GWS deal a drain on city

No ifs and buts – Gallop has the right to question the justification for council giving AFL club Greater Western Sydney a $300,000 handout.

Many ratepayers in the city are already doing the same, but they do not have the access by which to put their feelings directly to council.

Now is the time for one of the most powerful sporting officials in Australia to do what most of us can’t – talk up front to council on a most vexing question.

Gallop will presumably meet with a group of councillors and council staff and have the opportunity to put things directly on the table.

There needs to be no pussyfooting around – Gallop should just go straight for jugular.

How is this for an opening gambit: “Why on earth does Wagga City Council think it is in its best interest to pay $100,000 a year for three years to a multimillion-dollar organisation for favours that should be given freely.”

Although he knows the answer, Gallop will obviously also question why NRL clubs have not been offered the same deal.

The simple reason is that NRL clubs believe they have an obligation to support and build rugby league in Wagga, and not be party to bleeding it dry in the process.

I take the point that NRL clubs are often criticised for not giving enough to the region, but they don’t milk it either.

In the past I actually have been guilty of bagging NRL clubs for their high and mighty attitude.

This time I’m backing them to the hilt.

If I were David Gallop, I would be telling Wagga City Council it has made a disastrous error in judgement.

It has put one sport ahead of the rest in the city and the backlash should be swift and decisive.

I would imagine Gallop has the profile and sway to make council understand it has failed the city – and should

re-think its dreadful decision.

Or else, perhaps, NRL clubs may start putting out their hands for cash every time they intend to come to town.

However, one way or the other, I don’t think it will ever come to that.

Unlike GWS, and some its equally affluent AFL counterparts, NRL clubs are not so greedy or money-grabbing.

They understand they have a charter to keep rugby league alive in the bush, not assist in pushing it to the brink.

Believe it or not, Australian football is not going gangbusters in the Riverina.

I’m sure the people running the game will tell you different, but the reality is that the sport is treading water like the rest.

From a rugby league perspective, I can categorically say that it is barely holding its own.

Crowds, for want of a better word, have slumped to tragic levels.

All right, there might have been a $4800 gate at Greenfield Park on Sunday for Albury’s destruction of Brothers, but the figure at Harris Park for the Group Nine grand final rematch between Southcity and Gundagai was not even half of that.

It is a sad reflection on Group Nine when a game with so much appeal cannot pull enough people to create a half-decent atmosphere.

Beforehand I thought the game could attract $6000 gate – I tweeted the same – but it didn’t even get in the ball park.

Yes, the weather didn’t help – neither did lack of interest.

David Gallop came to Wagga five years ago and got an insight into the problems affecting rugby league in the city and surrounding towns.

At the time he was told rugby league was facing serious challenges like keeping young men in the game.

Heading back to town tomorrow, Gallop will find the situation is just as demanding.

Even more so now that Wagga City Council is falling hand over foot to back AFL.

Sure, I understand council will give Gallop the spiel about how GWS is promising the world and $100,000 a year is really only chicken feed.

I think the last bit irks more than most as GWS is bank-rolled by the AFL for untold millions and $100,000 is little more than pocket money for the Giants.

As the ratepayers of Wagga surely recognise, the $100,000 could, and should, be spent in more appropriate ways.

Suggestions that council is following established practice in paying an AFL club for favours doesn’t cut it.

I’ve heard it happens in country Victoria, but that is a world away from Wagga.

The fact that Bendigo, Ballarat, Bacchus Marsh or Bayindeen might have some cosy cash arrangement with North Melbourne, St Kilda, Melbourne, Richmond etc is totally and utterly irrelevant.

I suppose I can understand there could be benefits for Ballarat stitching up a deal with, say, the Kangaroos, but I get no such feeling about the Wagga and GWS arrangement.

There is absolutely no comparison.

Given the right circumstances, Ballarat and an AFL club can obviously be a good fit.

The same cannot be said for an AFL club based in Blacktown and a city 500 kilometres away in the Riverina.

GWS should be feathering its nest from Blacktown City Council, not garnering money from our pockets.

I’m sure David Gallop will point this out tomorrow.

I hope Wagga City Council listens.

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CALL me alarmist, but the gravity of Brothers’ 86-0 loss to Albury should not be underestimated.

Remember it was only seven years ago that Turvey Park was getting beaten by similar score lines.

And where is Turvey Park now?

The Lions are just a memory.

They folded to merge with Magpies to form Southcity – and Wagga went from a four-team rugby league city to a three-team city.

Is the time now coming when Brothers and Kangaroos also have to look at amalgamation as a way of ensuring their existence beyond the short term?

From an outsider’s viewpoint, the two clubs look to be far from flourishing.

In contrast to Southcity, they appear to be old and jaded.

Maybe a merger would breath life into them before it is too late.

Kangaroos and Brothers played together as a conjoined club in 1992.

What are the odds about it happening again?

Given the egos involved – 100,000-1 at best.

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Team of the Week

Fullback: Scott Bowden (Southcity)

Wingers: Iliesa Takubu (Tumbarumba), Daniel Foley (Junee)

Centres: Ben Jeffery (Albury), Joss Cleal (Tumbarumba)

Five-eighth: Matt Rose (Albury)

Halfback: Luke Branighan (Young)

Lock: Lou Goodwin (Albury)

Second rowers: Rhys Clemton (Junee), Jon Huggett (Albury)

Props: Nick Hall (Young), Logan Wright (Gundagai)