The knives are already out and sharpened for a seasonal trimming of code's tall poppies
ROY MASTERS
April 1, 2010
Rugby league's negative culture of handicapping the premiers was born out of St George's 11 successive premierships. Since that time, every measure in the game has been designed to pull the champions down, rather than to encourage clubs to aspire to their level.
The six-tackle rule, residential qualifications, ceiling payments, import rules and salary caps have all been implemented to hobble the premiers. Publicity over the Storm breaching the salary cap in signing captain Cameron Smith to his last contract by securing a third-party deal with Fox Sports should be seen in this context.
Melbourne have played in the past four grand finals, won the World Club Challenge in Leeds and are undefeated after three rounds, despite having four members of their best starting pack on the sidelines. They are too good. And the other 15 clubs don't like it.
The campaign against the Storm began two months ago, during negotiations for an independent commission to take over the running of the game. As a condition for an independent commission, News Ltd, owners of the Storm, wanted funding for the club of $26 million over six years to help it secure a new owner and cover anticipated debts.
News, which is anxious to exit the NRL before its contracted departure date in 2022, is owed $15m by the ARL-News partnership.
Both organisations take $8m annually from NRL revenue but News deferred some of its dividends in the early years of the NRL when clubs such as St George and Illawarra, Manly and Norths, and Wests and Balmain were given big cash prizes for merging. News sought its $15m plus another $11m be given directly to the Storm to cover their anticipated losses over six years. The clubs objected, claiming Melbourne already spent too much money on their football department.
They recognised the success of the Storm in the Victorian market was vital for broadcasting revenue but didn't want the money spent on footballers. Their solution was to offer the Storm an annual grant of $1m for six years to be spent only on marketing. In other words, the Storm would receive News's $15m plus $6m in marketing grants, or $21m, about $5m short of what News asked. This position was put to the Storm recently when News's chief operating officer, Peter Macourt, addressed the board. Macourt made it clear the club would not be cut adrift but that News would prefer a consortium, including some of the wealthy members of the existing board, to buy it.
Prospective owners, such as board member and Jayco owner Gerry Ryan, will obviously monitor any increases in revenue after the Storm move into the new 30,000-seat AAMI Park in May.
The Storm's current annual debt of $6m includes about $2m they pay for junior development in Victoria, a cost that would be assumed by ARL Development when the independent commission is set up. The Storm now fund four teams - the NRL squad, the Toyota Cup under-20s team, a NSW Cup team and an under-18s squad. This is a significant increase in football department debts from only a couple of years ago when the club ran just one team. The airfares and accommodation costs of the Storm significantly outweigh those of a Sydney-based club.
While News has been generous to the club, supporting its rise in a market saturated by AFL, don't try to tell its coaches and players the company does them any media favours. Sure, News can be accused of a conflict of interest with TV rights, and causing paralysis at NRL headquarters for over a year on how a News-owned code judges a sponsorship from a News-owned company to a News-owned club.
The Storm football department points to the relentless campaign by News Ltd papers to punish the Storm for the grapple tackle and turn all of Sydney against them on the eve of the 2008 grand final. When a newspaper succeeds in getting everyone to love Manly, it deserves a chapter in the handbook on propaganda. Nor was News helpful when the Storm coaching staff and senior player group wanted to recruit Willie Mason. While the board was unanimous in not wanting Mason, coach Craig Bellamy is convinced News would have vetoed it anyway.
Bellamy's team won't win 11 premierships but if other clubs saw the Storm coaches working on their days off, it might inspire them to rise to the premiers' level, rather than conspire to drag them down.
