| When Recruitment Drives Go Wrong |
 Like most teams that miss the NRL Finals series, consistency was the Achilles heel of the Parramatta Eels.
After making last years Grand Final, the Eels had big hopes in 2010. They had lost a few players in the off season but they felt they had more than squared the ledger with the additions of News South Wales State Of Origin forward Justin Poore, and former Origin center Timana Tahu.
As the season kicked off the Eels were one of the favorites to take out the title, but it was clear from early on that a number of problems were going to hold the team back. Despite the media pumping up Parramatta's supposed run home, the Eels were simply to erratic and had too few players they could really reply on to play good consistent football.
With that in mind you would have thought the Eels 2011 player recruitment would be focused on getting players that would give much needed consistency to a lineup that is without question full of talent.
No.
The Eels re-signed often injured winger Eric Grothe junior, who I honestly think is not a player of first grade standard. In fact in defense, Grothe is the biggest liability in defense of any winger in the game.
The club then went out and signed Cowboys forward Carl Webb, who has had a terrible season on the worst team in the competition in 2010. Webb has struggled for years with consistency and battled his weight and general attitude problems. There is no doubt he has talent, but like many player before him he simply has never hooked it all up.
Now today comes news that the Eels have signed Reni Maitua.
Maitua is currently coming to the end of a two year drugs ban, having been banned while a member of the Cronulla Sharks. His time at the Sharks should have signaled the end of his career, it was that poor.
Keep in mind the Eels have signed or re-signed these players after looking to spend $500,000+ on a Rugby Union player with legal issues!
Pressure has been on Daniel Anderson this season because the Eels simply have fallen well below expectation. I think some of that pressure was unwarranted, I feel that many of the players the club has put their faith in simply have not delivered.
Justin Poore's signing has been a complete disaster, he barely makes the first grade side each week. Timana Tahu, in between his mid season breakdown, has been a liability in defense and has done very little in attack.
Jarryd Hayne has had a season that summed up that of the entire team, glimpses of brilliance in between long stretches of nothing.
The club managed to let go of Krisnan Inu, who is a bumbling mess of a player, and Feleti Mateo, who is over weight, makes stupid mistakes and has pissed and moaned about wanting to stay so he can add to the three decent career games he has played for the club, but none of that matters while these players have been replaced by others with their own major issues.
Paul Osborne has been given a pretty good ride in the media over his tenure as the Eels CEO, however he and coach Daniel Anderson both have to take responsibility for a recruitment drive that is starting to look like a complete disaster.
Eels fans are looking for more from their side in 2011, however by shuffling erratic performers around with other teams, and taking on issues no club needs, the Eels look set for more disappointment next season.
If that does turn out to be the case, both Anderson and Osborne could be looking for new clubs of their own this time next year.
League Freak
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| Wanna Bet? |
 The National Rugby League looks as though it may have its biggest problems with a possibly gambling issue in its history.
Its alleged that there was a huge betting plunge on the North Queensland Cowboys vs Canterbury Bulldogs for the first points to be from a Cowboys penalty kick.
The Bulldogs received the ball from the kickoff, with Ryan Tandy knocking it on from the first hit up. Tandy then later gave away a penalty for lying on the tackles player soon after, right in front of the sticks.
Now, the Cowboys decided to take the tap and ended up scoring a try, therefor nullifying any betting plunge that happened, however of all the supposed betting plunges that have happened that turn out to be complete crap, I really don't like the sound of this one.
Like all sports, Rugby League has been infected by a massive tide of betting agencies that will take bets on pretty much any option you can imagine. Ten years ago there were just a couple of places you could go to bet on the NRL. Now there are hundreds of agencies and many are now lined up with the governing body or clubs.
You can not watch a Rugby League program in Australia of any kind without being bombarded by betting odds. I haven't got anything against gambling, I like a punt myself, but to have gambling odds thrown at me every few minutes while I'm watching the football, I think its a disgrace.
Its not me I worry about. I think if your betting on Rugby League these days in an effort to beat the odds, your a mug. Its way to unpredictable to be a good earn. I'm worried about kids who get told that everyone else is gambling on footy, and its just not the case.
So we get smashed with betting offs, and gambling agencies are embedded into the game through sponsorship agreements.....there is only one way this could go!
Take a look at Cricket right now where the amazement at the Pakistan side fixing games is just bloody incredible. Pakistan is a very good side, they have been for a long time. However go into a World Cup, and which established team is most likely to drop a game against someone like Ireland or Scotland?
During the unlosable Test match Pakistan lost against Australia in Sydney, I was tweeting it as a joke, watch Pakistan throw this one.
Its been blatant, and yet everyone within Cricket turned a blind eye despite the fact that gambling and match fixing had been brought up ten years ago.
Are we now getting our warning in Rugby League?
NRL players are not allowed to gamble on Rugby League games. Their friends and family have no such restrictions though.
I would like to see the Australian government step in and stop gambling agencies from advertising on Television, but the chances that any government would be willing to see sports gambling take a hit, and therefore lower the tax they get from profits, is very unlikely.
I personally believe that the Canterbury Bulldogs should have stood Ryan Tandy down. Not as a sign of guilt or innocence, but as a sign that the club saw there had looked to be an issue and removed any possibility that the issue would have any effect on the rest of their season.
Not nice for Tandy, but hey, he's still picking up his salary and as a professional footballer, its not all strippers and coke all of the time.
That move would have allowed the NRL to investigate the betting plunge with the knowledge that nothing else is going to happen over the last few rounds of the season.
Not only that, it would have sent a message. The message that the game just will not tolerate in any way, shape or form even the perception that something might be happening.
Anyone caught fixing matches or betting on games in Australia will be banned for life, that much is known. Unlike in England where we have seen players and coaches bet on games and very little has happened, it wont be tolerated in Australia.
Lets hope the NRL gets to the bottom of what has happened and gets rid of the people involved for good. Then maybe it can start to think about how it can avoid the situation happening again in the future.
League Freak
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| Good Luck To Frank Pritchard |
 On the list of the most frustrating footballers I've ever seen, Frank Pritchard has got to rank right up there among the very best.
For most of the season the fire just doesn't seem to be there. He is one step slower, he doesn't have the impact, and quite honestly, he looks like he is carrying too much weight.
When he is on though, he is nothing short of devastating!
For someone his size, his footwork and ball playing skills are amazing. He can completely tear and opposition team apart. He is a game changer, someone who can no be stopped, and most importantly, someone who makes his team mates better.
Michael Jennings is am amazing center who can create his own chances. However Jennings is at his best when he is running off the work of Frank Pritchard.
Big Frankie has had a bit of a mixed career at Penrith. A number of times he has looked at leaving the club, with Super League and even Rugby Union being talked about. I always got the feeling that Pritchard was the time of player that needed more work put into him.
Some players just need a cuddle every so often.
It took the Panthers a while to work him out, and I think they were willing to hold off on thrashing him at training to get his weight down if it meant he was happy, and that he would put in those few performances a year that won the club games.
Prichard was off contract at the end of 2010 and I think Penrith felt like they deserved a little something back for the work they had put into Frank. Contract talks dragged on, but that is nothing new with Pritchard....and then it happened.
He decided to sign a three year deal with the Bulldogs.
Now, Frank Prichard is going to earn a little more than $1,000,000 over the next three years. That's unbelievable! For a player that has a few issues with his performances, its incredible that he could walk away with a cool million in a few years from now!
If the Bulldogs want to pay that much for him, great, and for Frank to be able to set up the future of him and his family with a huge contract like that, how can you not be happy for the bloke?
Oh, but they were not happy....
The Panthers were fuming and while they didn't come out and say so publicly, they didn't have to.
Out trotted Matt Adamson, who was last seen at Penrith when the playing group couldn't stand him and demanded he was sacked from his job as the clubs water boy!
Matt Adamson, the most hated player in the history of the club. Not a bad effort for a player that achieved nothing at all while at Penrith.
Adamson, who is best mates with Matthew Elliott, told the Daily Telegraph in Sydney "I'd let him go now - Frank Pritchard is a selfish individual. It's a disgrace what he has done, announcing this two weeks before the finals,".
Um, what?
"Frank is only worried about Frank. He is purely in the game for himself. If I was the coach, I wouldn't have him in my club. He is not the player I would want to be taking the field alongside,"
Lucky the coach doesn't run out on the field and play. Even luckier that Adamson doesn't play, or coach. Adamson went on though...
"You don't win a comp with individuals - you win a comp with a team. Frank is a great player but he has been overpaid for the last three to four years and hasn't delivered."
Lucky Penrith won a Premiership with the Panthers in 2003. An achievement Adamson didn't get anywhere near!
"Frank should have been let go years ago. I'd drop him right now. Frank has let down his captain: he has turned his back on Petero Civoniceva."
Yes, Im sure Petro would be fuming that a player had played the majority of his career at one club, then decided to end his career elsewhere for more money. Oh....right. Anyway, Adamson wasn't finished!
"One hundred per cent this could affect Penrith's finals chances."
Now if a club is so fragile that a player looking to secure his future elsewhere is the thing that destroys their premiership hopes, let me tell you, that team was never going to win in the first place.
Penrith Legend, highest point scorer and premiership winning Ryan Girdler put it all in perspective very nicely.
"I don't think it will have a bearing on their run into the finals. They are all professionals and will get on with it. You don't get too many opportunities to play in the finals. I think the last time for Penrith was 2004. It won't affect them."
Well said!
Matt Adamson has somehow found a place as a mouth when a lazy journo needs a stupid, screaming headline that's backed by a quote from a complete and utter idiot. The funny thing is that across the game, his remarks have been rubbished, its just part of the game and has been since the meeting in the George Hotel when the game was formed.
Frank Pritchard deserves every single cent he can get out of the game. How much is he worth? Exactly how much the Bulldogs were willing to pay for him!
As a Panthers fan I can wish him nothing but the best.
League Freak
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| Who Should Captain The English Rugby League Team? |
 England Captain Jamie Peacock is out for the rest of the season and now, people are wondering who should captain England going into the Four Nations tournament to be hosted in Australia and New Zealand at seasons end.
When selecting the next captain, you have to remember that the RFL has a bit of a get out clause here. The player they select can be named as a stand in captain, the guy who has the job just until Peacock comes back next season.
In reality though, this will be a test for the player selected. Has he got what it takes to lead his nation through an era that looks pretty shaky at best.
Keeping in mind that the player named as captain for the Four Nations is going to have a heavy burden.
A terrible coach, a young side, many of whom have no idea that playing in Australia during our spring is a completely different ball game. This is going to be a job that involved leading a team that, at best will lose most of their matches, at worst will not win a single game, including the warm up match against the New Zealand Maori, and who could be heading back to England having lead the most disastrous tour in 40 years.
There are all sorts of options being tossed up at the moment.
The mainstream media tends to be backing Adrian Morley for the job. Sure, he has experience, but he has never been that great at Test level. being a prop, and if used properly, he is not going to play anything more than 60 minutes anyway, so he'll be off the field for at least a quarter of the game, and then you have to factor in his ability to be a real leader on the field.
At his best, which is a long way from where he is right now, Morley could provide motivation through his play. However a captain needs to do more that that. Morely is a bludgeoning tool. He causes damage, but he's not too complicated. He's no captain.
James Graham is another who's name has been put forward. Once again, a prop who will not be on the field for a good portion of the game, and to be honest, very much like Morley in the sense that he does a job, does it well, but you cant see him being a captain.
Sam Burgess is young, only 21 years old, but has an experienced head on his shoulders. He has shown why he is so different from the vast majority of players England has produced in the last 15 years with the way he has carried himself since coming to Australia to play against the Worlds Best.
Humble, great with the media, he carried himself with dignity and is humble about his ability. Its not about ego for him, its about going out and playing football, and when he walks of the field, he's just big Sammy again.
I think one day he will be captain, no doubt about it. He has the ability, on and off the field, to do the job now. Having said that, I don't give him the job just yet. I want him to get the captaincy, not when he wants it, not when he thinks he is ready, but when he really IS ready to take on all that added pressure that comes with the job.
I don't want Sam Burgess getting to 30 and having carried the England side, on and off the field, for 9 years.
So he wouldn't be my selection.
Garry Schofield suggested that Kyle Eastmond should get the captaincy, which is find completely insane! He has played just a handful of Test matches, on home soil, he is still finding his feet at club level, let alone having to get used to the idea of being Englands only option at test level. He is way too young and lets face it, he needs to improve his game over the next few years or he could easily be replaced by a youngster coming through who has a few more tools on their work belt.
A really stupid idea that one.
Kevin Sinfields name has been put forward, again I find that ridiculous. He is not certain to be in Englands top 17 for the first game of the Four Nations, and if he is, chances are it will be off the bench.
People have pointed out his amazing record as the captain of the Leeds Rhinos. Thats great. But Ian Millward is one of the most successful coaches in the history of Super League, and that doesn't make him even a half decent coach when you are scaling yourself against the worlds best.
So who do I think should be the England Captain?
Gareth Ellis.
Yes, the make believe second rower that plays wider than a center.
So why Ellis?
Firstly, he is much like Burgess in that, Rugby League isn't a vehicle for him to have a self congratulatory wank over his own amazingness. Footy isn't about ego for him. He goes out, plays the game, and when he walks off the field he is the big Pommmy living in Sydney and thats that.
He has experience on the field, he is a player that other look towards as a natural leader and he has been in Australia now long enough to know what the media will be like when things go bad for England.
Most importantly, I think he is the only player that wouldn't be broken by a disastrous Four Nations competition. I think he has the mental strength to go through the big losses England will be incurring. He has the strength to front up to the media after these games.
Most importantly he is the only England player that I see who can walk into the sheds at halftime on the wrong end of a big scoreline, and not look beaten.
I said many years ago that Gareth Ellis should be the England Captain, even before they appointed Jamie Peacock. Now, more than ever, I think he is the right man for the job.
Some people do not like the idea that the England Captain will be a player not living in England. They suggest its bad for marketing and not a good look for the game.
The problem the RFL needs to face is, reality. Ellis and Burgess, the two best English players in the game, are just the beginning of a tide of English players that will look to test themselves in Australia.
Between the exchange rates being very different to what they once were, the lure of living in Australia and playing against the world best, and the way the NRL salary cap is expected to rise over the next few years, money will not be an issue any more.
If the RFL starts to turn its back on its best player, we will see a situation where they England side running out in 10 years from now could be made up of the best of the rest.
Ellis can be made available to the English media via video link ups. He plays for an NRL club that is open to him playing mid season tests. He is the best man for the job, he always has been.
League Freak
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| The Toss Up That Is The Chase For Quade Cooper |
Quade Cooper is an Australian Rugby Union player. Yes, Rugby Union still does exist in this country, if only barely.
News came out this week that Cooper had held talks with the Parramatta Eels with an eye on switching codes. It came out at a time when he is negotiating with the ARU, and he is in a real position of power because of the complete lack of talent Rugby Union has in Australia.
The ARU has been pulling back player payments in recent years because they simply do not have the money any more. Crowds are down, sponsorship is down, playing numbers are down and the television rates are at a catastrophic level.
So Cooper knows that the ARU basically has to come to the party and pay him a fair share of money. He also knows that by suggesting he will switch and play Rugby League, he pretty much is forcing the ARU's hand.
If the Australian Rugby Union started losing the few playersit has to Rugby League, they would be screwed.
Not what Cooper does is up to him. If he is trying to get more money, fair enough. He won't gain any favor with Rugby Union types but he won't care when he is making $600,000 a year.
What the Parramatta Eels are doing in this case though is what interests me.
The suggestions are that the Eels have held preliminary talks with Coopers management but it was more a case of saying Cooper may be interested in a switch and the Eels may be interested in making him an offer.
Its also been suggested the Cooper has a bit of a friendship with Jarryd Hayne, but that friendship was forced through Twitter. Hows that for clutching at straws!
Cooper has been earmarked as a five-eight but I think he's probably be better as a fullback. Obviously Parramatta has a halfback and in Dan Mortimer, they also have a five-eight!
So why would the Eels seriously decide to make a Rugby Union player the highest paid player at the club?
That is the question I have no answer to.
If the Eels are solely being used as a bargaining chip, they need to come out publicly and say they are not chasing Cooper. They need to shut down any idea that they are a threat to sign Cooper at all.
If he wants to play Rugby League, great. However I wouldn't be offering him anything like the money he is after from the ARU and that means he would have to take a major pay cut, something he won't be doing.
The other thing to consider is that Cooper has had some massive off field issues. The ARU stood by him through all this, and it didn't really make too much news because he is a Rugby Union player and no one really cares.
What needs to be asked by the Eels though is if they want to invest in a young man that doesn't play the game and who could be a major headache off the field?
No.
League Freak
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| Defending The Brisbane Broncos |
 In 2010 the Rugby League media in Australia has gone bat shit crazy.
Between the formation of the Independent Commission, the Melbourne Storm Salary Cap saga, players demanding higher wages and Greg Inglis deciding he wants to live in Brisbane, the media has basically had a nervous breakdown in this part of the world.
You have the Sydney Morning Herald pointing the finger at News Limited, News Limited hitting back with counter claims, sensationalized rubbish, made up stories and the agendas, wow, they are flowing faster than the NRL's female fan base when Matt Coopers junk was exposed in a game last weekend!
Standing back and watching this mess unfold, I can only just shake my head and wonder how some people can honestly put their name to such rubbish and then think their reputations will not be harmed by it.
In the aftermath of the Melbourne Storm salary cap breach, there was a push to raise the salary cap. I said that this would eventually help the Storm keep most of its side in tact, and its just about done that.
The NRL came under pressure from players, clubs and the media to relax rules regarding third party sponsors and the added bonuses that a player could receive outside of just hard currency.
What we ended up with was a situation where the Melbourne Storm had to let go at least one of their top of the line players. Because of the rise in the salary cap and third party sponsorship red tape, every single club in the NRL bar Melbourne had a tidy little war chest it could spend under the cap to go out and buy some pretty handy players.
Now, some teams decided they were not going to wait on what happened with the Storm and sorted their 2010 roster ahead of everyone else.
The St George/Illawarra Dragons managed to get Mark Gansier, the Penrith Panthers managed to basically lock up all but a couple of the players in their side to long term deals, the North Queensland Cowboys made some big signings and the Sydney Roosters grabbed a few more players here and there.
For the most part though you had a lot of teams with a lot of money still to spend.
Then, the bombshell. Greg Inglis wants to move to Brisbane because his girlfriend has a job offer up there.
Now you have to remember here that Greg Inglis decided to wanted to live in Brisbane. He held talks with the Broncos and Titans, but every other club was told not to bother talking to him because he wanted to live in Brisbane.
It took a while but with the loss of Israel Folau for next season, the rise of the salary cap and the relaxation of rules that govern third party sponsors, the Brisbane Broncos managed to get the best center in the game to play for them.
Then, all hell broke lose!
Fairfax Papers starting to print articles from unnamed NRL CEO's saying it was some sort of miracle the Broncos could fit Inglis under the cap. The Broncos blew up at the Sydney media as it stirred up all those stupid Queensland feelings that Sydney was out to get them.
There were suggestions that News Limited had done the dirty, owning both the Storm and Broncos, and they wanted to weaken one side to make the other stronger.
News Limited meanwhile spent the entire week basically getting their journalists to try and convince people that the deal was all above board and they had done no wrong.
I'm sitting back, watching all of this, and I'm wondering how both sides can honestly believe their own bullshit?
Is It Good For The Game That Greg Inglis Is Now A Bronco?
Is Greg Inglis' move from the Storm to the Broncos a good thing for the game? No, its not.
Nothing against the Broncos here at all but the fact remains that you had one club that was by far and away better than everyone else because they broke the salary cap. At the other end of the scale you have a few sides that are desperate for talent.
In an ideal world, Inglis would have gone to the worst club in the competition. The team that needed talent more than any other, and lets face it, thats the Cronulla Sharks.
Getting Inglis would have been a massive boost for the Sharks, it would have helped them secure more sponsorship and maybe helped turn things around for them financially.
In an ideal world, that is what the salary cap would have done. Taken from the strong and given to the weak.
Is Brisbane Deal Illegal?
I really don't think it is at all.
Israel Folau was on huge money, and he is off the Broncos books next year. Couple that with the rise in the cap and third party payments and I can see how it works.
The thing you have to realize with the Broncos is that, the vast majority of their very young side will be on what amounts to being the first contract of their NRL careers. They have young guys right now who are playing at an amazing level who will be earning very little compared to their actual market value.
These young players will get their pay day when their contracts come up, and chances are, the Broncos will lose a lot of very good young players over the next few years because of the salary cap.
However for now, the Broncos are in a rare zone where you have a core of veteran players surrounded by a team of very cheap young stars who are playing well above their salary scale.
In modern day sport, its teams that jag this butter zone that win titles.
The Broncos Monopoly In Brisbane
Yes, the Broncos have it good up there in Brisbane. Two million die hard Rugby League fans all to themselves while Sydney has Four million people but caters for 9 NRL clubs who are in a dog fight for fans, sponsorship money and players.
Cry me a fucking river Sydney!
I'm a Panthers fan based in Sydney, and I think this whinging by a handful of media types about poor old Sydney is a complete joke!
If the Broncos have it so good up there and the poor old Sydney clubs are battling so hard, well then, move your club to Brisbane!
I've said a number of times on this site, if you took the Sharks and said next year they will be based in Brisbane, by Christmas the Sharks would be one of the most valuable teams in the NRL. Brisbane sponsors would jump on board, they would have a foot in the door in regards to getting Queensland talent, they would play out of the best stadium in the world at Suncorp, hell, its not a stretch to suggest that Inglis would have been a Brisbane Shark next year has the club decided to make a move early enough!
The Broncos had the entire state to themselves. Then they had to only share it with the Cowboys, but they had all of South East Queensland to themselves. Then the Tiatns come in and.....damn it, the Broncos have all of Sydney to themselves and I hate them, I want them to die!
Sorry about that, slipped into Phil Gould mode for a second.
Why Did No One Else Offer Inglis A Contract?
Inglis wanted to go to Brisbane, thats great. Word was his managed didn't listen to offers from anyone else.
Here is what I don't understand.
If the likes of say the Cronulla Sharks are spending the same as the Brisbane Broncos on playing talent, I'm a monkeys uncle! You would think the Sharks should have a huge amount of salary cap space available, especially once the cap was raised for next year.
So if they wanted a player like Inglis, why wouldn't they make an offer he couldn't refuse?
If Inglis is on say $600,000 all up at the Broncos next year, thats great. If the Sharks offer him say $800,000, do you think Brisbane remains the only option for Inglis?
No way!
So why didn't the Sharks or other clubs throw that sort of money around?
Agendas Are Running Hot
The fact is that Inglis wanted to move to Brisbane and no one come up with a deal good enough to make him decide otherwise.
The Broncos are one of the best run clubs in the competition and used of their natural resources to get together a good deal for the best center in the game.
While other clubs over spend on players that don't produce the results, on or off the field, or chase rugby union players of all things, the Broncos were just getting the job done.
Lets face it, the Broncos pulled off a great signing. Well done to them.
League Freak
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| The Times Drops Its Rugby League Coverage |
 News today that the UK Times has dropped its Rugby League coverage its quite honestly a disgrace.
The Times made the decision a few years ago to make a commitment to cover Rugby League. This decision came with great fanfare and was seen as a good sign for Rugby League in the UK. Many hopes that is was a small step taken in the push the game towards gaining a wider audience and helping it break in to the main stream established media.
Chris Irvine hosted a very successful Rugby League Blog on the Times Online. I always found it interesting that the Times would be forward thinking enough with its Rugby League coverage to not only do traditional reporting on the game, but to allow Irvine to give his thoughts and opinions on the game and have that interactivity with fans.
Alas, today the news came through that the Times would cut its full time coverage of Rugby League.
The Times is owned by News Limited, who lets face it, has made millions out of Rugby League. When you look at the success of Super League and the content it has provided Sky Sports in the UK, you have News Limiteds involvement as a 50% owner of the NRL, as the owner of the Melbourne Storm and a major shareholder in the Brisbane Broncos.
This is a company that makes a lot of money out of the game only to cut back in its reporting of Rugby League in one of its biggest media markets. When you consider that Rugby League would provide more content to the Sydney Daily Telegraph than any subject, the decision the Times has come to doesn't sit well with me at all.
If you haven't been following the news recently, there is a big problem with newspapers around the world in that circulation is falling, money in being lost and people generally are getting more and more of their news from the internet and 24 hour news channels.
Where once you picked up a newspaper on a morning to get the latest reports, reports that were filed the previous evening, now you can turn on the television and get instant news. Through news web sites, blogs and social networks like Twitter and Facebook, news travels at an instant.
By the time something is printed in a newspaper, its old news. Coverage isn't breaking, its a wrap up of what happened yesterday, and that is not enough for people in this day and age.
I remember as a youngster walking to the local shops to pick up Rugby League Week for all the latest news and rumours. At some point though, I was reading things I'd seen on the internet a week ago.
That is the major problem the print media faces.
Because of this move away from traditional news sources, circulations are down, which means advertising dollars are down, and that means cutbacks.
Now, if you were a company that was heavily invested in the print media, a News Corporation if you will, you'd not be all that happy about the decline in one of your main income sources. You are paying so many journalists so much money and through newspapers you are getting to the point where you are almost losing money, while your online outlets don't bring in enough money to sustain your massive world wide journalistic network.
People log on to your sites, they read the news, they give you a few hits, but its just not enough. Especially when you are finding that a lot of competitors, especially bloggers and the social media, are simply reading your news articles and reproducing them elsewhere.
That makes your major news corporations no money at all!
So the big idea News Limited is starting to push is subscription services for its news through its major news sites.
This is a trend that started in the United States and has worked with varying levels of success. You find that News Limited goes into a market preaching this subscription service, they take one of their major publications and put it behind a pay wall, then they sit back, take the flak and let for the dust to finally settle.
Make no mistake, News Limiteds major plan is for all of us to one day have to pay a subscription fee to read news papers online, and thats fair enough, it is their content.
One of the problems I'm finding with this direction is that the quality of journalism is suffering. It is no longer good enough to break a story through hard work and investigation. You break a story, great, five minutes later that story is all over the world.
Breaking news and exclusives don't really exist in this day and age.
If you are a web site, and a subscription site at that, now there is one thing that is king, and that is page hits. The more hits you get, the more valuable you are and the more likely you are going to be kept on while other areas, no matter how good their work is, will be allowed to fall by the way side.
If you look at the Daily Telegraph in Sydney as an example, you'll have noticed that over the last 2 or 3 years it has gone from some good reporting to sensationalism.
You can do a fantastic match report or in depth analysis of the game, and yet sensationalized headlines about what a greedy bastard Sonny Bill Williams is or how Anthony Mundine thinks everyone is a racist gets massive hits, and therefore, articles like that get priority over good journalism.
Its at the point now where there is some really good stuff being written, and it is getting brushed to the side so we can rate the top ten fullbacks in the game or talk about how over rated Willie Mason is!
In short, the major news companies are lowering the bar in search for more income through their online news outlets.
Today, Rugby League has become a victim of that policy. Chris Irvine will get another job, he's too good at what he does to not be picked up by another news organization. The thing is, as a sport, Rugby League needs to evaluate the way it will connect to the mainstream into the future as media organizations are not so much interested in reporting as they are raising their revenue.
League Freak
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| Ive Got An Idea, Lets Not Do Anything At All! |
Three Rugby League administrators walk into a bar...
If it was a joke, even then it wouldn't be funny. Why is there no punch line? Because three Rugby League administrators wouldn't get anything done!
Remember last year when I wrote on my web site that the agreement was close, that we would have the Independent Commission in place by November 1st 2009 and the game was looking forward to a bright future?
Well, it turns out it was all bullshit.
While News Limited looks to leave the game and leave behind the thousands of conflicts of interest it has, it doesn't want to turn the game over to a bunch of idiots that are going to ruin it, which is fair enough.
Even when they leave their hands on role with the NRL, News Limited will still be heavily invested in Rugby League and will want it to be healthy.
The New South Wales Rugby League, which is a shambles, seems like its fully prepared to fall on its sword and vote itself out of existence. Fantastic.
The Queensland Rugby League meanwhile feels as though they should be power brokers in the whole process. They want a bigger say in the Independent Commission and want greater power which is, you know, the complete opposite to the idea of setting up an Independent Commission!
They are at loggerheads with the Australian Rugby League, which is mostly controlled by the NSWRL. The Australian Rugby League currently owns half of the NRL, and under the Independent Commission model being put forward, would basically vote themselves out of existence and their job would be taken over by the new entity.
The ARL is making all the right noises about wanting to move forward, and thats the problem. all they are doing is saying they want to get it done, but they are not taking any actual steps to get the Independent Commission in place!
Then you have the 16 NRL clubs.
They would get the majority of the power to vote people in and out of the Independent Commission, which they obviously like the idea of. They are getting sick and tired of waiting for things to get up and running. Keep in mind, the money they are generating is going into the over all funding of the game, so the NRL clubs are actually financially supporting the NSWRL, QRL and ARL, who are holding the game back, which is costing the game around a million dollars a month.
You still with me?
You then have the players, who are obviously aligned with their employers, the clubs. They want more money and see the waste that is happening right now. They don't have any power at this stage, and I personally believe they missed their chance to make a huge statement by threatening to boycott game three of the State Of Origin series.
Why boycott the third game of the Origin series? Well it was a dead rubber anyway, and it is everything that is wrong about the way the game is structures. A series that makes millions of dollars, one of the biggest sporting events every year in Australia, the players get hardly any money out of it and yet the NSWRL and QRL make out like bandits!
Threatening to boycott the Four Nations at seasons end will get the public off side and hurt the game. They missed their chance...this year anyway.
So with all that in mind, I've tried to clear up the muddied waters that is the battle for power in Australian Rugby League. Sure, I know, its a complicated mess with no real light at the end of the tunnel in sight, and thats the point of me writing this article.
No one is actually running the game in Australia. Right now, no decisions can be made, no plans for the future can be set out and incredibly, no one could tell you who will be in charge of the game of Rugby League in Australia in six months from now!
The thing I find most incredible of all is that, in this minefield of self interest and political bullshit, we are expected to believe that Independent Commissioners will actually be found.
Who are these people? Where will they come from? Everyone in this game has an agenda, a side or few favors to pay back. Are we supposed to believe that the people jockeying for their own self interest right now will fall into line, and then pick people for the Independent Commission who do not represent their own thoughts and values, the same ones we are trying to eradicate from the game?
In this whole process there is one side I have some faith in that they want what really is best for the game.
News Limited.
They know how much money the game is worth to them in Australia. It generates so much in Pay TV subscriptions, news papers sold, hits on their web sites, thats the reason why they have stuck around for so long.
The piddly bit of money they get from the 50% ownership of the NRL is nothing to them. Its the content the NRL generates for their various companies that is the pay of for News.
That means when they leave the game in an administrative capacity, they have to leave it with a good administration in place that will keep the value of the NRL, and the content it provides them, high.
With everyone else is fighting for power, egos, agendas and the like, News Limited at the end of the day is all about money. The better run the NRL is, the more money it makes, the bigger it becomes, the more money it makes News Limited.
Its ironic that 16 years after the first shots were fired in the Super League War, and News Limited looked to take control of the game in an under handed way, they may very well be the only hope that we get a truly independent governing body running the game in Australia.
League Freak
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| Australia Is Desperately Short Of Rugby League Talent |
It comes as a shock, I know, but it is obvious that Australia is scrapping the bottom of the barrel as far as playing talent goes.
That is the only conclusion I can come to with regards to the news that Newcastle Knights winger Akuila Uate is looking to turn his back of playing for his home country of Fiji, having played for them just 10 months ago, and now wants to become eligible to play for New South Wales and Australia.
What a disgrace!
This is a move that is born out of the complete lack of leadership within the game in Australia. Where the good of the game doesn't matter one bit, and where everyone is just out to get as much money and glory as they possibly can.
If we had real leadership in Australian Rugby League, Uate and his manager would have got a phone call a long time ago.
"Firstly, you are Fijian, not Australian. Secondly, you won't be playing for New South Wales or Australia. Not this year, not next year. Never. Never ever.".
Its a pretty simple scenario. Australia has more players than any other Rugby League playing nation in the world. We don't need to be importing players and changing rules to have talented players in our representative sides!
Now, some people will point to the likes of say Petero Civoneceva or Lote Tuqiri and saying "Wait a minute League Freak, what about those imports?".
Two points I want to make.
First of all, the players that have played for Australia that weren't born here have all grown up here. They went to school from an early age here, learned how to play football here. They are Aussies. Hell, Civoniceva has a stronger Aussie accent than I do!
My second point is that the Queensland Rugby League for years has not paid any attention to eligibility rules at State Of Origin level. They will pick anyone they can out of self interest and greed.
This means we have seen some players picked for Queensland, and then those same players have been picked by an Australian Rugby League that has thrown their hands in the air and said "Hey, he is a Queenslander, so he must be an Australian. What are we supposed to do?".
I'm thinking along the lines of Brad Thorn and Tonie Carroll here. Neither of them should ever have played for Australia.
There are a couple of players that some English fans are imports that simply are not. Willie Tonga is one, probably because of his last name, and Israel Folau is another. Both were born and raised in Australia.
As the game of Rugby League looks to scrape out some sort of credibility at international level, our administrators should be going out of their way to encourage the games stars to play for the nation of their birth, or cultural origin.
With the explosion of Pacific Island talent in the National Rugby League, we are seeing true stars of the game from New Zealand, Tonga, Samoa, Fiji and the like. We need to encourage these stars to play for their home countries, which will in tern strengthen the game as a whole and actually make the Australian test jersey a more values product in the long term.
Instead we have a bunch of mindless idiots running the game. In a country that could field 5 international teams with ease, we'll see the NSWRL and ARL trying to entice an ok Fijian player to turn his back on his country with maybe the slight possibility that he could play a game or two for New South Wales.
Its a bloody disgrace and shows why we need to completely dissolve the current administration we have in Australia. None of these idiots should get anywhere near the new administrative structure that ends up being set up. Not a single one of them.
League Freakk
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| One Super League Club Set To Be Axed As Championship Clubs Line Up |
George Riley of the BBC has revealed that the Rugby Football League is likely to strip a Super League license from one of the clubs currently in the top flight and hand it to a Championship club when the next set of licences are handed out.
This news will come a a bombshell to a number of Super League teams who have not been able to meet the set of standards the RFL set out for clubs to attain and solidify their place in the top flight competition.
The Championship Clubs right now that have met all the requirements for promotion are Halifax, Widnes, Barrow and Batley. If I had to hazard a guess, Widnes would be the front runner among those clubs to gain promotion.
As for the Super League clubs that are in trouble, all eyes are on Wakefield and Castleford. Both teams promised the RFL they would have an upgraded stadium to play out of by now and neither side has delivered on that promise.
Its understood that the local council is willing to move forward with plans to build a new stadium, but on the condition that both clubs ground share. That seems pretty straight forward, but it looks as though common sense is one a victim here.
That means if one of these sides gets the axe, you should not have any sympathy for them at all.
Salford, Harlequins and the Crusaders would all be under some pressure but I'd expect them to all make the cut for one reason or another. In Salfords case though, they would want to be playing out of this fictitious stadium they have been building for the last 25 years or next time around they will be axed and would find it hard to sway the RFL's opinion that they would ever deserve to be in the top flight again.
I remember when Promotion and Relegation was scrapped, the old flat cappers cried bloody murder and said it would destroy the game. I think this news shows the complete opposite.
The likes of Huddersfield, Hull KR, Hull FC, and the Catalan Dragons have been able to build a longer term future because they know they don't face relegation after one bad season.
For the Championship Clubs, instead of a year in year out race to an unrealistic goal of being a club worthy of promotion, teams can now build a better foundation and really put forward a stronger, longer term case that they have outgrown their current competition.
I personally hope that by the end of the year Toulouse meets the requirements for promotion, because I think we need another team in France for the long term future of Super League and the game in France too.
It would need a few things to work their way though!
What ever the case, its good to see the RFL is sticking to its guns on the standards it has set.
Finally, I just want to say that its great to see a UK Rugby League journo come up with a real exclusive and some real news! Far too often you see puff pieces put out in the UK media. The type of stuff that you know has been hand crafted by PR types back at club offices.
I'm forever banging on about the lack of true journalism in Rugby League ranks in the UK, so its great to see this type of news hit the internet.
Well done to George Riley, great stuff!
League Freak
George Rileys Blog: Super League licence up for grabs
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| I Think I've Found The Dumbest Player In The National Rugby League |
 Stupidity is a curse that no one asks for. It is a weight that one carries through their entire life.
Footballers tend to get a reputation for being stupid. That can unfair in some instances as we have a lot of intelligent players in the game these days. Many run businesses and some excel in careers outside of football.
There is the other side of that though. For the numerous success stories the game can boast, you have a players who is, quite honestly, are as dumb as a lump of shit.
Intelligence and talent do not go hand in hand. That means you can have some really stupid players earning a lot of money.
In my time following the game I've seen evidence of this, but I think today I have reached the pinnacle of stupidity in a footballer.
Cronulla Sharks winger, Blake Ferguson, is looking for a new club. He apparently has four clubs chasing his signature. Thats great!
Blake Ferguson's manager is Solomon Haumono.
Let me take you back to Solomon Haumono's career...
Haumono was just starting to build a great career as an impact player. He was going places. Then one day, he got up and (This will all sound very familiar) flew out of the country, chasing a girl called Gabrielle Richens, otherwise know as "The Pleasure Machine".
 I see where he was going with this!
Haumono's quest for love was backed by his good friend, surprise, surprise, Anthony Mundine, who become the first player to one day decide to fly out of the country with no notice to pursue his dream of fighting pub brawlers and geriatrics while pretending to be a boxer.
Alas, for poor old Solomon, things didn't quite work out as expected. Having trashed his promising football career, Richens wasn't interested in getting back with him. In an ironic twist, she made her way back to Australia and, on the back of the publicity Haumono's departure had generated, made a tidy little media career for herself for a while there (Goodle her name and thank me after the cleanup!).
Left with a shattered football career, Solomon Haumono sought advice from one Anthony Mundine and, once again and in a shocking turn of events, he found himself fighting on the under card of Mundines early bouts!
 This all sounds familiar eh bro!
Now Solomon was like most football players turned boxers. He could throw a devastating punch, but he needed the right opponent for it. He did pretty well for a while too, and is even a ranked Australian heavy weight boxer to this day, ranking two places above former NRL player John Hopoate and three places above 44 year old Bob Mirovic!
Having said all that, boxing isn't much of a career in Australia unless you are a load mouth racist show pony, or the guy that everyone wants to punch that guys head in.
So from a promising football career, Solomon Haumono become something of a side note.
With that crazy story in mind...
What in gods name would prompt any person in their right mind to decide to put their career in the hands of Solomon Haumono?
I mean, come one, this is like leaving your wallet and pin number with Bernard Madoff, leaving your kids with Josef Fritzl or letting this man coach your favorite team:
 "I fuck shit up!"
Can you imagine what these four NRL clubs are thinking when they have to sit down and talk contract details with Solomon Haumono? "Yes Solomon, we'll provide him with a jersey AND socks for every single game!".
I can not think of a more ridiculous person to choose to help guide your football career then a bloke who completely trashed his own!
So to Cronulla Sharks fans, who I know are hurting over a lot of things this season, just let this kid go and be happy he's gone.
Sometimes a player is worth holding on to, other times he's not. Then there is the rare case when you are just waiting for a call from the airport at 6am on a Tuesday morning...
League Freak
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| NRL Expansion Race |
1. South East Queensland
2. Gosford/North Sydney
3. New Zealand
4. Perth
5. Central Queensland
6. Adelaide
7. Papua New Guinea |
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