NRL August

The big news in the last couple weeks has been Sonny Bill Williams and his sudden departure to play rugby union in France. Although this is big news in itself, what it has done is highlighted the underlying problems of the NRL and of the sport of rugby league in general.

There are just so many problems with the game, I don't know where to start. Due to the controversy surrounding Sonny Bill's departure, many people were made aware that the NRL is actually owned by News Limited, which owns the Brisbane Broncos. That was a surprise to me, but it explains why the Broncos match is always shown on tv. News Limited owns channel Nine and Foxtel!! Is this true? I should verify, but can't be bothered.

Anyway, the reason I bring up the Broncos is because of an argument I heard from the NRL CEO about the salary cap. He claims it is needed to keep the teams even. If thats the only reason for the cap, then it should definitely be abolished, since it is obviously not working anyway. You have the same two teams dominating the league and taking the best players for many years. Look at the Broncos, who have somehow been able to acquire 10 State of Origin players, and Melbourne Storm, who have about 12 Origin reps.

Not only that, but it seems these two teams are above the law. Watching the Storm match last week, they seem to be allowed to slow the ruck down every time and not pay the penalty. Likewise, the Broncos are allowed to be offside when near their own tryline and committed professional fouls at least twice against the Raiders but were only penalised.

I have to commend the Raiders on their spirited performance against a biased referee and a far superior team. The number 15 for the Raiders is the man of the match so far. However the Raiders are stupid. There were so many good chances gone begging because they passed the wrong way.