Can you smell the croissants?

Greg Eastwood, a 21 year old Brisbane Broncos player, signed a lucrative three year deal to play with Leeds this week. So what, you say? There goes another one, I say. Now, it’s not just the veterans leaving the NRL for a final pay cheque, nor just mid-range players leaving to buff-up their bank balance. The English Super League is going after the cream of the NRL’s next generation – stealing them to play in their mediocre competition, robbing the NRL of a genuine future star as his skills plateau in the slower and less intense UK competition. He’ll join a couple of others moving to England next year; Brett Hodgson, Mark Riddell, Danny Buderus, Michael Croker, amongst others. Not a bad crop, is it? That’s not to mention that Ryan Cross and Timana Tahu have both played for the Wallabies in the past fortnight.

Now Greg Inglis is saying ‘show me the money’! Benji Marshall’s manager is shopping him around, so they say. Frank Pritchard didn’t even bother coming out for the second half of Penrith’s match on Monday night – with Panther’s coach Matt Elliot saying “where there’s smoke there’s fire”, it doesn’t bode well for the superstar sticking it out at the foot of the mountains. To top it all off, Todd Carney and Tim Smith are punished for their misdemeanours by laughing their way to the bank after signing for Huddersfield and Wigan respectively, where they can drink themselves silly without the scrutiny of the Australian rugby league media.

The trend has been set. Rugby League is losing too much quality; more than ever. I’m getting ready for my call up.

And another thing…

Sonny Bill is gone, we all know that.  

The Bulldogs’ $750k settlement was a good outcome for the club – they did away with a fractious renegade, got compensation and the settlement showed the player he had done the wrong thing.  

But at the end of the day, the player chucked a tantrum, picked up his bag and got what he wanted (Sonny got off to the perfect start scoring a try in the first match of the new season – Umaga’s side won 22-16 over last season’s runners-up Clermont).

How many will follow him? Unless the NRL uses these defections as a catalyst for change, as a sign to search for further investment and a trigger for an overhaul of the administrative factions shielding the game’s development, then the quality of the on-field product will continue to wither.

But that’s old news. While I’m on a roll…

But how can league attract sponsorship if its players continue to act like buffoons?

As Paul Kent wrote in The Daily Telegraph, the problem is some of these players believe they are bigger than the game and more important than society. Greg Bird texted his mate after he glassed his girlfriend to say, “my manager will sort this shit out,” as if his behaviour would be wiped under the carpet.

The league cannot make any concessions for Greg Bird, just because he is a ‘good player’.

News of Rugby League players behaving poorly is as old-hat as the proverbial broken record, but Bird is one of the few players to be in what looks to be pretty obvious and serious, serious strife with the law.

Whether he is charged or not, he needs to be stood down from the game indefinitely – the game needs to bite the bullet like the AFL did with Ben Cousins, because this guy has problems. The Sharks releasing him will do no good, as another club will just pick him up, as happened in the past, such as Neville Costigan (Brisbane to Canberra) and Dane Tilse (Newcastle to Canberra).

That said, if he does the time he should be entitled back to the game. There are good stories to be written, like Tigers rookie Dane Laurie, who has got his life back together after spending last summer locked up.

But it’s not all doom and gloom…

For all the knocking and criticism, the competition is in great shape with two rounds to play – the make-up of the top 8 is completely up for grabs.

While Newcastle’s Danny Buderus has gone out on an unfair note with an injury, his farewell is a testament to everything that is good about Rugby League – honesty, determination and doing the right thing by your team mates.

Meanwhile, a new star is born in Canberra, with Terry Campese’s breathtaking form providing the base for Canberra’s re-birth. Of all the teams in the league, they’re the ones with the winning streak at the right time. Stranger things have happened…

Don’t want to rub it in, but…

While the NRL has a few problems on its hands, the AFL has struck another wonderful chord with the community ahead of this week’s International Cup in Melbourne. Yes, that’s right, the International Cup for Australian Rules.

While we’ll see life on Mars before AFL being played between the London Lions and San Francisco Swans, their fledgling tournament sees the Peace Team – a group of Israelis and Palestinians playing together – and has received a stirring response from the AFL community.

Coached by AFL legend Robert Dipierdomenico, the side epitomises all that is good about sport – bringing together rival factions and showing that when all is said and done, we are only human, let’s try and live together. Well done to the AFL for throwing their weight behind this concept.