Wow, what a storm in a teacup.

I've covered my fair share of NRL, but Albury City Council's decision to ban Melbourne Storm from using their facilities is in the grand final for the most counter productive decision I've ever seen in rugby league.

The Canberra Raiders have forged a partnership with Wagga to play matches in the city. The final game of a two year deal will take place next season, and both parties have previously expressed their desire to extend the agreement if possible.

So here we are, in the midst of a coronavirus pandemic which has brought many regional towns to their knees financially.

After the Storm were banned from training in Victoria Albury is given a chance on a silver platter to inject not only money, but much-needed morale into their community by welcoming the NRL heavyweights with open arms.

It's a gift-wrapped opportunity for the city to lay the foundation for a longer term partnership with the Storm. Who knows, it could lead to a Wagga-Raiders type link, with the end goal of getting a premiership match to town.

Instead five out of nine councillors saw it as a chance to grandstand and vetoed their request to play at Albury Thunder's Greenfield Park base.

Melbourne's plans were rescued by Australian Rules club Albury Tigers, who gave them the green light to train at Albury Showgrounds.

Thank goodness the rival code have enough class to overlook the pathetic 'code wars' mindset that exists in Australian sports, and could see the short and long term benefits of having a national-level sports team in town.

After the vote took place at an extraordinary meeting, Albury councillor Amanda Cohn tweeted "Thank you to councillors that voted with me for one set of rules for all of us, and to make health and safety our top priorities."

Health and safety is top of everyone's priority list right now, as it should be. Rejecting the Storm may be understandable if they were operating under the same protocols as the general public are, but the fact is they're not.

As Melbourne Storm CEO Dave Donaghy said on Tuesday night, Storm players and officials "will be virtual ghosts" in Albury.

The hotel and training are the only places they will frequent. The measures they have to adhere to to keep themselves and the general public safe are as strict as they get.

Each NRL player was given a 40-page document this week on their return to training on protocols they must obey to ensure the season can resume on May 28.

The decision could create major issues for Albury's hopes of attracting high level content, and not just from the Storm or rugby league.

Other clubs will have watched this absolute schemozzle unfold and will have taken note. There's scores of similar sized towns with facilities comparable in quality that would give their left proverbial to host an NRL trial, or even a season proper match.

Similarly, other sports bodies like the AFL, Super Rugby and cricket may also now be deterred from striking deals with the city.

If the councillors believe the Storm will come back simply because the Lavington Sports Ground's facilities are so good because of a recent upgrade, they've got another thing coming.

You feel for Albury's rugby league community, who have put plenty of blood, sweat and tears into raising the profile of the sport in an Aussie Rules dominated city.

Mike Eden has spearheaded that charge through his involvement with the Thunder. His sheer disappointment at the council being unable to see the forest for the trees has been palpable and heartfelt on Twitter.

"Very hard working volunteers have been kicked in the guts," he tweeted on Tuesday night.

This one nailed it best - "I know all nine Albury City councillors and respect their right to an opinion, but I am concerned that its decision tonight will irreparably hurt the city's brand. I cannot see any elite sport wanting to come here in the foreseeable future. I hope I am wrong. #bushfooty."

The Storm are still training in Albury anyway. So effectively the only thing to come from Tuesday's vote was a torrent of bad publicity for the city.

In contrast, look at the way Tamworth has bent over backwards to accommodate the New Zealand Warriors.

Their arrival was one of the biggest sports stories for a couple of days, and the city benefited with glowing national media publicity.

Tamworth already hosts West Tigers games for premiership points. By 'playing the game', they realise it could open more doors down the track.

Albury could have a similar opportunity had a handful in power been able to see the rare opportunity presented to them, at a time when regional cities need the lift the most.

Had an AFL team made a similar request, would there even have been an extraordinary meeting to vote on its merits?

I think we all know the answer to that question.

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