ARLC’s Clydesdales funding refusal could harm game’s grassroots

The ARLC’s refusal to support a state league club leaves the Queensland Rugby League with a $700,000 problem that could take its toll on community clubs across the entire Sunshine State. Discover the ramifications here

A $700,000 financial black hole and a black eye on the game of rugby league.

That is the damning financial impact on the sport in the Sunshine State if the Australian Rugby League Commission continues to ignore the value of the Toowoomba-based Western Clydesdales Hostplus Cup team.

Having built their 2023 and 2024 budgets based on funding grants handed down by the ARLC, Queensland Rugby League now have a $350,000 a year problem to solve in the wake of the Commission’s refusal to ratify the Western Clydesdales element of that budget.

QRL CEO Ben Ikin said the money spanning nearly $1 million would impact other areas of the game in Queesnland.

“We have built a budget on the Western Clydesdales receiving grants from the ARLC,” Ikin said.

“If the ARLC does not provide that element of funding that money will have to come from elsewhere.

“Community rugby league underpins everything we (QRL) do and it is a concern that some of our programs and the other work we do could be affected.”

Ikin said the ARLC has a responsibility to make sure they match the efforts of their member organisation by developing and nurturing the game from the grassroots up.

“NRL clubs get $17 million each, even more if you have an NRLW team,” he said.

“Surely the QRL’s request for a total of $10 million for our 15 clubs to field six teams each is pretty reasonable.

“The ARLC has a responsibility to ensure that the money generated by the elite game makes its way back down to the grassroots.

“Underfunding the organisations who keep the base healthy and growing will eventually bite you in the arse.”

Nationals leader David Littleproud and QRL CEO Ben Ikin.

Ikin’s comments come in the wake of an email obtained by this masthead in which NRL CEO Abdo questioned the Clydesdales worth in the Hostplus Cup.

“The ARLC, as you are aware, has not approved the participation of the Western Clydesdales in the QRL Hostplus Cup and does not consider that such participation is in the best interests of the game as a whole,” Abdo said.

Ikin said he didn’t know if he should be ‘confused or insulted’ by the position taken by senior powerbrokers.

“The thing I can’t understand is that Peter V’Landys made a big deal about doing more in Brisbane’s Western Corridor after the Dolphins were given the 17th NRL license,” Ikin said.

“So, we put the Western Clydesdales in our Hostplus Cup and the Commission is now saying the Clydesdales provide no benefit to the game as a whole.

“I can’t figure out if I’m confused or insulted.

“You can now understand why the QRL is struggling to align with the NRL. Any organisation that can’t see value in the south-west region of Queensland clearly doesn’t understand how the game in Queensland functions.

“I mean, the history and legends to come out of that region, it’s unbelievable. Arthur Beetson, Shane Webcke, Wayne Bennett, to name a few, and seriously, the road from Brisbane to Toowoomba is called Darren Lockyer Way.”