1 - Have they? Point me to the actual cash figures for both codes and we can talk, Until then accounting can make it say anything. Part of the talks now involve the NRL books being open to the RLPA, If they are happy, Clubs are happy then the rest is just speculation and won't get a Chairman sacked on that.
In NRL the clubs handle the grassroots stuff. Dolphins licence agreement is on them spending $2m on Junior development. Penrith and a few others spend atleast that. Others will follow as their CoE's open. That is $34m a year a lot of it going to junior kids in country areas, That is without whatever the relevant junior Leagues get spent on them. On top of the relevant Grants to NSWRL, QRL and so on from the NRL - Again won't get a chairman sacked with that sort of outlay
2 - Yes or no the rule changes back has helped guys like the Cowboys get good after being terrible last year?
3 - Who started court proceedings? I think it was the nswrl trying to get their funding restored a court case they in turn lost
4 - People have complained about the Integrity Unit for years, That has nothing to do with the current situation
1. Mate you can bury your head in the sand all you want but do you think that fumbleball is worth $200 million more than our game despite our ratings been on par with theirs as well as the fact that we have SOO and Internationals and they don’t have anything additional to sell? If the answer is no, then yes we have been undersold. Even the cash element is at least $100 million more for them, probably over $150m according to some reports. I think this is inarguable at this point.
Regarding junior development, that’s all well and good of clubs doing that but let’s be honest we have other bodies spending money on junior development. Also, in terms of money we aren’t in the same ballpark in terms of money spent on grassroots and that is all that matters
2. Is it professional to change the rules on the whim without any consultation of any players who provide the product Yes/No? So you think any other sports administration would do the same Yes/No? We had statistically our most uneven competition last year and yes he thankfully tweaked it a little bit but the commission including V’Landys should have been turfed for just that. To make matters worse, he and the ARLC negotiates our next deal after presiding over that - absolutely moronic
3. Because he stepped in. If you are going to allow a body to be autonomous then let them make their decisions.
4. The point being is that if you are deferring to the clubs all the time or letting them run rampant then what precisely is the point of the commission? The whole point originally was to take decisions away from clubs and their own self interest and to run the competition without fear, self interest and from the cliques that we have always seen. The reason being is that the clubs don’t care about the whole game, they care about their own clubs - that is not their fault as they are a business. You see this lack of direction everywhere - from stadiums, from junior development, from expansion, from decisions that favour certain clubs and others that don’t. The game is continually being led by clubs and not by the ARLC