It is 20 years since the outbreak of the Super League war, a $1 billion battle between titans Rupert Murdoch and Kerry Packer for control of pay TV rights to the highest-rating sport in Australia.
April 1, 1995, was the day Peter Moore resigned as an ARL director during a board meeting at the code's then Phillip Street headquarters, his Canterbury players having clandestinely signed with the Murdoch-funded Super League two evenings earlier.
At the time, all we could see was breakage, a game in pieces – fractured friendships, shattered foundation clubs, slivers of treachery, shards of dead dreams, bits of buffoonery.
The war may have been officially declared on April Fool's Day but the innovations and ideas that followed during the next three years and in the fragile aftermath of the conflict were a mix of the fertile and the foolish.
1. Rationalising the number of Sydney clubs.
It was a good idea to reduce the number of struggling clubs in a crowded market but a bad idea to boot out South Sydney and North Sydney from the league. The Rabbitohs won their way back through people power and the court system but the exit of the Bears meant the NSW Central Coast was not developed and Manly, forever wedded to Brookvale, was the only NRL club between the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Newcastle.
2. A world club challenge.
This was a good idea, as evidenced by the successful visit earlier this year of the Dragons, Broncos and Rabbitohs to play a game each against the top English clubs. But in 1997, it was a bad idea to play 10 Australian clubs against 10 English ones mid-season, with lopsided scorelines and massive costs.
3. The video referee.
Video refs were introduced in the 1997 Super League season and retained when the competition was united under the NRL banner. It's a good idea to use technology to assist the onfield referee but a bad idea because they still don't get it right, or don't use it, as evidenced when the Storm were denied a try that would have won them a match against the Sea Eagles in round two this season.
4. Judiciary reform.
It was a good idea for players to be free to plead guilty and avoid fronting a tribunal. A grading and points system also encourages consistency, although the public is sent a bad message when a player who has been charged does not miss a match because he takes advantage of an early guilty plea and has no priors or carry-over points.
5. Tri-series.
Super League pioneered three-cornered contests, starting with a "State of Origin"-style competition between NSW, Queensland and New Zealand. The final itself, a 100-minute epic between the Blues and Maroons, germinated the idea of golden point. But including the Kiwis destroyed the purity of the original Origin concept, an annual three-game contest between NSW and Queensland that produces TV ratings the AFL envies. Super League did agitate for October to be the month for representative football and a tri-series between Australia, New Zealand and Britain is successful.
6. Night grand final.
The 1997 Super League evening grand final between the Broncos and Sharks led the way in the NRL shifting the biggest game of the year from afternoon, to twilight and finally to the time where it captures the highest ratings. It was a bad idea to play it at ANZ stadium, Brisbane, where it is possible some people are still waiting for a bus to get home.
7. A World Nines.
Super League recognised that the ARL's annual Sevens tournament was too close to touch football, while an additional four men on the field would take the game closer to the 13 aside brand. Super League experimented with Nines in Fiji and now, 18 years later, the Auckland Nines heralds the start of the NRL season.
8. A National Youth competition.
Super League held a nationwide Under-19 competition involving its 10 clubs, offering opportunity for talented kids, particularly from New Zealand, to be paid, travel and acquire a taste of the big time. The NRL copied it with an Under-20 NYC but opinions are highly divided whether this is a better training ground than an open-age reserve grade competition.
9. Zero tackle and scrums set 20 metres infield.
Both ideas came from Super League but have questionable merit. A zero tackle from a knock on undermines the purity of the six tackle rule, inviting memories of referee Greg Hartley and his seven tackle tries. Coaches do not exploit the extra room on the blind side of the scrum.
PS. Lest I be accused of having a late Damascus Road conversion to Super League, the best rule change was the 40:20 and it came from the ARL bunker.
PPS. It is still a bad idea for a media empire to own a football code.
