I’ve recently found myself reading a lot of Sydney newspapers from October, 1996.
Why? It’s a book I’m working on. Now, this was the time immediately after most of the court orders banning Super League were overturned, clearing the rebel competition to start the following year.
Had Optus Vision not tipped in another $120 million at the time, we’d have a very different rugby league competition in Australia now. The ARL was on he brink of collapse, its clubs would have been forced to the bargaining table. Of course, Optus Vision no longer exists.
The thing that really strikes me about these seismic revelations each day in the paper then is that massive, massive developments – front page any day of the week today – were buried in the news stories before even more seismic news in the first paragraphs.
St George were offered Super League’s Melbourne franchise. You’ve got to read ten paragraphs before you find out that gem. Parramatta to hold merger talks with Penrith? Maybe in the second column of that day’s story…
It’s easy to forget how completely the sport was turned on its head back then and how little interest there was in actual matches. A sentence then would be a double-page spread now.
Which brings us to the latest round of relocation/elimination talk.
Personally I’m not convinced the game in Australia has enough courage to do this yet – but it’s reassuring it keeps coming up. If it wasn’t part of the natural evolution of a national pro sports league, it wouldn’t keep coming up.
But it is.
For some reason Australian professional sport finds itself split between the tribalism of England and the commercialism of North America – they are tectonic plates which rub constantly and occasionally cause tremors and earthquakes.
If Channel Nine gets its way on one less NSW team, they’re be an earthquake – but nothing like the destruction of those years in the mid to late-nineties. We got over those years and we’ll get over this too.
The problem we have is that the team currently have licenses and therefore will have to be paid to move. The taker, then, will be the club that needs the money now – not the team that the sport needs to shift for its continued prosperity.
The Broncos are TV gold (and maroon) (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
But that’s how we make decisions in rugby league. That’s how we decided to be rugby league.
On that basis, Cronulla perhaps look the most vulnerable. If there was $100 million sitting on a street corner somewhere, of the Sydney clubs Cronulla would probably lead the race to find it.
One thing I learned from the Super League War is that IP, colours, logos and tribalism matter. But that doesn’t teach me that those things aren’t transferable. Brisbane and Sydney have proven that in the AFL.
Rugby league’s culture is just too bottom-line and feudal in nature to have been able to seriously consider it until now. Everyone’s being paid a fortune to stay where they are.
Funny, if Optus Vision hadn’t come up with the dosh 13 Octobers ago, we’d already have a decentralised competition. Now, it’s probably going to cost as much as they paid to stop it, to make it happen.
Zavjalova
Roar Rookie
Reds never failed ya know
Dogs Boddy
Roar Rookie
Wipe the slate clean and start again, it's the only way to make it happen. Otherwise accept that our current comp is a bastardised version of the NSWRL with some additions and get over it. You want a new team in QLD, fine then entice a club to move, if nobody wants to move then case closed. Bronco, Warrior, Storm, Knights, Raiders, Cowboys, Titans fans don't get to throw mud about this issue because your clubs are not on the block, and will never be on the block.
ojp
Guest
americas team.... the Buffalo Bills !! :laughing:
Rellum
Roar Guru
You are clearly using exhaustive research there to back up your own propositions. I'll ignore your "comment" on the stadard of the BRL. My comments on how the Broncs were formed are irrelevent to what hapoen to the teams that were superseded. Support for 10 teams was to a degree distilled into one team. By the way. My two above propositions are an either or. The whole point of a sydney region promtion/relegation is to keep all the sydney teams in with a chance of NRL football. Which is what I am told is of vital impotance. Peronally I would have as much sympathy for a dumped sydney club as they had for the BRL teams when they were dumped to the second tier. I would feel for the fans.
Micko
Roar Rookie
NZ sports want to join Australian sports leagues to gain access to professional sport. You contradict yourself. Why should one token kiwi team in an Australian league deem the term "national" irrelevant, where as the NHL has about 1/3 of it's teams are Canadian...so maybe "North American Hockey League" would be more appropriate?
Nat
Roar Guru
I understand where you are coming from. We need to understand that the game is rugby league but the business is sports entertainment. They do have other customers, ch7 have put forward bids and so have Ch10 in the past. Basically ch10 can't match the money and ch7 would have to give up AFL to do so. One thing the Packers did well in years past was include the last right of refusal in the next contracts. Where whatever was on the table ch9 woud have the chance to match/better it or leave it. So far they have kept it but that may not always be the case.
josh
Roar Rookie
I don't believe a monopsony is good for the game in the longer term.
Papi Smurf
Roar Rookie
What a pity Australia doesn't celebrate "Thanksgiving". Then we could have a real carve up!
matth
Roar Guru
And all of that happened because of the QLD teams? The NSWRL invited Brisbane and others (I assume you also want to ditch Auckland and Melbourne) so their clubs could remain viable through increased TV rights.
Sports Nut
Roar Rookie
Elvis is correct.
Sports Nut
Roar Rookie
Dwayne, the commentators a lot those "ex Players" are not in & around the game....they just watch the NRL. They have a "NOW" mentality. There is an enormous depth of talent just in the schools, juniors & the State cups, At the moment it is currently largely undeveloped. It takes around 12-18 months in a full-time system to develop that talent to their real potential. There is no "headroom" for those players to push up to NRL with only 30 players in each squad. Anyone who says there is not enough talent does not know what they are talking about. And that is not taking into account the Pacific Island talent or NZ. Elvis is correct there is plenty, but the NRL aren't interested in developing it through 2 additional Clubs.
WarHorse
Roar Rookie
Gould understands a lot more about the game than the current Turkey's in control do.
Papi Smurf
Roar Rookie
Rizzo "Grease" - "elvis, elvis, let me be. Keep your opinions off of me!" No elvis. Not the NFL's conference system that divides into divisions. I'm referring to Gould's spin on the conference system where each of the 9 teams within the same conference would play each other twice. It's good to know that there is another NFL fan out there. Which team to you support in the NFL? You first. ;-)
Rob9
Roar Guru
You’re making a lot of wild assumptions about what fans might or might not get behind here. While there’s no specific evidence that supports or disproves your claims, the trends and behaviors of fans that can be drawn from under similar circumstances throughout history don’t bode well for your argument. If you’re talking about sustaining a professional 2nd division that can amply hold its own and effectively flow through to a top flight competition, you’d need significantly more support than what QRL/BRL clubs achieve. You’re making this quite straight forward phenomena out as a ‘Sydney thing’ when it’s really not exclusive to Sydney. To infer that the Broncos inception had no impact on the BRL (which is exactly what you’re doing) is to rewrite history. And you know why the Broncos birth effectively bought the BRL to its knees?? Because all of a sudden there was a new (higher) level of competition available to fans and that’s what they flocked to.
R J
Guest
That's one, excellent, measure. For me it's the skill of the kings of the game like the supreme Parra, Canterbury and Manly sides but also the sheer competitiveness. The personalities. Hills. Full strength beer. Draws (remember them?). No wrestle either. It's killing the game.
R J
Guest
I agree but I'm willing to find out
Rellum
Roar Guru
That just shows the North fans don't really follow their club. Just the memory of them in the top flight. It shouldn't matter what tier they play in. It is a very Sydney thing to only focus on the bling. If all the Sydney teams went down to the NSW cup and new teams replaced them, how long till the lure of the flash would bring them the young fans in and many of the old ones. Many Broncs fans still follow and attend their OLD BRL teams, Nat for example on here doesn't even get to go to QRL cup games, just BRL cup games, which is third tier.
elvis
Roar Rookie
Maybe, maybe not. On a population basis on NSW and QLD, Sydney should have about 6 teams by my very rough calculation. However on a GDP basis, and after all someone has to pay for the teams, Sydney should have about 8. In fact slightly over 8.
elvis
Roar Rookie
That was tried with the Rebels and Western force in Union, I think the general agreement was it brought the standard of competition down when it was meant to do the opposite.
elvis
Roar Rookie
You don't play your conference twice. Haha did you think it would be that simple? Have a look at the NFL draw, it will do your head in. If we had two conferences in NRL it would end up playing your own conference once, plus some from the other conference, and maybe two games against people with matching shorts colours.