By STEVE MASCORD
YOUR correspondent has to admit: he would’t have noticed if no-one had told him.
But the presence of Ben Murdoch-Masila in Warrington’s line-up on Thursday night surprised a few people. That’s not because the Tongan didn’t deserve to be there – he had scored a try at Wembley the previous week, after all.
No, it was because he hadn’t even been in Warrington’s 19-man squad for that night’s match against Hull at the Halliwell Jones Stadium.
The RFL operational guide available to the public doesn’t say much about the circumstances under which a player can come from outside the preliminary squad to be in the match-day line-up. I believe there’s more detail in a booklet available to clubs, referees and ground managers.
But it does say this about the reasons for the rule: “To ensure there is transparency and integrity around team selections and that there is no opportunity for those connected with a club to profit from insider information”.
While no-one is for a moment suggesting there was any such underhandedness last week – look at the score, Murdoch-Masila’s presence could not have influenced the result, – was this purpose served? I would say not.
For all we know, the Wolves had three serious injuries which completely prevented their sufferers from playing.
But that should be the only acceptable reason for such a change – three injuries which would prevent players from taking part in even five minutes of a match. Not one player, not two players – three.
The 19-man squad always seemed to Australians a quaint British custom, especially during international tours where the visiting coach would name his starting side and reserves while the England boss of the day could play ducks and drakes until an hour before kick-off.
All that changed in 2013 when police investigating organised crime links declared their findings “the blackest day in Australian sport”.
Convictions didn’t measure up to that assessment but now they not only have the 19-man system but phones are banned from dressing rooms.
In the NFL, clubs have to list who trained and who didn’t after each session – and list their injuries. And they’ve only just legalised sports betting!
There’s been plenty of talk this week about an invasive media covering rugby league in Australia. But when no-one really reports on or cares about procedural issues like this, you get a different breed of problems.
Here, it’s the lack of scrutiny that hurts the game.
