John ribot on sterlo...

[adamkungl]

I wonder how it would have turned out if he didn't get into bed with News Ltd to realise his ambitions for the game.

 

[RazorRam0n]

Because, usually, the egos and ambitions are chennalled into being a positive for the game (super ambitious shit like the Toronto Wolfpack comes down to the egos and action of just a few people. Hell, RL was created and arrived in Australia because a small few didnt like how Union was doing it and decided to act).

Just because Ribot was the guy that tore the game apart doesnt mean he was the only one who could/would have done it. Just look at the pay disputes the clubs get into every TV deal, they threaten to tear the comp down if they dont get their way. The only difference was that he had all the piece for Super League fall in front of him right when he was most disenfranchised.

And its not like he didnt do good for the game. He was hugely ambitious when he was leading the Broncos and he built the Storm from almost nothing.

For me, the bigger tragedy of his story was that the people at the ARL didnt find a way to harness his talent and ambition for the good of the game...

the clubs negotiating their grants are negotiating as a group not breaking up into equal factions at the cost of each other.

the one thing i will agree on your point of ego is that yes ribot couldn't handle being in charge of a powerful club that had little say in how the game was being grown. his club was invited to participate in a superior competition and he was given his first opportunity to administer that and that wasn't good enough for him, so against commercial common sense 101 he goes and does a deal with the devil to undermine people he served under and thinks he's still mates with. just a dog with delusions of grandeur

 

[axl rose]

. In the book Vossy just released

Was thinking of ordering this online, any good? haven't read a decent league book in a while, last one was Webkes, which was a snoozer.

Remember this, even Mario completely embarrassed that merkin Reebs in a debate

 

[RazorRam0n]

Sterlo went easy on him! Was interesting to hear about storms tv deal with china and how the other clubs scuppered it. Typical small minded RL.

he sure did, he had a chance to lay it all bare, and chose to have tea and scones instead.

 

[greg]

he sure did, he had a chance to lay it all bare, and chose to have tea and scones instead.

The last bloke many supporters would want tea and scones with. Watched it out of curiosity but still loathe the man. I always thought that night he shared a panel on one of the shows with Mario Fenech when the whole thing kicked off that Mario showed great restraint in not belting him.

 

[King hit]

Was thinking of ordering this online, any good? haven't read a decent league book in a while, last one was Webkes, which was a snoozer.

Remember this, even Mario completely embarrassed that merkin Reebs in a debate

Yeah it was a good book. Very entertaining and quirky like Vossy is. You can tell just how much he loves his footy while reading this. Has some interesting and funny stuff in there. It's definitely worth reading.

You haven't read a decent league book in a while? I read 'never before never again' and the 'night the music died' not to long ago and they were magnificent books. Easily the best Rugby league books I've read. Currently reading Ian Head's 'the great grand final heist' about the 1969 Grand Final. Very insightful stuff.

 

[RazorRam0n]

The last bloke many supporters would want tea and scones with. Watched it out of curiosity but still loathe the man. I always thought that night he shared a panel on one of the shows with Mario Fenech when the whole thing kicked off that Mario showed great restraint in not belting him.

haha i remember that, just a shame of all people to match wits with, bloody mario was the best they could do that night, unlucky...no doubt the bloke wore his heart on his sleeve, but he was fighting a battle of wits unarmed. the rest of that panel were all superleague aligned from memory

 

[King hit]

That was good viewing that clip. Mario really nailed him.

Though the Broncos won 14 games in 1988 and only missed the finals by 2 points. Bit better than winning 7 games dude

 

[axl rose]

Easily the best Rugby league books I've read. Currently reading Ian Head's 'the great grand final heist' about the 1969 Grand Final. Very insightful stuff.

Thanks for the recommendation. Picked up Storm Cloud a few years ago which was very good, so much insightful information on the Storms rorting that did not even get a column of media coverage.

 

[RazorRam0n]

Thanks for the recommendation. Picked up Storm Cloud a few years ago which was very good, so much insightful information on the Storms rorting that did not even get a column of media coverage.

does it confirm the name of that dodgy company they set up to funnel the marquee revenues from? it's a name i can't find on the web in any news articles since it was reported. Starts with maybe a v like Viking

 

[roofromoz]

One time on 2UE they actually counted the crowd in Canberra, which ended up being under 300 people for the blockbuster clash between the Raiders and Halifax Blue Sox. Raiders won a tight one 70- 0. St Helens made the finals without winning a game, one of ya best Reebs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997_World_Club_Championship#1997_tournament_tables

Basically it was how the pools were structured. 4 pools (2 for Australasia and 2 for Europe), but 2 pools had the top 3 advance and the other 2 only had top spot advance. Penrith were undefeated in their pool, but finished fourth as third placed Cronulla had a superior for and against.

 

[Perth Red]

The actual vision of superleague was amazing in many ways, just a shame it couldnt have happened with buy in rather than confrontation. What could have been the making of RL ended up setting it back thirty years in this hemisphere at least. In uk it was a catalyst for a big step forwards for the game going full time.

WCC was too soon, again hugely ambitious and if the uk teams had a few years of SL FT professionalism it might have been a closer competition. As it was you had part time clubs who had only just gone FT Againstprofessional Aussie clubs.

Ironically the only Perth Reds game I saw was in Sheffield and the Reds lost one of the few games!

 

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

the one thing i will agree on your point of ego is that yes ribot couldn't handle being in charge of a powerful club that had little say in how the game was being grown. his club was invited to participate in a superior competition and he was given his first opportunity to administer that and that wasn't good enough for him, so against commercial common sense 101 he goes and does a deal with the devil to undermine people he served under and thinks he's still mates with. just a dog with delusions of grandeur

This insular thinking was exactly what pushed him to go make that deal with the devil...

The NSWRL killed the QLD comps and took their territory (basic empire stuff). The NSWRL became very rich off this but could not understand or could not bring themselves to accept that power flows both ways; in growing their empire, they also expanded the number of interest groups they needed to keep happy.

The NSWRL couldnt accept that this new wealth came with the new responsibility to keep the Brisbane RL people happy ("he was invited to participate in a superior competition ... that wasn't good enough for him", im sure the NSWRL people said the same)

Super League wasnt some crazy situation that came out of no where for no reason. The NSWRL people blindly drove themselves into this situation with one stupid decision after another.

Now they try to play history's victims "the big bad me were mean to us, we never did nuthin wrong". Thanks to the stupidity of the NSWRL, SuperLeague was practically inevitable. Ribot was just the one who pulled the trigger...

 

[King hit]

The Broncos killed the Brisbane league

 

[colly]

The dr says
Now they try to play history's victims "the big bad me were mean to us, we never did nuthin wrong". Thanks to the stupidity of the NSWRL, SuperLeague was practically inevitable. Ribot was just the one who pulled the trigger...

I believe the opposite of you.. and the winners write history.....Ribot is a terrorist loser...
The game is headquartered in Sydney, looks like it always was but with a few throw in's , the games stats are regular quoted back to 1908, pretty sure the old NSW rl won the war but lost a battle or two.

 

[colly]

To clarify It was a war between a traditional comp mainly NSW but still joined with QLD rl as we had a national side, against Murdock. Ribot was only a loyal lieutenant. Murdock wanted to televise on subscription TV a R/L product. I still remember fatty coaching Traditional origin series. Anyway lets rejoice the f**ker Murdock got a kicked in the balls.

 

[Stallion]

The dr says
Now they try to play history's victims "the big bad me were mean to us, we never did nuthin wrong". Thanks to the stupidity of the NSWRL, SuperLeague was practically inevitable. Ribot was just the one who pulled the trigger...

I believe the opposite of you.. and the winners write history.....Ribot is a terrorist loser...
The game is headquartered in Sydney, looks like it always was but with a few throw in's , the games stats are regular quoted back to 1908, pretty sure the old NSW rl won the war but lost a battle or two.

Think the ARL capitulated its strong position after that awesome manly v knights gf. To agree to drop to 14 teams was disastrous! Super league got what they wanted. A weakening of the code in Australia.

 

[madunit]

Think the ARL capitulated its strong position after that awesome manly v knights gf. To agree to drop to 14 teams was disastrous! Super league got what they wanted. A weakening of the code in Australia.

Not just any weakening. Because so many foundation clubs were killed off, along with St.George, the soul of the game had been ripped out. That alienated more fans than the shit from 1994-1997, because fans still had their team to support.

 

[axl rose]

Think the ARL capitulated its strong position after that awesome manly v knights gf. To agree to drop to 14 teams was disastrous! Super league got what they wanted. A weakening of the code in Australia.

Not just 14 teams but the selection criteria to get to 14 was farcical. Did not even include juniors, because Souths and Wests would have been so strong with a massive nursery. Part of the 'peace' agreement also gifted Uncle Rupert tens of millions every year directly from the games coffers to pay back his 'investment'/money he pissed down the drain. That while effectively underselling the games tv rights to himself for a decade through his puppet Gallop, savings 100's of millions.

 

[King hit]

One time on 2UE they actually counted the crowd in Canberra, which ended up being under 300 people for the blockbuster clash between the Raiders and Halifax Blue Sox. Raiders won a tight one 70- 0. St Helens made the finals without winning a game, one of ya best Reebs.

These were the scores of Halifax's games in Australia

70-6 against Canberra
58-6 against Canterbury
76-0 against Brisbane

And all in front of sub par crowds

BTW Bradford who lost every game and made the finals got flogged 62-14 in the quarters against the Warriors