By STEVE MASCORD
IT is with only the tiniest modicum of regret that I wish to announce I am banning Leigh.
I find I am left with no alternative after the Centurions’ eccentric owner Derek Beaumont took the same action against my colleague John Davidson for pettiest of reasons.
On May 7, Davidson Tweeted “I do love an essay in a match programme”, in reference to a long Beaumont column in the Centurions’ matchday booklet.
Shortly thereafter, he was told he was banned by the club.
Surely no-one could be so childish as to take offence at a Tweet like that? Davidson sent an email to Beaumont asking why he had been banned, and for how long.
Beaumont responded: “Given you don’t like essays. Because I can and until I say”.
What an embarrassment it is to rugby league that we are so desperate for money we accept the involvement of people like Beaumont and refuse to stand up to them. The entire competition is reduced to creche-level by such boorishness
Until John Davidson’s ban is lifted, I shan’t be setting foot in Leigh Sports Village or writing about Leigh in the Sydney Morning Herald, rugby-league.com, Forty20 or anywhere else my work appears.
Not only that, I do scores updates and fulltime memes for social media channels Forty20, League HQ (SMH), Fans of Rugby League Week, rugbyleaguehub.com, White Line Fever, the Rugby League Writers Association and League Weekly.
I won’t be even reporting the fulltime scores in Leigh games. To their opponents, sorry. That’s one less chore each week. In-game score updates will also cease. The Centurions, until John’s access is reinstated, are dead to me.
That will hurt Leigh about as much as Beaumont’s tanty hurts John – not very much. But it’s the thought that counts, right Derek?
I ran into former Super League boss Blake Solly yesterday and he was under the impression journalists cannot be banned from games because accreditation is handled by the RFL. He’d been through something similar with Julie Stott and Castleford.
They can just be prevented from going to training sessions and the like.
I sincerely hope this is the case regarding John – otherwise the term “governing body” will be proven to be a misnomer.
“Managing body” or “shuffling body” would be more appropriate.
One consolation is that covering Leigh probably won’t be the job of anyone covering Super League within a few months.
I AM freshly back in Australia, having spend a pleasant four days in Kiev at a 10 year wedding anniversary celebration.
On my final day I was able to meet up with Artur Martyrosyan, the man who runs rugby league there and by all accounts is doing a sterling job.
There was much to come out of our conversation, which went for well over an hour, which I will unfurl across various platforms over the next couple of weeks.
But here, in no particular order, are some key points.
1) The IMG deal to sell international television rights to the NR and Test matches is bad for developing countries. IMG wants 1000 euro per live game broadcast, according to Artur;
2) The conflict in the the east of the Ukraine has been enormously damaging to the sport there, with many promising players displaced;
3) The Ukraine wants to twin every one of its eight senior clubs with a Super League clubs, having them wear the same strip and engage in exchange programmes. It would be open to doing the same with the NRL but has had little luck in making meaningful contact with League Central;
4) The Ukraine is not that interested in flying in heritage players for one-off appearances, preferring to spend the money on development.
As I said, more from Artur across other platforms in the coming weeks.
.
COLLEAGUE Andrew Webster made a great point on the even of Origin III – the circumstances surround the demands of NRL players for more money are not ideal.
One, the State players were happy to talk about Industrial Relations during the lead-up to the game but when Blues coach Laurie Daley explained why prop Andrew Fifita had been ‘off-limits’ for the entire camp, he said Fiftita had been involved in some off-field controversy and that rugby league itself was all the team wanted to talk about at this time of year.
Well, rugby league itself and getting more money. Just not the stuff you want to ask about.(continued below)
Secondly, he pointed to drops across the board in the figures that can fairly be described as reliable indicators of how the sport is going in Australia.
Ten per cent fewer people watched Origin I in 2016 than in 2017, two per cent fewer Origin II. In club football, television audiences are down around 56,000 a weekend.
The fact is that there is a lot less sexy about the NRL this year than any season in the past. It’s a bit same ole, same old. Ho-hum.
And allowing the players to lock themselves away from the media and the public is making it more that way with every passing month. There’s a distinct lack of leadership.
.
AS I write this, my first book Touchstones has been in Australian shops for a week and a half.
The amount of support I have had from within the rugby league community has been amazing – from Ben Ikin holding it up on NRL 360 to radio stations ringing and asking to have me on multiple programmes.
But despite how it may appear to you, here, the rugby league market is small. The market for the musings of a sideline eye are even smaller. I didn’t write Touchstones as ‘that rugby league guy’, I wrote it as a first time author, as a piece of self-expression.
I got to thinking: if Fever Pitch had been written by Ben Hornby instead of Nick Hornby, it would have sold much better in the first three months. People know Ben Hornby, all St George Illlawarra fans would have purchased it.
Then it would have sunk without a trace.
The honeymoon period of my facebook friends buying Touchstones won’t last. I have to find a way to let the book stand on its own two feet. It will only do that if I can reach people who have no idea who I might be.
The book tour, on the other hand, presents an opportunity all on its own. If I can put something together that would be of interest to people even if I had nothing to sell there’s something there for the future.
If you went to a rugby league function for a few beers, what would you like to see (aside from former players being interviewed – they usually cost money to the person running the bloody thing).
.
