Tommy Makinson and the Golden Boot - by Mark

Well done Tommy Makinson on deservedly being chosen as the best international rugby league performer in 2018.

He made a brilliant try scoring debut in Denver, off the bench, in his less preferred position of centre. Arguably the outstanding moment of that match was his pick up and offload to set up Elliott Whitehead's second try, knowing he would wear a big hit from it. It showed all his attributes that us Super League fans know so well - instinct, speed, tenacity, bravery, strength, skill. He backed that up with a strong showing in Hull. A great kick take in the build up to the opening try and an emergency stint at full back notable features. Then he really blew the lid off things at Anfield. Possibly his best ever defensive display and a match winning super try to round off a great hat-trick.

That brief list of highlights show that his place as the best international performer is well deserved. Whitehead must have run him close. And it can't have hurt Tommy's chances that the timing of the award was after his man-of-the-match game rather than after a different game. Maybe a week earlier and Whitehead would of won it, maybe a week later and (I'm projecting here, writing this before the third test) John Bateman or Jake Connor could have won it.

This takes absolutely nothing away from Tommy Makinson or the panel who voted on the award. Those that voted for him, did so on the criteria they were asked to, and I'd say came up with the right choice for that criteria. He deserves the title of best international rugby league performer in 2018, as of 7 November 2018.

It does, however, take something away from the award he has won.

Before I address the biggest elephant in the room, I'll return briefly to that smaller, albeit still messy and noisy, elephant. The RLIF need to be pulled up on the timing of this award. If we're only giving it out on international performances, why has it been given out with one game left to play in the biggest international series of the year? What if the series was undecided after a Dallin Watene-Zelezniak last minute response to Makinson's hat-trick? Who would then have won?

In non-World Cup years we only have a handful of games at most for players to show themselves at international level. Yet we're giving the award out with 20% of that international season left. This is utterly ridiculous. The RLIF need to fix this nonsense for future years. As often with rugby league administrators, I seriously fear they won't.

Then the biggest issue. The same award, the Golden Boot, has been handed out for a totally different criteria to the past. I say it makes a mockery of the award. (It's actually this opinion that led to this blog post. It was asserted, falsely, that had a Wigan player got the award I would have celebrated it fully and not challenged it at all. You all should know me better than that by now!)

The Wikipedia Rugby League Golden Boot Award page currently says: The Golden Boot is given, usually in December after the conclusion of all the year's matches, to the player adjudged to be the best in the world, as determined by a ballot of international media representatives.

Well that needs changing now. Because that isn't what Tommy Makinson won the award for.

If Makinson had, instead, won the 'Rugby League Internationals Player of the Year' he would have received the same level of deserved credit and praise as he has, without the same level of outcry and bemusement we've seen.

How can anyone think it's sensible to take what had become regarded as the award given to the best player in the world, and give it to the player making the biggest impression over a handful of international games?

We're now left with either forever questioning how Tommy Makinson won the Golden Boot in 2018 when he wasn't the world's best player that year, or how one of our game's greatest ever players Jonathan Thurston won the Golden Boot in 2015, when he only played one international match, which he lost. Make sense of that.

Why oh why do our sport's governing bodies keep giving us reasons to in-fight, argue and so easily criticise, when instead we could be having a celebration? You might say that I could ignore these issues and just celebrate. But don't we want to do things right? Or would you rather let those in charge do whatever they want and we just deal with it?

I know there are bigger issues facing our great sport. But huge PR gaffes like this just go to demonstrate that those people currently running our game aren't up to the challenge of facing down and conquering those bigger issues.

Thanks for reading as always! Please make sure you also listen to our shows during the off-season.

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An SLP Take on the RFL Upheaval

The story dominating the last week has been the news that Nigel Wood is leaving the RFL after 10 years as CEO and 16 years on the RFL board. This comes after he had already stepped down from the Super League board in December. A sideline to this story that's also made the news this week is Roger Draper, the RFL's Chief Commercial Officer for just one year, also stepping down from his role.

Fans have rejoiced at the Wood news across social media, this in the face of an RFL press release crediting Wood for the development of some of Super League's major events and the geographic expansion of our competitions. Here's my take.

It's easy to find criticism of Wood. Crowds have, at best, stagnated from when he took his post in 2007 - a peak year for Super League average attendances. There have been some highly questionable sponsorship deals for our sport during his tenure. There's been a feeling of getting short changed in TV deal processes, despite securing increasing financial sums at each renegotiation. To fans of the sport, the mainstream profile of the sport seems to have gone nowhere. A number of clubs have suffered financially and questions have been raised over the support given to them by the RFL - from all sides. And, probably most importantly, we've tried a number of different formats during Wood's time and we still don't feel closer to a long-term solution that most are satisfied with.

Much of the criticism will have been exaggerated by personal feelings of passionate fans, but it would be foolish of any person to say there's no merit in lots of the concerns and questions raised over Wood's leadership.

In partial defence of the job he did, he came to his role just as a financial crisis was looming that would hit traditional rugby league communities harder, and for longer, than most places. His whole tenure as CEO has been under the cloud of that financial crisis and subsequent austerity. It's fair to criticise the way he has handled the sport's approach to that difficult period, but he can't be blamed for having to handle it, and no-one can realistically deny the impact of the economic circumstances of the last 10 years, particularly in Rugby League heartlands. Crowds haven't really gone down either, they're about where they were a decade ago. Sure there have been ups and downs, but they aren't in a bad place.

Whilst he wasn't solely to blame for licensing, it's obvious that didn't go well and he headed up that period for our sport. I think the theory behind licensing is strong and personally I like that kind of closed league structure as a concept. There were two main issues with it in Super League that Wood has to share in the criticism of. Firstly, it was a big cultural shift for sport in the UK and one that the general fan base never got behind. Fan buy-in is crucial, research surely would have shown it didn't exist, so any credit for applying a strong theoretical idea that's worked in other circumstances gets totally undermined. Secondly, it wasn't operated properly. The clubs still ran as almost completely autonomous and independent entities, still chasing their own agendas and competing with each other for commercial revenues, junior players and fans in the stands. For licensing to have worked, high levels of interdependence and revenue-sharing would have been needed. The man at the top has to take the hit for not properly applying the good theory.

The RFL is now in a better commercial position than it was 10 years ago, although it's fair to say it's not always been in a strong place during that 10 years. Wood deserves some credit for the position he leaves things in, but it's Draper that earned more credit in the press release announcing his departure. News that Betfred have extended their sponsorship in 2018 to cover the Championship and League 1 covers off the glaring black mark on Draper's record - that we made it to January without two of the four competitions having any sponsor. Clearly there's still problems getting the amount and types of sponsors on board across all levels of the professional game that we would want to see. That's not good, and it leaves work to be done by the new people who will come in, but it's better than the place we were in when a commercial deal was putting pictures on trucks.

So where now? Well a popular appointment would probably have been 2013 World Cup figurehead Sally Bolton, but she's ruled herself out. Blake Solly, who finally seemed to have been getting things together when he moved form his RFL role to his Super League role, has also ruled himself out and is happy back in Australia at Souths.

Ralph Rimmer is getting the CEO job on an interim basis. That makes sense for now, but I really hope it's not one of those situations where the interim seamlessly slips into the permanent role with little apparent thought carried out. It would be a completely underwhelming appointment in my opinion. Every criticism of Wood in recent years leaves a stain on Rimmer too in my view. By all means keep him in the RFL. He's experienced and understands the sport's inner-workings well. Even promote him to a new role if the RFL want. But the top role needs to bring in a fresh view.

We need someone who can add something to what we have, because it's clear there's a lot to be learnt from other sports and organisations. Love for rugby league would be a preferable characteristic, but by no means should it be an essential criteria for the new CEO - we can surround them with enough people who have enough passion for the sport that this aspect is covered off. I'm not up on who fits the bill or has the right credentials, but I really hope the RFL board do know what they want, and that they want something more than what they currently have.

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On the Super League board part of all these manoeuvres, as I write this a nice fluff piece promising the best of intentions has been released - read it HERE. We're hearing noises form the club owners about big changes to shake things up and increase Super League's profile.

I have no doubt that there are some clever people running our clubs, with some great ideas to help our game grow. What I fear is that there are also some self-serving people who might be misguided by individual gains - they might even be the same people as the clever people. The key here is the sport, and the clubs need to work together, become understanding at just how interdependent and reliant on each other they are to find success.

When we look at a way forward for the sport, we can't heavily rely on the incumbent Super League club owners, they have too much to lose to make rational decisions to benefit the whole game. We need to add representatives at that table of all the full-time clubs from outside Super League, and all the clubs with a realistic plan to be a full-time club in the near future. We also need a voice for the rest too, just to make sure they aren't forgotten, but right at this time it's the full-time clubs that need to lead on the immediate next step forward for our sport.

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My last note this week is on Nigel Wood's appointment as Chief Executive of the RLIF. Of course, this news has been treated with outright horror by all of Wood's critics. I'm not so sure I see it the same way. It isn't the same as the RFL role he leaves behind. For a start the RFL and the ARLC run so much of the game in it's two biggest territories that it takes some pressure off the RLIF in those areas. And, some of the undoubted successes of Wood's career have been in the international game. See his involvement in a great World Cup and a successful World Cup bid that's gained significant funding to help make that great too. See the expansion of the club game in Europe and North America. The game is growing internationally, but it's not ready in many of those places of growth to jump into the mainstream. Strengthening the roots in these areas of growth and getting more countries to join in that growth is the stage we're at internationally. Let's not run before we can walk.

Wood wouldn't be great at the step where the international game is running, but right now as it's still learning to walk in many places, Wood's combination of passion for the game - a passion that famously got Marwan Koukash to invest in Salford - and his experience of running a national governing body, as well as his global rugby league relationships, is a really good mix to make a success of his RLIF role at this time. Crucially, he can't hold on to that role too long, beyond where those parts of his skill-set are exhausted in their effectiveness. That's something he may have done in Super League and at the RFL.

As always, thanks for reading. I'm sure plenty of people will have their own opinions on this topic so feel free to share them with us!

Don't forget to make your predictions for the 2018 season ahead of us being back in your ears around 29 January. Make your predictions HERE.

Mark
SLP

A International - by @alfiewolf (Dar Garner)

16.08.14  
Ireland A v Scotland A

It was off to Ashbourne RUFC once again, a second time in the space of three weeks that Grace, Finn and I headed off. This time it was not the All Ireland Rugby League Final but it was the International between Ireland A v Scotland A.  

To my delight the ground was as it was the last time - well organised and catering for all. After the kids had gorged themselves on their lollypops (Daddy of the Year I am) the kids sped off full of sugar to the bouncy castle area. This left me to watch the game unfold. I thank you Ashbourne RUFC!

After the Anthems were played (all 3 of them) it was time to get the game on. Scotland kicked off into the teeth of the wolfhounds and the wind. Ireland immediately got on the front foot with a couple of settling hard forward runs and a helping offside penalty or two.

Within the first 6 minutes some quick hands by Ireland down the right gave us a glimpse of their game plan. Shifting the ball to the right wing on this occasion resulted in a knock on but the signs were there that this could be a try-fest.

The first to cross the line was the loose forward for Ireland, Guilfoyle but a correct call from the referee ruled that out with a forward pass.
  
The first 10 minutes really showed how strong the wind was as Scotland struggled to make headway getting over the half way line. Although Scotland were coming up with some strong defensive hits Ireland were camped in the Scottish half for much of this period. The pressure told on 11 minutes when some good passing play by Ireland resulted in the left centre Hargreaves slipping through and scoring 15 metres in from the left edge. Up stepped Dunne the full back to slot over the conversion. 6-0 Ireland.

The next 10 minutes followed much the same with Scotland trying to get some territory but having to do much of the hard defending within their own half. Eventually Ireland made their chances stick. On 20 minutes with a neat grubber kick by Ireland's number 7, Cox, the ball was fumbled by Scotland on the try line and pounced on by Ireland's right centre Hughes. Dunne then swept over the conversion. 12-0 Ireland. 

On the next few sets with 24 minutes gone Ireland were back over following a superb kick chase for the centre Hargreaves to grab his second of the day over on the left side. Dunne clips the post and fails to add the conversion. 16-0 Ireland.

Credit to Scotland they were never giving up and you could see they were calming their plays and making less mistakes  With some big direct running from the Scottish forwards they had a brief spell in the Irish half. Following a repeat set they attacked on the left which was closed down with a huge hit from Ireland centre Hughes, which raised the home support. Scotland however were in no mood to dwell on this and with a quick shift to the right they found a gaping hole in the middle of the Irish Defence and crossed for their first try of the day scored by Vernon on 28 minutes. With an easy kick slotted over it was game on! 16-6 to Ireland.

As a result of this Ireland shook up their attack and brought on who I thought was a contender for man of the match. Off came Kelly who was having a superb game and on came the fresh legs of 14 Mikey Russell. It was a good call from the Irish coaching staff as the Scottish big men were jaded from all the defensive work they had done up until this point. Russell added pace around the rook and seemed to speed the game up. The pay off was on the 33 minute mark when Stewart, on debut, crossed on the right side. Dunne missed the kick which made it 20-6 Ireland.

Russell proved his worth again just 3 minutes later when Ireland found their way up to the Scottish try line. From a play the ball 3 meters out Russell darted through the gap like terrier down a rabbit hole. Dunne picked up the conversion to leave the half time hooter sounding at 26-6 to Ireland.

Time to check the kids hadn’t damaged either themselves or the bouncy castle, get a drink and get ready for the second half. I wasn’t convinced that a 20 point advantage was enough to get Ireland home. The wind had gotten stronger and at the start of the game I had in my mind put the wind advantage down for 12 points at least. Ireland had used the wind in the first half very well with some superb kicking, could Scotland do the same and win the territory?

The start of the second half and Scotland got off to a flyer. They forced Ireland into a drop out and got a repeat set. From this the pressure told and the winger Ramsey scored on 43 minutes. Again the conversion hit the post and failed to go over. 26-10 to Ireland.

With both teams making some simple mistakes the game closed up. I could however sense Ireland getting more confidence playing into the wind. Scotland also didn’t help themselves by making simple errors early in their sets gifting Ireland territory. It was such an error that got Ireland rolling again in the second half. Ireland had put a grubber kick in to be chased close to the Scottish line. This was regained by Scotland but some rush play saw them lose the ball on tackle one. Number 2 Foster for Ireland regained and the pressure was back on Scotland. The hard grafting back rower Hall scored on 54 minutes under the sticks in the following set. 32-10 to Ireland.

A stand out player for Scotland, 21, came on and had some impressive runs skittling a few of the Irish out of his way. On the back of one of his runs Scotland were able to pressure the right side of Ireland but some scramble defence from Ireland managed to bundle the Scots into touch. 

Unfortunately Scotland again were guilty of gifting Ireland possession. Ireland were on the attack in the 61st minute on the left side. A loose pass by Ireland resulted in the ball going to ground. If Scotland could have held this ball they may have gone all the way back down the other end. However the ball was spilled and some neat skills from Ireland centre Hargreaves scooped the ball through his legs for Kenny who had a simple run in. 36-10 Ireland

From here the game was over. Two further tries from Ireland in the 71st minute by Hughes and Gill on 79 minutes saw the final score Ireland A 44 - Scotland A 10.

Deserving man of the match no. 13 Brendan Guilfoyle.  His hard hitting in defence and powerful running lines were sure to contribute to his accolade. Some stand out performances from 10 Matty Hadden, 9 Wayne Kelly, 14 Mike (the Terrier) Russell, 3 Hughes, 4 Hargreaves and 13 Brendan Guilfoyle (MOM) proved too much for Scotland to handle.  

Another great day at Ashburne RUFC and the bonus is the kids had a blast too. Well done Ireland Rugby League!

Ireland: Casey Dunne, Alex Foster, Adam Hughes, Brad Hargreaves,  Mark Kenny, Sean Rees, Adam Cox, Ben Rowley, Wayne Kelly, Matty Hadden, Lemeki Vaipulu, Chris Hall, Brendan Guilfoyle INTERCHANGE: Michael Russell, Curtis Stewart, Gareth Gill, Matthew Cahoon

Tries: Brad Hargreaves (2), Adam Hughes (2), Curtis Stewart, Mikey Russell, Chris Hall, Mark Kenny, Gareth Gill

Conversions: Casey Dunne 4/8, Wayne Kelly 0/1

Scotland: Grant Walker, Dominic Wallen, Gregor Ramsey, Stuart Fee, Tom Aplin, Sam Herron, Dave Vernon, Stuart Gray, Aaron Robertson, Lance Tallet, Colin Jarvis, Thomas Murray, Shane Clark INTERCHANGE:  Kyle Matheson, Alistair Maxwell, Matthew McNee, Cory Adams

Tries: Dave Vernon, Gregor Ramsay

Conversions: Stuart Fee 1/2