@Cultured_Bogan said in [Ivan Cleary](/post/1042081) said:
The issue in itself isn’t much. But the games administration is administering a death by a thousand cuts.
I don't really believe that is true. Of course I cannot tell you what to believe.
NRL is actually in peak health, in terms of it's own history. Viewership is high, sponsorship high, membership all-time high, crowds high, media revenue all-time high. This might not be maintained and the league might not continue to grow, but currently it is as big as it's ever been, with only ever increasing competition from other sports like soccer and AFL.
Reffing has always been inconsistent, it's inherent to all contact sport, esp the more technical games. Rugby reffing is horrendous and soccer reffing is constant scandal. NFL reffing is super technical but they don't need to worry about "stops in play" because that's a natural component of the game.
The history of rugby league administration, for anyone who isn't an enthusiast or hasn't thought about it much, is absolutely riddled with cronyism and agendas. I would argue that 2019 is actually the most transparent and least agenda-driven that rugby league in Australia has ever been. And it has a lot to deal with, with the huge drive in social media, competition from other codes etc.
Rugby league in Australia has three fundamental challenges:
1) It's a heavy contact sport and it's hard to get juniors to sign up in massive numbers - you can't really change that, it's a game about getting hurt and dealing with it, and many kids and parents aren't cool with that.
2) Rugby League was literally created to serve the self-interest of the clubs and players. Rugby League didn't turn pro and split from Union because of some difference in ideology or a desire to change the rulebook - it was done for profit. There's a long path to walk to try and eliminate the self-interest from the code. Also, fundamentally, that self-interest is almost certainly impossible to eliminate, because sport is mutually exclusive competition - i.e. if you win, someone else definitely loses.
3) It's only played competitively in 3 Australian states, Auckland and Northern England. That is a very small global pool to select from for anything - players, gate takings, clubs, sponsorship, money, viewership etc.
It's a difficult sport to manage. They don't have the funds to compete with larger sports. But just take a look at the world's biggest sport and can anyone honestly say that FIFA do a tremendous job, with no controversy, no inconsistency, no hooliganism, no haves and have-nots, no imbalance, no bias, no corruption?
Everyone cares so everyone complains, which I understand, but also perspective helps. Maybe Ponga gets favoured calls and maybe Roosters have under-table deals. Consider that the juice in the orange, the controversy you secretly desire to make the experience more interesting. Consider the up-sides of having controversy, passion, rivalries, villains!