If the clubs are not going to have any power over the IC why are the Sydney clubs so deperate to use their votes to take over the NSWRL?
I have no idea, tell me your theory?
Maybe they want a commissioner or two they can push around, problem is ... they will still get outvoted ...
And for people to say the grassroots game and international game will be fine is based on not an ounce of fact. It's just like saying "shut up" and plugging your ears. There are NO gaurantees for grassroots football and NO gaurantees for international football.
Fair points. But the commission WILL be charged with looking after the health of the game at all levels. The long term health of the game IS reliant on continued support of the grassroots level, to provide a playing base for the top level.
They are just NRL-centric dickheads who simply don't care one bit for the game outside the NRL. NRL club fans and nothing more.
Like it or not, without the top level mate... There is no money for grass roots football.
People who don't even know what grassroots football is about. No idea at all. But as long as they think their poxy club is going to get a few million dollars more to waste that's all they care about. It's a facre and it will come back to bite everyone.
I wouldn't speak for everyone when you say this.
You think it's hard in country NSW where you have a traditional base to draw on? Try what we have to deal with in Victoria. The constant struggle to even get players to fill all teams, with very little help from above.
You talk about the future of the game at the grassroots level being at risk? Well f**k me, the lack of support given to developing areas at the moment is nothing short of disgraceful, and I absoloutely refuse to believe the IC will make things worse for those of us outside the heartland states. IMO, as with the AFL, the IC will take a much more aggressive approach to grassroots development in the real developing areas than the NSWRL/QRL, oh sorry I mean the ARL :roll: has ever taken
The people who want this IC so desperately are the same fools who would have taken the original deal floated by Searle without even consiering the consequences. That proves they have no idea. There was no safeguards, no gaurantees for the game outside the elite level, there was no detail to the plan. There still is no way of knowing what this IC will do, who will be on it, whether they will be truly independent, or even whather they will be people who give a toss about RL. Yet people still jumped straight in and backed it. This is setting the game up for a much worse deal than 1997 because there is no going back. If this plan is f...ed we are stuck with it. The game of RL in Australia is f...ed forever. That is what we're dealing with here. But people want to sign up for it without even looking at News Ltd's motives. This is not a company that gives up money to do the right thing by RL. It never has and never will. It is looking after itself.
I'd again take exception to some of this. Most of the regular posters I have watched comment on this thread over the last few months have always been in support of the "concept" of independance, but not ever at "any cost".
From what I can see, of course, as with you these are only asumptions, we are going to end up with a commission very similar to the AFL one. This is not a negative. & in reality, the comparisons around the state of the game are similar, particularly the state of the Victorian clubs etc back in the 80's when the League started to seriously look at expansion etc. Back then, the Victorian clubs were f**ked, almost every single one of them broke, and the national expansion plans, which morphed into the AFL being born out of the VFL, were solely ideas driven to bankroll the Victorian clubs via exorbitant admission licensing fees.
The AFL, as much as many don't like it on here, has become the most powerful sports organisation in the country, and it was essentially born out of a desire to abuse non-Victorian areas to prop up failing, mis managed Victorian clubs.
Sound somewhat similar? Whilst the motive may be different, we have many Sydney clubs, still being managed by the old boys club, and failing. Look at the ridiculousness that has been going on at Parramatta over the last few years, a club that should have as much power in Sydney as Collingwood does in Melbourne based on it's supporter base.
You can refuse to believe it until you see it, that's fine mate. But IMO, the IC is going to drag RL kicking and screaming into the 21st century. The long term benefit, is we are going to be able to compete on a level footing with AFL House.
At the end of the day, you advocate sticking with the status quo, I look at one comparison between the two sports, and cannot believe people don't see the need for change.
We have the clubs standing up saying that they don't believe neccesarily in expansion, until they see the impact on them, whilst the AFL, somewhat against the clubs wishes (In the case of GWS) is pushing ahead with a 200 million dollar investment in their future. It's disgusting that we see the clubs playing these games, when we need the administrators above them to stand up and take some f**king responsibility in promoting our game, and securing it's long term future. The AFL are making a 100 million investment in a second NSW side, whilst we have the clubs digging in their heels of a Perth franchise? FFS
You can say, sure but that rant IS NRL focussed, and I'll wear that. But i stand by, everything begins at the top. Without the professional comp, we have no money to support the grassroots, by the same token, without respecting the grassroots and bleeding juniors to other sports, the top level risks losing it's future playing base.
& this is the beauty of the IC, we will have a set of commissioners, who are charged with looking at the entire circle and ensuring all areas are adequately covered.
With the News Ltd issue, sure they never do anything unless it's a positive for them, I'd argue the first and last extension is a pretty big positive for them. At the end of the day, under the status quo, we have a self absored company, managing us, and as you allude, it is normally to their benefit. The criminal TV rights deal we got being the prime example. Getting them out of the game ASAP is the biggest positive step forward the sport has made since the expansion of 1995
