NRL could look like this if new order is not just lipstick on a pig
RICHARD HINDS
February 14, 2011
An NRL commission selected by the same vested interests it will replace inevitably invites cynicism. No matter if it were chaired by King Solomon or Ivan Milat.
But imagine, for a moment, that a game hidebound by its insular and retrograde culture and hamstrung by its commercial conflicts really has made the great leap forward. Imagine decisions are judged by their outcomes, not by who makes them and which pub he drinks in. Imagine the new commission has been in operation for six years and is being hailed a grand success. How does the game look?
The NRL prepares, for the first time, to sign a media rights deal greater than that of the AFL. Not because of the traditional carping that rugby league is grossly undervalued. Nor because the constraints and conflicts of interest caused by the old management structure have been removed. (Although that helped.)
The NRL fills its boots at the negotiating table because the league has hired the best possible executives and consultants. People who deliver what anyone signing a nine-figure cheque has the right to demand - value for money.
Benji Marshall banks $1.2 million in his first year with the Perth Prospectors. And there are no convoluted ''top-up'' deals that make him a spokesperson for a local iron ore company or compel him to attend school clinics that he - and every other player on the NRL's new average salary of $240,000 - should conduct for free.
Marshall is able to sign this guaranteed seven-figure deal because the commission has increased wages fairly, proportionately - but not in knee-jerk response to overtures by other codes. Sure, it helped the NRL salary negotiators that Karmichael Hunt and Israel Folau lasted as long in the AFL as a cold beer at a bricklayer's picnic. But the overriding motivation behind the game's sensible, graduated salary cap increase was to simultaneously ensure outstanding junior athletes would be attracted to the game while not squandering money desperately needed to nurture grass roots, ensure the survival of heartland clubs and improve infrastructure.
David Gallop is earning up to $1.5 million a year from his incentive-based contract. (Or $15 an hour shovelling fries at the Cabramatta McDonald's.)
Either way, the commission has fully empowered its most important employee and given Gallop the ability to expand his executive and drive the game. Thus the answer to an old question has been answered: is Gallop the man to grow the NRL or merely the man to supersize your McValue Meal?
Attendances have grown from an average of about 17,000 to more than 26,000 in the past five years. And that is average attendances. No dodgy aggregates like those the A-League quotes after it has added a new franchise - as the NRL has done in Perth and Brisbane.
Club membership models have finally been properly marketed. But a large proportion of the growth is due to greater attendance by women, who have been enticed by a more family-friendly environment. The NRL's new-found gender equality is emphasised at the 2018 grand final when the head of the commission steps forward to present the premiership trophy, and she is greeted with warm applause.
There is, however, a small drop in one significant league-supporting female group. No more tacky cheerleaders.
The brilliant new state-of-the-art 55,000-seat domed stadium that replaced the outdated SFS has proved a huge hit. But there are still several opportunities each year for fans to watch games at living museums such as Leichhardt, Kogarah and Brookvale. The commission not only embraces the game's heritage, it celebrates it.
A Sydney businessman visiting Melbourne turns on the television on a Friday night and watches an NRL match. Live!
Often relatively small things are symbolic of a greater malaise. One of those was that a competition presumptuously borrowing the term ''national'' had so little regard for potential converts outside its historic borders. The new commission has invested heavily to establish the team in Perth, and to ensure the future of the Melbourne Storm. But, more importantly, it is spending lavishly on promotion and development, and insisting on the support of media rights holders.
The NRL is winning ''the war in the west''. But no one on the commission ever talks about it. After all, NRL players and officials talking about the GWS Giants remains the new AFL franchise's major means of mainstream media exposure.
The civic-minded commission is considering addressing the game's dependency on poker machines, betting agencies and casino sponsorships. One of the 38 online bookies who sponsors an NRL club is taking bets on the outcome of these deliberations.
People think the game is in poor shape, the referees are idiots, players are mercenaries and NSW should bring back Gus Gould as coach. There are, after all, some things the most visionary body could not change.
