October 4, 1996: Back to the future with News-NRL deal
Twenty-five years to the day since the second Super League court decision, the game jumps deeper into bed with News Corp.
As we all know, today is a huge one in the world of Two Tribes. It’s 25 years exactly since the day the book opens, October 4 1996.
It’s the day this installation catches up with the thing it’s promoting.
I was undecided how to properly recognise this milestone. Was I going to do a podcast with audio from some of my interviewees talking about the decision of the full bench of the Federal Court that allowed Super League to kick off?
I need not have worried. Rugby league always delivers controversy and when required.
Michael Chammas’ story in the the Sydney Morning Herald today reminds us how completely Australian rugby league still relies on the houses of Packer and Murdoch and how the latter is once more deepening its claws in the sport.
News has agreed to give the NRL another $15 million in exchange - in part - for keeping the Brisbane Broncos off Channel Nine. Nine - whose contract with the league expires at the end of next year - aren’t impressed.
That $15 million will then help the NRL push through a second Brisbane team in 2023, allowing it to fund the franchise without reducing the grants of the other clubs.
Australian rugby league’s scheduling (remember, scheduling does affect competition integrity if some teams have the advantage of playing at certain times of the week regularly while others don’t) has always been for sale.
The fact Nine would give only a few days notice which games it was showing, therefore determining what days they were on, was one of the key complaints of the rebels back in 1994 and 1995.
All this time later, the sport is still in the thrall of the two biggest fish in the Australian media pond. Fox own the Broncos, they have the pay TV rights until 2027.
Only last year, comments from Channel Nine’s Hugh Marks appeared to lead directly to the sacking of NRL CEO Todd Greenberg and the NRL has slashed its digital operation to keep Nine on side.
Are Nine the more fickle, News the more committed, of rugby league’s two biggest media partners?
And was this reflected on two October 4s, a quarter century apart?
WHATEVER THE DECISION, CHAOS WILL BE THE ULTIMATE OUTCOME
Sydney Morning Herald, Friday, October 4 1996
By STEVE MASCORD
SO today is judgment day.
This afternoon, three judges are due to tell us where the game of rugby league is headed.
Except we already know: towards a new era of chaos.
Anyone who believes all will be crystal clear after today's ruling is being naive.
Leaving aside the question of further appeals (and the Australian Rugby League has already signalled it will seek leave to take the case to the High Court if it loses), the judgment will trigger months of confusion and intrigue, whatever the decision.
Broadly speaking, there are three possible outcomes this afternoon:
+ The entire judgment is upheld and the ARL rules league in this country until the turn of the century;
+ The players off contract with clubs will be released either to Super League or, depending on the judgment, some other competition run by someone other than News Limited.
+ The contracts tying the clubs to the League until the turn of the century will be set aside and Super League will be allowed to start.
In any of these possibilities, the game is going to be a mess between now and next season or seasons.
If the entire judgment is upheld, many players and officials are going to be sick with worry today.
There is allegedly a "get out" clause in players' contracts which allows News to escape their commitments if the contracts are legally frustrated.
News, however, has assured a number of clubs and players it will honour the contracts.
However, since all News Ltd-contracted players were released from their clubs to Super League last year, if there is no Super League, will some of the game's biggest names be on the open market? We'll see.
Officials of clubs such as the Western Reds, who are heavily reliant on News, and those of the nine national leagues and three Australian State leagues aligned with the breakaway, will also be nervously checking the wording of their agreements if the ARL wins.
If the players are released to Super League but the clubs remain with the ARL, News will have to set up eight new franchises over the next four months, and you can expect absolute bedlam in Sydney, Perth, Townsville, Brisbane and Auckland, where the new bodies will suddenly be in competition with the ARL- aligned clubs.
Obviously the hearts of the Broncos, Panthers, Cowboys, Reds, etc, will not be with the ARL, but their directors will be obliged to use their best endeavours to field teams in the ARL.
Where they'll get their players will be a subject of further chaos.
If News is barred from having any involvement in a new competition, expect British league chief Maurice Lindsay to be breezing through customs at Mascot within days.
Global League will ride again.
Lindsay, along with Simon Gillies, Chris Johns and Laurie Daley, will call regular media conferences.
They'll announce sponsors, a competition structure and the team names.
Their clubs will be mere shells of what they were, with a few players on long-term contracts forced to play alongside reserve graders and juniors in the ARL.
If Super League is allowed to start, the News Ltd publicity machine will explode into action.
Expect glittering launches, saturation advertising and endless hype.
At one stage it looked like the British Lions, now touring the Pacific, would stop by next month if Super League won.
Ironically, that is now more likely to happen if the ARL wins and it brokers a quick peace with the league world.
Bear in mind that many players have agreed to go to "club A" next year if Super League wins and "club B" if the ARL wins.
Their movements alone will provide enough news to destroy a rainforest or two.
And then, of course, there is the ultimate X factor, the one which could render the mad manoeuvrings irrelevant.
It's the possibility of peace talks at the top.
For the sake of the game, let's hope they find common ground regardless of what the judges say.
People will tell you they know what's going to happen today. Listen to them at your peril.
But don't listen to anyone who says "thank goodness it's finally over".
It's only beginning.
RESOURCES
New Rugby League Digest episode on the Super League War
Atanaskovic-Hartnell (Super League lawyers) website
Michael Chammas’ story today