Questions remain over South Sydney's return, says PETER JESSUP.
The focus of attention in the National Rugby League this year will be the Lazarus act of the South Sydney Rabbitohs.
The club that was part of Sydney's first league in 1908 beat all expectations and the might of Murdoch's money men to force a return to the field this year after being thrown out in 1999.
The big interest is whether they can hold on to the financial backers, the fans and the sponsors who have taken them this far, with a team that looks set to struggle.
Souths are what league is, and has always been about, battling working-class mates.
The green and red of the jersey were chosen by the Catholic and Protestant immigrants who made up the first teams to show they had not taken their homeland wars to Australia and were happy to carry each other's colours.
The name Rabbitohs was given to the fundraisers from the club who would raise rabbits and sell the meat.
This week, rather than cheap meat, it was corporate lunches at A$165 ($200) a head at Randwick Racecourse, with actor Russell Crowe among the new fundraising fans.
He bought the bell used to ring the start and end of the first game the Rabbitohs played in 1908, paying more than A$60,000 ($73,250) for it at an auction and promising to return it after ringing-off this year's first game against the Roosters.
It is curious that Murdoch's paper the Daily Telegraph has run a green and red wraparound cover and a 12-page promotion of the club and its first game. When pushing Super League and the News Ltd line as its parent company fought to wrest control from the Australian Rugby League, the Telegraph never mentioned Souths.
Out the back of Foxtel/NRL headquarters there must still be fingers crossed that the Rabbitohs will stumble.
Fifteen teams means the competition has to be run in pools, raising arguments about who has the harder routes to the finals. It also means two byes a team, which extends the season.
News Ltd, bleeding money at the North Queensland Cowboys, Canberra Raiders and Melbourne Storm, and no longer able to count on a return from the Broncos, wants to cut its investment in clubs.
It doesn't have to fund them any more after tying up all pay-TV competitors this week in a Telstra/Optus/Foxtel deal of convenience that means Kerry Packer is no longer the enemy.
Meanwhile, former poor-boys Souths are running flush with cash. Wallets have been prised open by emotion in the classic tale of the little guy against conniving big business, of preserving history, pride and glory by saving a foundation club in league and the one with the most-ever premierships (20).
Souths have raised A$1.25 million ($1.52 million) from selling memberships to 23,000 fans and firms.
Holding control of tickets for the first game - a re-creation of the 1908 premiership final in which the Rabbitohs beat Easts (now the Roosters) 14-12 - the club offered seats to members first.
Of 29,000 people at the NRL season kickoff on Friday night, all bar 1600 will be Souths supporters.
If the Rabbitohs can't win there, what does the future hold?
With a side heavy on big forwards but light on fast, skilful backs and especially experienced halves, they are going to struggle. Already injury-plagued are props Paul Stringer and Frank Puletua, and second-rower Anthony Colella (knees) and utility Jamie Fitzgerald (ankle).
In Canberra, the Raiders are one of many clubs that are struggling to maintain income and interest in the face of unspectacular results - and rugby, with the Brumbies claiming the home-town glory.
Chief executive Kevin Neil put the situation into words for all clubs: "You've always got to have a long-term plan, but the short term is today - if you don't have a good today you may not have a long term."
The Raiders were beaten 38-0 by the Bulldogs last weekend and new coach Matthew Elliot is more worried about the 38 than the nil.
"Defence isn't about individuals. It's about resolve, communication, technique and co-operation."
Maybe his team couldn't move quickly enough because of the muscle-building programmes that new trainer and former Great Britain shotput champ Carl Jennings has them on. Kiwi forward Ruben Wiki has bulked up 10kg to 108kg.
"In the Dogs you see a team that has been together under the same coach for three years," Elliot said.
Taking that and merging it with the old saying that you have to lose a grand final before you'll win one, the Parramatta Eels have to be title favourites.
Brian Smith has signed for five more years, the team is young but experienced and know where they went wrong against Newcastle in last season's final.
The Knights have re-signed their coach Michael Hagan through to 2004.
They won't be easy. But other teams will have taken note of a row between captain Andrew Johns and international Ben Kennedy at the weekend, the pair openly arguing at a team bonding session at a hotel in Merewether, then leaving to continue their dispute across the road.
Another curiosity of this season is that the so-called Silvertails at Manly, the club which helped to end Souths' last days of glory in the 1970s by buying up their star players, is struggling for survival.
Coach Peter Sharp has a front-page headline from the local Manly newspaper taped to his wall. "Spoon Plunge," it says, telling of the Eagles' standing as favourites for last place.
Crowds have been steadily dropping at Brookvale, with even hero Geoff Toovey's last game attracting fewer than 10,000.
With their best frontrowers gone, Mark O'Meley to the Bulldogs and Stringer to Souths, and no Brett Kimmorley, it's easy to see why. They will have the usual competition from a North Queensland Cowboys outfit who have perennially been unable to mould big-name off-season buys into a team.
Age may be an issue this year. Bulldogs lock Darren Smith, 33, was oldest man registered for the competition, until Alfie Langer signed for the Broncos. He turns 36 in July.
At Brisbane, there's interest not only in Langer's ability to spark a sliding team but in the likelihood of Steve Renouf also returning, and in Brad Thorn's whereabouts.
Coach Wayne Bennett showed some signs of strain for the first time in 14 years last season when he sacked fullback Justin Hodges from the top side mid-season after he signed with Parramatta. It wasn't well received and it is being asked if Bennett is losing the plot in going back to veterans.
Player clean-outs and buy-ins have left the Sharks and Panthers looking like mid-table contenders.
At Cronulla, coach Chris Anderson is apparently over all heart problems following surgery. Preston Campbell looks likely to lose the No 7 jersey to test half Kimmorley, with Campbell running at hooker in the Sharks' last trial game.
It's hard to see Anderson's old club the Storm being as dominant as they were now salary caps are all even and no Super League concessions and free-transfer players have been sent there.
Mid-table seems their destiny, above a Wests Tigers side that is stable but lacking stars, below a Roosters side with stars but lacking stability.
Gus Gould's return as New South Wales Origin coach and Sydney City "coaching adviser" is bound to make new Roosters coach Ricky Stuart nervous. Who will select teams and coach if they keep losing?
Stuart has gambled on allowing old Canberra mate Brett Mullins a way back into the game after a waywardtwo years, nominating the 30-year-old as the only certain starter against Souths in game one. Good luck. Mullins is an exciting open-play runner - or was.
St George-Illawarra look likely to be scrapping with the Roosters for a top-four position. Them and the New Zealand Warriors.
The Dragons have lost experience in the forwards, but still look to have a balanced side. Auckland will be stronger for a range of reasons:
* A better start to the season.
* Continuity in terms of playing and coaching staff, surety in the future.
* Fewer crazy errors, players finding better timing and options.
* Maturity, third-season NRL players in holes where they once were newcomers.
* Competition for places - centre was a trouble spot but now there are a multitude of options, including John Carlaw, David Myles, Clinton Toopi, Wairangi Koopu, Sione Faumuina.
There is back-up at halfback and five-eighth, with Stacey Jones, Motu Tony, P. J. Marsh and Lance Hohaia. There are multiple good options at prop and on the wing.
* Player respect for coaches Daniel Anderson and Tony Kemp.
Anything less than making the top-eight will be seen as a bad season.
Rugby league: The bell rings or tolls for the Rabbitohs
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.