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from today's Herald:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/league/league-on-the-losing-side/2006/07/14/1152637867510.html
League on the losing side
Mike Carlton
July 15, 2006
ANOTHER rugby league player defects to rugby union. Clinton Schifcofske, fullback for the Canberra Raiders, has gone over to the Queensland Reds.
"He's an exceptional athlete who has a great attitude, fantastic skills and excellent leadership skills," said Eddie Jones, the Reds' coach.
"His 85 per cent success rate at goal-kicking will also prove a valuable asset to Queensland."
Well, yes. The way the Reds have been going, your average plodder from the Wombat U16Bs would probably be an asset as well.
Crystal ball-gazing in the wake of the soccer (oh all right, football) World Cup, I suspect that league is on a slow but inexorable decline in Australia.
The Crikey.com.au website reported on Wednesday that this season's NRL crowds are down by almost 10 per cent. The once mighty Roosters, now bumping along near the bottom of the comp, have lost about 23 per cent of their home game fans.
Ten years out, the football scene will look like this: the AFL will maintain its stranglehold in Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania, and to a lesser extent in Western Australia.
Soccer will rise to become a truly national code, especially if Australia does well at the next World Cup in four years.
Union, with the glamour and money of big-time international football, will cream off more and more league players and crowds, especially if the code junks some of the impenetrable penalty laws which litter the game.
If the News Ltd empire then pulls out of its investment in league, the rest, as they say, is history.
----
What a wank
http://www.smh.com.au/news/league/league-on-the-losing-side/2006/07/14/1152637867510.html
League on the losing side
Mike Carlton
July 15, 2006
ANOTHER rugby league player defects to rugby union. Clinton Schifcofske, fullback for the Canberra Raiders, has gone over to the Queensland Reds.
"He's an exceptional athlete who has a great attitude, fantastic skills and excellent leadership skills," said Eddie Jones, the Reds' coach.
"His 85 per cent success rate at goal-kicking will also prove a valuable asset to Queensland."
Well, yes. The way the Reds have been going, your average plodder from the Wombat U16Bs would probably be an asset as well.
Crystal ball-gazing in the wake of the soccer (oh all right, football) World Cup, I suspect that league is on a slow but inexorable decline in Australia.
The Crikey.com.au website reported on Wednesday that this season's NRL crowds are down by almost 10 per cent. The once mighty Roosters, now bumping along near the bottom of the comp, have lost about 23 per cent of their home game fans.
Ten years out, the football scene will look like this: the AFL will maintain its stranglehold in Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania, and to a lesser extent in Western Australia.
Soccer will rise to become a truly national code, especially if Australia does well at the next World Cup in four years.
Union, with the glamour and money of big-time international football, will cream off more and more league players and crowds, especially if the code junks some of the impenetrable penalty laws which litter the game.
If the News Ltd empire then pulls out of its investment in league, the rest, as they say, is history.
----
What a wank
