international football are fundamentally different. It will never happen but what I would like to see is the NRL run the NRL, but that there should be enshrined into its constitution a fixed percentage of revenue that goes to the Australian Rugby League which should be completely independent of the NRL (how you protect that fixed percentage from being watered down I don't know). That was the ARL gets funds which it uses for international football, junior football, country football (whether direct or via grants to the CRL), amateur footy, even touch footy. Its funds can be topped up by profits from international football. The QRL and NSWRL still have their own boards and the State of Origin revenue stream. And the NRL runs as a self interested elite competition.