NRL 2021: Real reason behind lopsided competition, Buzz Rothfield

Blame the players as much as you like, but ultimately the battles of the Broncos and Cowboys comes down to rubbish decisions made off the field, writes Buzz Rothfield.

The Sharks need to re-sign John Morris after a strong start to the season.

One of the biggest problems in rugby league is the standard of club administration.

It’s one of the reasons why this competition has become so lopsided with so many blowouts.

The gap between best and worst administrations is actually greater than the class difference between players in the top and bottom teams.

The great Jack Gibson used to say that winning starts in the front office.

You look at the quality of successful business types running the Roosters, Storm, Rabbitohs, Eels and Raiders and it’s no surprise why they are so regularly in the winner’s circle.

You then look at some of the others.

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The Cowboys have made an awful start to the season. Picture: Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images

Seriously, these officials would be flat out running a meat tray raffle at the local pub, let alone a professional NRL franchise.

Millions of dollars of TV broadcast money is wasted every year on poor decision making.

The North Queensland Cowboys sacked premiership-winning coach Paul Green last year and had to find $1 million to pay him out.

They also got rid of the highly regarded Peter Parr as football general manager, then signed Todd Payten on a three-year $2 million contract, the coach who managed to get himself off-side with his two biggest names, James Taumalolo and Val Holmes, within a fortnight.

Playing the Cowboys is now like having an extra bye round. They are seriously that bad.

It’s not much better at the Manly Sea Eagles.

Everyone knew three weeks ago they were in big trouble after the embarrassing opening round loss to the Roosters at the SCG.

They turned up unprepared to play first grade football. The board responded to the loss by extending Des Hasler’s coaching contract for a further 12 months. This was a ridiculous and unnecessary move.

The Sea Eagles have been atrocious since last July. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

They have won only two games since last July – against the lowly placed Cowboys and Canterbury Bulldogs. Dessie has been a great coach over the years but his record in recent years has been poor.

The management of their salary cap has also been a debacle.

Now, two weeks after re-signing him, they want fresh ideas and are urging the coach to bring in Green as a consultant.

The Broncos are also a terrible mess because of their management stuff ups in recent years.

They sacked Wayne Bennett three years ago and made Anthony Seibold one of the highest paid coaches in the game. He wins the wooden spoon and lasts less than two seasons.

The payout is up towards $2 million.

The Wests Tigers are struggling because of poor list management. Three of their highest paid players, Moses Mbye, Russell Packer and Joey Leilua can’t even make the starting side.

The Anthony Seibold debacle hamstrung the Broncos.

Brett and Josh Morris were offloaded at the peak of their powers.

This is a club that, if better managed, could still have James Tedesco and Josh Addo-Carr.

The Bulldogs? Where do you start? They haven’t scored a point for three weeks.

This club has been a basket case for years although they have a good operator in new chairman John Khoury.

Coaches sacked. CEO’s sacked. Boardroom coups.

To think they offloaded the Morris twins Josh and Brett at the prime of their careers to pay Greg Eastwood and Tony ‘T-Rex’ Williams $800,000 each a season.

They are now paying Dallin Watene-Zelezniak $750,000-a-year while the Morris boys are on around $250,000 each at the Sydney Roosters. They paid Dessie out $1 million.

Even the Penrith Panthers. They’ve lost the outstanding Matt Burton, a future superstar who they developed through their own junior system.

It came down to salary cap pressure because the club is still paying for Reagan Campbell-Gillard, Waqa Blake and Josh Mansour at Parramatta and the Rabbitohs.

Not to mention the costly sacking of Anthony Griffin, five months after extending his contract by three years.

Now the spotlight is on the board of the Cronulla Sharks.

This is a well-run football club from a financial perspective but the board lacks any football nous.

They have business, legal, property and finance expertise but sadly not one director who can recognise that John Morris is deserving of a contract extension.

That he has taken a team that, on paper, is not much better than Manly, the Broncos or the Cowboys to the finals two years in a row is great coaching.

That the team is playing so well right now without $1.8 million of their salary cap (Shaun Johnson and Andrew Fifita) demands his immediate reappointment.

Originally published as NRL 2021: Real reason behind lopsided competition, Buzz Rothfield