IT’S been 18 months since NRL chief executive David Gallop was last in Wagga and not much has changed.NRL players are still behaving badly, Denis Fitzgerald is still Parramatta CEO, Cronulla still hasn’t won a grand final and Craig Wing is still to make an impact at South Sydney.Hang about, that’s not really what I meant.No matter what anyone thinks, Gallop has no control over such monstrous occurrences as NRL players hitting each other in bars, streets, apartments or on the ferris wheel at the Wagga Show.By the way, that last bit has never happened, but I want to be there if it does.Brawling footballers are great copy for newspapers and a migraine in the making for David Gallop.As much as he can take the strongest possible disciplinary action against NRL boofheads who are found guilty of belting one another or some other poor innocent, Gallop can’t actually stop them before they do it.Boys will be boys – and drinking, carousing, glassing and fighting are all part of the process.So let’s not blame Gallop for the ugly antics of NRL players, but give him his great due for trying to stop them from carrying on like morons on a jihad against mankind.While we’re at it, let’s not lumber him with responsibility for the Sharks never winning anything or Craig Wing never doing much else except get photographed with gorgeous women.Gallop’s also got absolutely no control over how long Denis Fitzgerald rules the roost at Parramatta.As far as I’m concerned Fitzy’s doing a fabulous job as the Eels are a club that almost make the Sharks look good.So, get off David Gallop’s back.The last time Gallop was in Wagga – actually it was the first and only time – he was part of a delegation that also included CRL chief executive Terry Quinn.Gallop and Quinn came to town and met with a group of dedicated and determined rugby league people from these parts.They listened intently as concerns about the state of football in the bush were raised by the league faithful, including Michael Power, who also made an impressive power-point presentation.Gallop seemed to take everything in, but was quick to say he was not making any promises about the future.In hindsight, it is just as well he did because nothing at all has transpired to ease the problems that exist in the Riverina and across the bush.Footy clubs continue to struggle to make ends meet, insurance costs are going through the roof, only a trickle of NRL players ever move back to the country and there is little or no help for volunteers trying to do the job of an administrator.The position is definitely as grim as it was in June last year … perhaps just a shade grimmer.New CRL president Jock Colley, however, is coming to the rescue.Colley told the Riverina through The Daily Advertiser last week that he wanted to have a head to head summit with Gallop to try to get a better deal for the bush.The CRL’s most powerful man is a cluey guy and has a few bright ideas he wants to run past Gallop.Like me, Colley thinks the NRL should try to do more to encourage ex-elite level players to go bush to coach and generally give the sport a leg up.That’s sadly missing these days. Even players with roots in the Riverina are reluctant to return once they have tasted the high life in the city.And who can blame them?They get well-paid for playing football and are usually slotted into a nice job or an apprenticeship that could set them up for life.There’s hardly much incentive to pack their bags and head back to some tin-pot town to eke out a living.Colley obviously will ask Gallop to make money available to get these players out of Sydney, but the very best of luck with that.The NRL is strapped for cash and any money it does have has to go to prop up ailing NRL clubs.Basically, the NRL is in as much of a hole as footy in the bush.The obscene salaries paid to the top players, and most administrators, leaves nothing much left to help the poor old Riverina or anywhere else.The time is coming when rugby league must take serious stock. There desperately needs to be an agenda put in place to do something constructive about the direction of the sport or it will disappear.Airy-fairy notions like adding a development officer here or there won’t do a thing.Honestly, what is the point? We’ve had these enthusiastic people doing their utmost for 15 or 20 years and rugby league has being going backwards the entire time.The Riverina once had four rugby league competitions and 40 clubs.Now there are two competitions and 19 clubs.This sickening statistic is the result of two decades of decay. Unlike the football world of David Gallop, things change fast in the bush.ONE OF the region’s keenest Australian football supporters has hit on a plan he thinks will solve the impasse over the fate of The Rock-Yerong Creek and Collingullie-Ashmont-Kapooka.He has come up with a proposal to readjust the boundaries of the current football leagues, which also involves scrapping the insipid Farrer League.The Notebook’s intrepid correspondent says 10 teams is the optimum number for any competition and has drawn up a blueprint to reorganise the footy set-up in the Riverina.Under the plan, The Rock and Collingullie would join the Hume League, but clubs like Rand-Walbundrie, Brocklesby-Burrumbuttock and Coleambally would find their way to the Central Riverina League and Temora and Northern Jets to the Northern Riverina League.Unlike some others, the venerable gentleman has done his homework.He has also computed the travel time and costs of the clubs competing in the four leagues.He says the plan will bring harmony to the region and produce “compact and stable competition”.“With conciliation and goodwill all clubs and leagues will benefit,” he told me yesterday.“Worst scenario would be to call in the so-called hierarchy to adjudicate.“It’s a Riverina problem and easy to solve locally. We all have ample time before next season to do so.”