http://www.theguardian.com/sport/bl...edal-is-a-genuflection-to-nrls-lack-of-vision
This week the NRL celebrates its night of nights with the Dally M Medal awarded to the game’s best individual talent. It will be a homage not only to the game’s best player – as adjudged by an array of News Limited and Channel Nine media types – but also a bright and shiny genuflection to League HQ’s embrace of mediocrity and short-sightedness.
No single event is more emblematic of the gulf between how the AFL and NRL are run than the difference between the revered Brownlow Medal night and the hokey and haphazard Dally M Medal award.
Rugby league and Australian Rules may be on equal footing when it comes to the quality of the on-field product but there is a gulf the size of a Pat Richards kick between how the leagues handle their business.
The AFL has draped Brownlow Medal night in history and grandiosity. They have made the medal prestigious and the evening an event. No cost is spared. No shortcut taken. Fans of Australian Rules love the Brownlow (although some may get a little strained as the red carpet photos go on). It is a night to celebrate the game and all the stakeholders – players, officials, coaches, fans, administrators – do. The theatre is in-built in the process. The boss reading out each and every vote adds prestige to the drama. The fact it is one of the biggest betting nights on the Australian calendar only further enhances the interest, creating an on-going storyline that holds value for an entire year.
The NRL, meanwhile, has allowed the awarding of the best player of the year to become nothing more than passing joke, a tribute to the lack of attention to detail, respect for history and blinkered vision that have blighted every administration since the game reconciled after the Super League War.
The league – admittedly under the stewardship of News Limited for most of its existence – decided not to replace the official Rothmans Medal awarded to the game’s best player as adjudicated by referees but to upgrade the News-run Dally M Medal. The voting remains public for the first 16 rounds, sucking out most of the drama, for the sole reason of selling copies of the Daily Telegraph. Full votes are not read and the NRL chief executive doesn’t announce. The event has never been seen on free-to-air television – and it never will be in its current format. Only recently has the event moved away from being a glorified annual committee meeting with booze to at least having a dash of glitz at Star City.
The NRL lacks so much vision – and is so concerned with boogie men under the bed – that the league has banned wagering on the event once the season has started. The exponential growth of sports betting helped drive the NFL to supremacy as the major sports league in the United States. It has helped bring the AFL untold publicity and revenues. Yet the NRL actively moves to reduce interest in the Dally M Medal, fearing corruption because voting is handled by non-NRL employees, such is the perversion of its logic.
At no stage has the NRL seen the template for a clearly more successful model in the Brownlow and simply copied it. It has belligerently pushed on with something so inferior that it does injustice to the word “inferior”. The cost: PR, income, the legitimacy of its highest individual honour, an opportunity to boost the prestige of the game, a chance to spread the word of rugby league.
Mark Graham, arguably the finest league player New Zealand has ever produced, once said that rugby union was an amateur game run by professionals while rugby league was a professional game run by amateurs. Well union is now played by professionals but league is still run like a two-bit bush outfit that survives on chook raffles and a neighbourhood watch mentality. In comparison to the image-conscious, vision-driven, dominance-pursuing AFL, the NRL is light-years behind. In business and marketing terms, the AFL is McDonald’s to the NRL’s local kebab shop.
It is little wonder rugby league has been forced to endure another torturous season marked by a total lack of faith in on-field officials, video referees, the match review committee, the judiciary and the rule book. And there would hardly be a single soul who calls themselves a rugby league fan who believes those at League HQ have the ability or the wherewithal to effect any serious change.
Todd Greenberg was brought in among much fanfare to run football yet only seems to be concerned with politicking and half-cocked ideas. There is no better illustration of his wantonness for the makeshift solution than bringing in Bob Fulton and John Buchanan to review officiating. Fulton has not played a meaningful role in the game for over 15 years and former Australian cricket coach Buchanan has kept a low profile.
No attempt is being made to simplify the rulebook. No work is being done to take power away from coaches. Little is being done to empower referees or bring consistency to video refereeing decisions. The wrestle is now accepted as being part of the fabric of the game. Time wasting is now inherent. Nobody understands the obstruction rule or how Tariq Sims gets five weeks and Tony Williams let off. The game – rugby league’s greatest strength – is allowed to be frittered away by ridiculous and erratic time-keeping procedures. So it goes on.
The NRL has made a habit of using patch-job on patch-job and it has left the game a total abject mess. And the League seems content to allow this to go on. The goodwill that came with the formation of the Commission and the fresh start the Smith regime signified is long gone. Faith has been eaten away to the point it is not only inhibiting the code’s ability to grow but it is turning actual fans away in a very real and tangible manner.
The NRL needs to get its act together and fast. They need a total review. The rulebook needs to be cleaned up. Officiating procedures and interpretations need to be made simpler. Referees need to be empowered with authority. Rules need to be consistently enforced from the refs to the judiciary and everywhere in between. The League need to show something resembling leadership.
This is not to criticise the quality of football on the pitch - if anything it is a testament to the players’ ability to rise above problems elsewhere. There is an old rugby league saying that the game survives in spite of itself. The product on the field is so compelling, so captivating, that it continues to thrive despite its self-imposed limitations. We have enjoyed one of the most thrilling finals series ever played. We await what promises to be a brilliant grand final, one of the most anticipated in years between two popular and passionate teams. The game delivers a constant torrent of drama and brilliance. And it does it with little help from those charged with protecting the best interests of the game.
Rugby league is at a critical juncture. And it is hard to put faith in an organisation which has so consistently and so often failed its stakeholders.
This week the NRL celebrates its night of nights with the Dally M Medal awarded to the game’s best individual talent. It will be a homage not only to the game’s best player – as adjudged by an array of News Limited and Channel Nine media types – but also a bright and shiny genuflection to League HQ’s embrace of mediocrity and short-sightedness.
No single event is more emblematic of the gulf between how the AFL and NRL are run than the difference between the revered Brownlow Medal night and the hokey and haphazard Dally M Medal award.
Rugby league and Australian Rules may be on equal footing when it comes to the quality of the on-field product but there is a gulf the size of a Pat Richards kick between how the leagues handle their business.
The AFL has draped Brownlow Medal night in history and grandiosity. They have made the medal prestigious and the evening an event. No cost is spared. No shortcut taken. Fans of Australian Rules love the Brownlow (although some may get a little strained as the red carpet photos go on). It is a night to celebrate the game and all the stakeholders – players, officials, coaches, fans, administrators – do. The theatre is in-built in the process. The boss reading out each and every vote adds prestige to the drama. The fact it is one of the biggest betting nights on the Australian calendar only further enhances the interest, creating an on-going storyline that holds value for an entire year.
The NRL, meanwhile, has allowed the awarding of the best player of the year to become nothing more than passing joke, a tribute to the lack of attention to detail, respect for history and blinkered vision that have blighted every administration since the game reconciled after the Super League War.
The league – admittedly under the stewardship of News Limited for most of its existence – decided not to replace the official Rothmans Medal awarded to the game’s best player as adjudicated by referees but to upgrade the News-run Dally M Medal. The voting remains public for the first 16 rounds, sucking out most of the drama, for the sole reason of selling copies of the Daily Telegraph. Full votes are not read and the NRL chief executive doesn’t announce. The event has never been seen on free-to-air television – and it never will be in its current format. Only recently has the event moved away from being a glorified annual committee meeting with booze to at least having a dash of glitz at Star City.
The NRL lacks so much vision – and is so concerned with boogie men under the bed – that the league has banned wagering on the event once the season has started. The exponential growth of sports betting helped drive the NFL to supremacy as the major sports league in the United States. It has helped bring the AFL untold publicity and revenues. Yet the NRL actively moves to reduce interest in the Dally M Medal, fearing corruption because voting is handled by non-NRL employees, such is the perversion of its logic.
At no stage has the NRL seen the template for a clearly more successful model in the Brownlow and simply copied it. It has belligerently pushed on with something so inferior that it does injustice to the word “inferior”. The cost: PR, income, the legitimacy of its highest individual honour, an opportunity to boost the prestige of the game, a chance to spread the word of rugby league.
Mark Graham, arguably the finest league player New Zealand has ever produced, once said that rugby union was an amateur game run by professionals while rugby league was a professional game run by amateurs. Well union is now played by professionals but league is still run like a two-bit bush outfit that survives on chook raffles and a neighbourhood watch mentality. In comparison to the image-conscious, vision-driven, dominance-pursuing AFL, the NRL is light-years behind. In business and marketing terms, the AFL is McDonald’s to the NRL’s local kebab shop.
It is little wonder rugby league has been forced to endure another torturous season marked by a total lack of faith in on-field officials, video referees, the match review committee, the judiciary and the rule book. And there would hardly be a single soul who calls themselves a rugby league fan who believes those at League HQ have the ability or the wherewithal to effect any serious change.
Todd Greenberg was brought in among much fanfare to run football yet only seems to be concerned with politicking and half-cocked ideas. There is no better illustration of his wantonness for the makeshift solution than bringing in Bob Fulton and John Buchanan to review officiating. Fulton has not played a meaningful role in the game for over 15 years and former Australian cricket coach Buchanan has kept a low profile.
No attempt is being made to simplify the rulebook. No work is being done to take power away from coaches. Little is being done to empower referees or bring consistency to video refereeing decisions. The wrestle is now accepted as being part of the fabric of the game. Time wasting is now inherent. Nobody understands the obstruction rule or how Tariq Sims gets five weeks and Tony Williams let off. The game – rugby league’s greatest strength – is allowed to be frittered away by ridiculous and erratic time-keeping procedures. So it goes on.
The NRL has made a habit of using patch-job on patch-job and it has left the game a total abject mess. And the League seems content to allow this to go on. The goodwill that came with the formation of the Commission and the fresh start the Smith regime signified is long gone. Faith has been eaten away to the point it is not only inhibiting the code’s ability to grow but it is turning actual fans away in a very real and tangible manner.
The NRL needs to get its act together and fast. They need a total review. The rulebook needs to be cleaned up. Officiating procedures and interpretations need to be made simpler. Referees need to be empowered with authority. Rules need to be consistently enforced from the refs to the judiciary and everywhere in between. The League need to show something resembling leadership.
This is not to criticise the quality of football on the pitch - if anything it is a testament to the players’ ability to rise above problems elsewhere. There is an old rugby league saying that the game survives in spite of itself. The product on the field is so compelling, so captivating, that it continues to thrive despite its self-imposed limitations. We have enjoyed one of the most thrilling finals series ever played. We await what promises to be a brilliant grand final, one of the most anticipated in years between two popular and passionate teams. The game delivers a constant torrent of drama and brilliance. And it does it with little help from those charged with protecting the best interests of the game.
Rugby league is at a critical juncture. And it is hard to put faith in an organisation which has so consistently and so often failed its stakeholders.
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