Rabbitohs and Roosters scuffle again, and rugby league is the big loser

The Book of Feuds chapter detailing local rivals the South Sydney Rabbitohs and Sydney Roosters is now beginning to resemble the Bible stacked atop a dictionary, with another paragraph writing itself as we speak.

Over the past month, the two clubs have become embroiled in a bitter standoff over a gentlemen’s agreement, that as long as the South Sydney District Junior Rugby Football League agreed to host Eastern Suburbs juniors also, player poaching at the junior level would not take place.

According to SSDJRFL, this agreement was broken upon the Roosters’ signing of four former South Sydney juniors – Egan Butcher, Grant Garvey, Paul Momirovski and Easts’ under 20s captain Nat Butcher.

As The Daily Telegraph revealed last Saturday, this has lead to the SSDJRFL declining to renew a deal between themselves and the Eastern Suburbs Junior Rugby Football League, effectively making the decision to cut Easts’ juniors clubs loose from its’ competition for next year.

This means that over 500 registered players for ESJRFL clubs Bondi, Clovelly, Paddington and St. Charles are currently without a competition to play in for 2017, and face the prospect of either joining a nearby Souths Juniors club or inconveniently linking up with another competition in another area of Sydney.

Thankfully, the NSWRL will attempt to step in, having convened a meeting between Sydney Roosters’ chief executive officer John Lee and Easts juniors administrators – a move that hopefully has not come too late.

Both Souths and Easts juniors have gone on record spruiking how “right” they are about the situation at hand – a situation that has seen a gentlemen’s agreement whittled down to childish fighting where, at the end of the day, there will be no winners.

There’s no doubt Souths have a justifiable amount to be grumpy about here. Having strung the Chooks’ junior clubs along in their own competition since 1994, they certainly have done their hated neighbour's plenty of favours.

But let’s not pretend this agreement was of no or negative net benefit to the Rabbitohs. Along with the cost of the agreement paid by the Roosters each year, estimated to be between $70,000 and $100,000 a year, the Rabbits’ juniors also gain all the benefits of a larger competition with more talent.

However, in 2016 (conveniently the last year of the 22 year long juniors deal) the oft alluded to “gentlemen’s agreement” was left at the door by Easts.

On their way to an under 20s premiership, an unusually formidable Chooks squad included the four aforementioned Bunnies’ juniors.

Would South Sydney have reacted the same had the Roosters not won the premiership? Who knows. But in acting the way they did, they knowingly jeopardised a long-standing truce agreement between the two clubs’ juniors.

Easts officials claim that South Sydney, as much as any other club in the league, had just as much opportunity to sign the four juniors as they did. Obviously, this ignores the handshake agreement the two clubs had.

But this doesn’t for a second absolve the way Souths have acted since what they claim to be a low blow from their bitter rivals.

As many have pointed out, Souths Juniors are essentially punishing Easts juniors for the actions of their senior club. Whilst the Chooks may have acted in bad faith, it was not the actions of the ESJRFL that caused this.

This is all, of course, a moot point when we step back and realise that this is children we’re talking about.

Those with future prospects of a potential career in football are few and far between and will find their way to the club they want to play for one way or another.

For the other 99% of the 500 plus Easts juniors that are now facing the sad prospect of no football for next year, it seems as if Souths Juniors have gone ahead and said, “hard luck. Go thank your parent club”.

Junior rugby league is in as much trouble as it could be anyway, especially on the east coast of Sydney.

The eastern and southeastern suburbs are no longer rugby league heartland. They are a melting pot of league, union, AFL and football lovers, with all four codes battling for the wintertime affections of the kids.

Given the current situation, the “eastern suburbs 500” face the prospect of finding one of those three new sports to play for next year.

But that doesn’t seem to concern the Rabbitohs or the Roosters for that matter.

All that does is what happens in the top one percent, forgetting that without the other 99%, including the mums and dads, the top one percent cannot succeed in league.

Let’s hope the two organisations can work something out. At a time when kids should want to love rugby league, they are currently being given every reason to despise it.

Let the kids play.