WIldcard Weekend (2019)

On Monday the NRL proposed a ‘Wildcard Weekend’ as part of the finals system, which could be introduced as early as 2020.

It would see the teams placed ninth and tenth on the ladder at the end of the regular season play the teams ranked 7^th and 8^th. The winners of these two games would become the official 7^th and 8^th placed teams for the finals series, while the remaining 6 teams would get a week off.

The reasoning behind this concept was to reduce the number of pointless games at the end of the season – where teams with no chance of reaching the finals were playing one another, by effectively having teams vying to reach the top ten on the ladder, which would see nearly every team still in finals contention for far deeper into the season.

The reasoning and justification for this idea is entirely legitimate. It would no doubt make for a more keenly fought season for more teams.

But the cons outweigh the pro’s.

No team, since 1908 has won the premiership placed lower than 6^th on the ladder, which shows that the merits of a top 8 finals system are doubtful, thus adding two teams who have performed worse than those sides into the finals and making them play an extra game, while the top 6 sides all get an extra week off, effectively makes it even harder for those teams below 6^th to reach the Grand Final, let alone win it.

The other issue this presents is that it allows sides who have won less than half their games to reach the finals. Since the NRL era began in 1998 there’s been 11 teams that have won at least 50% of their games and missed the finals:

Cronulla (1998) – 12 Wins, 1 Draw, 11 Losses (1998 had a top 10, Cronulla finished 11^th)
Canberra (1999) – 13 Wins, 1 Draw, 10 Losses (finished 9^th)

Warriors (2006) – 12 Wins, 12 Losses (finished 10^th – They would’ve placed 8^th, but had 4 points deducted for cap breaches)

Newcastle (2008) – 12 Wins, 12 Losses (finished 9^th)

Wests Tigers (2009) - 12 Wins, 12 Losses (finished 9^th)

Melbourne (2010) – 14 Wins, 10 Losses (Finished 16^th – Lost all competition points for cap breaches)

Canterbury (2011) - 12 Wins, 12 Losses (finished 9^th)

Warriors (2014) - 12 Wins, 12 Losses (finished 9^th)

Parramatta (2014) - 12 Wins, 12 Losses (finished 10^th)

St.George-Illawarra (2017) - 12 Wins, 12 Losses (finished 9^th)

Wests Tigers (2018) - 12 Wins, 12 Losses (finished 9^th)

In just 1 of the years since 1998 has both teams placed 9^th and 10^th won at least half their games and that was 2014.

2018 was a rare year, where the top 8 was determined rather early in the year, with 8^th place finishing 3 wins clear of 9^th place.

It’s not wise to make a rash change after one rare season. The last time the finalists were that far ahead of the rest of the competition was in 1969.

The NRL finals system is fine as is. This change isn’t necessary. This concept looks to be nothing more than trying to find something that’s broken.

The NRL Twitter account ran a poll asking fans if they were in favour of the Wildcard Weekend concept, and after just 2 hours they’d received over 1700 votes, with 80% voting No.

Proving that nothing is broken here and this idea should be scrapped.

If the NRL wants to be fair, then they should reintroduce play-offs in the event that teams who finish outside the 8 are on the same competition points as teams inside the 8.

NRL Expansion Talk (2019)

On February 9, 2019, Peter Badel from Brisbane’s Courier Mail wrote an article making the claim that 2 Sydney NRL clubs should be axed and at least 1 Brisbane team should be created to fill the void.

While he makes some sound arguments, such as the struggles that some Sydney clubs have, some of the other claims need to be challenged.

He argues that a second NRL side in Brisbane would crush rival codes there and his evidence is by highlighting how essentially, the Broncos have already done much of that and would likely have the same impact on a second Brisbane NRL team.

“The AFL’s Brisbane Lions are a skeleton of the powerhouse that won a hat-trick of flags in 2001-03.

Football’s Brisbane Roar have seen crowds drop 34 per cent in the past 12 months.

Rugby’s Reds — once a genuine threat to the Broncos on the scale of crowd figures — have lost major traction in a code that has lost its marbles.”

He also went on to say that the South-Eastern corner of Queensland has an estimated 3.5 million residents.

Nowhere in his piece does he mention the Robina based Gold Coast Titans, purely because they would weaken his argument.

2018 saw the Titans record their second lowest crowd average since their 2007 inception, with 12,807 fans turning up on average per game, down from their peak of 21,618 in 2008 and almost 1,000 per game less than in 2016 when they last reached the finals.

He then supports his argument with an outlandish quote made by Nick Livermore, one of the shareholders in the Brisbane Bombers expansion bid team. Livermore said:

“With crowds of 24,000, a second Brisbane team would make a $1 million profit. And that’s not factoring in the NRL grant, which is now greater than the salary cap.’’

Only one team averages crowds of 24,000 and that’s the Broncos. A second team would change that and bring their average crowd figure down, just like the Crushers did when they joined the competition in 1995.

Furthermore, the Titans have never averaged crowds of 24,000 in a season and they don’t have the Broncos within a stones throw of them as an excuse.

In 1996 when Brisbane had the Broncos and the Crushers, the South Queensland side averaged 10 thousand less fans per game than the Broncos. The Crushers had 13,016 fans per home game. In 1997 they were averaging less than 10 thousand per home game.

If that figure was carried across today, using the 2018 crowd averages, the second team would struggle to average 22,000. And if the Titans is a guide, those strong crowds will last for 3 to 4 years.

South Queensland survived for 3 years.

Let’s have a look at how those 3 years (1995, 1996 and 1997) worked out for Brisbane.

1994 – Brisbane averaged 37,705 per game (11 Broncos games)

1995 – Brisbane averaged 28,466 per game (11 Broncos games and 11 Crushers games)

1996 – Brisbane averaged 18,109 per game (10 Broncos games and 11 Crushers games)

1997 – Brisbane averaged 12,536 per game (9 Broncos games and 11 Crushers games)

1998 – Brisbane averaged 20,073 per game (12 Broncos games)

There’s a reason why Broncos games attract big crowds, they have no competition. As soon as competition arrives the Broncos crowd drop and the number of fans attending games in Brisbane drops as well.

Livermore then cherry-picked data to support his evidence, attacking the Wests Tigers crowd figures, one of the worst performing teams in the past 5 years and a club who uses several home grounds each year. He questioned what the club provides and their existence in the competition.

So here’s where we get to my view.

I detest the notion of axing clubs. People have this impression that fans of an axed club will just support another team. Axing clubs also axes fans.

Relocations are nearly as bad, although small moves, within the proximity of the clubs base, can always be considered – ie – Manly covering the Central Coast, Gold Coast covering South East Brisbane/Ipswich.

In an ideal world, the Wests Tigers would be permanently based at Campbelltown.

The code needs to expand. Perth has to be one of the new teams and I’d argue that a team from the Sunshine Coast (representing the region and northwards up to Bundaberg) should be top priorities, that way you don’t have a new team eating away at the Broncos, while still getting another team that is within reach of the Brisbane populous, while also being based in an area with a larger population than Townsville.

An 18 team competition is very much achievable and reasonable and a 20 team competition should be the end goal with a team from Adelaide or Darwin (as they are in a different time zone) and a team from New Zealand, either Christchurch or Wellington.

I don’t believe that plonking a team where one exists is expansion. You haven’t created a new market, you haven’t expanded anything.

I’m very much supportive of another team in Queensland, but I don’t believe we should be white-anting the Broncos, because that would likely just create a repeat of the problems that Badel stated are rife in Sydney.

We’ve done Queensland right. Let’s not ruin it.

Jim Abercrombie (2018)

Born: 31/12/1880 at Curramulka, South Australia

Died: 29/10/1948 at Puramahoi, Nelson, New Zealand

The story of Jim Abercrombie is one that typifies the struggle that pioneering players had with the Rugby Union and their motivation to join the newly formed Rugby League.

Abercrombie himself had a difficult personal life too, even as a child. He was born James Maskell in Curramulka, South Australia on New Years Eve 1880, the first child of dairy farmer Thomas and his wife Lucy’s 3 children. When he was 11 years old, his father died. The following year she married William Abercrombie and all 3 children adopted his surname.

Sadly though, William passed away just 2 years later. Lucy relocated with her children to Sydney and in 1897, married again to Joseph Appleton, giving Jim his third father before he turned 17 years old.

In 1898 Jim began playing lower grade Rugby Union, lining up for Bayview for 2 seasons before switching to Grosvenor in 1900. While there he was selected in a Moss Vale representative side.

In 1901 he made his first grade debut for heavyweight side Glebe, earning a place in the Sydney juniors side that took on Newcastle. In 1902 he played for Metropolitan v Newcastle. After the 1903 season, he left the Glebe club to play for North Sydney.

He continued to improve at Norths, despite several of his team mates not bothering to attend training.

In 1906, he married Grace Johnson and the following year he became a father, to twin boys William and James.

Jim was made vice-captain of North Sydney in 1907, captaining the side on a number of occasions, but one game changed everything in an instant.

On July 6 he was sent off in the game between North Sydney and St.George. 3 days later, his magnificent form saw him earn his highest representative honour at the time when he was selected to play for NSW on their tour of Western Australia.

His joy lasted just 1 day. On July 10 the Metropolitan Rugby Union suspended Abercrombie until September 1908 – a 14 month suspension – “for indiscriminate kicking.” Two weeks later the MRU decided to review the decision at a later date.

A shattered Abercrombie then decided to attend the inaugural meeting to form Rugby League in Australia, which took place at the Bateman’s Hotel on August 12, 1907. Joining him were a large number of players, most notably Dally Messenger, Tommy O’Donnell, Harry Hamill, Herb Brackenreg, Martin Laidlaw, Tom Costello, Albert Rosenfeld, Bob Graves, Arthur Hennessy, Alec Burdon, Frank Cheadle, Percy McNamara, Peter Moir, Dinny Lutge and Fred Henlen.

Four days after this meeting, the MRU agreed to remove the suspension on Abercrombie, exonerating him completely, however by then he was unable to join the NSW side.

The following week, Abercrombie lined up for the professional NSW rebel side in their third match against New Zealand ‘All-Gold’s’. The following month the MRU banned him and all his team mates from Rugby Union for life.

On February 7, 1908, Abercrombie attended the inaugural meeting for the North Sydney Rugby League club, also being elected to a position on the committee. Surprisingly, he was then in attendance at the Western Suburbs Rugby League inaugural meeting at the Ashfield Town Hall and again, was elected on the clubs board. He found himself work as a Blacksmith in Concord and thus lined up for the Western Suburbs side for the 1908 season.

He played in every game for Wests in their debut season, as well as being picked for NSW against the visiting Maori side and then for Metropolis against both Queensland and the Maori side again.

Abercrombie was named in the Australian side to play against the Maori team on August 1, but the match was cancelled. With the Kangaroo touring squad having been named just a few days prior, with Abercrombie not being picked, it appeared that he had missed his chance for national selection.

But on August 4, he was named along with Albert Rosenfeld, Tedda Courtney and Alf Dobbs. 4 days later he played for Wests in their last game of the season and a week later, boarded the RMS Macedonia and set sail on the six week journey to England.

Abercrombie went on to play in 31 of the 45 games on the ill-fated tour, including the first and second tests against Great Britain.

Upon returning to Australia in 1909, Abercrombie did not play any first grade football for the year. He played just 2 games in 1910 for Wests.

In 1911 his son John was born and in 1913, he made one last first grade appearance for Wests due to several players not being available. At the end of the year, the City Cup final between Norths and Glebe had half the gate takings donated to 4 pioneer players who had decided to retire – Abercrombie, Bob Mable, Ed Fry and Harry Hamill. Each player received the tidy sum of 80 pounds.

The following year he was awarded life membership of the New South Wales Rugby League.

In 1921, at the age of 40 he became a father again, to son Cornelius and in 1929 had a daughter who tragically died from meningitis at the age of three.

After his daughter’s death, he reverted back to using his birth surname of Maskell and then emigrated to New Zealand to become a farmer in Puramahoi, north of Nelson on the South Island.

His mother died in 1937 and in 1940 his son John enlisted for service in World War II with the 2/19 Australian Infantry. He was taken prisoner while serving in Thailand and died on June 18, 1943.

On October 29, 1948 James Maskell passed away.

In 2008 he was one of six men inducted into the Western Suburbs Rugby League club’s Hall of Fame, alongside club legends Keith Holman, Peter Dimond, Arthur Summons, Noel Kelly and Tommy Raudonikis.

Rugby League Playing Career

Club

Wests (1908, 1910, 1913) – Played 12, 5 goals, 10 points

Representative

NSW (1907-08) – Played 2, 0 points

Metropolis (1908) – Played 2, 0 points

Australia (1908-09 Kangaroo tour games) – Played 29, 2 tries, 6 goals, 18 points

TESTS

Australia (1908-09) – Played 2, 0 points

TOTAL

1907-13 – Played 47, 2 tries, 11 goals, 28 points