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Opinion
There’s a reason why the two-conference model for the NRL is being shot down – it’s a terrible idea.
The worst conference call since Darius Boyd decided to dish out nothing but one-word answers in his infamous media conference in 2009.
As NRL powerbrokers do with most ideas these days, the plan has been doing the rounds at various media outlets to gauge the public’s opinion on whether the competition should be split into two conferences once an 18th team is added.
The Sydney Morning Herald club chiefs’ poll surveyed 23 CEOs and chairmen from the 16 clubs and they believe the conference plan should be consigned to the Rugby League Central shredder.
There was widespread condemnation for the proposal with 83 per cent of club bosses saying they don’t support the concept.
The proposed conference system in the NRL would only suit the Sydney clubs, including St George Illawarra who have based in Wollongong for several years.
It would mean the Dragons, plus the Sharks, Roosters, Rabbitohs, Sea Eagles, Panthers, Eels, Bulldogs and Tigers would gain a significant travel advantage if they were grouped in a conference.
(Photo by Matt Roberts/Getty Images)
And that of course means the burden of covering many more miles than they already do would fall on the other nine teams – the Raiders, Storm, Knights, Warriors, the four Queensland sides in the Cowboys, Broncos, Titans and Dolphins, as well as the 18th franchise which is likely to be in Perth or perhaps New Zealand.
The Warriors – when they return to their Auckland base post-pandemic at the end of the year – and the Cowboys already face a massive hurdle due to the tyranny of their respective distance from the epicentre of the NRL universe. The competition organisers should be looking to ease that disadvantage however possible, not exacerbating it.
Like the monorail in The Simpsons which put “Brockway, Ogdenville, and North Haverbrook on the map”, according to renowned schyster Lyle Lanley, this dumb idea will just about wipe Auckland and North Queensland off rugby league’s competitive cartology.
A conference system splitting Sydney from the rest would also have long-term ramifications for recruitment. Players like the creature comforts of home so if you’re an off-contract star who doesn’t like living life out of a suitcase, you will drop anchor in the Harbour City.
(Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)
Why wouldn’t you opt for a Sydney side so you can spend most of the season in your own bed, rather than playing for Newcastle or Canberra when it means you’ll be in and out of airports every second week for lengthy trips interstate.
Conference systems work, to an extent, in North American sports that have 30 or more teams based in cities all over their vast continent, not an imbalanced set-up that will always be the case in the NRL where half the competition is based within an hour or two on the highway at the most.
Proponents of conferences for the NRL claim it will help build rivalries but the fact of the matter is those derby matches are already hard-wired into the schedule.
Clubs request the teams they want to play twice and are for the most part satisfied that they get marquee match-ups as their second clash with certain sides to fill out the extra nine rounds of fixtures.
Queensland teams play each other twice every year already, Sharks and Dragons, Eels and Panthers, Roosters and Rabbitohs, etc. The system ain’t broke so why try and fix it?
The only truly fair format for a competition is a full home-and-away season in which every team plays each other twice. This has not been seen in the premiership since 1987 – not in a united season anyway. The ARL and Super League each had a complete home-and-draw draw in ‘97 but that was possible because they had 12 and 10 teams respectively.
Super Rugby lost many fans more than a decade ago when it moved to a confusing conference system. It was rejigged when teams from Japan, Argentina and another South African franchise were added pre-pandemic.
Now that we’re over the worst of the pandemic and the South Africans are no longer involved, the Super Rugby Pacific format pretty much mirrors the NRL system with 14 rounds – not a full home-and-away system – with the derby contests getting preference in filling the schedule. Basically the 12 teams play eight opponents once and three others twice.
The ARL Commission likes to float ideas to see what the rusted-on and casual fans think before they commit to a plan and let’s hope this is just a kite-flying exercise which never does see the light of day.
A more pertinent topic for the Commission to consider is when and where the next franchise will be coming into existence.
According to the SMH poll, the majority of club executives don’t want to wait until the end of the next broadcast rights funding cycle and would be happy to see the 18th team up and running in the 2025-27 ballpark.
A surprisingly high 61 percent were in favour, especially considering it may mean less money will go to each of the existing clubs, while 30 percent said it should be 2028 or later.
Despite the Warriors not winning a title in their 27 seasons, there was strong support for another New Zealand side (27 percent), ahead of Perth and the Central Coast on 22.5 percent each.
Perth makes the most sense as it’s a new and wealthy market which also opens up another time slot for TV networks while the Central Coast, sandwiched between Newcastle and Manly, would make an already Sydney-centric competition even more geographically imbalanced.