I’ve been having some discussions of late about doing another book, a rugby league book, and it’s led me to once again contemplate the notion of “breakaway” and “rebel” competitions.
Myself and others have touched on this contradiction before. In a sport made born from rebellion, how do you make a morally watertight argument against further splintering and warfare?
And we see this almost every day in rugby league around the world, the latest example being Lebanon’s mainly Australian-raised players trying to overthrow the country’s board and being charged en masse with misconduct.
To most readers, this would seem a rather abstract concept: that the actions of a group of top-hatted men at a Victorian-era hotel in England’s industrial north two lifetime ago would have an impact on Robbie Farah.
But it is more about the demographic that the sport annexed in August that year than actual behaviours being passed down. Rugby league is, in England, Australia and New Zealand anyway, the sport of the poor and downtrodden.
As I’ve written before, for its first 12 or so years it looked almost identical to rugby union – it was a social movement rather than a different sport. To this day, the game has a distrust of authority and a workers-first rebellious streak embedded deep in its DNA.
At this point I could branch off into one of my favourite diatribes, about how the New World – North America – holds our best and perhaps only hope of breaking the self-destructive cycle of the last century and a quarter because there, our sport’s gene pool can finally grow deeper and more diverse.
Robbie Farah (NRLPhotos / Gregg Porteous)
In North America’s sprawling sports market lies the one thing we’ve always lacked – the voice of reason.
But for now, I’d like to discuss the “one man’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter” dilemma we have in chronicling our past and deciding which path to take in our future.
Recently, there has been talk in England – and yes, I’ve been at the forefront of it – of what would happen if Toronto Wolfpack won the Championship – the second division – but turned down the opportunity to be promoted to Super League.
I don’t think this will happen, as I keep stressing.
There are reasons why it could; chief amongst these would be excessive demands placed on them by the new administration of the top competition such as first class airfares, five-star hotels etc, etc. The goalposts seem to have moved since Toronto joined League 1, with a promise of promotion to Super League if they fairly earned it.
This proposition has been treated by some os treacherous – promoting discord within a struggling sport. Well, I have been writing a column called Discord for a decade now, so…
But moreover, and here’s the kicker, how can it be treacherous when the Championship – where under this hypothetical scenario the Wolfpack would chose to stay – is run by the Rugby Football League, the sport’s governing body in England?
Will Toronto make it into the Super League? (Richard Lautens/Toronto Star via Getty Images)
Would not Super League be more “rebel” than any competition run by the RFL? How can the officials governing body be a breakaway?
Of course, during the Australian Super League years, the international governing body was Murdoch-aligned and the ARL Tests were unofficial but some people steadfastly refuse to accept this.
We pick our own “official” and our own “rebel” depending on complex criteria.
And this is where we find the “rebellion in our DNA” concept intersecting with reality. No doubt John Ribot felt rugby league would be missing out on a golden, once-only opportunity, if it turned away Murdoch’s Millions.
My own beliefs that the game should find a competition for people willing to invest in it if the right structures don’t exist already come from the same place.
When you are begotten by dissension and rebellion, where is the historical line of demarkation between ideas like these and actually acting on them?
I would suggest that as long as a plan or course of action comes clearly from an intention to improve the sport, regardless of whether it’s tossed up by a person on Twitter or a billionaire, it should be treated with respect.
But in the end, someone is going to be charged with – and given the resources for – shaking things up.
That might be expanding the NRL, moving teams out of Sydney, creating a pyramid in England that excludes lower division teams from ever being promoted or fighting with your national team players and as a result getting flogged in the next World Cup without them.
You earn the right to make those decisions by being elected or by convincing a rich person to support you.
Then you make the calls in full knowledge that you will more likely than not be demonised forever in the history of this strife-torn flag bearing sport of the oppressed.
The biggest contribution anyone can ever make to that sport is to bring more of those who like it for what it is, so the downtrodden are eventually outnumbered and the chip on the shoulder evaporates.
jimmystagger
Roar Rookie
Nothing that happens in Hawaii makes any impact or gets any coverage in the continental US. If you want a team aimed at the Pacific and Australasian market in Hawaii, that's fine- there's a little over a million people there. But a team in Hawaii will not gain any traction or interest on the mainland. The NFL had the only thing going there, and it left.
jimmystagger
Roar Rookie
Nothing here comes from the grassroots, that's a 19th Century idea. Major League Soccer, the last successful professional league launch here in this country, did not come from the grassroots. Soccer was "grassroots" in the Dark Ages of the game here (1940s-1990s) and didn't grow at all until a top-down league was formed. Rugby union here has been "grassroots" for over a century and made no impact on our sports landscape until a professional league was formed with new teams. This is a top-down country. You plop down teams in a professional league, and then growth underneath comes from there. The NHL expanded into non-traditional areas in the 1990s like Florida, Arizona, and Tennessee and now kids play the game there, not the other way around.
jimmystagger
Roar Rookie
The amount of people who know rugby (any kind of rugby) here is small. The amount who know there are two forms of rugby is smaller. The reason USARL players have to self-fund is the same reason USA Cricket, USA Aussie Rules Football (yes it exists), and others have to- because there's been nobody to put money into the game because nobody here knows what it is. USA Rugby (union) is barely solvent, and suffers from a host of monetary issues. Our sports, unlike those overseas, do not receive government funding. US Soccer was in almost exactly the same place in the Dark Ages of the 60s, 70, 80s until businessmen put together a plan to host the 1994 World Cup and start a professional league. Now MLS is all over this country, the majority of its teams playing in purpose built stadiums. All it takes is someone willing to take a risk and invest money into the game here.
Jimmy
Roar Guru
Steve have the Super League ever actually gone on record and stated that they actually want these “excessive demands” that you constantly allude to?
Mushi
Roar Guru
Yep, you need to achieve critical mass. As soccer how much that costs...
Insider
Roar Rookie
Can we fix our house first
Noosa Duck
Roar Rookie
I would love to see Rugby League, played and refereed like it should be played & refereed before anything else happens ... Lets get the product right before we worry whatever else we should be doing with it....
Big Daddy
Guest
In my opinion it's not up to the NRL to promote the game in U.S. The RLIF who are much closer to that market are in a better position yet it is up the entrepreneur s who are behind Toronto seem to be making an attempt. Wasn't it the English Rugby League who wanted to charge the Catalans to defend the challenge cup. It will be interesting to see the outcome of this Lebanon conflict. By banning the Australian player's would not be good for the next world cup.
Paul
Roar Guru
There was a stand out line that really caught my eye; "In North America’s sprawling sports market lies the one thing we’ve always lacked – the voice of reason." You know way more about this than I do Steve but having watched American sport for more than 40 years there's only one voice over there - money. Without it and a lot of it, sport in American goes nowhere.
DL2191
Guest
surely lowest hanging piece of fruit for international expansion is a Hawaii team in the Oceania cup. Have a 3-5 year lead in, play some exhibition internationals in Honolulu, recruit from college rugby and if the Hawaii team becomes an Ersatz US national team (see Jaguares) then all the better
bbt
Guest
To be sustainable any social activity can only grow from the grassroots. This takes some things that are much more difficult to acquire than money - goodwill, time, commitment. Steve, like most commentators, wants it and wants it now. The USA is an answer to nothing. Maybe a competition will grow there, but it must come from the grassroots....and Americans have too many major distractions. I think that the RLEF are on the right track, slowly growing the game in various European and African countries. There may be no firm results for decades, but it is happening.
Hetty
Guest
Adam the US Rugby League team still needs Gofundme pages even after how many appearances in the "World" Cup? If the most powerful nation on earth can't support a national sporting team what hope is there?
Adam
Roar Guru
I just can't quite see where the growth is available in the US. Sure there is a lot of people that live there, but aren't they already engaged with a plethora of other sports? I know this isn't a reason to not attempt at all, but I think there is limited potential and this has to be kept in mind.
BA Sports
Roar Guru
Was that a rugby league piece or a Game of Thrones recap? So Murdoch was the Tyrell's - everyone wants them for their money Ribot was Cersei Lanister - the person who thought they was the smartest in the room - always trying to plot her next step, until they bit off more than they could chew. John Snow is the Toronto Wolfpack - noble in their cause but being pulled in different directions and every decision he makes is both heroic and treasonous Lebanon are the House Tully - Not that important - and run by fools The NRL is Daenerys Targarian - Throwing their weight around - starting off doing good, but as they go on they think they are doing good, but get too self absorbed in their own goals. North America maybe is west of Westeros - meaning Steve Mascord is Arya Stark. Bold and brave and full of curiosity, willing to set sail and see what else is out there.....
Steve
Guest
Those poor independently catholic school kids running around playing rugby league in Australia in absolute squalor.