Asking players to choose between footy and family is wrong
The AFL copped it in the neck for its response to Cyclone Alfred – but it was the NRL that really misread the room.
On Tuesday morning, as a 300km-wide cyclone slowly made its way towards southeast Queensland and northern NSW, the AFL and the NRL faced the same dilemma: play, postpone, or relocate opening round matches? The AFL made the mature call to postpone Thursday night’s blockbuster between Brisbane and Geelong at the Gabba as well as the match between the Gold Coast and Essendon at the rather aptly named People First Stadium on Saturday.
The NRL decided its TV deal meant more and relocated the Dolphins-South Sydney match from Suncorp Stadium to Sydney’s CommBank Stadium on Friday night.
It was a dreadful decision because it forced players to choose between family and a game of football.
According to the AFL, there wasn’t even a discussion about relocating matches to Geelong or Melbourne. The Lions’ two-time Brownlow medallist Lachie Neale wouldn’t have gone if they did.
“Unless they were willing to fly families as well and we could have sorted out the dog, then I would’ve done it, but I wouldn’t have left Jules (Neale’s wife) here with our three-year-old daughter and a 10-week, 11-week-old little boy,” he said. “I wouldn’t have played.”
Imagine that? A footballer putting his young family ahead of his club as a catastrophic weather event lurks off the coast?
For some reason, the AFL copped it in the neck from all quarters on Monday because it hadn’t made a call on whether to postpone.
It was in constant discussion with the Queensland government at the time. On Monday, there was still some chance of Cyclone Alfred blowing himself out in the Coral Sea.
When the government’s advice changed on Tuesday morning, and it was clear that Alfred was coming, the matches were promptly called off.
Still glowing from a big win in Las Vegas for a second year with its season-opening extravaganza at Allegiant Stadium, the NRL decided the show must go on. It prompted a cranky response from the wife of Dolphins utility Kodi Nikorima.
“Because a game of football is THAT IMPORTANT,” Bree Nikorima wrote on Instagram.
“Leaving the families behind to ride out the direct line of cyclone alone. Some with no support at all. I’m six months pregnant with two young kids in an area that can flood, disgusting.”
She ended the post with a vomit emoji and the words: “Do better NRL.”
Most fans believe footballers’ partners should be seen and not heard. While social media probably wasn’t the best place to make a point, her concerns were more than valid and she had the right to express them.
Kodi Nikorima, Mark Nichols, and Kenny Bromwich subsequently withdrew from the Friday night match, preferring to stay in Brisbane to be with their loved ones. They chose their families ahead of their obligations to their club and the NRL and they should be applauded for it.
It requires great strength from a player to pull out of a match for reasons other than a debilitating injury.
Those who have decided to play now face the possibility of being stranded in Sydney as their loved ones at home ride out a once-in-a-lifetime weather event. The armchair meteorologists online reckon the cyclone will amount to nothing. At the time of writing, the real experts were insisting otherwise and that’s the only advice the NRL needed to listen to.
For their part, the Rugby League Players Association was blindsided by the whole thing.
“We were told on Tuesday that an announcement was forthcoming and an hour later it was made,” RLPA chief executive Clint Newton told me.
Postponing the match wasn’t a consideration for the NRL.
It says the Dolphins wanted to play and that hotel accommodation in Brisbane was offered to their families if they didn’t feel safe enough staying at home.
It also doesn’t have the same flexibility in its draw as the AFL – Brisbane and Geelong will now play in round three when they both had byes – so nothing could be done.
Considering how often the NRL beats its chest about being the first professional league in the world to resume play during the Covid-19 pandemic, and how every sport including the AFL should be grateful for doing so, I’m sure it could have worked it out.
Hatchets buried
Las Vegas isn’t just the place where bank balances go to die. It’s turning out to be the place where longstanding rugby league feuds are also buried.
Canterbury general manager and Channel 9 personality Phil “Gus” Gould had not spoken to Roosters chairman Nick Politis for more than three years.
Once the closest of allies during Gould’s time as Roosters coach, the pair fell out spectacularly after a late-season match in 2021 when South Sydney fullback Latrell Mitchell broke the face of Roosters centre Joey Manu.
In his role for Nine, Gould said Mitchell’s contact was accidental and he didn’t deserve a hefty suspension, despite Manu’s swollen and blackened face.
It was just a footy thing, Gould told us. If you thought otherwise, you didn’t understand the game.
The Roosters took umbrage at the remarks. From that moment, he started needling his former club at every opportunity via his various Nine platforms, especially coach Trent Robinson.
But the war is, seemingly, over: Gould and Politis buried the hatchet in Vegas when they ran into each other at the talent combine at the UFC’s training facilities. Gould was in Sin City because the Bulldogs are likely to be there next year while Politis was on hand to support his club’s teams in the Nines tournament. “We’re back to normal,” Politis told me with his signature chuckle.
A year ago in Vegas, Politis resolved an even longer feud when he and billionaire James Packer caught up. Politis put Packer on ice for years after the troubled businessman decided to sponsor and then buy a stake in arch rivals South Sydney. There is only one thing Politis loves more than the Roosters winning – watching Souths lose.
The pair reconciled through mutual friend and Roosters director Mark Bouris.
Vegas rethink
Year two of the Vegas experiment was a success but for the love of Jesus H V’landys can the NRL stop floating zany ideas like taking the opening round to Wembley and other locales like New York and Miami?
Vegas is far from conquered just two years into a five-year deal with the Nevada Tourism Commission.
The NRL was telling anyone who would listen that it was going to get 50,000 people at Allegiant Stadium last Saturday.
ARL Commission chairman Peter V’landys was spruiking a full house of 65,000. A crowd figure of 45,000 was disappointing.
There were concerns four matches in one day would be too much and they were realised on the day.
So, too, the decision to play a women’s international between Australia and England, which was an embarrassing 90-4 blowout to Australia.
The scoreboard at Allegiant Stadium doesn’t go beyond 99, I’m told. Clearly, the Jilaroos took the foot off the pedal late in the game.
Why the NRL pressed ahead with this match despite immediate fears about it being a grossly lopsided affair is a matter for them, but it sucked the life out of the stadium.
The Penrith-Cronulla match was a cracker, but thousands of fans had already left.
It seems a fait accompli that the Bulldogs and St George Illawarra will feature in one match next year. As I wrote on Monday, Melbourne needs to be one of the other teams. The event needs that sort of class on display if it’s going to take over America or fill the 90,000 seats at Wembley or whatever else is floated in the next week.
I spoke to Storm chairman Matt Tripp at Allegiant Stadium and he’s keen to make it happen.
Powerful women
Plenty of big names mentioned in News Corp’s annual Power 100 list for the most powerful and influential women in Australian sport. Who could ever have imagined a day when an Olympic paddler would sit atop such a list? It’s Jess Fox’s world right now – and we’re just living in it.
Meanwhile, our female swimmers rule the world, the Matildas are going through a rough patch but are still our most universally loved national team, and women hold important boardroom positions across the major football codes.
It was also pleasing to see so many female journalists and editors mentioned.
Jacquelin Magnay, Caroline Wilson, and the late, great Rebecca Wilson were all pioneers in the field of sports journalism.
The Australian’s chief sports reporter, Jessica Halloran – who came in at No.54 on this year’s list – is following in their footsteps.
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