Watch the NRL? Kennett will steal our ideas, says Beattie

Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett is too competitive to miss rugby league’s return on Thursday night, says Peter Beattie.

Hawks president Jeff Kennett won’t be watching the NRL’s return. Picture: Stuart McEvoy

Former Queensland premier and ARL Commission chairman Peter Beattie has taken a lighthearted dig at Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett, claiming the former Victorian premier is too competitive to miss rugby league’s return on Thursday night.

Kennett, who was critical of the NRL and chair Peter V’landys last month for setting an ambitious return date, told The Australian on Monday he would rather knit underwater than watch Brisbane’s game against Parramatta.

Beattie suggests otherwise. Having traded political barbs with Kennett over the years, he couldn’t resist hitting back on Tuesday, suggesting Kennett wouldn’t be able to help himself.

“I have known Jeffrey for over 22 years,” Beattie told The Australian. “We worked together at COAG years ago. Of course he will be watching rugby league on Thursday night just to see how we do it.

“Why? Because Jeffrey is one of the most competitive people I have ever dealt with. He won’t be able to help himself.

“He will see what he can learn from rugby league and see if he can steal any ideas for his club and the AFL.

“Plus Jeffrey has been a champion of mental health and knows the NRL and AFL returning is good for the mental health of Australians.

“Sadly for Jeffrey he won’t be able to steal our champion problem solver Peter V’landys to Victoria to help out the AFL.”

Kennett wasn’t taking a backward step earlier in the week. When asked whether V’landys had done a good job, he suggested success or failure could only be judged through the prism of time.

As for tuning in to the first game of the resuming season, Kennett suggested he would prefer to do anything other than watch rugby league.

“I have very rarely watched it anyway, why would I change a pattern?” he said.

“It is not a game that appeals to me. I am a VFL fan through and through. I watch a bit of golf, I watch a bit of tennis, I watch at times a bit of soccer.

“I watch some events in the Olympic Games but I am not a sports nerd and on Thursday night I will probably be sitting down, watching the news with a glass of whisky, and I will allow the code to commence.

“I wish it well and all in it. But you won’t find me biting at the bit to turn on the television to watch it. Boring, boring game. Doesn’t interest me at all.

“I would rather do some underwater knitting.”

Kennett and Western Bulldogs president Peter Gordon were scathing in their criticism of the NRL and V’landys last month as the game pushed to get back on the field on May 28.

Irresponsible, they claimed. Endangering the health of their players apparently. Putting commercial considerations ahead of player safety. Eddie McGuire claimed the NRL had done nothing particularly impressive.

On Monday morning, with rugby league only days away from their return, AFL boffins couldn’t help themselves. According to the SEN website, former Essendon captain Tim Watson pointed out on radio that the AFL was national and rugby league was played in Queensland, NSW and New Zealand.

Bizarrely, Watson forgot about the Melbourne Storm. And for every AFL shout about the game being played in five states, the NRL can respond by pointing out they had to negotiate international borders given the presence of the Warriors.

That very point was made to Kennett on Monday morning by The Australian. Still, there was no concession from the Hawthorn president.

“He (V’landys) has run some risks and it looks as though they have paid off,” Kennett said.

“But as I say the real test is not the next few weeks. The real test for all codes – not just (NRL) – is where we are at the end of next year and what independence we have got.

“Or whether we are all so bubbled up in debt that the competitions change by their very nature. Good luck to them (the NRL), I wish them well, I wish the teams well, I wish their supporters well.

“I wish the country well. I even wish journalists well. I hope we can get back to a level of normality. Your game is a lot simpler to organise than the AFL because we are more national than your league is.

“I haven’t changed (my position from last month). The authorities had not given permission for contact sports to begin at the time we made those comments.

“So my comments then were absolutely correct on the information we had at the time. He (V’landys) said they were coming back but they had no permission to come back.

“You ask me how I feel about it? I haven’t changed at all. Very simple.”

Asked specifically about V’landys, Kennett replied tongue in cheek: “Who? I was only being cynical. Life is about not where you start but where you finish.

“I think what will happen is at the end of this year we will all be sitting back and we can more correctly value the contributions of everyone.

“But all I will say at this stage is I am not going to say that anyone has done a good or a bad job … no, that is not quite true.

“What I will say is this – I think everyone has done a good job dealing with the circumstances. Given the uniqueness of the situation, we have flattened the curve, we have now got to deal with what is going to be a lot more serious issue which is the economy and the codes.

“Whether it is the AFL or the NRL or anyone else, we still have our nose up against the window pane in terms of our finances and whether we are going to be able to rebuild our sporting competitions to anywhere near the same level they were before we went into (coronavirus), we won’t know until the end of next year.

“We’re going to scramble our way through the next nine months. That is not going to add very much to our capital but it will ensure we survive, probably with much larger debts and reduced costs for all concerned.

“The real test will be where the ARL, rugby, AFL are at the end of season 2021. The great risk to that will be whether there is another spike. If we have another spike, the ramifications could be absolutely frightening.”