http://www.leaguehq.com.au/news/news/mauled-by-a-punishing-schedule-its-no-wonder-players-are-out-ontheir-feet/2007/05/04/1177788394807.html
Mauled by a punishing schedule, it's nowonder players are out on their feet
Roy Masters | May 5, 2007
A FEW footballers will awake today and tomorrow feeling like Jack Dempsey in Toledo.
After Dempsey beat Jess Willard under a blazing sky in Toledo on July 4, 1919 for the heavyweight championship of the world, he fell asleep in his hotel room.
Dehydrated, bruised and feeling faint, he awoke in the early evening unsure whether all that had occurred had been merely a dream. He raced out onto the footpath, according to
Sports Illustrated, and stopped a passing newsboy who was selling late editions of the
Toledo Blade, containing a report of the fight.
"Who's the heavyweight champion?" Dempsey asked frantically. The boy gaped at him and replied, "You are, you dope!"
NRL players completing a murderer's row of three games in five days, particularly some Sharks who have flown to Auckland from Coffs Harbour via Sydney, will feel like Dempsey.
After playing a Monday night game in Newcastle, Cronulla's representatives in the City-Country match flew to Coffs Harbour for Thursday night's annual fixture and line up against the Warriors in Auckland tonight.
Former Penrith player Lew Zivanovic, who has made a fortune in the scaffolding business, made his private plane available to fly the Panthers' City captain Craig Gower and Luke Lewis from Coffs Harbour to Sydney for last night's match.
Both players showered after the game and then rushed to the airport, it apparently being important for the Panthers to have one night in their own beds before fronting the Dragons.
Some players are so tired they can be Rip van Winkles in foreign beds. City fullback Anthony Minichiello, who played for the Roosters on Anzac Day, slept 12 hours straight at the City's team's Coffs Harbour resort.
"Broadcasting commitments" is the excuse offered by the NRL for this exhausting schedule, brought about by a game which proved little. The City-Country match was a dour spectacle, played in front of a crowd described by NSWRL officials as "appalling", and produced seven injuries, three serious, and merely confirmed the representative potential of some bench players for the Blues.
And it's not as if the broadcasters are doing much in return.
When members of the City team gathered on Monday night to watch the Knights v Sharks match, the resort did not have Fox Sports 3, the channel which carries live NRL games.
Parramatta, on recent road trips to Brisbane and the Gold Coast, had no Fox Sport 3 at their hotels. Ditto the Townsville and Newcastle hotels used by NRL teams and the Coogee hotel used by teams visiting Sydney.
NRL chief executive David Gallop emails his Fox Sports counterpart, David Malone, each time a hotel or club not carrying Fox Sports 3 is brought to his attention.
When Gallop was staying at the Byron Bay resort owned by Harvey Norman's Katie Page, a director of the NRL board, Fox Sports 3 was unavailable.
Gallop called Malone and Fox Sports 3 was switched on, but Fox Sports 2, which carries NRL replays, was turned off.
Malone recently told the
Herald: "The percentage of Fox Sports pubs and clubs that have Fox Sports 3 as part of their service is over 92 per cent nationally."
It would seem the 8 per cent which do not are all NRL-accredited hotels, plus the Melbourne ones which don't need it because the majority of patrons watch AFL on Fox Sports 1.
Last year, NRL was on Fox Sports 1 but was pushed to 3 to use rugby league's popularity to force Austar subscribers to upgrade their packages and Foxtel customers to switch to digital.
Meanwhile, despite an angry letter from Gallop on Monday, Malone refuses to respond. When you are delivering profits of $60m to Channel Nine and News Ltd, co-owners of Fox Sports, you don't have to speak to the sport which makes the makes the money, particularly when you are a monopoly and the rights don't expire until the end of 2012.
If the heavyweight champion of the world today awoke in a similar state to Dempsey, he wouldn't find a newsboy or even extra editions, and the word dope now refers to something else.
In fact, he'd have trouble finding anyone who recognised him, given the plethora of world champs.
Of course, today's champion could turn on his TV to check the result of his bout, but there's a big chance the hotel wouldn't be carrying Fox Sports 3.
NRL chief executive David Gallop emails his Fox Sports counterpart, David Malone, each time a hotel or club not carrying Fox Sports 3 is brought to his attention.
When Gallop was staying at the Byron Bay resort owned by Harvey Norman's Katie Page, a director of the NRL board, Fox Sports 3 was unavailable.
Gallop called Malone and Fox Sports 3 was switched on, but Fox Sports 2, which carries NRL replays, was turned off.
Malone recently told the
Herald: "The percentage of Fox Sports pubs and clubs that have Fox Sports 3 as part of their service is over 92 per cent nationally."
It would seem the 8 per cent which do not are all NRL-accredited hotels, plus the Melbourne ones which don't need it because the majority of patrons watch AFL on Fox Sports 1.
Last year, NRL was on Fox Sports 1 but was pushed to 3 to use rugby league's popularity to force Austar subscribers to upgrade their packages and Foxtel customers to switch to digital.
Meanwhile, despite an angry letter from Gallop on Monday, Malone refuses to respond. When you are delivering profits of $60m to Channel Nine and News Ltd, co-owners of Fox Sports, you don't have to speak to the sport which makes the makes the money, particularly when you are a monopoly and the rights don't expire until the end of 2012.
If the heavyweight champion of the world today awoke in a similar state to Dempsey, he wouldn't find a newsboy or even extra editions, and the word dope now refers to something else.
In fact, he'd have trouble finding anyone who recognised him, given the plethora of world champs.
Of course, today's champion could turn on his TV to check the result of his bout, but there's a big chance the hotel wouldn't be carrying Fox Sports 3.
