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Our real enemy lies within, it's not the AFL
Phil Gould | November 15, 2009
Rugby league can easily repel the AFL's advances in western Sydney - if it gets its own act together, writes Phil Gould.
I've been asked to make comment on the latest move by the AFL to capture the hearts and minds of Sydneysiders through the introduction of a second Sydney team in the western Sydney area.
The AFL announced coaching heavyweight Kevin Sheedy will lead the new club through its early development years. Coach Sheedy got straight on the front foot, announcing he'd target NRL stars such as Jarryd Hayne as part of an aggressive recruitment drive.
"What's the NRL going to do about this?" asked my boss. "You have to say something.'' Well, my first reaction is the NRL should say nothing. The AFL is a well-run, extremely well-funded organisation that is very well placed to push forward with ambitious expansion plans.
Sheedy's appointment to a team in the No.1 marketplace in Australia stands to reason. To ensure optimum media coverage with its latest announcement, the AFL also waved the red flag at the NRL with threats of poaching star players. That's a highly predictable strategy. If you want to make front-page headlines in this town, pick a fight with rugby league.
We should ignore the AFL and refrain from responding publicly to anything it says or does. This only gives it free publicity, which is exactly what it's looking for.
My second suggestion is that while we should ignore the AFL on the outside, inside we would be foolish to ignore the very real threat it poses to the future prosperity of our game.
The AFL means business, and we must work hard to improve our position in the marketplace. As a code, we have absolutely no control over what the AFL might say or do.
However, we can control how we administer our game and how we treat our most important stakeholders - the fans, the players and the sponsors.
We should be working to make our game the best it can be. We have the best product. This is the best television sport in the country. Our players are the most gifted and explosive athletes of any football code you can name.
If we can gain our independence, appoint a talented and innovative group of people to run our game, maximise all revenue streams in the new media world that's developing around us, and make decisions based on what's best for the game rather than on the self-interest and survival of certain individuals within the game, then we won't have to worry about the AFL.
It's no good saying the AFL is dreaming. It is dreaming; it dreams big. It wants to be the No.1 sport in this country, and is well on the way to realising its dreams. Its management structure is streamlined and professional. Importantly, its game is independent of media ownership. It's cashed-up and asset strong.
I wish I could say these things about the NRL. I wish our management dreamed as big. I wish our game was independent and free of media ownership. I can't believe that despite 15 years of pay TV income, we as a code have no cash reserves, nor does our game own anything.
We've been restricted in our earning potential by having a media company own the game and an administration seriously lacking in entrepreneurial initiative.
Our management has been reactionary rather than proactive. We've wasted money on an unwieldy and costly administrative structure.
Now the enemy is targeting our major marketplace, our lack of development and foresight over the past 10 years is exposed. We're in reasonable shape at the moment, but we should be much better off.
Now faced with our biggest threat, one can only rue the opportunities lost over the past decade.
IF ONLY
If only our game was independent of media ownership and in charge of its own destiny.
If only we'd maximised our revenue for the past 15 years and invested more money in developing assets, amenities and a more professional management structure.
If only we had a war chest of cash to promote our game to the maximum.
If only our game operated under one banner rather than the ridiculous system of leagues and governing bodies we've maintained.
If only we had our own administrative building in the geographical centre of the Sydney metropolitan area and closer to our real fan base rather than in rented premises in the eastern suburbs.
If only we'd built that Western Sydney Rugby League Academy we've been craving for so long.
If only we'd developed a competition structure with more teams in Brisbane and Queensland, and Sydney teams playing each other twice every season on a home-and-away basis.
If only we had a salary-cap system that rewards development rather than punishes success.
If only our salary-cap laws were designed to keep players in the game longer rather than banish them to other countries and other codes to earn their rightful wage.
If only our administrators protected and supported our players better so they didn't feel the need to leave our game to escape this over-zealous public and media scrutiny.
If only we'd developed that playmaker academy to ensure every NRL club had a healthy supply of halves and hookers on their roster to play these key positions in our game.
If only we were more proactive in redeveloping junior league to contend with the problems associated with bigger and stronger Polynesian kids dominating junior competitions and deterring smaller kids from playing our game.
I could go on and on.
INDEPENDENT COMMISSION
The best way to combat the AFL invasion is to be the best we can be.
The only way we can maximise our performance as a code is for our game to be administered by an independent commission free of media ownership and influence.
As it stands, the formation and appointment of such a commission is close at hand, with media company News Limited ready to withdraw from ownership and hand over the administration of the code to a new governing body. This is pleasing to say the least, and the media company's understanding of the situation is most welcomed.
Unfortunately, the whole process is being delayed by a small number of individuals in the ARL and QRL who are acting out of self-interest and survival rather than the best long-term interests of our game.
These administrations and administrators are well past their use-by date.
Indeed, ARL chairman Colin Love can do a great thing for rugby league and leave a lasting legacy for future generations by pulling his administration into line and delivering agreement to this new management structure by insisting each member on the boards of the ARL, QRL and NSWRL resigns and that those respective bodies disband. At the moment, they are the roadblock to our game getting the independent commission it needs; to not only repel the AFL threat, but to turn rugby league into the sport it should be and the sport it deserves to be.
You see, my friends, the AFL is not the enemy. Our enemy lies within.
We sort that out and we'll handle the AFL in our stride - I assure you.
