Once again the administrators of rugby league rightly stand accused of
“shooting the messenger” and not addressing the real issues facing the game
today.

Over the weekend, South Rabbitohs patriarch, George Piggins, was
threatened with legal action because he criticised the administration of the
infamous salary cap by Ian Schubert. And overnight the St George Dragons were slapped with a $10,000 fine
alleging coach, Nathan Brown, at the weekend accused referees of being “biased”
against the Dragons.

If the NRL keeps on handing out $10,000 fines like parking tickets it
will end up in court, because one day an official, player, or club will
challenge this outrage in the courts and it will be very, very interesting to
see “free speech” in rugby league being put to the test!

But the NRL needs to address the REAL issue – and that’s
the worrying standard of referees, touch judges and video referees today.

On the salary cap issue, all George Piggins was doing was to state what many
league fans believe – that the salary cap is being abused by clubs, and by
player managers. The problem with the salary cap system relates as much to perceptions
as it does to realities.

The full story is on the site here.