Bad Billy
Kennel Immortal
- Joined
- Jan 25, 2010
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NRL suffering from overstacked schedule that puts club football at risk
Short of walking to the front door and tossing a jersey to the first desperate to walk past, which was only ever a brief consideration, Fittler needed more time to find a player among the 400 NRL players available who not only qualified for his City team but also wanted to play for them.
“Due to a large number of eligible players becoming unavailable for various reasons we are unable to name 17 players by the planned 9.30am announcement this morning,” said a NSW Rugby League announcement at 9.19am.
It took two-and-a-half more hours before the solutions came.
The moment has come to demand those in at headquarters finally figure the game’s direction — and deliver. All they seem to be doing is bumping into each other in the dark.
Fittler was left embarrassed by the game’s lack of foresight and intelligence. The game was embarrassed with him.
We have overstacked the football schedule with so many meaningful games the one non-negotiable — club football — has become almost meaningless. Some clubs decided to fight back and withdraw their players from consideration.
ARL Commission chairman John Grant called it “disappointing” that clubs had put their welfare ahead of the rep game but then, strangely, added: “It’s the last game for very good reasons which I’m happy to elaborate on.”
Can it really be that disappointing if it’s gone for a good reason? What are those reasons?
Grant argued the NRL had no ability to “force” players to play, without citing the whole reason the clubs withdrew their players was because the NRL crammed its schedule.
The whole farce lies on the NRL, a byproduct of the league’s inability to prioritise and think ahead. Which was one of its main selling points.
The absence of the City-Country game will be a disaster for the game that will be proven correct only many years from now when those responsible will have long distanced themselves from culpability.
The impact in the bush will be felt.
For too long the thinking within the NRL — and this does not rest on Grant, but others — has been if one is good then more is better.
One Origin became three. Five-team finals became eight. Interchange grew and grew and now we are trying to reel it back in.
We had a World Club Challenge to pit the reigning NRL premiers against the reigning Super League premiers to decide the world’s best club team.
We liked it so much we now have three teams from each competition playing to prove ... what exactly?
Spotting a vacant pre-season we dreamt up the Indigenous All-Star game. It was unique and special and came with a thousand good reasons to play. Just wonderful.
But it was so good we doubled down and whacked in the Nines. Not only that, we allowed the organisers to put in caveats that insisted clubs had to use a set amount of top players.
Then there’s the mid-season rep schedule. It began with City-Country, a stepping stone to NSW selection and then to Australian selection that began in 1911. It was a natural order.
But no.
Spotting an opportunity for cash we added the Australia-New Zealand Test the same weekend. Originally, it was sold as a stand-alone round, an opportunity to give the greater number of club players a rest.
But no.
The bigger opportunity was more cash disguised as fair play for the minnow nations. And so rep weekend was fashioned.
And so more than half the NRL players will be involved this weekend, meaning no rest at all.
And we have not even got to Origin yet.
Each year the Origin series cannibalises the club competition. It reduces club games to patched-up teams that are nothing more than a facsimile of what fans should be watching.
And in all the hyperbole nobody has ever bothered to measure the upside of Origin against the downside to clubs, who all suffer. They would be afraid of the answer, so speak no evil.
We have continued down this road of wretched greed until we hit bottom on Monday when selectors could not initially find enough players to fill a rep jersey that many young men were once proud to wear.
This is what the game has become, an administration displacing tradition for the shiny new toy and calling it evolution.
This new Commission and the administration it employs sold itself to us on the idea it was smarter than the previous administrations. That, they told us, is why we had to go with people who had no rugby league background. They were business savvy.
The evidence is to the contrary. Unaware of their core business, they try to be all things to all people. And end up being nothing to nobody.
Bravo.
Most sense this fucker has ever spoken.
- Paul Kent
Short of walking to the front door and tossing a jersey to the first desperate to walk past, which was only ever a brief consideration, Fittler needed more time to find a player among the 400 NRL players available who not only qualified for his City team but also wanted to play for them.
“Due to a large number of eligible players becoming unavailable for various reasons we are unable to name 17 players by the planned 9.30am announcement this morning,” said a NSW Rugby League announcement at 9.19am.
It took two-and-a-half more hours before the solutions came.
The moment has come to demand those in at headquarters finally figure the game’s direction — and deliver. All they seem to be doing is bumping into each other in the dark.
Fittler was left embarrassed by the game’s lack of foresight and intelligence. The game was embarrassed with him.
We have overstacked the football schedule with so many meaningful games the one non-negotiable — club football — has become almost meaningless. Some clubs decided to fight back and withdraw their players from consideration.
ARL Commission chairman John Grant called it “disappointing” that clubs had put their welfare ahead of the rep game but then, strangely, added: “It’s the last game for very good reasons which I’m happy to elaborate on.”
Can it really be that disappointing if it’s gone for a good reason? What are those reasons?
Grant argued the NRL had no ability to “force” players to play, without citing the whole reason the clubs withdrew their players was because the NRL crammed its schedule.
The whole farce lies on the NRL, a byproduct of the league’s inability to prioritise and think ahead. Which was one of its main selling points.
The absence of the City-Country game will be a disaster for the game that will be proven correct only many years from now when those responsible will have long distanced themselves from culpability.
The impact in the bush will be felt.
For too long the thinking within the NRL — and this does not rest on Grant, but others — has been if one is good then more is better.
One Origin became three. Five-team finals became eight. Interchange grew and grew and now we are trying to reel it back in.
We had a World Club Challenge to pit the reigning NRL premiers against the reigning Super League premiers to decide the world’s best club team.
We liked it so much we now have three teams from each competition playing to prove ... what exactly?
Spotting a vacant pre-season we dreamt up the Indigenous All-Star game. It was unique and special and came with a thousand good reasons to play. Just wonderful.
But it was so good we doubled down and whacked in the Nines. Not only that, we allowed the organisers to put in caveats that insisted clubs had to use a set amount of top players.
Then there’s the mid-season rep schedule. It began with City-Country, a stepping stone to NSW selection and then to Australian selection that began in 1911. It was a natural order.
But no.
Spotting an opportunity for cash we added the Australia-New Zealand Test the same weekend. Originally, it was sold as a stand-alone round, an opportunity to give the greater number of club players a rest.
But no.
The bigger opportunity was more cash disguised as fair play for the minnow nations. And so rep weekend was fashioned.
And so more than half the NRL players will be involved this weekend, meaning no rest at all.
And we have not even got to Origin yet.
Each year the Origin series cannibalises the club competition. It reduces club games to patched-up teams that are nothing more than a facsimile of what fans should be watching.
And in all the hyperbole nobody has ever bothered to measure the upside of Origin against the downside to clubs, who all suffer. They would be afraid of the answer, so speak no evil.
We have continued down this road of wretched greed until we hit bottom on Monday when selectors could not initially find enough players to fill a rep jersey that many young men were once proud to wear.
This is what the game has become, an administration displacing tradition for the shiny new toy and calling it evolution.
This new Commission and the administration it employs sold itself to us on the idea it was smarter than the previous administrations. That, they told us, is why we had to go with people who had no rugby league background. They were business savvy.
The evidence is to the contrary. Unaware of their core business, they try to be all things to all people. And end up being nothing to nobody.
Bravo.
Most sense this fucker has ever spoken.
