Crash Tackle: Free-spending past leaves NRL in real pickle as coronavirus digs deep

Rugby league has nothing to show for its last two television deals, worth a total of $2.8 billion, and soon enough the common Australia taxpayer will be asked to bail them out.

Anthony Milford has been in great form over the first two rounds for the Broncos.

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Each week, The Courier-Mail’s chief sportswriter Robert Craddock looks at the big talking points coming out of the NRL.

OFFSIDE

IT’S JUST A FLESH WOUND

Rugby league has become a sad prisoner of its free-spending past, the sporting version of Monty Python’s Black Knight.

Just as the Black Knight claimed “it’s only a flesh wound’’ when both of his arms were cut off, so did rugby league officials on Sunday volunteer to push into the devil’s playground which no other major league in the world would venture due to the coronavirus threat.

Despite the code being in existence for 100 years, it has been so horribly managed that the NRL does not own one asset. The slush fund it tried to set up five years ago was liquidated by cash greedy clubs run by people who you would not put in charge of your school tuck shop.

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The NRL is facing unprecedented times.

So rugby league has nothing to show for its last two television deals worth a total of $2.8 billion and soon enough the common Australia taxpayer will be asked to bail them out via a government grant.

Don’t get me started …

RECKLESS SPENDERS II

There’s plenty of examples of ridiculous overspending by clubs that pushed them to the brink but the whole crisis is probably summed up the madness which engulfed the Penrith Panthers in 2018.

Coach Anthony Griffin had the Panthers on the brink of the top four but that was not good enough for Phil Gould so he sacked Griffin and paid out the last two years of his contract, rehiring Ivan Cleary, who Gould had previously sacked because he felt he was burnt out.

Unsurprisingly the club needed a $6m loan for its leagues club to break even that year. And what has it done since?

THE DOUBLE LIFE

Rugby league displayed its warrior spirit by ploughing ahead during the coronavirus threat – but there are some confusing sights.

The NRL has been absolutely fastidious about ensuring a safe distance between interchange players on the bench with individual chairs appropriately spaced.

Yet a few metres away there is the sight of the common scrum with 12 bodies locked together and sweating and dribbling on each other. And on Friday night, Souths’ John Sutton brought out a communal water bottle shared by the players. Go figure.

The IOC continues to prevaricate over the Tokyo Olympics.

STRAIGHT TALK

Rugby league’s handling of the coronavirus has not been without risk or flaw – but at least they are tackling the problem head-on.

It could be worse. They could be the Tokyo Olympic officials who have been in an embarrassing state of denial over the past two months.

BAD TIMING

The coronavirus was freakishly bad timing for a string of small businesses located near the new Queensland Country Bank Stadium, which opened in Townsville this month.

Many were on the brink of closure viewed the opening of the stadium as their last chance.

ONSIDE

MAGIC MIKE

What a joy it was to see the tributes pour in for the incomparable Mike Colman, who hung up his pen after four decades as a sportswriter last week.

Many Courier-Mail readers said they would miss Mike’s unique take on life and Sydney Daily Telegraph league writer Dean Ritchie sent special thanks after Mike gave him his first cadetship on the strength of match reports he wrote during his last two years at school.

“If it wasn’t for Mike I might be digging ditches,’’ Ritchie said.

Anthony Milford has been in great form over the first two rounds for the Broncos.

UNBURDENED

Sacking Anthony Milford from the leadership group might well have been the best decision Broncos coach Anthony Seibold made during the off-season.

The Broncos have deduced that Milford was born to roam and conjure and let his free spirit run wild rather than sit in team planning meetings. Milford’s stunning individual try against the Rabbitohs was the act of a man relishing the fact he is not dragging a ball and chain.

SUPER COOPER

It’s only round two yet already the impressively honest and insightful Cooper Cronk is making a difference to the commentary landscape.

Cronk’s no-nonsense appraisal of Latrell Mitchell – that he needs to work harder on his fitness and is not the effort-upon-effort player you need at fullback – shows that in his new career at Fox League he is prepared to cut through old loyalties and tell it how it is.

CAPTAIN’S KNOCK

Even before he took the job Pat Carrigan had one crucial asset in his favour as Broncos stand-in captain. The ability to lead by example.

Carrigan was the standout at the Broncos first training run in the off-season and carried that form all the way through to the early rounds. He may not take the breath away in attack but he topped the tackle count against South Sydney and shapes as the defensive anchorman every team needs.

Paul McGregor has come under pressure since taking on the Dragons head coach role.

MARY’S PRAYER

It’s not always the headline acts that can win your admiration in rugby league. Sometimes it’s just the battlers who somehow keep going under extraordinary pressure.

No club supporters on social media attack their coach with as much venom as Dragon fans who routinely savage Paul McGregor. Each year “Mary’’ is under the permanent pump yet, while occasionally signs of the tension seep through, his resilience is admirable.

McGregor still keeps in contact with Amanda, the wife of his late great mate and mentor Graham Murray, who taught McGregor about the fighting spirit you need in the viper’s den of rugby league coaching.