Monday Buzz: NRL to blame for growing graveyard of bush footy clubs
AS NRL chief Todd Greenberg spruiked “the greatest game of all” at the glitzy 2018 season launch in Sydney, he failed to mention the game’s life blood and the numerous CRL clubs that have been forced to fold.
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THE Country Rugby League didn’t score an invite to the NRL season launch last week.
Forget about the lifeblood of the game … this show was for the big end of town.
Last Thursday, as NRL boss Todd Greenberg was delivering his speech at The Rocks in front of the 16 captains, major stakeholders and the media, the traditional grassroots didn’t rate a mention.
Not one line. The CRL covers the biggest area of the game. They are in charge of the management and promotion of rugby league for more than 500 clubs across the state.
Yet their annual grant from the independent commission is just $4.7 million.
That’s just 36 per cent of what one NRL club gets.
And they wonder why the AFL has made such giant inroads into the Riverina, an area that was once a rich rugby league heartland and a wonderful production base for NRL stars.
The Mortimer brothers, Greg Brentnall, Les Boyd, Peter Sterling, Laurie Daley and Ray Brown to name a few.
This year the Tumbarumba Greens have folded. It’s a famous old rugby league town about an hour out of Wagga Wagga. They’d been around for more than 50 years.
These days in the Riverina four goalposts are going up instead of two at many of the local ovals.
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The AFL has a staff of 28 just in the Riverina — that’s more than double rugby league.
Other rugby league clubs are folding too — Merimbula-Pambula, the Eden Tigers, Port Macquarie, the Collegian Warriors, Moss Vale and Port Kembla. A handful of clubs are making comebacks.
There are 400 fewer registered male participants across the state in the last three years.
Only a huge spike in the women’s game has kept registration numbers on a slight increase.
While the NRL launch was taking place last Thursday, your columnist sat inside the Country Rugby League boardroom at Olympic Park to get a clearer picture of the state of country football.
This organisation is doing a wonderful job with limited funds.
They desperately need more on-the-ground resources.
Some full-time competition administrators because volunteers can only do so much.
The club barbecue, steak sandwiches, canteens and meat trays are no longer enough.
The NRL is at least taking more games to the bush this year.
Yet much more needs to be done. Despite the huge influx of Polynesians in the NRL, country clubs still provide more than 30 per cent of the players at the NSW-based clubs.
We’re not talking bums either — James Maloney, Tyson Frizell, Josh Jackson, Josh Dugan, Blake Ferguson, Boyd Cordner, Trent Merrin, James Tedesco, the Morris twins Josh and Brett, Andrew Fifita and Jack Bird.
But these numbers have been in decline for years.
I interviewed Greenberg last year about the country clubs and their fight for survival.
“We’re very conscious of it,” he said, “Young footballers in the bush have aspirations to make it to the NRL. We get that.”
Yet the rise of the Pacific Nations is getting far more attention from head office than the state of the country game.
Tonga, Fiji and Samoa are seen as great growth opportunities and breeding grounds.
They all did so well on the international stage at last year’s World Cup.
Yet the traditional heartland is being ignored.
In the last fortnight your columnist has been to Bathurst and Cooma talking to old rugby league types about the game and the problems.
Everyone’s got a story to tell. It’s time for Greenberg to listen to them.
It’s fine to be talking up the prospect of launching the 2019 NRL competition on the west coast of America. It’s fine to have the season launch and invite only the big players.
But don’t ignore the bush. They love and need their footy as much we do.