
Issue No 74		20 October 2000

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Sport

League's Latest Nightmare

By Joe McLoughlin

With the Rugby League World Cup now in jeopardy one thing is crystal clear - the Warriors in their various forms are a bloody nightmare.

There are surreal and vividly real elements to the latest trans-Tasman shambles.

It is hard to think of anything more Pythonesque than a tycoon taking over a footy club, racking his brains for the right man to convince players they should take substantial pay cuts and coming to the conclusion that Matthew Ridge fits the bill.

Perhaps new owner Eric Watson, a 42-year-old with a personal fortune of over $200 million, is a proponent of the "it takes a thief to catch a thief" school of management.

After all, this is the same Matthew Ridge who championed Super League so loud and long a few short years back. Armed with a contract in excess of $600,000 he returned to Auckland and played a not inconsequential role in sending the previous owners to the wall.

Now he's got the bare-faced cheek to tell current players they have to take cuts in the interests of the game - true, but glaringly incosistent.

Other worries about Ridge centre on his complete lack of involvement or even interest with grassroots Kiwi football. Reports that he has Bob Fulton - the great Bonzo - lined up for a consultancy role, and is chasing an untried Australian coach suggest Watson's club will tread the same path to ruin as its predecessors.

Essentially, the Warriors have never established a genuinely Auckland operation. Driven by a lack of cultural and footballing confidence they have fallen halfway between Australian professionalism and Kiwi flair, landing about 1000km out to sea and sinking faster than the Titanic.

The way Watson got his hands on the Warriors franchise is very interesting. Apparently, he didn't pay a zac for his 75 percent share and all he bought was the assets - the NRL license, some office and gym equipment. What he insisted he wasn't going to buy was any responsibility for existing players or staff.

Thus we return to the players and their World Cup threat.

Players around Australia are right to be concerned because the whole deal was signed off on by NRL head honco David Moffett.

With an absolute need to get player payments down around the competition and other clubs teetering on the brink of doing a Warriors, it is a precedent that might well be repeated.

There are, of course, some other questions of Moffett and the NRL raised by their endorsement of the Auckland takeover...

Why did you turn down repeated Auckland bail-out requests while handing over an additional $800,000 apiece to the three joint ventures, especially given the remarkable similarities between the Watson rescue plan and that floated by the previous chief executive?
Why did you give the green light to the previous ownership arrangement (Tainui-Grame Lowe-Malcolm Boyle) when Blind Freddie could see it was doomed?
Is the Watson model part of a wider plan to slash player earnings, and what about the poor bastards on the staff who didn't have $100,000 contracts, but have lost wages and redundancy entitlements?

Finally, Moffo, when your highly-paid briefs were trying to convince the High Court, just a few weeks ago, that Souths deserved to be punted because they were poorly managed in comparison to other franchises, which world were they operating in - real or surreal?

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Issue 74 contents

Interview: Politics Italian Style
Italian journalist's union official Rodolfo Falvo talks to Peter Lewis about Italy's Rupert Murdoch and why Italian politics is so crazy.

Unions: A Partnership That Works
Students at Williamstown High in Victoria are benefiting from a creative partnership with TAFE and the Electrical Trades Union. Kevin Peoples reports.

International: Fiji Paymasters Fill Their Own Pockets
The Interim Administration imposed on the people of Fiji, as a result of the coup-makers, have voted themselves a hefty pay increase at the same time as they demand public sector workers take a twelve per cent pay cut.

Politics: USA Campaign 2000 - On the Road
Michael Gadiel reports on the thrills, spills, highs and lows of the US Presidential Election.

Women: Party Girl
'You can take the girl out of the Port, but you can't take the Port out of the girl' - Stephanie Key recounts her life as a feminist in a male bastion, the Transport Workers Union.

Satire: Telstra to issue $50,000 Reith Phonecard
CANBERRA, Monday: Telstra have announced Peter Reith-themed phonecard. The phonecard allows friends and family to make $50,000 worth of phone calls on it before you receive a bill. Plus, you only have to pay the bill in total if there is sufficient public outrage, otherwise the card costs just $950.

Review: Health, Wealth and Mutual Obligations
Mutual obligation for the poor only, increasing income inequality and a widening health gap. Welcome to the 21st century -or is it the 19th?

» Bitter Dispute Ends With Joyful Tidings

» Bodgy Telemarketers Face Union Wrath

» Another Bastard Bank On Rampage

» Employers Reject Individual Contracts

» Time To Come Clean

» Child Care Workers Tell Kim How Howard Nicked Their Money

» Reith Must Apologise Say Hotel Workers

» Telstra Too Smart On Casuals

» Primed To Win

» Payday Nightmare Follows AFFA Outsourcing

» Palestinian Community Seeks Union Support

» Trade Union Choir Rocks Town Hall

» WorkCover Goes For Gold In Paralympics