Crash Tackle: NRL cannot go back to the world it left behind

Rugby league celebrates its earthy backs-against-the-wall stories, but is that the future it really wants? Is now not the time to take stock and make hard decisions, asks ROBERT CRADDOCK.

It’s time for the NRL to take stock and make some tough decisions. Picture: Matt Taylor

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They say in business you should never waste a good crisis but there are 250 million reasons why rugby league just might.

Rejected by a series of Australian banks because the code doesn’t own anything, there was great joy among the game’s powerbrokers when they managed to secure a $250 million loan from London banks if it is required to save the NRL competition.

Part of the loan would be used to help struggling clubs struggle along in the way they have been for years.

Rugby league celebrates its earthy backs-against-the-wall stories, from hard-nut players to clubs that just keep fighting on. It’s a treasured part of the game’s narrative.

The struggle is not simply part of the story but often the story itself. But is that the future it really wants? Is now not the time to take stock and make hard decisions?

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It’s time for the NRL to take stock and make some tough decisions. Picture: Matt Taylor

The AFL has asked every club to do a report on what sort of model, teams wise and financially, the competition should have in a decade’s time and from that it will form a blueprint for the future.

You can bet the AFL won’t be bold enough to cut a Melbourne team but that does not mean the NRL has to follow suit.

When the coronavirus swept our world scores of league’s pundits were tipping the game would face a major reset and some clubs would find it impossible to continue in the Sydney market which has been clogged and begging for a reset for decades.

But the $250 million lifeline could well ensure that nothing changes and while that is a positive statement for the present it hardly bankrolls a profitable future.

One of the first stories written when the virus swept Australia was that expansion plans would be shelved and a second Brisbane team would not be happening due to the financial pain inflicted on the code.

Yet that argument can easily be turned upside down.

In a time of financial distress why not invest in a team in a strong area that might actually turn a dollar and create a new fan base?

ARLC Chairman Peter V'landys and NRL CEO Todd Greenberg. Picture: Joel Carrett/AAP

One of the least quoted paragraphs in the volcanic statement released by Channel 9 about the NRL’s financial mismanagement was a comment about a hasty loan organised during a period when the code became absolutely desperate.

“In the past the NRL have had problems and we’ve bailed them out many times including a $50m loan to support clubs when the last contract was signed,’’ the statement said.

Boom. Boom. Cop that.

Rugby league was in such a parlous state that broadcasters who were already paying over the odds anyway by bankrolling the code were asked to provide a loan as well.

That loan was a warning siren that the game was living well above its means but the problem was no-one heard it.

Only those deeply connected to Sydney rugby league will be fully aware of their current financial states but this much is certain – their bottom lines must be redder than a freshly cooked prawn.

That much became evident last week when the competition’s financial powerhouse, the Broncos, revealed to the stock exchange the full extent of savage pay cuts to board members, coaches and executive staff on top of the 22 redundancies.

The question begged … if the Broncos are suddenly on starvation rations, how do you reckon the rest of them are faring?