By MARTYN SADLER
LAST week there were newspaper articles that featured the comments of Ben Cockayne and Jamie Peacock criticising the whole idea of the Million Pound Game.
Their comments broadly reflected my views.
I don’t like to see a structure that jeopardises the livelihoods of so many Rugby League clubs and damages the financial structure of our clubs.
I fully accept that the Million Pound Game was a thrilling game as it turned out, as you’ll see if you turn to page 16 of this issue.
But the question is whether there is a better way to handle promotion and relegation. I’m quite sure there is.
Having said that, the Hull KR club probably made a mistake by allowing some of its most prominent players to openly criticise the concept of the Million Pound Game last week.
I’m quite certain that if I’d been a Salford supporter I would have been very happy reading articles that suggested my opponents didn’t want to be there.
Meanwhile Hull KR Chairman Neil Hudgell issued a statement on Sunday asking the Rovers fans to stick with the club.
“I take full responsibility for where we currently sit and will take time for some quiet reflection whilst emotions run high,” he said. “It is vital we all stick together, stand by the club and give it the best possible shot to bounce back in 2017. Rally round the Robins.”(continued below)
I think he’s being hard on himself there.
But I do hope the Robins’ supporters will keep supporting the club in big numbers next season.
THE GHOST OF HAROLD HOLT
TURN your porch lights off because we’re coming home with the trophy.”
That was the comment of Cronulla Sharks captain Paul Gallen, in his speech to the crowd after the NRL Grand Final on Sunday, in which Cronulla defeated Melbourne Storm 14-12 in a compelling contest.
If you want to know what that comment means, turn to page 30 of this issue to see what Malcolm Andrews has written about Cronulla, their 50-year wait for the NRL Premiership and their link with a former Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt, who disappeared one day while swimming in the sea.
And it seems particularly appropriate local team to prepare ourselves for the World Cup.
We played at a college venue somewhere in the northern beaches are, and I became aware, as our players were taking on the locals, of a bloke with an obvious Yorkshire accent with a slight Australian twang, who was watching the game and passing on some words of encouragement to our players.
It was immediately obvious that this bloke was a Sydney resident, but that he was keen to see us giving the Aussies a good hiding.
I got speaking to him and discovered his identity, and I made it clear to our players that it was a great privilege to have a former Great Britain player who had been part of the team that won the World Cup in 1972 coming to watch them.
And that was the sort of bloke that Stevo was then, and has been ever since.
He has always been ready to give help, advice and support to anyone who is trying to do his best for British Rugby League.
His love for Rugby League in all its forms was immediately obvious and it was no surprise to me to see him re-surface as a commentator for Sky Sports in the early 1990s, where he has formed a partnership with his sparring partner Eddie Hemmings for the last 26 years.
Of course as Rugby League fans we always love to hate our commentators. That is a tradition that goes right back to Eddie Waring.
And even I do often with that the Sky team would concentrate on players rather than spending so much time analysing referees as much as they do.
But anyone who takes the slightest interest in televised Rugby League must realise that Stevo, Eddie and the Sky have done a great job for our sport over the years, to the point at which I think we take their professionalism for granted.
Stevo will call a game for the last time this Saturday evening, when he appears at Old Trafford for the last time.
I hope he gets a game with an ending as good as Saturday’s Million Pound Game for us to remember him by.
And I’d like to wish him the very best in the future, although I suspect we haven’ t seen the last of him, as his interview on the opposite page suggests.
So enjoy your retirement, Stevo. I hope your wife Maureen enjoys having you back in Oz, and I hope to see you in Australia next year for the Rugby League World Cup.
