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

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

The late 1990s was the most tumultuous period rugby league has ever faced outside of wartime since the Northern Union broke away from English rugby in 1895.

In 1997 the worst possible scenario imaginable became disaster, with two rival leagues running in tandem – the Australian Rugby League [ARL] and the newly formed Super League cashed up by News Corp dollars.

St George Illawarra was one of the merger clubs that were forced when the Super League and ARL combined to create 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 casualties.

Foundation club South Sydney was axed from the competition and would not appear again until fighting their way back in 2002.

Fledgling franchises South East Queensland Crushers, Hunter Mariners and Western/Perth Reds became casualties to make a mockery of the ‘national’ part of the NRL brand.

Andrew Ettingshausen of Australia makes a break during a World Super League Nines match held in Brisbane

The Adelaide Rams would limp through until the end of the 1998 season but without the Super League megabucks, it was unsustainable and the gates were padlocked 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 into mergers.

Later, the collapse of the Northern Eagles would see the iconic Bears excluded from the NRL altogether.

The cashed-up Super League promised better money for players and a better experience for fans but it only fractured rugby league in a bitter war

With the current crop of NRL clubs and players locked in a bitter wrestle of the control of the funds of the game as they hash out a new collective bargaining agreement, the whispers have started.

Give us what we want or we will form a breakaway competition.

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

Privately, a handful of other clubs agree and are contemplating mutiny.

Quayle said those clubs needed to think long and hard before even whispering threats like that because of the impacts it will have on the game.  

‘This talk about a rebel league, the clubs seriously don’t understand the ramifications of even suggesting it,’ Quayle told the Daily Telegraph.

‘It’s sad that the lessons of the past are never acknowledged in that situation and that all sports stay away from it.

‘You go back to the fights in the NBA, English Premier League, and NFL with breakaway competitions proposed by owners and then they all realise as I always said, you’re worth nothing if you’re just playing in the local park competition.

‘You’ve got to understand that you are part of a major competition.’

John Quayle, then-NSWRL Chief Executive, and Ken Arthurson then-ARL Chairman arrive at the ARL/SuperLeague court hearing, February 1996 

Quayle said individual clubs had to remember they only existed and prospered in the current competition because of 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 were voted in by the other clubs,’ he said.

‘Admittedly that was back in 1967, but the administrators at the time had a vision of expanding the competition, as we then did with Brisbane [1988] and Auckland [1995].

‘Originally five or six of the clubs were opposed to that because they knew it would weaken them and so their decision was driven by self-interest.

South Sydney fans march the streets in the year 2000 to demand re-admission to the NRL after they were cut following the Super League and ARL merger

‘And so here we are again.

‘No one should believe the comments of clubs who say they are in it for the best interests of the game. It’s not, it’s in the best interests of them.

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

‘These new administrators [club CEO’s] have no acknowledgment, have 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 the Cronulla Sharks

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

Canberra Raiders coach Ricky Stuart was the first player from the club to sign with Super League back in the day and he has regrets.

He has urged clubs talking rebel competitions to think about the damage that was done by Super League and how devastating it could be if that were to happen again. 

 ‘I read the story and thought, are these clubs serious? Where is the money going to 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 to see those mistake made again

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

‘How quickly people forget that the game was on its knees when Peter V’landys took over.

‘I’ll never begrudge players doing the best they can. I’m all for the clubs earning as much money as they possibly can.

‘But we have to remember where we were prior to the current administration at the NRL.

‘We broke the game once and the game learned and prospered to its greatest point today.

‘We don’t need to break it again.