If there is one thing about rugby league that has always grinded my gears compared to other professional sports, its the 'boys club' mentality that is accepted and championed.
Some examples include:
1. Picking players for representative honours based on reputation, not form. For example, what more could Todd Carney do than be the best player in the competition and win the dally M medal to play 5/8 for Australia? What about Jarryd Hayne not playing fullback for Aus in 2009?
2. Coaches, commentators and journalists/media personalities absolutely creaming their dacks over the 'super stars' contribution to the game/play instead of paying a reasonable amount of respect/ regard to what actually unfolded. Like when an average back rower breaks the line and/or gets a great off-load away which leads to massive gain in metres and a retreating defensive line. Next play, Cam Smith gets into dummy half and throws a pass to someone who scores untouched. All you will hear about is how Cam Smith 'summed it up beautifully' or 'controlled the speed of the game' and we end up watching replays of his vanilla pass instead of the line break.
3. Origin players taking precedence over internationals that are not Australian. A great example is how Boyd Cordner is reverred, yet Villiame Kikau wouldn't earn half as much and doesn't get the same level of recognition, despite being twice as good. Kikau is a way more talented and destructive player than Cordina has ever been.
4. The big stars being chosen for awards even though they clearly don't deserve it. An example of this is the 2015 Clive Churchill medal going to Jonathan Thurston. Yes he is one of the greatest, possibly the greatest, player to ever live, and yes he is the main reason why Cowboys took out the comp. However, I was there that day. He was outplayed by Granville, Morgan and Taumalolo, not to mention Milford. Another example was Slater winning the Wally Lewis medal and/or his dally M in 2011 (which should have gone to Marshall).
I raise this for two reasons. Gutherson not being awarded points in Rnd 20 would have been calculated. It didn't suit the narrative the selectors were chasing. Don't get me wrong, I don't think Guth is a better player than Cleary or Weighton. However, he definitely ought to have polled 2 or 3 points in rnd 20 and the fact he didn't was deliberate.
The second thing is, watch Cam Smith be awarded Dally M medal this weekend. He won't have to anything other than win the game and be in the top 8 or so performers on the field. Its that predictable. Even if Storm lose hes a great chance of getting it because he has never won it and it suits the narrative.
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Cricket has had this problem for about the last 30-40 years as well. If you're in the club then you get a commentary job when you retire. Shaun Marsh is the perfect example. Given more chances than blokes like Brad Hodge despite having a much worse record than him and never really firing at Test level.
I wonder if he would have been given as many chances if his name was Shaun Doe...
That Hodge was ignored so often is a blight on Australian cricket. He was a gun.
You can also go back further to guys like David Hookes; used to murder them in shield and was a great captain and was coaching Victoria when that grub dogged him, and the late Dean Jones.....was dogged too early in his career.
Marsh and his brother have had way too many chances and others like Henriques etc. get squat. Ashton Agar is another favourite.
Good blog mate but you obviously haven't taken into account a few factors.
1) Picking players for representative honours based on reputation, not form.
This is common in all "professional" sports. Look at cricket, tennis (Davis and Hopman Cups) Swimming, Wugby Yawnion etc etc. Nothing new in this although Freddy did upset the apple cart (last year?) with Some of his SOO selections.
2) Coaches, commentators and journalists/media personalities absolutely creaming their dacks over the 'super stars' contribution to the game/play instead of paying a reasonable amount of respect/ regard to what actually unfolded.
See my response to #1 and you will get the same result. It is all about promotion and generating $s.
3) Origin players taking precedence over internationals that are not Australian.
Media have made SOO more important than the National team. Again much of this is explained in #1 and #2. $s
4) The big stars being chosen for awards even though they clearly don't deserve it.
Again this comes down to media influence and bums on seats mentality for $$s
Less than a week out from the GF and they still have not sold all the seats for an allowable 75% capacity crowd - Hmmmmm, are the sheeple waking up? Same has happened for the past few years with SOO - nearly as many seats are given away than are being sold. Brisbane (I think) gave away a reported 12,000 seats last year because the QueeRZlanders could not win and like the sooks they are would not pay the exorbitant prices being gouged.
Media are tasked to promote so they get maximum adversting $s and NRL get maximum gate taking $s so it becomes personalities before talent.
The one thing you did not mention was just about all the NRL pin up boys were, or are grubs in real life. Wife or GF bashers promoted as heroes, drunks and druggos given hero status until the adverse publicity gets too hot. Some even make it to Immortals status.
FOLLOW THE MONEY TRAIL and all will become obvious.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.
I agree with your comments about money and think that is relatively obvious to all. However, that doesn't mean the integrity of the sport isn't compromised by it. Perhaps more balance is in order.
I don't agree with your comment about other sports being guilty in respect of point 1. Rugby league gets away with boys clubbing the Aus team because no one can beat us even if we run out the B team. Its not a truly international game yet because the minos have not reached the level of support they need to compete. That doesn't happen in Union at all. They need to field their best team to try compete with all blacks and spring bocks etc. That's why Matt Giteau was crowned best player in the world one year, then couldn't make the cut the next. However, people like Lockyer just walked into Kangaroos no matter what form he was in. Then we assess his legacy based on how many rep games he played, some of which he didn't deserve to begin with. .. integrity compromised again.
I can't argue with any of this.
(I think you meant Cam Smith winning the Clive Churchill Medal in the last paragraph)
Our club has been outside of the boys club for well over a decade. We've gotten used to it, selectors and commentators have gotten used to it. The NRL has been force fed a diet of Storm, Roosters, Broncos, Cowboys for so long that anyone of influence in our game doesn't even notice players at other clubs.
The NSW Origin team should be full of Panthers this year. Jnr Paulo, Gutho, Nathan Brown should all walk into that squad. However I bet it's full of the usual suspects. If Mitchell Pearce was still a Rooster he'd be the NSW halfback for sure.
Was it Todd Greenberg who when talking about the game to a journo said “ we are in the entertainment business”. If that is so, there is your answer in one brief sentence
They don't win GF without JT simples. I just posted before the best player makes players around him look better. Only an astute eye picks this up. A former Panthers coach told me this years ago. That's why I like Gower and it cost them.
Saying that Gower would not have been fit enough to play finals. Did you see how exhausted Bunnies were after game putting in a mammoth effort. Until Eels play to this level they will struggle as well. Bunnies can't say we should have, would have could have as there was nothing left. Eels need a leader to build around. Your making yourselves out victims here. Saying that Cam Smith will probably get CC medal in a winning or loosing side if he is retiring.