tongue in cheek or not you'll give them ideas and they'll wear it in round 26 to celebrate 2011 or soemthing
I'll cop the blame if that happens. It couldn't possibly happen so late in the season though, could it?
I agree with you on the point of the jersey never being signed off on in the first place but to be fair that was the previous admins fault and any Knights fan can tell you they were woefully out of touch with the fans. Why should we as fans be punished for that? If anything the NRL needed to take action and actually set some guidelines around jersey design and not how many times you can wear them
Again, its nothing against the Knights. They acknowledge that the previous admin had no idea and are correcting wrongs. The problem is that they're correcting wrongs in contravention of the guidelines set by the NRL. The design aspect is too subjective for the NRL to judge and enforce so the next best thing is to put the onus on the club to make the right decision or bear the consequences.
You talk about integrity with the NRL and clubs brands but I argue that having a team run around in an abortion like jersey does more harm than good given merch sales are an important income stream. I doubt any fans buy jerseys just because they are worn on the field. In fact I know with reasonable assurity that the Knights heritage jerseys, barring the rebels one, out sell the home ones since the heritage ones were brought in in 2008
On one hand a club could have made the wrong decision with a bad jersey, be stuck with it until the timeframe is up and in the meantime merch sales take a hit. On the other hand the same club can bend rules and set a precedent to other clubs that any jersey can be worn at any time, culminating in the NRL having no distinct identities. All I want to see here is the overall standard of uniforms to improve long term. The Knights and Roosters have started a new trend that will ensure that this is not the case if left to continue.
The fact that heritage jerseys have outsold other jerseys since 2007 where the Knights have had
5 regular season jerseys to get it right means that they weren't putting enough thought into making a choice. The Knights had to wait ONE year to make the change and they could have worn the stripes until the end of time, I can almost guarantee they wont though and will screw it up again in a few years time just as most other clubs do.
People on here can absolve the clubs and blame the designer/manufacturer for being at fault but the client has just as much power in making the decision, if not more, as anyone. If the Knights (previous admin) cared that much about their merch sales they would have taken the decision more seriously. Thats why the NRL should step in because they are just as much of a stakeholder in this as the clubs are.
Im not sure if you were serious about docking comp points for not adhearing to the so called jersey rules but Id like to think you were taking the piss. Docking points is for breaches of the playing rules (salary cap rorting, interchange breaches, etc) and not for what a team wears, as it does not give them any unfair advantage over their opposition. a club fine would be more appropriate if the NRL was looking to punish them
Then the financial punishment needs to be so severe that no owner could rationalise ponying up the money, I used competition points because it would be guaranteed to work. Either way, the fact that Newcastle has broken the rules 15 times and Sydney 12 times (so far) this season says that the current punishment is not enough.
