Masterful gambit, sir
Masterful gambit, sir
How far women's footy has come, V'Landys as a deep sea fish, a brief consideration of David Fifita
The train of progress
The idea of women’s sport “arriving”, as if there is a destination, is a facile one. After the AFL invented women’s sport in 2017, that train will keep going until either women or sport cease to exist. Women have had a several hundred million year headstart on sport, so we’ll see if the latter has a similar robustness.
But from time-to-time, it’s worth briefly hopping off the train of progress at its scheduled stops to stretch the legs, have a look around and consider the landscape. Last Thursday was the first game of the first three game women’s State of Origin series. No longer a financial burden (if it ever was), the states, the Controlling Body and the broadcasters have realised that if you give the thing some juice, then people will treat it like it matters and because of that, it does.
The game reached nearly 2 million people with nearly 1 million viewers, which is getting up towards NRLM finals territory. There were 25,000 in the stadium on a Thursday night, after the fixture was only announced after many travelling fans would have committed to Magic Round but not the Origin game, but still 7,000 more than in Townsville for game 2 last year.
Phil Gould has even transitioned from pleasant commentator, indifferent to the outcome, to Blues gronk, and Allana Ferguson got to play Andrew Johns with less petulance, because it’s important to them that they win it.
I don’t know if this is the sport crossing a meaningful and particular threshold or if the changing landscape is simply the evidence of the train continuing to progress on its way to the future but it feels significant. Whether we as a society reach a point where the NRLW and NRLM are considered two sides of the same coin remains to be seen but surely three sold out women’s Origin games can’t be too far away.
The theme of the early rounds of this year’s BMD Premiership was just how much better the elite NRLW players were and are than the non-elite talents that make up the bulk of the competition. That, in its own way, is also a sign of how far the top tier of the women’s game has diverged from the amateur and semi-pro class of player.
Of the starting 17s, the Maroons combined for 84 appearances in the 2024 season across 16 players (Julia Robinson being the exception) while the Blues had 12 appearances from four players (Kernick, Chapman, Apps and Davis). New South Wales looked as enthusiastic and better prepared than their northern counterparts, suggesting that a long camp of elite players provides at least as good preparation than playing in the QRLW1. While this by no means is a concession of series defeat with two games to play, if those games in Mackay, Rockhampton, Toowoomba and in the south-east were going to provide a competitive advantage, this is the time we would have seen it.
With both the NRLW and BMD bringing in new clubs in 2025 and presumably extending the length of their respective seasons, it’s time to retire the notion (and possibly I was the only one that thought this) that a state campaign is a helpful adjunct to the women’s professional season. It is the second tier and there is sufficient talent to support both tiers of the sport being played simultaneously.
Whether the QRL will move next year’s QRLW season to align with the NRLW and NSWRL remains to be seen but it seems that it would be better to put that competition at service of the NRLW clubs, as the QCup is to the NRLM clubs, and spend a bit of cash on sending the girls to Kokoda or whatever. Is it stupid to spend a lot of money preparing for a three game representative series? Yes but it’s also important we win it.
Thank you for reading The Maroon Observer
That’s the sound of the tune being changed
This is stale news now but I must record my views for posterity (and future linking) and because these things get harder to find if I leave them in the hands of News Corporation, as will be demonstrated.
Badel last Sunday:
It can be revealed:
A call to expand to 18 teams could be made as early as June;
An expansion task force has been established, with ARL Commissioners Peter Beattie and Kate Jones in talks with the Federal government to bring Papua New Guinea to the NRL by 2027 or 2028;
Dolphins ‘expansion specialist’ Wayne Bennett has spoken with V’landys and indicated his desire to coach an 18th team from PNG — pending his availability amid interest from South Sydney;
V’landys is in advanced talks with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese over a $600 million “soft diplomacy” package to bankroll a PNG team; and
After more than two decades in the wilderness, the Bears are ready to come out of hibernation as Perth and North Sydney chiefs discuss a joint-venture proposal for a 19th NRL franchise in Western Australia.
As usual, Badel has posted this with a view to being first, rather than being right. Less than a day later in Ninefax:
Cumins is aware of the move, supported by V’landys, to bring back the Bears in the NRL in a liaison with Perth.
“It is not our first preference,” Cumins said.
“The people involved in the consortium are West Australians who love rugby league and would love to see a stand-alone team in Perth.
“If we had to make a concession, and a partnership was the only way we could do it, then we would look at that, but there are lots of downsides to those arrangements and the integration with people on the other side of the country.”
Cumins said: “West Australians are very parochial”.
“The history and traditions of the North Sydney Bears and Newtown Jets have no relevance to anyone in Perth,” he said.
“People in Perth would be going, ‘why are we playing games at North Sydney Oval?’”
Good point, well made and bleeding obvious to those of us outside the rat king of Sydney NRL clubs. Continuing:
AAP has been told the PNG NRL bid is far from a fait accompli as the 18th team in 2027 or 2028 despite a $600 million package from the Federal Government over 10 years to fund it.
The majority of NRL clubs are against it and Wayne Bennett, a supporter of the Perth bid, said on Wednesday that it would be “a two or three-year project” after any decision to expand was made.
The government working group in Perth on the other hand are convinced they are “NRL-ready” now.
Uh-oh! The NRL equivalent of CHOGM was held before Magic Round kicked off and can you hear that? It’s the sound of the tune being changed.
ARLC Chairman Peter V'Landys has dropped an expansion bombshell declaring the NRL will walk away from the Papua New Guinea bid if the Australian government does not meet demands over funding.
Clubs were told PNG is the preferred candidate for the 18th team at Thursday's CEO meeting in Brisbane with the view a licence would be granted in either 2027 or 2028.
But V'landys revealed the future of the PNG bid will be determined at a decisive meeting on Friday with Minister for International Development and the Pacific Stephen Conroy, and that the NRL would walk away if a number of 'sticking points' could not be resolved.
It's understood one of the sticking points is exactly how the Australian Government's $600 million funding pledge would be spent as part of the move into PNG.
"Absolutely (we'll walk away), if you've played poker with me, I don't bluff," V'landys said.
"If things don't fall in place, we have to move forward and we can't be stagnant.
"We've got a few negotiating points that we have not got over (the line), and if we don't get them over unfortunately it won't happen. It's D-Day today, we are meeting with the government on various aspects of it and move it forward, if we can't then we'll look elsewhere."
Putting aside V’Landys’ incredible contention that he never bluffs while playing poker (for the record, this is a dumb thing to say if you plan to ever play poker again), this flew in the face of all previous rhetoric, suggesting that the club heads had informed V’Landys of exactly how unimpressed they were with the idea of going to Port Moresby.
Continuing:
The NRL has at least four other bids on the table including two in New Zealand, Perth and Brisbane.
V'landys said attention would turn to those bids if the meeting with the government failed to find a resolution.
"It's no done deal and there are some very good bids in Perth, Christchurch and even here in Brisbane. It's far from a final decision," V'landys said.
V'landys even suggested that Perth's bid to be the 18th team could have overtaken PNG as the preferred option.
"Their (Perth) bid is looking very good and maybe PNG isn't the one that is first," V'landys said.
"All the bids are fantastic and it goes to show you how good the game is going at the moment. The premier of Western Australia, I'm taking an AVO out on him he calls every day asking to put the Perth team in." [ed - he does not]
The Perth bid team is in talks with North Sydney Bears bosses about a possible joint venture.
V'landys said on Friday the outcome of the Perth bid would not be contingent on a Bears joint venture getting across the line.
But the linked article has now been re-written with a more conciliatory tone:
Papua New Guinea is set to clinch one of two new NRL licences as part of a 19-team league after ARL Commission boss Peter V’landys smoked the peace pipe [ed - thanks Peter Minuit, try a cliche created in the last 300 years] with the Federal Government on Friday night.
PNG’s bold bid to enter the NRL by 2028 was in danger of collapse after V’landys warned D-Day had arrived for the Federal Government over a 10-year, $600 million funding package for an 18th team in the Pacific.
But tensions eased after crisis talks between V’landys and defence minister Pat Conroy on Friday night - clearing the path for PNG to edge closer to becoming the code’s next expansion team.
It’s hard to know whether to be more embarrassed for the journalists so openly turning out PR copy instead of doing their jobs2, V’Landys for having the consistency and foresight of one of those fish scientists dredge up from kilometres under the surface of the ocean that are gelatinous goo held together by 100 atmospheres of water pressure, or rugby league for having to be associated with either.
Here are some other gems:
Asked how soon they could announce plans to expand, V’landys said: “We’re not going to be hanging around - two to three weeks max. And it will be more than Papua New Guinea.”
“To be quite frank, this idea didn’t come from me or the Commission, it came from one of the great visionaries which is Nick Politis [ed - lawd, gag]. He came to the Annual General Meeting and said we are all kidding ourselves if we don’t go to 20 teams and he is 100 per cent right and we have followed that up.
“I’m not saying if it’s going ahead, but we will be in a position to have a business case to present to our members.
“If they are violently against it, we will consider it, but we’re not going to take something to the members if it doesn’t stack up.
“We wouldn’t be doing this if it wasn’t to the financial benefit of our members.
Earlier in the day, Conroy had remained hopeful that the parties could reach common ground, but maintained the taxpayer would come first.
“It will be great for the Pacific if it (a PNG team in the NRL) can happen but ultimately I have a responsibility to Australian taxpayers,” said Conroy, who attended Ballymore on Friday to announce funding for Queensland rugby tours to Tonga…
“Sport is a critical part of our engagement with the Pacific. Ultimately it has to work for the Australian government and taxpayers and the PNG government and the NRL, but we take value for money and taxpayers dollars very seriously.”
All that is left is for the ARL Commission to garner the support of the 17 clubs, which V’landys hopes to secure over the coming weeks.
Surely! This is but a mere trifle for the master negotiator, who will definitely settle on a year to bring in the new team, which started at 2026 and now seems to be 2028.
What about the broadcasters? Nine avoids going to Townsville and Fox barely leaves Sydney. The clubs hate this and want money but the balance sheet is tapped out. The fans are, at best, unconvinced. The stenographers at the newspapers are going to disappear real quick when it comes time to actually go to Papua New Guinea and Murdoch isn’t springing for security. The only people on board are the government and Peter V’Landys, who has staked a lot of political capital on this but will almost certainly be fine, irrespective of the outcome.
We’re either six weeks away from Peter V’Landys denying there ever was going to be a PNG team, putting it in the same mental compartment with the Sydney suburban stadium strategy, his drive to bring back all three grades, the 2021 season, his negotiations with the broadcasters during covid and then with the RLPA, the refereeing being a thousand times worse now because no one can follow a process and the outcome of any lawsuit he’s been involved with, or adding a PNG team no one wants and forcing the Bears on Perth. As masterful a gambit as slamming your dick in a car door, sir.
David Fifita
I missed doing a newsletter last week due to reasons elaborated below but I basically got to Tuesday night and this is all I had written from the week before:
At the risk of sounding like I’m inhaling voluminous cope, this, strictly speaking, doesn’t mean he is actually leaving, only that he is not picking up his two year option. He could, theoretically, sign up on a new deal for one year or get the full Tino for a million years.
Then Thursday the 9th happened - weird that I can’t link to any press releases about it now - so instead will quote ESPN:
David Fifita has agreed to join the Sydney Roosters after opting to walk out on Gold Coast at year's end and turn his back on three-time defending NRL premiers Penrith.
Fifita told Roosters officials on Thursday he would take up a four-year deal with the NRL club, worth close to $3.3 million over four years.
And I added to my post:
Oh, he's going to the Roosters? Well there you go. He can spend his career protecting a kid who looks like he's wearing a fake beard and enjoy some mild booing from what's left of the Gold Coast fanbase.
Before euologising the Titans’ Project 2026. Titans CEO, Steve Mitchell, even pleaded with Badel to keep his job. Then Wednesday the 15th happened and we were afforded a fantastic opportunity to laugh at the self-congratulatory Roosters and their mewling that they’d chosen to withdraw their offer. For that, we salute you David Fifita3, although I am less enthralled with the voluminous cope headlines published by Roosters-friendly media but see previous comments re: embarrassment.
My guess is that the player option did expire but the Titans got to Fifita in the cooling off period, ramped up the two year offer and he took it. They’ll claim it was him agreeing to exercise the option, even though the reporting made it clear he did not meet the deadline. If David Fifita were a commodity and you a trader, fucking up your options would mean you’re about to take delivery of 300 tonnes of nickel at your office, but because Fifita is a unique and beautiful asset, like a Faberge egg or a rare Picasso, the rules are less important.
Intermission
Jock saw Broncos fans enjoying Josh Rogers’ straightforward replacement level kicking and decided that was enough of that.
Sure Pat Carrigan played the game of his life, Jackson Hastings got binned for being a prick to our beautiful Faberge egg, and some much cooler stuff probably happened, even to Jock Madden, but Koula and his coach can eat one.
A brief programming note
Last week I had a long week at work, a very mild stomach bug, got deeply immersed in Francis Spufford’s excellent book Red Plenty, and ran a half marathon, which went about as well as you’d expect with that for preparation. If you find yourself thinking something to the effect of, “Boy that sounds like a lot, maybe you should do less?” I think you might be on to something and that is why the newsletter is off schedule. Anyway, the lesson is never fulfill your commitments or do any self-improvement and instead abandon your job and young family so you can take the week off and go to Magic Round.
I am also away next weekend, so it will likely be a less regular service than usual for the next week or two until things find their balance again. I still have a lot of footy, a bit of the Giro and Stanley Cup to catch up on.
Notes
Wayne Bennett agrees to $3 million, three-year deal with South Sydney
Lawyer linked to 'parasitic' AI content network identified, in which the ABC hilariously misidentified Micheal Luck as the Cowboys coach and still have Micheal spelled wrong (although, you know, debatable that Mr and Mrs Luck spelled it correctly in the first place). Probably shouldn’t use a LLM to write a story about AI-based plagiarism!
Magic Round to remain in Queensland at Suncorp Stadium until at least 2026 (others have said three years to ‘27)
Anglo American to sell De Beers, Amplats to fend off BHP’s bid. BHP is trying to buy out Dolphins’ sponsor, Anglo American. Anglo American, for corporate reasons too arcane for me to work out (until Matt Levine explains it to me), don’t want this and are prepared to spin off a bunch of assets, including their coal business (which is the point of their sponsorship) and the De Beers diamond cartel.
Police officers issued NRL ban notice for allegedly throwing projectile at referee Ashley Klein. True shock. If we can’t even expect police to abide by ordinary behavioural standards set by society and law, how can we expect them to enforce it? Hmm, really makes you think. Probably won’t be too hard to work out this one: NRL investigating bottle-throwing incident at Eels-Broncos clash. Then do what you want with this: Ex-cop charged with perjury over Jack de Belin sexual assault trial. The reporting obviously does not make clear which way the ex-cop is alleged to have perjured himself.
Alternative careers: Between Jack Ahearn and Lauren Brown, am I given to understand that being a fire fighter is not that physically demanding that you can add high level rugby league on top?
Reece is the word: How Walsh mania is driving support for Broncos in heart of Sydney
Former Brisbane Broncos development player Jotham Russell lands NFL deal
Netflix gets NFL Christmas Day games, a fire-breathing shot at its competitors
With a combined 27 errors and 69% completion rate, you could argue that there's no real substitute for four to six weeks of NRLW football as a lead-in.
Witness Michael Carryannis confusing answering questions with hand waving: The Hunters survive on private funding, so a NRL team that needs 12 to 15 times the budget will be fine.
Unless he is the player who was accused of rape, in which case yikes, but it would be irresponsible to speculate.