EX-ARL boss who saw the damage of the Super League war sends warning to clubs threatening breakaway

John Quayle saw firsthand the damage the Super League war has wrought on the rugby league game in Australia and now the former ARL boss has warned clubs threatening another breakaway league to be careful of what they wish for.

The late 1990s was the most tumultuous period for rugby league outside wartime since the Northern Union split from English rugby in 1895.

In 1997 the worst-case scenario turned into disaster, with two rival leagues running side by side – the Australian Rugby League [ARL] and the newly formed Super League cashed in by News Corp dollars.

St George Illawarra was one of the merger clubs forced when the Super League and ARL co-founded the NRL

While the two leagues were forced to combine in 1998 to create the modern National Rugby League, [NRL]the original divorce had claimed many victims.

Foundation club South Sydney was kicked out of the competition and wouldn’t reappear until they fought their way back in 2002.

Up-and-coming franchises South East Queensland Crushers, Hunter Mariners and Western/Perth Reds fell victim to making fun of the ‘national’ part of the NRL brand.

Australia’s Andrew Ettingshausen pauses during a World Super League Nines match in Brisbane

The Adelaide Rams stumbled through the end of the 1998 season, but without the Super League megabucks it was unsustainable and the gates were locked at the end of the year.

Proud clubs with their own identities, including Balmain, Manly-Warringah, the North Sydney Bears, St George, Illawarra and Western Suburbs, were forced to merge.

Later, due to the collapse of the Northern Eagles, the iconic bears would be banned from the NRL altogether.

The cashed-in Super League promised more money for players and a better experience for fans, but it only broke the rugby league in a bitter war

With the current crop of NRL clubs and players embroiled in a bitter struggle for control of the game’s funds as they work out a new collective bargaining agreement, the whispers have begun.

Give us what we want or we’ll form a breakaway match.

Penrith Panthers boss Brian Fletcher has openly said the NRL is ‘robbing’ the clubs.

Privately, a handful of other clubs agree and consider mutiny.

Quayle said those clubs should think long and hard before even whispering such threats because of the impact it will have on the game.

“This talk of a rebel league, the clubs seriously don’t understand the ramifications of even suggesting it,” Quayle told the BBC. Daily Telegram.

“It is sad that the lessons of the past are never recognized in that situation and that all sports are staying away from it.

“You go back to fighting in the NBA, English Premier League and NFL with breakaway leagues suggested by owners and then they all realize, as I’ve always said, you’re worth nothing if you just play in the local park league.

“You have to understand that you are part of a big competition.”

John Quayle, then Chief Executive of NSWRL, and then ARL Chairman Ken Arthurson arrive at the ARL/SuperLeague trial in February 1996

Quayle said individual clubs should remember that they only existed and thrived in the current competition due to the existence and efforts of the other clubs around them.

“Clubs like Penrith should remind themselves how they got into the league in the first place, they’ve been voted on by the other clubs,” he said.

Admittedly that was in 1967, but the drivers then had a vision to expand the competition, as we did with Brisbane then [1988] and Auckland [1995].

“Originally, five or six clubs were against it because they knew it would weaken them and so their decision was motivated by self-interest.

South Sydney fans march through the streets in 2000 to demand re-admission to the NRL after being cut following the merger of the Super League and ARL

‘And here we are again.

“No one should believe the comments of clubs who say they are in the interest of the game. It’s not, it’s in their best interest.

‘I would say to Penrith, ‘Why don’t you go back to the junior league and see what you’re worth?’

‘These new administrators’ [club CEO’s] have no recognition, no respect for the past and no respect for how they got there.

Wendell Sailor and Darren Smith of the Broncos celebrate victory after the Super League Grand Final between the Brisbane Broncos and Cronulla Sharks

‘For anyone to even call it’ [a rebel league]do they seriously think someone is going to run and join your competition?’

Canberra Raiders coach Ricky Stuart was the club’s first player to sign with the Super League at the time and he regrets it.

He has urged clubs talking about rebel leagues to reflect on the damage the Super League has done and how devastating it could be if that happened again.

“I read the story and thought: are these clubs serious? Where does the money come from to run another comp?’ Stuart told the Daily Telegraph.

Stuart was the first Canberra Raiders player to sign with Super League and he doesn’t want that mistake to be made again

‘If we did’ [rebel league proposal] again, it would break the game forever.

How quickly people forget that the game went to its knees when Peter V’landys took over.

“I will never begrudge players to give their best. I am all for the clubs to make as much money as possible.

“But we must not forget where we were before the current government at the NRL.

“We broke the game once and the game learned and thrived to its greatest point today.

“We don’t have to break it again.