Talking Footy

LACK hats may not be altogether welcome at the rugby league boardroom table this week, but the celebrations and head nodding that have gone on around yesterday's rugby league handover ceremony must be tempered with some genuine concerns.

While the Fairfax media has heralded the new NRL commission as the greatest thing since Dally Messenger laced on a boot, sensible heads in Sydney league circles know better.

The new eight-member commission has many limitations, a genuine lack of league expertise and a brief that goes way beyond what it can possibly achieve.

Let me say from the outset that it is a very good thing that News Limited has withdrawn from the administration of the sport. Media organisations should never get involved in the management of anything but media. Moreover, News' involvement has merely served to provide those with already vested interests another excuse to blame anyone but themselves for all of the sport's woes.

These same doomsayers and critics will now realise that the real problems that beset league were not within News Limited's powers to solve. They go much, much deeper than that and the NRL commission is about to find out exactly how complex and troublesome they are.

The first massive hurdle the NRL Commission will face is the management of expectations from clubs, player managers, the players and the fans. There will not be an instant fix or a sudden influx of gold from coffers that do not exist.

The view that millions of dollars will all of a sudden be freed up for the game's stakeholders is a nonsense. Big talk surrounds the great new television deal. Yes, there will be more money. However, the pay day the struggling NRL clubs are sweating on is likely to fall way short of their expectations. Even if the deal hits the big billion dollar mark, none of it will be enough to save several clubs which are so badly in debt, and so poorly managed, they cannot survive.

Then, of course, there are the politics of league.

cooee wrote:

Ahh News the bitter ex.

justanotherleaguefan wrote:

Bourbon Bec at her finest!

cos789 wrote:

So if rl was smart they'd cut the Raiders and Sharks now, so when the money comes in it is effectively more to the surviving clubs.

cos789 wrote:

So if rl was smart they'd cut the Raiders and Sharks now, so when the money comes in it is effectively more to the surviving clubs.

Xman wrote:

justanotherleaguefan wrote:

Bourbon Bec at her finest!

Hey, a noob!

Welcome.

justanotherleaguefan wrote:

Xman wrote:

justanotherleaguefan wrote:

Bourbon Bec at her finest!

Hey, a noob!

Welcome.

Thank you, *******

King-Eliagh wrote:

Seems we have a new fight club member who is off to a great start!

Raiderdave wrote:

cos789 wrote:

So if rl was smart they'd cut the Raiders and Sharks now, so when the money comes in it is effectively more to the surviving clubs.

speaking of chucking tanties ............