Clubs have been hung out to dry by the Australian Rugby League Commission

COMMENT: As the NRL prepares to launch into the 2024 season, there is growing sentiment that many grassroots league clubs are facing a crisis which could have ramifications for generations to come.

QRL boss Ben Ikin has vowed to fight for the future of regional and junior rugby league, for players like Runaway Bay’s Kasey Krywenko, as he prepares for a court fight with the ARLC.

“Queensland is pumping and becoming an AFL state.”

When outgoing AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan made that substantial claim in July last year, it basically amounted to a declaration of war.

A reserved, astute and calmly-spoken commentator, McLachlan has often been the yin to the yang of the outspoken nature of his NRL counterpart Peter V’landys.

So, for him to declare in that same interview that the AFL has “more participants this year in Queensland than the NRL” and that the southern code will be “the biggest sport in that market in Queensland in five to 10 years across most metrics” is the sporting equivalent of storming the beaches.

QRL boss Ben Ikin has vowed to fight for the future of regional and junior rugby league, for players like Runaway Bay’s Kasey Krywenko, as he prepares for a court fight with the ARLC.

Make no mistake the AFL has climbed over the parapets and is running towards the trenches of traditional NRL heartland in the maroon state.

Which makes it all the more confusing to hear that in the heartland there are feelings of being unloved and unwanted by its governing body, to the point where the Queensland Rugby League and the New South Wales Rugby League have remarkably joined forces in launching legal action against the Australian Rugby League Commission, claiming they are being ignored in ongoing funding negotiations.

At a time when the NRL is focusing its attention on growing the game in prime new international markets and launching its season in Las Vegas, it is a jarring look to see the state bodies crying poor.

Andrew Abdo and Peter V'landys at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.

In Queensland, in particular, there is a growing sentiment among many local clubs that they are beinghung out to dry bythe game’s governing body after three pleas for funding were denied across the state in the space of just four months.

The idiom suggests that what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas but what is happening in the heartlands of Queensland Rugby League could have ramifications for generations to come.

In the off-season, while the eyes of the NRL bosses have been dazzled by the glitter and gold of the casinos and gaming machines in Nevada, three impassioned pleas for support across Queensland have fallen on deaf ears.

In November, leaked emails revealed the Australian Rugby League Commission knocked back a funding request for the Western Clydesdales in the Queensland Cup competition.

Worse still, not only was the request denied but it was also followed by a kick in the backside with the line that the ARLC does not consider that the Clydesdale’s participation in the Queensland Cup “was in the best interests of the game”.

Clydesdales' Neihana Oldham runs the ball up in the Hostplus Queensland Cup rugby league match between the Northern Pride and the Western Clydesdales, held at Barlow Park. Picture: Brendan Radke

Mark that one down as strike one.

Then, the NRL knocked back a request to contribute funds to a Maroons pre-season training camp.

Strike two.

Finally last week, the powers that be also rejected a $50,000 plea from Queensland Rugby League to ensure the survival of the historic Foley Shield in North Queensland.

Given the NRL bosses have their gaze transfixed on America at the moment we shouldn’t need to tell them that strike three generally means you’re out.

NRL chair Peter V’landys also admitted last week that the game “had dropped the ball on … schools” while the AFL had invested heavily in that realm.

In the same interview, V’Landys also hinted at a restructure of funding for country clubs but, given the game now faces the likelihood of potentially expensive legal battles against its states, that may now also be difficult.

Meanwhile the AFL is sitting back strumming its fingers together safe in the knowledge that its two Queensland teams seem to be on the cusp of years of positive results while the growth in the grassroots level continues to blossom.

And it’s not just the AFL invaders that the NRL should be worried about.

With the state preparing to host a home Olympics in 2032 every single other major sport on the planet will be clamouring for the eyeballs and participation of Queensland junior sports fans for the next decade.

The time for meaningful action is now.