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Politics is a ruthless, take-no-prisoners business. Australian rugby league? According to those who’ve had a go at both, it’s far worse.
That’s why I wonder – after reading a Q&A with Peter Beattie that colleague Phil Rothfield did in Sydney’s Daily Telegraph – whether the former Queensland premier knows what he’s got himself into.
Firstly, he says he won’t take the job unless the new club and state delegates on the Australian Rugby League Commission vote for him. That’s tempting fate.
But secondly, he straps himself to the mast marked ‘expansion’ – the favourite word of many fans and the least favourite of many clubs.
Asking the current clubs to vote for expansion is like, as they say in the classics, asking turkeys to vote for Christmas. A TV rights pie that is tipped to get smaller, divided more ways.
These are clubs, remember, who are trying to stop their players travelling internationally for internationals on a weekend where there are no club games. Who killed off the World Club Series after three years. Who screwed every last cent out of the NRL.
It seems woefully naïve of Beattie to say he’ll “stake my future in the game on this. We can’t have the clubs and head office at loggerheads. We are only going to make this game even better if we work together.”
If it is true “if we’re having barnies, we’re only undermining the game” then Peter better invest in a spade and one of those hardhats with a light on the front. There’s plenty of mining to be done.
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Hope you’re renting at Balmain, Peter. Your move south may prove somewhat premature; your professed love of Wests Tigers home games at Leichhardt is about to be put to the test. You could be there lining up for the gates to open and be the last person out, you’ll have so much time on your hands.
I like Beattie’s idea of, essentially, promotion without relegation. You show in the state leagues that you are up to it, and you might get the 18th franchise (assuming Perth is the 17th).
This sort of incentive for NSW and Queensland Cup teams is what those competitions need – imagine associating every success and failure of the Hunters, Fiji, the West Coast Pirates, Ipswich and Central Queensland with ‘that will/won’t help their chances of an NRL licence’. Fantastic.
Perth is an interesting one. Everyone involved in the WARL is now an NRL employee, so it would be difficult for them to accept an offer to join, say, Super League – even if Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest is willing to finance it.
But with direct flights soon to start from Perth to London, the NRL doesn’t have infinite time to make its intentions known.
Also, I’d like Beattie to take an interest in the International Federation – certainly more of an interest than the ARLC is currently showing by allowing itself to be represented there by a soon-to-be-former chairman. Ideally, Beattie should sit on the RLIF himself.
John Grant is RLIF bound. (AAP Image/Paul Miller)
Of course, the clubs won’t openly oppose Beattie’s appointment. They’ll probably even vote for him. Then they’ll try to wear him down, play politics, give with one hand a take with the other. He’ll think that a lifetime in politics has prepared him for it, but…
As someone I know is fond of saying, with the clubs what’s theirs is theirs and what’s yours is theirs too. And now they’re getting two seats on the ‘independent’ commission.
Now, I’ve had a couple of clubs complain that I’ve painted them unnecessarily negatively, got phone calls and emails insisting they love the game and aren’t the sticks in the mud I’ve portrayed them to be.
But the Denver game still isn’t on. Work with Beattie just the way he says he wants to, guys.
Prove me wrong.