NRL boss Todd Greenberg addresses fan fury over blunders

NRL CEO Todd Greenberg has weathered the fury of The Daily Telegraph’s rugby league fans to answer their questions on a range of issues facing the game. How did you rate his responses?

NRL CEO Todd Greenberg spoke to fans about issues facing the game. Picture: Dylan Robinson

NRL CEO Todd Greenberg has weathered the fury of The Daily Telegraph’s rugby league fans to answer their questions on a range of issues facing the game.

Greenberg took part in a live Q&A session on Tuesday as anger around refereeing blunders from the weekend continued to simmer.

The NRL boss fielded questions about officiating as well as expansion, the salary cap, scheduling and rule changes.

Check out some of the responses below and vote in our polls: Were you happy with what Greenberg had to say?

REFEREEING/CAPTAIN’S CALL

TIM: How about taking the pressure off the refs and let the captains/team make a decision, if they want to go to video ref or not? Something like the tennis review system, might work? Something needs to change that’s for sure!

GREENBERG: There is not a big appetite from the Coaches or the comp committee for captains challenge — their focus has always been about getting the decision right — The common theme is if you have access to the technology we should use it … but we need to get our decisions right!

ADAM: Why do you think Australians seem to be so preoccupied with refereeing errors? This rehash of referee errors has been a part of the game for so long, and seems to be getting stronger. What do you think you can do to combat this general feeling of refs costing teams games? Are us fans too one eyed that they don’t want to blame our own team. I feel a team shouldn’t let themselves get into a position where a refs decision can cause a team to lose a game / finish their season and if they do it is their own fault!

GREENBERG: Good point. I actually addressed a national officiating conference this morning in Sydney across a number of different sports. Many sports all being challenged by technology and expectations of perfection which will never be achieved. Just like you I would prefer the focus be on players not refs.

EXPANSION

NICOLE: Could a Pacific Island’s NRL team work in the near future, if it was to play 3-4 home games (on rotation) out of Fiji, Tonga, Samoa and PNG with A main base in Port Moresby PNG? Travel schedules would be similar to that of Nth Qld or Melbourne or Warriors. With so many players having this heritage I believe they deserve their own team, especially as it is the National game in PNG as well, which is more than we can say here in Australia, NZ or England.

GREENBERG: PNG is already in the Q state cup comp & Fiji are knocking on the door for the NSW Cup — great stepping stone for the NRL comp plus we want more Pacific test matches played in the international schedule.

ZANE: Todd, how happy are you with the funds distribution to the QRL, NSWRL?

GREENBERG: More $ this year are going to the State leagues than ever before & more will go again in 2019. The investment is significant but we need to work together & work smarter to maximise this effort & spend.

NAT: I think you’re doing a great job despite the issues you’ve been faced with. What do clubs like Manly offer the NRL when they still struggle to draw a crowd etc despite that merger those years ago? Surely a second Brisbane team makes more sense?

GREENBERG: Thank you. Always nice to read a compliment! The game works in cycles & I am sure Manly will back to their best again soon — always looking at our expansion plans for the future & naturally the Brisbane market is a key part of that!

FAN ANGER

NIGEL: Todd, I used to watch 80mins of every game every week, now I’m lucky to watch 3 full games a round.

The game is so frustrating to watch I can’t bare to watch it all weekend. My Challenge to you is to make me want to watch 80mins of every game every week again.

GREENBERG: Don’t give up on the game mate. This is the greatest sport — keep believing & we are going to keep working hard to make it better.

SCHEDULING

MAL: Todd, when are we going to see an NRL grand final in Brisbane?

GREENBERG: Unfortunately for QLD fans it wont be any time soon. The NSW govt have committed to spend $2B on new Stadiums in Sydney & we have promised as part of that agreement to keep the GF in Sydney.

TONY: I’m concerned that International Rugby League which is where all players should aspire to is dictated to by the NRL. We can never grow the game outside of Eastern Australia if we don’t encourage our players and clubs to make themselves available for their country, preferably of origin. Rugby Union has only one attraction to a fringe player and that is the International component, what is your opinion.

GREENBERG: The international federation is meeting this weekend in Singapore & we all support growing the international game — but remember that a huge number of players come from the NRL so we must be mindful of workloads & our domestic comp.

NRL CEO Todd Greenberg spoke to fans about issues facing the game. Picture: Dylan Robinson

PATRICK: Very disappointed at State of Origin it should be in Queensland or NSW are you going to change back or look at loosing large numbers of followers

GREENBERG: There will always be at least 1 Origin game in both NSW & QLD each year but taking a game to WA, Melbourne, Perth is a great way to grow new audiences & participants.

ANTHONY: State of Origin in the middle of the season. Does it feel right to you? The Origin players look tired.

GREENBERG: SOO is the biggest sporting event in the country. 220k fans through the turnstiles across 3 games and 2 of the biggest TV programs so far in 2018 …& some of the best football of all time played on the field — the players looked in great shape to me during Origin.

PETER: This 6.00pm Friday Game is tough to draw a crowd. So why are there more Warrior games in this timeslot?

GREENBERG: NZ is a good spot for 6pm games (8pm local NZ time) & we are looking at regional centres for some of these games too.

RULE CHANGES

JOHN: Not a fan of penalty goals which stops a teams momentum for scoring a try and is a real let down for fans — tap restart only?

GREENBERG: There has been a significant reduction penalty goals since round 14 — more teams are taking the quick tap but this will be closely monitored by the comp committee.

SIOBHAN: are we going to see 6 interchanges in 2019?

GREENBERG: We are looking at that right now. We are always looking to ensure fatigue is part of the modern game but balancing that with player workload & HIA is at the forefront of our thinking.

ADRIAN: There is not many things I would take from Rugby Union, but would the NRL consider allowing play to continue after the half and full time siren until such time as there is a changeover in possession?, ie after the six tackles or there is an error.

GREENBERG: I don’t think our game needs any lessons from Rugby Union.

SALARY CAP

STEVEN: There is a lot of talk around the salary cap and managing it. When will the NRL will step in and fix teams like the Bulldogs that have dumped so many players mid year to other teams due to issues that they created, I believe I read that it will take them 3 years to recover might be a good option to move them to Perth or Brisbane so they can start fresh.

GREENBERG: The NRL sets the rules and the Clubs manage their rosters within those rules — roster management are issues for the Clubs not the NRL.

VON: Does the salary cap really work all that well? If there is a club with wealthy ‘benefactors’, can’t these clubs unofficially induce these benefactors to send perks to a footballers family or similar eg a reduced price on a car or a house … so its outside of the contract and the cap. Lots of scope for this sort of thing I would think!

GREENBERG: The salary cap works well — that is why we have one of the closest comps in the world. hard to pick a winner each week and almost impossible to know who will be the premiers in 2018

Originally published as NRL boss Todd Greenberg addresses fan fury over blunders