Players don’t have a say – and it’s their own fault

The rumblings of change are afoot, yet again.

As with any system you can come up with positives as to why it should stay, but ultimately the changes made just three years ago were never going to last the test of time.

The ‘Every Minute Matters’ campaign was desperate and while there have been examples of the format being a success, they’ve made little difference to the overall state of the game, if at all.

Playing more games, which now includes two double header weekends, makes a mockery of the player welfare excuse that’s rolled out for late schedule changes to accommodate TV coverage.

Season ticket holders – the lifeblood of the sport – are being treated with such contempt that I’d be amazed if many clubs record an increase next season.

You buy a season ticket not knowing what a quarter of the season will look like – when the games will be, what time or against who.

Why would you take the risk that Warrington might be playing (with all due respect) a Toulouse or a Featherstone rather than Wigan and St Helens, when you could just wait and pick your games?

Fans are being turned off and players seemingly are too.

The problem is, the players had their chance to influence the reform before it happened, through League13, the former players’ union that is no longer in existence.

What is perhaps most extraordinary, is that in a letter written by the League13 CEO Ernie Benbow to the RFL some four years ago, highlights the very points that are being raised as issues still now.

• The most successful sports rarely change (formats and rules)
• Severe concerns over player welfare due to number of games
• The reliance on players to play more games to generate more revenue
• No research has been done on the impact of increased workload for players (perhaps even more pertinent given the volume of injuries this season)
• There needs to be a proper reserve grade

There is an administrative element to a players union that players don’t want to be embroiled in – and nor should they have to be.

But for it to work, they need to attend meetings, have their say and contribute a small fee to the running of the union – just as any union member would.

It’s frustrating therefore still hear of players complaining about the state of the game – as if they hadn’t had ample opportunity to do something about its make up before.

We’re now at the stage, yet again, where change is being discussed – wasting yet more time, resource and energy that should be placed on commercial and marketing.

As long as the game continues to tie itself in knots with outlandish changes and so called innovations it will not be able to move forward.