THE smartest comment I have heard anyone in AFL land make these past few years, was an observation from Collingwood president Eddie McGuire when his code poached Karmichael Hunt and Israel Folau from rugby league.
McGuire, who spent a couple of challenging years in Sydney running Channel Nine and confronting the city's mentality, warned of NRL retaliation, saying something to the effect: ''If you poke a stick in the eyes of these rugby league blokes, they will come back at you.''
Since that time, an independent commission has been formed to run rugby league, new headquarters established, significant investment made in Sydney's west, and McGuire's network has admitted high NRL ratings mean it must pay substantially more to retain broadcasting rights.
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Rugby league chiefs refuse to acknowledge any of these developments are a response to the AFL's establishment of clubs on the Gold Coast and in western Sydney, lest it credit the invaders.
The ARL's Geoff Carr says retaliation puts the AFL in a can't lose position. When he protested at Queensland's selection of Folau in their State of Origin team, despite Folau having already signed with Greater Western Sydney, the AFL boasted Carr's comments earned them millions of dollars in publicity.
If Carr says nothing, he is perceived as weak and not protecting the future of representative football. If he protests, he is providing cheap advertising for the enemy.
The AFL is very good at manufacturing image. It has erected AFL goal posts in western Sydney before it has established teams in a ''build it and they will come'' strategy.
Carr contends rugby league's investment in an academy and development officers in Sydney's west is more coincidence than catalyst to the AFL incursion.
''A lot of it is natural progression,'' he says. He argues that the ARL was forced to fill the space vacated by western Sydney's four NRL clubs - Panthers, Eels, West Tigers and Bulldogs - when grants from their licensed clubs were cut at a time they needed to focus resources on their NRL teams.
Other licensed clubs in the west supporting rugby league, such as St Marys and Cabramatta, have also had profits cut by the smoking bans and poker machine tax hikes.
Throw in a three-decade-long spiral during which government schools have abrogated responsibility for sport, and it means a yearly increase in the number of development officers to fill the void.
Significant progress was made midweek with the trialling of an age/weight division at the 67th All Schools Carnival at Tregear.
Schools within the districts of Western Suburbs, Manly and North Sydney competed in a 14 years under 65 kilogram division.
Essentially, this meant the big 14-year-olds of Polynesian heritage played in the 65kg-plus division, while schools that had never played rugby league before, such as Turramurra High, competed in the lighter division.
It was the first attempt to counter the complaint of many parents that their children are simply too small to tackle the sons of the South Seas. AFL has exploited this, encouraging smaller kids to play their code.
Rugby league numbers must grow exponentially for all schools to have two divisions in all age groups but the Tregear experiment was a start.
Meanwhile, the AFL is performing a stunning impersonation of an ostrich. It has done nothing in response to a virtual admission by sacked Melbourne coach Dean Bailey that he deliberately lost end of season games to win high draft choices in the year before the expansion clubs had a mortgage on the new talent. Nor has the AFL acted against the Giants for flouting its rules in signing a player mid-season.
Giants coach Kevin Sheedy said he knew nothing of the signing of the key Adelaide defender Phil Davis.
Sheedy's acolytes say he is being ''cunning''. Rugby league has a different word for it.
McGuire described it for what it is: ''cheating''.
NRL chief executive David Gallop made a comment at the same time as McGuire's ''stick in the eye'' remark.
Gallop said: ''When the AFL signed Hunt and Folau, I predicted the generous draft and salary cap concessions given the two new clubs would cause havoc with Melbourne clubs.''
''They will have more trouble of their own at home than cause us trouble in our homeland,'' Carr concedes. ''They may have sharpened the stick.''
Read more:
http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/...-incursions-20110805-1ifch.html#ixzz1UKvIRQKP
