
Issue No 96		18 May 2001

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The Locker Room

Survivor III – The NRL

By Peter Lewis

With reality TV conditioning us to wave goodbye to non-performers, Rugby League's days could be numbered. When you look at all the footy codes, League has become the Weakest Link.

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The evidence is piling up: reduced crowds, plummeting TV figures and a king tide of media stories focusing on the character defects of the players rather than their sporting achievements. Hoppa's digit is but a symbol for the new face of League - where working class kids are turned into overnight millionaires and left to deal with the fleeting pressures of small-time fame.

Meanwhile, News Ltd continues to bank-roll the clubs whose disloyalty allowed the company to ruin the game. Meanwhile, those who wanted no part of the Murdoch vision have either been bullied into forced mergers or told there is no place left for them in the code.

There is every chance that league as we know it will not be around in a decade's time. With News Ltd also a major stakeholder in the far more successful sister code of Rugby Union, there is a strong business case emerging for winding the game up. Why pour money into promoting meaningless games between Brisbane and Auckland, when you have a stake in a rival product that delivers the same match-up with far more passion and grassroots support.

Gazing into my crystal ball, I see another merger on the horizon - but in this one the Super League players will be the junior partners. Already big names in League are switching to the Rah-Rahs for - can you believe it? - the more lucrative contracts. Wouldn't it be easier for all concerned if the Super 12 and Tri-Nations became THE national football competitions?

But just because League is in a state of terminal decline - doesn't necessarily mean that the Foundation clubs - whose exclusion from the Super League vision had a lot to do with its failure - need necessarily die with their code. The dominance of rugby union could provide a catalyst for the old League brands to come back to life

A first step would be for some bright entrepreneur to inject some cash back into the Sydney club scene. Bring back the Souths, the Newtowns, the Bears, the Tigers and the Magpies and fill up the suburban grounds. The big difference would be they would be playing Union not League. The reemergence of these teams would in turn bring the fans that could put some life into Sydney's struggling club rugby scene. These clubs would become the feeders for an even higher profile Super 12 competition, but the focus of local footy would go back to the grass-roots. And most real fans would tell you that's the only hope footy's got.

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Issue 96 contents

Interview: The Enabler
On the eve of the release of his latest book, Beazley’s brain on the back-bench, Mark Latham, talks about putting the social back into socialism.

Unions: Flogged To Death
One third of Australian workers now work in conditions that would be deemed illegal in Europe. While in our workplaces so much is being done by so few with so little the Howard Government leans on its shovel reports Noel Hester.

Corporate: Nike's Six Broken Promises
A new international report on the labour practices at Nike have placed their stated commitment to ethical employment under the microscope.

International: Jagath at the Solidarity Cafe
When the brave workers at the Shangri-La Hotel in Jakarta marched on May Day, a Sydney unionist was by their side.

Education: The Battle for Free Thought
The recent sacking of Dr Ted Steele at the University of Wollongong has focused attention on the need for vigilant defence of employment rights and academic freedom.

History: Federation and Labour
The labour movement’s role in the 1897 Federal Convention and the subsequent referenda process has been largely forgotten.

Satire: Addict Stops Using Smack After Talk With Parents
A 21-year-old heroin addict has agreed to give up his habit after his parents told him that using drugs was wrong.

Review: Rouge or Red?
Mark Hebblewhite argues that the new Baz Luhrmann blockbuster isn't without its class analysis.

» WorkCover: Della Should Split the Package

» HIH Workers Win Severance Guarantee

» Abbott Runs From OEA Failure

» Angry Musos Aim Riffs at Della

» Second Prize In The Arnott’s Sell-Out

» Banks Workers Opt for People Over Pay

» Bosses Raise Stakes in State Wage Case

» Refugee Riots Sparked By Strike Action

» Vodafone Promotes It’s Own

» Champion Workers Left With Nothing

» Bid for Reasonable Hours to AIRC

» Political Economy Courses at Sydney University

» Activist Notebook

» The Soapbox

» The Locker Room

» Trades Hall

» Tool Shed

» New Editorial Guidelines

» Letter to Canberra

» A Fowler Smell

» Who Saved May Day?

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