Roar Guru
Joined June 2014
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There has certainly been no lack of drama in the league world since the final siren sounded on the last day of September. We've…
It's been a week since Game 3 of Origin and with pretty much any discussion on the game revolving around post-match drama I figured…
I've been putting this article off for a while now. It has been sitting in my hard drive under various iterations since the Game…
After the retirements of Queensland stalwarts Johnathan Thurston and Cooper Cronk, the state's first Origin team for 2018 was always going to have a…
Well here we are, nine rounds in and already the football is starting to distract from the true purpose of the early season –…
If you've been following this series you'll already be aware which teams have made my all important top five, but now it's time to…
Well here we are. With part 1 and part 2 covering teams 9 through 16, it's time jump into the top eight. 8. Gold…
With the bottom five teams established in part one of this series, we find ourselves about to delve into the meat of the season.…
'Tis the season to dress up complete guesswork as research and statistical analysis. As footy withdrawals intensify with anticipation of the approaching season proper,…
Watching the eighth-placed Cowboys knock out both the fifth-placed Sharks and the fourth-placed Eels in succession got me thinking. The purpose of having a…
Referee-bashing, it's existed since the dawn of sport. Yet here we are at the business end of the season and it's all anyone can…
It's that time of year again. Queensland have walked away with yet another State of Origin victory and every man and his dog is…
What just happened? The dynasty was over, Queensland had been weighed, measured and found wanting. They had been dominated so convincingly that their plans…
Yeah, I happened to be working on his neighbours roof a couple years afterwards and he came out and started chatting to us over the fence. It was like a completely different person
NRL News: Wally's tragic CTE diagnosis, Knights make call on O'Brien despite Holbrook meeting, Sharks to lose another star
Unfortunately, wearing helmets just lead to NFL players deliberately using their head more in collisions…
NRL News: Wally's tragic CTE diagnosis, Knights make call on O'Brien despite Holbrook meeting, Sharks to lose another star
Growing up I lived a couple blocks away from his house and was mates at school with one of his nephews. You’d see him around the place a bit and he never seemed particularly happy to be in public (and locals knew not to bother him) and my mate would say he was withdrawn and would keep to himself and not hang around at family gatherings. Apparently after he went public with his epilepsy diagnosis and got surgery he opened up a lot more. He would have been late forties by then and apparently had been dealing with it alone since he was about 19. Its crazy to think that someone so revered spent so much of his life withdrawn from everyone, with the constant worry of having a public seizure hanging over his head. It really shows how much head knocks from a young age can impact every aspect of a persons life
NRL News: Wally's tragic CTE diagnosis, Knights make call on O'Brien despite Holbrook meeting, Sharks to lose another star
I’m pretty sure that’s exactly what I just outlined above…
Not sure I see your point to the rest. Having funding guaranteed by a CBA makes them financially independent from the NRLs whims, and being included in the salary cap essentialy acts as preallocated membership dues. Their funding comes out of the players share of the revenue, so its the players giving up a portion of their split of the revenue to fund it (less then 1% atm) not the NRL
Exclusive: 'He accuses us of being racist' - NRL star slams 'absolutely disrespectful' V'landys
https://www.nrl.com/operations/integrity/salary-cap/
$0.1m for RLPA funding per club included in the salary cap in 2020, ie within the players share
https://www.nrl.com/news/2010/04/22/nrl-salary-cap-explained/
according to this it started in ’06
This is the first cba since the amount of players they’ve managed had increased so it makes sense that it’s only now that they’d be asking for more
Exclusive: 'He accuses us of being racist' - NRL star slams 'absolutely disrespectful' V'landys
$100k from each clubs salary cap is allocated for the rlpa. They don’t do member fees. It’s in every salary cap release from the NRL since at least 2010 and hasn’t changed
Exclusive: 'He accuses us of being racist' - NRL star slams 'absolutely disrespectful' V'landys
The rlpas funding hasn’t increased in about 15 years, they’ve now got an extra team of players and an entire nrlw comp under their umbrella with the NRL wanting more teams. It’s not exactly out of hand to want more funding
Exclusive: 'He accuses us of being racist' - NRL star slams 'absolutely disrespectful' V'landys
20/21 definitely played a part, but the NRL proclaiming record high wages and minimum wages to dismiss player claims during CBA negotiations which would have been what players would have been getting payed two years ago had they not forfeited that for the sake of the game smacks of self interest. The NRL then ups the cap for this year to 20% more then the players were asking for then spends the rest of the year calling them greedy.
As far as viewership goes, last year’s GF was the lowest rated in history by a fair margin, this year’s origin series is well down on historical viewers too. I’m not sure where record highs is coming from outside of creative accounting. 800k total might sound high now but it wasn’t then (https://www.theroar.com.au/2017/02/09/broncos-get-best-tv-timeslots-heres-deserve/amp/). Things aren’t as rosey as the NRLs media releases want us to believe
Exclusive: 'He accuses us of being racist' - NRL star slams 'absolutely disrespectful' V'landys
Which questions? The only interviews with Fox I’ve seen have been very adversarial and more interested in talking over Clint then finding anything out. There have been other rlpa reps on other programs, Jamie Buhrer spoke about the CBA on a podcast with Willie Mason. Wade Graham and Christian Walsh have been on others. There’s a lot of great footy content out there that’s far removed from the gossip columns of Weidler and Buzz
Exclusive: 'He accuses us of being racist' - NRL star slams 'absolutely disrespectful' V'landys
There’s coverage outside of nine and fox, they’ve just got a monopoly cos they flood the market with articles about what talking heads said last night on TV about something someone wrote the day before. 90% of their coverage is just reacting to reactions, other coverage might get drowned out but it’s there
Exclusive: 'He accuses us of being racist' - NRL star slams 'absolutely disrespectful' V'landys
Minimum wage has only just got up to what it was negotiated to be in 2017. Combined FTA, Fox and streaming viewers average 628k per game this year, in 2018 the average was 600k for FTA alone + 240k for fox. And attendances were massively boosted by a huge magic round. 21 games being played at Suncorp already with Broncos having a good year and the Dolphins playing home games there was always going to make a difference. Record breaking is all relative
Exclusive: 'He accuses us of being racist' - NRL star slams 'absolutely disrespectful' V'landys
The NRL will notice when their stationary budget explodes as 300ish players start using up all the tape
NRL News: Players might cover up NRL logo in CBA escalation, Kevvie hits back at Gus' Broncos sledge, Walker nears comeback
Chad isn’t talking about protesting to get what they want in the CBA, he’s talking about protesting the NRL refusing to allow an independent mediator so negotiations can continue after the NRL’s last take it or leave it offer
NRL News: Players might cover up NRL logo in CBA escalation, Kevvie hits back at Gus' Broncos sledge, Walker nears comeback
iirc player payments for the World Cup are already equal and come from a funding pot that the national leagues pay into. This would appear to be what the RLPA want to apply to all international games.
You’d have to assume any arrangement made specifically between the NRL and the RLPA would only apply to NRL registered players, so it would only be NRL registered players that would be getting equal pay which raises all kinds of issues itself. I would have thought the IRL organised international games with the revenue split between both nations as it was historically, so I’m not sure what the NRL’s proposal here implies. I’m not sure pacifika national teams coming under the NRL umbrella is great for growing the international game if that’s what’s on the cards
Exclusive: 'He accuses us of being racist' - NRL star slams 'absolutely disrespectful' V'landys
The SMH article literally starts with “ARL Commission chairman Peter V’landys has accused the Rugby League Players’ Association of being r*cist in its approach to Pasifika players and payments for international matches”
Exclusive: 'He accuses us of being racist' - NRL star slams 'absolutely disrespectful' V'landys
The SMH article literally starts with “ARL Commission chairman Peter V’landys has accused the Rugby League Players’ Association of being racist in its approach to Pasifika players and payments for international matches”
Exclusive: 'He accuses us of being racist' - NRL star slams 'absolutely disrespectful' V'landys
enviable? I think you may still have your rose tinted 2020 glasses on. There’s a reason the NRL uses 2020 as its baseline for metrics now, and it’s not because things were worse prior to that
Exclusive: 'He accuses us of being racist' - NRL star slams 'absolutely disrespectful' V'landys
If the players want him to step aside he would, and which he has stated publicly. There was talk about Newton facing some internal criticism in the preseason for not agreeing to a strike then, I’m not sure replacing him would accomplish what you think. If you look at the players demands from last year they’ve conceded a lot, including not taking a share of the first $300m of profit after the deal. I haven’t seen one item the players have added since October, everything from their direction has been in response to NRL demands including this piece. It seems odd that only one party wants an independent mediator. And it’s not like PVL hasn’t got form in hardline negotiations, so long as he isn’t giving Fox discount deals that is…
Exclusive: 'He accuses us of being racist' - NRL star slams 'absolutely disrespectful' V'landys
You mean the two specific media groups that have direct ties to the NRL but didn’t seem to care until the media boycott, one of which has had a very active campaign demonising the rlpa since? There’s plenty of independent media around that isn’t part of the Nine/Murdoch echo chamber
Exclusive: 'He accuses us of being racist' - NRL star slams 'absolutely disrespectful' V'landys
The implied racism angle came from PVL’s quote about rlpa funding “prejudices at least 48% of your membership”
Exclusive: 'He accuses us of being racist' - NRL star slams 'absolutely disrespectful' V'landys
The RPLA have been very clear about wanting equal pay for international players, the only sticking point is where it comes from. There’s no “diverting funds”, the RLPA wanting more funding and international payments are two separate points that PVL is deliberately oversimplifying to try and drive a wedge between the players and the union heads, as seen by calling the RLPA board r*cist when half their players are from pacific nations.
The NRL wants the players to cover international payments out of their share of the agreement (not opposed to that) but then have the revenue from those games not come under the agreement. So essentially have the players cover the costs themselves and the NRL takes home the profits. The RLPA wants player payments for international games to be part of the revenue split of those games.
The NRL having jurisdiction over international games is a whole other issue itself…
Separately, the RLPA wants to increase its organisational funding under the cap as it hasn’t changed since at least 2010 and they now have to cover an extra team and an entire women’s comp. RLPA funding has been separate from player payments for over a decade specifically so it doesn’t impact lower paid players more then higher paid ones as it did when it was funded by union fees.
Exclusive: 'He accuses us of being racist' - NRL star slams 'absolutely disrespectful' V'landys
March 2020 – “We have to sack half our staff and pretty much all our junior development officers and all the players have to take a pay cut cos we only have $70m in reserves and it costs $180m to run the game”
2021 – “Cash reserves have increased from $126 million at the end of the 2020 financial year to $171 million at 31 October 2021”
2022 – “$60m surplus this time guys! Look how good we are!”
late 2022 – “look at our incredibly generous offer for the players that is essentially what they negotiated for in 2017 before we wheeled everything back in 2020. Oh no, the players discovered $60m in undisclosed revenue we totally didn’t know about”
2023 “we cant send the game broke cos the players are greedy, also they shouldn’t be allowed to audit us anymore as they can’t be trusted”
If this was any other organisation the media narrative would be very different
Exclusive: 'He accuses us of being racist' - NRL star slams 'absolutely disrespectful' V'landys
To be fair, the idea that Newton is doing everything himself seems more media spin then anything. The RLPA board includes a former Westpac director and a partner from a law firm that specialises in corporate advisory, Newtons role seems to more about fronting the press and taking hits than the nitty gritty of the negotiations. The NRL seem more interested in running this like an election campaign than making a deal. You just have compare the player demands from October to now to see the concessions they’ve made, but the NRL are adding more demands at the 11th hour. I’m not suggesting the players should get everything they’re asking for, but it’s hard to see how the NRL are negotiating in good faith given their media releases and some of the things that have come out of these negotiations so far
Exclusive: 'He accuses us of being racist' - NRL star slams 'absolutely disrespectful' V'landys
I’m not sure what demonising the players accomplishes for the NRL. Deliberately misrepresenting key points in the media certainly isn’t going to make players more amicable in negotiations so, ego stroking aside, what’s the point? Short term planning might have been required in ’20, but it doesn’t incite much confidence now…
Exclusive: 'He accuses us of being racist' - NRL star slams 'absolutely disrespectful' V'landys
Hmm, I swear it was linked to him getting multiple concussions at the time.
NRL News: Wally's tragic CTE diagnosis, Knights make call on O'Brien despite Holbrook meeting, Sharks to lose another star