Te Kaha Christchurch multi-use arena Stadium. Photo / Christchurch City Council
David Moffett to spearhead second South Island NRL bid with support from former Rugby Australia CEO Andy Marinos; Australian rugby’s post World Cup budget shocker; smart mouthguard overcomes “teething problems”; Netflix goes all-in on combat sports; and introducing “Banana Ball”.
A rival contender for a mooted South Island franchise in Australia’s National Rugby League has emerged, headed by former New Zealand Rugby and NRL chief executive David Moffett.
North Canterbury-based Moffett wants the “South Island Kea” to play out of Christchurch’s new Te Kaha Stadium and is targeting a 2028 debut when the NRL is tipped to expand to 18 teams.
The experienced administrator’s bid is a rival to the previously announced Christchurch-based consortium led by former Canterbury Rugby League chair Tony Kidd which has been lobbying NRL officials for admission to the competition.
Sports Insider understands Moffett was approached to be involved in the original consortium. He would not explain why he rebuffed those overtures but told this column he was confident of securing a coveted expansion license.
“I have a completely different model to what has been proposed to date and I believe it will intrigue the NRL,” he said, in also revealing key details of his bid for the first time to Sports Insider.
“We are proposing a co-operative model that will allow fans to invest and own a portion of the franchise.”
Moffett confirmed that if successful, the Kea would also include a women’s franchise competing in the NRLW competition and that a handful of home matches would be played at other South Island venues including Dunedin’s Forsyth Barr Stadium.
The NRL is planning to add an 18th men’s franchise by 2028 with two further teams to be added two years later when it is likely that the competition will be split into two 10-team conferences ahead of the finals series.
A Papua-New Guinea franchise, bankrolled by the Australian Government to ward off Chinese ambition in the country, is heavily favoured to secure the 18th licence which will leave Perth, the North Sydney Bears and now two South Island bids chasing the other two.
Moffett’s track record in both rugby union and league will ensure his bid secures the attention of NRL powerbrokers Peter V’Landys and Andrew Abdo.
He has been the head of Sport England, New Zealand Rugby, the Welsh Rugby Union, NSW Rugby and the NRL. He was also the first CEO of Southern Hemisphere rugby alliance Sanzar featuring the NZ, South African and Australian unions.
During his time at the NRL in the late 1990s and early 2000s, he was instrumental in ensuring the Warriors franchise did not disappear.
Influential Sydney league identities were pushing for the Warriors to be dumped from the competition during the messy transition of ownership from the Waikato-based Tainui iwi to now disgraced Kiwi businessman Eric Watson.
Moffett resisted those overtures and made sure the Warriors survived.
He told Sports Insider his heart remains close to rugby league despite winding back his sports administration career to concentrate on other business interests in rural Canterbury.
“I was involved with [former Kiwi coach] Frank Endacott in considering a bid in 2012, however, there was no appetite within the NRL for a bid from the South Island at that time,” he said.
“I have always believed that Christchurch was the best city for an expansion team in the NRL and recent announcements by Peter V’Landys have confirmed that the NRL is now serious about receiving a bid from Christchurch.
“Under his astute leadership Peter has transformed the NRL into a powerhouse of Australian sport.
“The recent sell-out for the Warriors v Tigers match in Christchurch was a further indication that there is a lot of interest in teams playing in the best rugby league competition in the world.”
Former Rugby Australia chief executive Andy Marinos is also involved in the NRL Kea bid.
Moffett said Marinos will be “our man on the ground in Australia supporting us”.
Zimbabwe-born Marinos has played rugby and league professionally (the latter with the Sydney Bulldogs in the mid-1990s and until last year was CEO of Rugby Australia).
He left abruptly after falling out with then-chair Hamish McLennan after the boardroom boss sacked Kiwi Dave Rennie as Wallabies coach and replaced him with Eddie Jones for the World Cup against Marinos’ wishes.
Moffett said he is working to bring other prominent personalities onboard with potential announcements in coming weeks.
Another key advisor to the team is Roz Henry, formerly the CEO of Co-Operative Business New Zealand, who is working with Moffett on the team’s business model which is based off 10,000 to 15,000 home crowds.
Henry is an expert in co-ops and Moffett intends an intriguing fan-based ownership concept.
“One of the major differences that we will bring is the ownership structure,” Moffett said. “We’re investigating a form of fan ownership which will ensure fans can have skin in the game.
“We will be offering fans an opportunity to own part of the team either through a co-operative structure which is a common approach taken by major European football franchises, or the opportunity to buy shares in the company.
“It will be a first for New Zealand and for rugby league and is based on a co-operative model which inherently democratises decision-making and will allow fans to govern the team’s operations from selecting management to shaping the strategic direction.
“By empowering fans as owners we will foster a strong sense of community and inclusivity.”
Sports Insider would expect Te Kaha to jump at the chance to secure another anchor tenant alongside the Crusaders whose team boss Colin Mansbridge recently tweeted his organisation would have no problem with a league franchise in the city.
Moffett has also worked as boss of Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium in Wales, offering further insight successful stadia workings.
Other titbits he released were that, if successful, the Kea’s colours would be based on the iconic Kiwi bird (meaning likely colours of emerald green, red or orange and black).
“We settled on the Kea for a number of reasons,” he explained.
“We wanted an emblem that embodies agility, intelligence, and adaptability – that describes the South Island kea.
“They’re endemic to the Southern Alps of New Zealand which demonstrates an ability to adjust to harsh conditions.
“They have a curious nature and playful spirit and are among the most intelligent and social bird species in the world. They represent teamwork and resilience which will mirror the spirit of our players.
“They are all attributes a franchise will need to be successful in the NRL, so it’s an appropriate name that will add authenticity to our team identity.”
With only 7000 wild Kea remaining and the species under threat, Moffett said $1 of every admission ticket would be donated back to the Kea Conservation Fund.
The South Island has a rich heritage of producing NRL performers including teak tough props Brent Todd, Mark Broadhurst, Terry Hermansson and the late Quentin Pongia and Adrian Shelford, former Kiwi coach David Kidwell right through to current Broncos emerging star Jordan Riki and last season’s leading tryscorer in the NRL, Jamayne Isaako from the Dolphins.
That proven factory line of South Island talent over four decades will surely catch the eye of V’Landys and Abdo who both understand New Zealand is currently the richest talent nursery in the game.
The aforementioned ex-Rugby Australia chair Hamish McLennan left a nasty surprise for his fellow officials when they checked the books after the Wallabies’ dismal World Cup campaign.
McLennan was shown the door after presiding over the disaster but officials have now discovered an A$2.6 million ($2.8m) budget blow-out around travel spending and benefits for players.
It was hardly the news needed right when RA has taken an A$60m line of credit to keep the lights on.
Phil Waugh, RA’s new chief executive, said a review into the unsuccessful campaign found poor culture and a lack of trust were the main reasons for the national team’s performance.
He added that the governing body had made personnel changes as a result of the cost blowout caused by executives who had spent money without approval.
“Clearly, [the spend] is not acceptable, and it won’t happen again,” he said.
Australia’s Super Rugby teams were told of the blow-out, which could affect their future funding, last week.
Just what they needed as they finally show signs of competitiveness in Super Rugby!
Netflix’s long-awaited foray into live broadcast sport is finally happening.
The streaming giant has sat on the sporting sidelines for years now. Despite annual predictions it would jump into purchasing rights, Netflix has been content to dabble with docudramas like F1′s Drive To Survive until now.
That changed last week when it announced it would stream live a boxing bout between Mike Tyson and YouTube upstart Jake Paul on July 20.
Forget for a moment the dubious nature of a 57-year-old taking on a fighter 30 years his junior who has been accused of paying off his opponents to keep his record intact.
The fight is being interpreted as a Netflix play into sporting rights with an intriguing focus on combat sports.
Media reports in the US suggest Netflix will make a huge play to secure the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) featuring, among others, our own Israel Adesanya.
The UFC’s current exclusive deal with Disney’s ESPN network lapses next year and Netflix has the mixed martial arts juggernaut in its sights.
Meanwhile, Netflix has canned its tennis version of Drive To Survive. Word has it the producers were not happy with the lack of co-operation from players and officials around making Break Point which was reflected in poor ratings.
According to data, the series came in as the 617th most popular show on the platform, well behind Drive To Survive (121st) and golf’s Full Swing (274th).
Former Wallaby captain Stirling Mortlock is confident rugby’s electronic mouthguard issue is behind it and that coaches and players will soon quickly become convinced of the merits of the new ground-breaking technology.
Mortlock’s Australian-based investment company XV Capital is assisting the mouthguard’s manufacturers, Prevent Biometrics, to roll out the protection tool, including beyond professional rugby.
The new World Rugby-mandated mouthguards created controversy in this season’s opening Super Rugby match between the Chiefs and Crusaders, drawing criticism from All Blacks like Scott Barrett and Anton Lienert-Brown, who was taken out of the match temporarily off the back of an alert for concussion.
But Mortlock told Sports Insider that the primary issue was a delay in the Bluetooth transmission of relevant alerts to the match day doctor during the first round of Super Rugby matches.
He revealed that extending the Bluetooth’s range and reducing delays in alerts was successfully deployed in a round of the American Major League Rugby competition and further testing in New Zealand Super Rugby matches earlier this month had been successful.
“There’s been a couple of teething issues if you’ll excuse the pun,” Mortlock said. “But that’s to be expected in a groundbreaking and global tech rollout.”
“It [the Bluetooth delay] was a known issue exacerbated in the New Zealand context.
“It was also unfortunate that it presented at the end of such an exciting and close match.”
But he added the solution is only weeks away and having suffered 11 major concussions during his own playing career, he was adamant the technology should be embraced and persevered with.
“When I played I suffered all manner of injuries and when it came to concussion and brain health generally there were no tools to objectively identify and quantify what was happening. So I have a personal interest in this vitally important area.
“The great thing with these mouthguards is World Rugby’s leadership and courage driving this initiative through at a time when contact sports are in the spotlight and duty of care is paramount.”
The mouthguards were gathering “invaluable data”, he added.
“For example, after two rounds of Super Rugby [12 matches], there have been about 10,000 HAEs and 10 or so alerts during the game which exceeded the threshold requiring the player to come off for a head injury assessment,” he said.
“That’s close to the estimated one per match. The players being evaluated took the largest impacts which was 0.1 per cent of the total, and most of them weren’t obvious to the naked eye.
“The importance and value of the tech in helping manage a player’s load cannot be underestimated.”
Australia’s Super Rugby teams are finally firing some shots and the comp is better for it. The Queensland Reds look particularly impressive.
In among an under-performing Crusaders team, Sevu Reece showed the asset he is against the Fijian Drua last weekend. An All Blacks recall – or a rumoured big French club contract – await.
Kiwi Maia Ramsden added to the astonishing resurgence of the iconic black singlet in the world of international track and field. The US-based 21-year-old Harvard student won the NCAA’s women’s mile in record-breaking style this week and is on track to qualify for the Paris Olympics.
Add in previous Olympic medallists of pole vaulter Eliza McCartney and shot put’s Tom Walsh, recently crowned world indoor champs Geordie Beamish (1500m) and Hamish Kerr (high jump) as well as sprinter Zoe Hobbs and New Zealand’s stocks have seldom been higher.
It’s called Banana Ball and it’s a variant of American baseball… and it looks like a lot of fun, especially if you’re a spectator!
Hagley Oval has a new head groundsman ahead of the first test of the summer.