QRL to go down fighting in IC vote
* Stuart Honeysett and Brent Read
* From: The Australian
* March 11, 2010 12:00AM
THE Queensland Rugby League says it will be disappointed but will "cop it on the chin" if it loses at an ARL board meeting today to decide the future of the game's first independent commission.
The issue has been simmering since late last year and supporters of an IC will have something to cheer about following the ARL board meeting in Sydney.
It is believed a compromise has been hammered out that will give the QRL and the NSWRL constitutional power, but limited control, over the IC's set-up.
The 10-member ARL board consists of chief executive Geoff Carr, chairman Colin Love and four representatives from the NSWRL and the QRL.
The ARL was hoping to present a united front on the issue, but it is believed Carr, Love and the NSWRL delegates are prepared to push on without the QRL's support.
"I'd be very surprised if the Country Rugby League (CRL) and blokes from the grassroots areas went that way," QRL managing director Ross Livermore said. "I just think they should remember the heritage and go from there, but that's their choice to make.
"You get on there as a director of the ARL and you look at what you think is in the best interests of the future. If something goes against, you've got to cop it on the chin."
The ARL and News Limited (publisher of The Australian) have been in talks for several months on ending their association with the game and handing control to the 16 NRL clubs through an IC.
The QRL has been portrayed as a major stumbling block in the march towards independence after agitating that both it and the NSWRL should not surrender all of its power to the IC.
The QRL wants to maintain a 50 per cent say on the make-up of the eight-member commission alongside the NSWRL, but the backers of an IC have said it could not be truly independent if that was the case.
It had always been hoped that something could be in place before the start of the season - even if it was an agreement with the detail to be hammered out later - but that will now hinge on today's meeting.
"Our view is that the ARL - through the NSWRL and QRL - should retain 50 per cent membership in there," Livermore said.
"We should retain 50 per cent membership, we've got that now, we owe it to the stakeholders, the game's 100 bloody years old and why would you hand up that?"
The QRL has consulted AFL chief Andrew Demetriou to help it decide whether there was room for state-based bodies in an independent set-up.
Livermore said he had concerns about handing over total control to rugby league clubs as some were privately owned.
"The AFL hasn't got that problem because their clubs are all there and they're all elected by committees," he said.
"You haven't got private owners putting their hard-earned in and looking to get a return."
