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It was maybe 15 years ago at the Shelbourne Hotel in Sussex Street, Sydney, that my Sydney Morning Herald sports editor, Ian Fuge, told me he’d like to see more opinion in my match reports.
I was indignant.
If people knew what I thought about a certain issues, I argued, they’d only talk to me if they were in the same camp. It would impinge upon my effectiveness as a news gatherer.
What would that guy back then think of 49-year-old Steve Mascord, starting a petition to make sure players are released for the Denver Test and working the phones to encourage the countries involved to get in first with a statement before the NRL clubs try to ban them?
To be honest, I don’t care what he would think. In the last few days, I’ve made the full transition from journalist to activist. There is, almost certainly, no going back.
My 32 years covering rugby league has been almost entirely enjoyable.
But the perspective of middle age (and the therapy of writing about this stuff in a book) has shown me that the game’s genetic flaw is just that – genetic. Selfishness and short-termism are default positions; people leaving League Central and NRL clubs always report being worn down by it to the point they need to depart so they preserve their sanity.
John Grant described the game in Australia thus: “The battle for money and power; hating, not trusting; club first, game second; winning at all costs; unholy alliances based on favours and self-interest; and manipulating the media.”
(AAP Image/Paul Miller)
But instead of leaving, why not just cease to have a professional role in rugby league but continue agitating?
I guess it’s money again. Most people want to earn more money. I, kind of … don’t. I’ve seen the world during the first two thirds of my life, I don’t care if I stay here in London forever now and just do stuff that inspires me.
One of many things that inspires me is changing the culture of rugby league.
There’s an old saying about it being better inside the tent than outside pissing in.
But that approach has worn down or compromised scores of people. So why not unzip that tent, exit, turn around, reach for the fly and commence urinating?
Rich, smart, famous people who love rugby league often try to do something for the sport. But rugby league is currently spitting in the face of the Denver Broncos – it’s capacity for obnoxiousness is unchallenged.
The best thing a rich, smart, famous person can do right now to leave a permanent legacy in the sport – and repay it for the enjoyment it has given him or her – would be to conduct a culture war.
That is, recruit more smart altruists who don’t need the game as their meal ticket. Install them at every level, from club owner down to fan.
Use Aleksandr Kogan-style individual targeting to change the make-up of the entire community so that the selfless outnumber the selfish for the first time in the entire history of a sport that started with a rebellion that had – righteously or not – money at its heart.
(Sure, there are many selfless people in rugby league. But they don’t have the means, or the vision, or the influence, to steer the entire ship towards global prosperity. The structure of the sport enshrines the status quo with infuriating effectiveness)
I’m not a journalist anymore. I don’t know what I am, I’m looking for a job. But in my spare time, I’m going to do my best to piss back inside that tent.
The only way to save rugby league from itself is to change it at molecular level, once and for all.
PS: The Denver petition is here.