Crash Tackle: Why rugby league will beat the AFL in television’s silent war

Robert Craddock looks at the big talking points coming out of the NRL, including rugby league claiming a key victory against its rival code.

• V’landys reveals next NRL mission: get crowds back by July
• Darius Boyd opens up on Wayne Bennett: ‘My one regret’

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

ONSIDE

LEAGUE WINS TV BATTLE WITH AFL

Rugby league has outhussled the AFL in the race to start again and now it has a key weapon in television’s Battle of The Empty Stands.

It's simply that league looks better – or should we say, less worse – on television without crowds.

League cameramen are already plotting ways to take the vacant stands out of play and in the brief showing of the two football codes earlier this year league looked a more spirited product than AFL when the stands were bare.

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Rugby league looks better on TV with no crowds than rival AFL. Picture: Dan Himbrechts/AAP

There is no hiding the fact the AFL’s greatest moments – when goals are kicked – are what they are because of crowd involvement such as the masses of streamer-waving fans behind the posts.

To show the goals on television you simply have to show the vacant terraces. It's a desperately deflating look.

Empty stands are a bad look for AFL matches. Picture: Michael Dodge/AAP

The AFL get bigger crowds than league so they will miss them more and for some reason the fact that league is played on a rectangular field seems to make it a better fit on a rectangular television screen.

ELECTRIC BUZZ

Whateley – named after top broadcaster Gerard – has set the provincial harness racing scene alight in Queensland but now there's a new kid on the block … Buzz Rothfield.

Buzz Rothfield is showing promise.

Both horses are by Sportswriter and league-writing guru Phil “Buzz” Rothfield told the family of trainer Tayla Gillespie he would be honoured to share his name with the horse which is unraced but showing promise.

Tayla claims Buzz Rothfield “is quite the (good) looker and moves really nicely’.’

By pleasant coincidence, so does the horse.

THE INSIDE STORY

There are a lot of rugby league books that whiz by without attracting great attention – but the Darius Boyd story will be worth a read.

One of Boyd’s hidden strengths is a memory which can recall contract figures, clashes and stray sentences uttered throughout his marathon journey.

And that’s apart from his insights on his own mental health battles when his inner anguish will be laid bare.

Darius Boyd’s book will make for fascinating reading. Picture: Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images

WHISTLE A TUNE

Rugby league might have gone a step too far by cutting its second referee but there are still tasty spin-offs for the game.

Controversy. Anger. Loud voices. Arguments. Don’t kid yourselves that league doesn’t need them.

League has been based on bushfires for 100 years and the one referee debate provides the instant controversy that league thrives on as it tries to get people to care for the game again despite playing in empty stadiums.

OFFSIDE

MUM’S NOT THE WORD

Since when was a karate-kick by a player in a town’s main street not worth reporting to senior club officials?

This is the question which has angered senior Souths management who remain bewildered at Wayne Bennett’s decision not to report Cody Walker’s “Tamworth two step’’ to them after Walker informed his coach alone.

It’s a fair point. As the game’s senior voice, Bennett should be setting standards, not explaining why he bent them.

Wayne Bennett should be setting standards. Picture: Mark Evans

GREAT WORK BUT …

Rugby league has done such a remarkable job carving a path back to the playing field it feels a bit churlish to pick holes in their game plan.

But there’s one key trouble spot ahead. The game’s chiefs are set to let the NRL clubs guide them on what should be the cuts at NRL headquarters.

Have they seen how the clubs managed their money?

WHO KNEW?

They say there are no secrets in rugby league but there was one – and it was very well kept.

It was Bryce Cartwright’s previously unreported medical incident which allowed him to escape without getting the injection all NRL players are supposed to get before this season’s kick-off just bobbed up from nowhere.

Talk about a bolt from the blue …

Titans forward Bryce Cartwright. Picture: Dave Hunt/AAP

END THE WAR

Sometimes you have to know when to hold them, and when to fold them.

There have been whispers that when the referees voted to end their war with the NRL and accept the one referee rule, that their association chairman Silvio Del Vecchio still wanted to go to arbitration.

After all the game had been through, it was the time for olive branches rather than arm wrestles.