was that in 2006?

what happened with soo? who play for nsw and queensland?

yeah 06 was when the talks with the chooks happened.

dont understand your question on origin

Unlike the AFL the ARL wasn't strong enough in its leadership of the game (plus its incestuous relationship with Packer) to manage the desire of Fox to get RL to launch its subscription services and so rather than have the ARL running the show being funded by News we ended up with a big handbag fight and RL losing out big style.

Much of SL's vision was spot on and will eventually come to fruition

JB that post is not only very ignorant of want went on, its quite offensive.

i doubt youd like it if someone took control of RL from the RFL and made clubs like Hull KR merge.

if set back RL 10 years.

from what i gather he was due to coach queensland but resigned because he signed for sl, but he still coached sl queensland in a tri match tornament. if i'm rightwho was it played against?

They tried it in England, and failed!

I totally agree it was hugely damaging for RL and basically gave the AFL a 10 year leg up on the NRL but you would be very naive to believe that it was all big bad News Ltd and the Brisbane Broncos fault. It was known that the ARL were vey closely aligned with Packer who was looking to launch his own subscription TV set up on the back of RL. Reality was if the ARL was truly indpendent and well run at the time they would have done what the AFL did and opened it up to the highest bidder. This would probably have averted the war and got RL money that would have made the game the undisputed number one code in the country.

Anyways as someone who lost their club due to the whole affair I think I am as p155ed as anyone at News and the ARL but it was over a decade ago and I gave up harbouring grudges a long time ago. I just want to see the NRL run by a competent and independent management and I don't think the ARL or News meet either of those criteria!

the ARL were so incompetant that they saw the NSWRL expanded into canberra, illawarra, newcastle, gold coast, brisbane (2 clubs), north queensland, auckland and perth.

c',mon mate.

if RL wasnt so succesful news ltd would never have been interested.

they were doing a fine job.

packer had signed the TV rights, including pay tv. news had no right to it so they started their own comp.

its as simple as that. i dont defend packer, he betrayed the ARL.

but ken arthurson wanted what was best for RL.
news ltd wanted what was best for news ltd.

most of the problems of RL today are because of news ltd influence in RL.

and i lost my club to a merger i blame on news ltd.
my club was around since 1908. they were a foundation club.

but that meant nothing to news ltd.

At least you can still go and see a team with some resembelance and linkage to your old club!

ARL were doing a great job, agreed. Unfortunately where they went wrong was to sell undervalue the TV rights to Packer and basically hand him the game without going to the open market (the exact same situation we have now!). Yes News wanted what was best for them but if the ARL had been able to manage it all better then RL could have been a MASSIVE winner instead of a major loser in the whole situation. Yes teams and players were wrong to sign with News, yes it stuffed the game and continues to do so, yes many fans got shafted big style with some (look to teh West!) still suffering today for those decisions. Lets learn from it and hopefully one day get a management team that can get the NATIONAL RL back challenging the AFL.

packer had the TV rights for RL years before news ltd wanted them

(well before there was pay tv in australia)

once the deal had been signed all those years ago, the ARL could do nothing about it.

its not as if they gave them to packer for free to spite news ltd.

we had 3 arl soo games. and we had the superleague tri nations. nsw won the final vs qld. the final went for 108 minutes extra time . noel goldthorpe dragons halfback kicked a field goal