Rugby league touchdown in US highly unlikely
By Steve Ricketts | April 01, 2009 11:00pm
IN 2004, the Wayne Bennett-coached Kangaroos were almost on the receiving end of one of the greatest upsets in rugby league history.
At halftime in a match at Philadelphia's Franklin Field, the United States Tomahawks, made up almost entirely of amateur players, led Australia 24-6.
The fact the Kangaroos were still hung over after celebrating their Tri-Nations final win over Britain in Leeds three days earlier had a lot to do with it and when they got serious in the second half they piled on 30 unanswered points.
But it still looked encouraging for rugby league in the US.
Since then there have been annual exhibition matches in the US, usually featuring English clubs, although South Sydney ventured to Jacksonville last year to play Leeds, and with plenty of promotion from part-owner Russell Crowe, drew 12,000 appreciative fans.
Last week The Courier-Mail revealed former St George player David Nui was in the process of setting up a national league in the US with franchises to be announced in Philadelphia, New York, Los Angeles, Denver and a few other places still standing after America's financial meltdown.
I would love to see the competition succeed but we have been down this path many times and if anything comes of it I'll volunteer to cover an AFL game on the Gold Coast.
In 1953, the spiral-passing American All Stars toured Australia at the invitation of the ARL, largely in response to a successful ground-breaking tour by Fiji's rugby union side the previous year.
At first the All Stars, made up of former gridiron players and top athletes, drew crowds up to 70,000, but later to make ends meet they were selling souvenirs outside grounds as far afield as Gundagai and Longreach.
In the 1960s, American entrepreneur Mike Mayer was enthralled by league when he saw the award-winning movie, This Sporting Life, set at Wakefield in England's north.
Mayer chased the dream of an American league for many years and attended RL International Board meetings without getting the financial backing he craved.
I still have a letter from Mayer saying "thanks but no thanks" after I offered my services as a player to his planned league in 1976.
Queensland and NSW played a State of Origin match at Long Beach, California in 1987 but once again there was no follow-up by league authorities.
When Super League held an international board meeting in Townsville to coincide with the World Nines in 1997, it was announced "self-funding" competitions would kick off in Japan and the US.
While a rival paper led the back page with the yarn, I gave it one sentence, highlighting instead the fact SL had introduced an admirable rule change preventing defenders from taking out a rival in mid-air when he was attempting to catch the football.
There was no substance to the Japan and US story, just as there is no substance to this latest American folly.
There is plenty of substance to the St George Illawarra team that Bennett will bring to Brisbane for tomorrow night's showdown with the Broncos - now there's a good name for an American franchise.
Defence is the keynote for the Dragons as they reinvent themselves under Bennett.
But attack will come, particularly as Bennett concentrates on the basics.
Bennett is not a believer in the spiral pass at all costs and he is sure to finetune that area of the Dragons game.
A long, spiral pass from Dean Young to Brett Morris drifted forward - although I still think it was a tough call from the touch judge - last Sunday against Cronulla.
All Young needed to do was "pop" the ball to a close runner but he wasted valuable time winding up for the spiral.
Keep it simple fellas.