Kenty - Paul Kent NRL Podcast

00:01 G'day and welcome to Kenty Blitz, your daily hit of NRL News and we're back Kenty, not long to go for the season. Bit of a bludger of weekend games. 00:09 Yeah, look, it's a funny one. Look, I think it's Water's starting the finest level a little bit in the NRL now. The teams that you expect to win are winning. Teams that are probably struggling a little bit, we're still seeing they're struggling. And form is going the way you would expect. So, eight out of eight on the weekend was. You did. There you go. 00:32 Well done. There you go. 00:34 That's not a claim. I'm actually saying that because I thought it was an easy... Yeah, right, yeah. Relatively easy weekend to pick the winners over the weekend. 00:42 Ryan, can you just go back through the records and let's check those? Not now, but well done, mate. 00:46 Well, we can, yeah. Well done. Might be wrong, I might have changed my mind, but I've got my mate in there who's in a tipping comp and I'm doing his work for him, so he's very happy with me. 00:55 Okay, well done. All right, well, let's talk about some news today. Laurie Daly has confirmed the news that everybody knew that he's stepping down as New South Wales coach. Yeah. 01:03 Yeah, good on him. And I'm really happy. I think like everybody, we're happy that Laurie walks away as a series winner, only as good as your last. Bloody ace. Stuck it up Queensland. And I think, and this is going to piss off all the Queensland viewers, but I reckon there was a really rich irony in there for someone like Laurie who went through that extended Queensland period of victory, the 12 out of 13 series I think they won, where... 01:34 There's a lot of dodgy calls that went Queensland's way and in some cases tipped the series Queensland's way and this year it completely flipped and all the Queenslanders who always mocked the New South Wales fans and oh, you're bad sports and look, just accept that you lost and yeah, the referee just makes his call and all that sort of bullshit. 01:55 New South Wales had the luck of the bounce this year, won the series. Queensland are pissed off about it. Nothing they can do about it, though. And Laurie just walks away going, you know what? You're not going to get me back in the arena again, so I'm going to walk out as a series victor. And that's all she wrote. 02:12 He's done the right thing, though, Laurie, hasn't he? I mean, you can't do any better than what he's done. 02:17 Well, you can't. Look, he's the only person now, I'm led to believe, who's won two Well, he's won two series deciders in opposition territory as a captain, and he's also now done it as a coach. So, yeah, he's done a – Malman Ingram might be in there. I'll have to have a look at that. But anyway, he's just – I think he's given all he can give to. You know what I mean? He's got to the end of it, and he's left. I don't think it would have been – Much upside if he'd come back next year. 02:49 So he's left. They've picked Matt King now as his replacement. 02:52 Have they? 02:53 Yeah, they've named him as the replacement. So good on the New South Wales Rugby League. Obviously, they knew it was coming. Look, I spoke to Dave Trodden some time back, and while he wouldn't confirm Laurie was resigning, I told him I knew Laurie was resigning, so I was trying to get a bit of a steer on where he was thinking for the next coach. And he named the usual suspects, which was King and Boyd Cordner. I don't think Brett White was the real hope, but respectfully, they mentioned him among the group. 03:26 It was always out of Cordner and King. And King's done a very, very good job as an assistant. It's going to be really interesting. 03:37 I'm not a big fan as you know of bringing in past players based on their playing performance as a coach. I think King... 03:49 Oh, yeah. I've got to give him the benefit of the doubt. I'm prepared to sit down. He wasn't an origin legend. He did play for New South Wales, but he wasn't somebody that was first name on the team sheet every time Blue Selectors sat down. And second to that, he has had a background as an assistant coach for some time now at the Roosters. So he's really... 04:12 And Laurie did say he's ready now to be a head coach for the NRL team. 04:17 I will say, though, there's a couple of stuff-ups this year with the Blues, their bench rotations and things like that, which King was part of. So he's still got a little bit of work to do. But I do like the fact that he's out there right now making his bones as a coach. Yeah. 04:36 Given everything considered for origin, you'd have to think that – I think you'll go okay. 04:42 Why wouldn't they have considered an older style coach, you know, a Desi Hasler or a Shane Flanagan or somebody – They could have. 04:49 But there's that – look, rep coaching is different from club coaching. That's one thing that – I've said it before. I spoke to Craig Bellamy when – after he coached for three years and he lost all three series, Craig, and – And it stunned everybody that Craig was like, whoa. And I remember talking to Bob Fortin who was – back then they didn't have selectors. They got rid of selectors. But Bozo was his advisor, so to speak. And somebody there, like Craig is acting now for Laurie. Bozo was there for Craig to bounce ideas off players. 05:23 What do you think? I'm thinking of him. I'm thinking of him. 05:26 And I, as you know, I was good friends with Bob Fortin. We were – you know, go shooting together and different things like we hang out together as opposed to just a player-coach, a Jodo-coach relationship. Now, there was times there I spoke to him and I'd be like, mate, what's he doing here? 05:46 And he'd be like, mate, I don't know. 05:49 and he'd say, I told him this, but he thinks with this player, he said to me, he knows what he can get out of him, he trusts him, and Bozo's rule was, well, you're the coach, final decision is yours, so Bozo was like, well, mate, that's what you want to do, you do that. But he was adamant, both of them were one of the great rep coaches, as well as the great club coach, but he was adamant that there are players you can pick at origin who not necessarily stand out at club level. 06:21 And there's the opposite players who are, you look at him at club level and you think, wow, we've got to pick this guy. And there's been a multitude of wingers over the years, but they don't stand up at origin level. A really good example of a player that, did it like that was Dean Paye. Dean Paye was a good club player, but you didn't watch him play going, mate, this guy's got to be a superstar. 06:45 Then he got picked for the country team. 06:48 And yeah, he was in there, but he was probably running at the second row. He was playing second row at the time, I think. At the second row, I was on the field. He was probably running third or fourth to get picked for New South Wales, back when it used to be a true origin selection. 07:00 Anyway, by the time he'd finished that game, city country game, He'd leveled the city forwards. 07:07 You know what I mean? He just went out and he just buckled them in half. And at the end of the game, everyone went, wow, what about Dean Paye? Didn't he step up? And then it's like, I remember they were having the conversation, mate, do we pick him in Origin? Like, can he still do it at Origin level? And there was a bit of a, oh, we'll see. They picked him at Origin, and again, he just buckled the Queenslanders. So the next minute he's on the King of Rutoa. 07:27 You know what I mean? 07:28 And he became a mainstay after that. And he just was – because whatever level you picked him at, he excelled at. And even though he wasn't that club level, that absolute standout that you normally look for. So it can happen both ways. And that's the difficulty if you're not a weekly head coach where you are the ones that have to make the decision, where ultimate – Blame, if you want to call it that, or ultimate credit lies with you. We saw a couple of weeks ago, Benji Gamble, and let's forget all this other, Benji Gamble with a rookie halfback, Javon Andrews. 08:01 I'm going to put him at halfback. And now we know what happened out of that. But that, from a pure coaching point of view, that was a selection. Everyone went, oh, okay, it's a bit left field. And it backfired. Didn't work. 08:14 And that's Benji. Yeah, Benji would have walked away from that. Okay, that's a lesson learned there. He's still a rookie coach, as we know. Lesson learned. And so Matt King's got all that to overcome. That all said, he's going the right way about getting the job done. And there's really no one else there. I don't think any of the older guys. You could have gone with Des. The other problem with going with the older coaches, like a Des or whoever else, is I'm sure they would have wanted a longer term. 08:41 And there is a feeling that King's keeping the chair warm for Ivan Cleary in 2028 when he finishes at the Panthers. 08:48 Interesting. 08:49 So I dare say that... Joey, no shot? 08:52 It was his to take if he wanted. 08:54 I think if he'd stuck his hand up, he would have got it, yeah. It's funny, Gould said the other day, it's probably the right time for him to take it now because he's sure that sometime in the future, Joey will look back... 09:07 regret that he didn't have a crack at it and now's the right time for joey it would have been perfect for joe to come in and do it for one year and to announce a succession i'm going to do it for one year then ivan's taken over the year after yeah so that would have been a really good plan i would have liked that uh but it i think it's a part of joey too where and i think we have to respect this The one person that knows Andrew Johns better than anybody is Andrew Johns. 09:37 So if he's ruling himself out, we've probably got to listen to him. 09:41 Yeah. I think he enjoys his current lifestyle surf and breakfast. Well, he does. He does. And his young fellow too is doing year 12, so that's probably the plan. 09:49 Look, there's a whole lot of other factors that come into it. But he just – yeah, Joey, look, we know his footy intellect is – 09:56 Second to none. 09:56 Second to none. But there's other things that come into coaching rather than just what you know about footy and being able to run a – and I know for a fact his big concern was being able to run a camp environment, him having to be level-headed as the coach and leader for the entire 10 days. 10:15 And when I say level-headed, he's a bit manic, Joey. He could sit there and have one day where he just wants to work, work, work, work. And then the next day he's just washed out and he's flat out getting out of bed sort of thing. So, you know, you can't be doing that as the coach. So, yeah, a lot goes into it. But I think Matt King, I'm really looking forward to seeing the job he does. 10:35 Yep. Very good. All right, let's talk about a couple of teams. 10:40 who bombed out on the weekend, bombed out of the finals series, Brisbane and Melbourne. 10:44 Bellamy conceding it's over for the Storm. 10:46 Yeah. Fascinating press conference, wasn't it? 10:49 Yeah, it was fantastic. 10:50 He came out and went to go and get one of his grandkids stuffed toys. Get a teddy bear or something, yeah. Going to punch the shit out of him. He said that and, yeah, he said come finals time, he'll probably go for a walk at 3 p.m. or 7.30. Yeah, it was very good. But look, they've got excuses this year, Melbourne. 11:08 They have been disappointing in some respects, but in other respects, they've got excuses. 11:13 It's just unfortunate. Like what happened in the off-season with Kamakamitha and Katoa, like you just, you know, they've walked under a ladder there. 11:27 I wonder if any other team with any other coach would have gotten nowhere near what Melbourne went to this year. 11:34 Yeah, that's true. And the one thing is like was – We do at times see teams surrender. They get three losses into it and they surrender. Now Melbourne had a period there, I think they lost six in a row. Might have been seven, I think it was six in a row. 11:47 And Craig and everyone at the club was concerned. 11:52 But they got themselves out of it and I was really admirable the way they did that. The way they were able to go away as a group. 11:59 and just refocus, rededicate their efforts because of, you know, like we saw that with St. George Illawarra. 12:06 And you get to the point, and I've seen other clubs in other years go through long losing streaks, and generally the way they get out of it is they sack the coach, which is what the Dragons did. Or if they don't sack the coach, some other... 12:19 kind of lightning bolt moment hits them where a player will get injured or sacked or whatever or something will happen that'll just refocus the group. The Storm didn't have anything like that happen. They just went away and basically got together and just said, mate, Harb works the way out. 12:36 And that's how they got out of it. Look, they're still, I think they're going about average, about fair, about par for where they are when you look at their roster. 12:45 So when they start getting a few players, and I tell you what, some of those kids that got coming through are already starting to show some signs as well. So they're in good hands in the future. They've done a really good job recruiting. 12:54 Do you think this will need to be a complete rebuild for them? 12:57 Not complete. Not complete, but they're going to have to go through a bit, yeah. 13:01 They miss Wishart next year, Munster potentially. 13:05 I don't think they'll really miss Wishart a lot. We looked at, what was his name, Hayden Watson on the weekend, made his debut. 13:13 He came in the first grade like he'd been there before. His composure and just the way his management of the game, his confidence in himself. 13:24 I thought this kid, he's one of those guys that when they make their debut, you look at him and you think, mate, they don't look out of place at all. Jai Bowden made his debut on the weekend as well. A few others have made it. I think it was They've had about six or seven already this year, Storm, who have made their debut as young kids coming through. So they've got a lot of – yeah, they've got some pretty good kids coming through. 13:48 Their future's still ahead of them as a club as well. 13:51 Here's why I think they'll miss Wishart next year is because Wishart covers a lot of positions. 13:55 you know, one, six, seven, nine. Melbourne's seem to have a lot of injuries in those halves, six and seven particularly. Either Munster or Hughes seem to be out a lot. And I don't know if that's their age or the way they play the game. But Hughes has had unusual... You can't... 14:10 But you still can't... You can't train for a broken arm. I get it. Things like that. I get it, but some players get injured and some don't. No, that's true. 14:16 That's true. Yeah. But look, I don't have real concerns for Melbourne. I think that they're a club that's really... 14:25 well set as far as how they structure this year into next year, into the year after. They have succession plans and they have good players coming through. This year they got caught because of, like, Kama Kamitha had a stroke and Katoa had a brain bleed after a concussion when the NRL season finished and the World Cup, or the World Pacific Championships, sorry, the Pacific Championships were on. And they're both outside of Melbourne's control in many ways. And, Coates was injured for a while. 14:57 Well, Coates hasn't been there all season. They lost Warbrick. He won't be back, obviously, but they lost him, what, a month ago or so. But that's happening to them this year. They lost Pappenhausen and just decided he was going to walk the earth like Kane. So... 15:15 Okay. 15:16 Anyway, but... 15:19 But those, particularly the back rowers, are so crucial to your defence. And Melbourne's edge defence is the worst in the comp. Well, second worst in the comp behind the Dragons, right? 15:30 Now, you've never seen that before. And that shows you how much they've missed those two players who were... 15:38 quality professionals at the top of their game. They were at the peak of their powers. They were in that window of playing their best footy. And suddenly Craig had to go away and get the kids who were, basically he was keeping there for one or two games through the season. And he's had to try and rely on them throughout the entire year. And that's, That's what affected their defence. Teams are just cutting them apart on the edges, on both edges too. One side's slightly worse than the other. One's particularly bad, the Munster side. 16:09 But they just, look, they've got excuses, Melbourne. And I think it's funny, you know, because Craig was, it was a dollar full to retire at the end of this season. And it's just starting to, given the way it's all panned out, You know what I mean? And given how he's getting through the season, there's just starting to be a little bit of talk, you know, that he might go again next year. So silver lining for the Storm anyway. 16:36 He doesn't need to keep going, though. 16:38 It's in his blood. The other part to that was is we all know he's got health concerns and, you know, I'm not going to reveal what they are specifically. 16:48 But the big question was always, with the stress of coaching, or the activity of coaching and keeping busy, which is going to be, take precedence, which is going to be the one that wins that battle? 17:05 And, you know, is it too much stress he needs to retire to look after himself? Or is the activity and the environment and all that, is that good for him and actually helping him? So keep coaching as long as you can keep going. Yep. And so, and I think that's, That's the other question I think is starting to be answered a little bit too. 17:23 And so now I think it's leaning towards continuing to coach. I don't know the answer to that. But I do know that that was early on when he first got the diagnosis, they were the dilemmas he had. He had this choice or he had this choice. And even the doctors didn't know. 17:38 Kenty, you say that Melbourne cover every base in their planning. It seems to me... that Bellamy would be the kind of person who would take somebody on as an assistant coach and name them as the successor. You know, and I think that's maybe what he'll do next year. 17:52 Well, hopefully, yeah. Let's wait and see. Look, there's been a school of thought that he's been trying to get his son ready for the job. He's been an assistant there for some time. Obviously, very much Craig clone. Knows his footy in and out. 18:06 But there's also the Storm have always spoken about they understand the value of of a big presence. Craig wasn't that when he first went there either, to be fair. Craig had had a little bit of notoriety as the Broncos coach. He coached the baby Broncos that night when Wayne wasn't there. But he wasn't a superstar player and he wasn't a big name coming through. And they took a bit of a gamble when they gave him the job. It's worked out Unbelievably successful. 18:36 So it's worked out better than they would have ever imagined, to be fair. 18:41 But I do think there's also a train of thought now. 18:44 I think they'd love to have Billy come in. 18:47 If Billy came in and said, look, I'm ready to be head coach, they'd probably let him do it. If Billy came in and said, look, I'll do a year with Craig, perfect scenario for him. 18:57 We'll just have to wait and see. 18:58 I'll tell you what, it'd be a big decision by the people at the top of the Melbourne Storm to put the son of Bellamy in because the pressure on that decision would be significant. A lot of pressure. 19:12 That's true. 19:13 He doesn't want to be one of those, which we spoke about before, one of those one-and-done coaches come in, sign a contract for two or three years, and at the end of that, you leave the game and don't really get a job anywhere else because you haven't had success. But I think Melbourne, they've got a good system all around and whoever comes in after Bellamy, whatever that might be, the club will circle them and the club, and this is the other thing that Melbourne will do, which they do better than most, is they'll keep things in place around him. 19:45 So basically, whoever comes in eventually to succeed Craig will come in to the Melbourne system as Craig has set it up. Panisi will be highly incentivized not to leave, even though he would probably think, oh, it's got a nice little touch to it going out with Craig, as would be with the other assistant coaches around the place. 20:08 Kenny, just quickly talk to me. The other team that officially bowed out was Brisbane. 20:12 Yeah, we can stop having the conversation now, can't we? That's it? Done. Well, it's fascinating. Even in the last two weeks, we all sort of, you know, we're trying to find ways. And the Brisbane faithful, they just didn't want to admit that they were gone. 20:24 What do they need to do, do you think? They've got an ageing Harves in Benhart. Yeah. 20:30 Reynolds retires this year. 20:31 Reynolds retires. Hunt plays on next year. 20:34 Peasant, who hasn't set the world on fire at Parramatta, and they've got Duffy as well. 20:37 Duffy, yeah. 20:38 They don't have a standout seven, really. 20:41 I think they'll try Peasant as their first seven. Hunt will be there to come on and, I suppose, rescue the game if it needs to happen. 20:51 But I think Peasant will be given every chance. 20:54 They've got to be a little bit careful. See, the Raiders this year – underestimated the loss of Fogarty. 21:03 And they were hoping they could fast-track Ethan Sanders through and get him ready to basically just step into the job and take it from there. He had a bit of a rough period earlier in the season. To their credit, the Raiders, they stuck solid with him, though, and they protected him and they deflected criticism to elsewhere in their performance. But he was the one that just that game management... where they fell down that Fogarty had really helped them the previous season. 21:35 Brisbane will probably go the same way a little bit. They're going to probably have a few lean trots here and there, but Brisbane are never out of it for too long. Well, Kenny, the other big story on the weekend. 21:48 You know a lawnmower? 21:49 Yeah. 21:49 You know when you pull the ripcord and you start her up? Yeah, you start her up. Well, I was thinking about you and how to get you started on this, Kenti, because there was one story on the weekend. That was Danny Weidler's lead story in his column on Sunday, talking about how the NRL were about to appoint a media cop. And if there's one person I knew who would be unhappy about this situation, it's you. Yeah. 22:10 Yeah, look, I've got to be a little bit careful about this, Woz, but look, the fact is, for those that don't know, part of the new broadcast deal is the NRL is going to employ a media cop, for want of a better term, who will monitor coverage of the game and has the capacity to essentially remove people from commentating about the game if they don't like their commentary and what they're saying. Now, I'm not over all the details. I don't know exactly how it's going to work yet. I'm led to believe that overseas, in American sports, for example, these sorts of clauses are in place and it essentially limits itself to the commentary during games and about the game, whether that should have been called a foul or not or things like that. 23:01 And they've got rid of that. Now, part of me... 23:05 actually doesn't mind that. I did get annoyed on the weekend when a commentator was arguing an interpretation of the rules. 23:12 And I thought to myself, I reckon five, six years ago when the rule was adjudicated the other way, you were arguing the other way. And I do think there are some people who just look to look for the argument in things and to try and make their commentary interesting. 23:26 And certainly there's a lot of other things I think are legitimate criticisms of the bunker, for example. 23:35 Again, had another horror weekend for the bunker, to be fair. 23:39 But the NRL is looking to stop that, slow down. Now, if that's all that happens, I can kind of appreciate it. 23:46 If it goes into the broader criticism of the game and the broader coverage of the game, it could be a problem because rugby league is a game that's covered and its boom in popularity is partly because of... 24:06 all the other stuff that gets covered just beyond the sidelines. There's so much more happening. I've said it before, it's a daily soap opera. And that's why it's so popular. And that's exactly why, and that's why the broadcast deal is worth so much. But if you try to limit all that conversation around things that the NRL – because there are times – There are times the NRL will sit there and think, oh, shit, how do we stop this? How do we try and kill this down? An example earlier this year with Ashley Klein, they didn't want it to break. 24:38 The story did break, and they tried very hard and did a very good job, to be fair. They basically just gave the story no oxygen, and eventually there was nowhere else to go with it, and it died away. Now, that doesn't discount it, though, as a legitimate story. Often, you know, one of the greatest journalism feats in history, the Watergate scandal, wasn't one story breaking. It was story, it was dozens and dozens and dozens of stories over days and months and years that finally led to Richard Nixon resigning. 25:09 It wasn't one earth-shattering story. 25:12 But if you're being policed and you're not allowed to write those little stories and just get this momentum going where all of the public who love rugby league sit there and go, hang on, something doesn't smell right about this. And then eventually you'll get public expectation where, look, this has got to be resolved and the code will say, yeah, we need to... 25:32 Be transparent. We need to have a look at this and let everyone see that everything's okay and it doesn't all stink in Denmark. 25:38 If the NRL don't accept criticism, how could they? Let's talk about a few things this year. Let's talk about the Six Again rule, right? They brought in this new rule to increase the entertainment. They've said it on the weekend. That's what they did. 25:51 And yet, that's been criticised, so they've pulled it back. If no one was able to criticise the Six Again rule... Yeah, it's a fair point. 26:00 It's a fair point. 26:02 Like I said, I'm still waiting details. I don't even know if they'll comment and explain it, to be fair, what the details are and what is okay and what's not okay. 26:13 Kenny, you've worked for mainstream media. Have you ever been asked... 26:17 Not to talk about specific things? 26:19 Yeah, yeah. Look, there's been times I've said things that... You got an example? Yeah, look, I remember when I was doing 360, we spoke about one night the Souths players when they got arrested in Arizona. 26:34 And When we were covering, when I was on 360, part of what we believed our charter was, was to talk about the issues in the game. We never considered ourselves a footy show to talk footy specifics like, you know, Parramatta's left edge defence and how Tigers are going to find a way through it. That was for other shows. We talked about issues around the game, most of it off-field stuff, or stuff that happened on-field and then was continued off-field, those sorts of things. 27:08 And that's what we were. But when I spoke about that one night on 360, I can't even remember what I said, to be honest, but... 27:16 Shane Richardson was the boss of South at the time where the players were from. He got the shits about it, rang one of the head honchos. They rang the next guy down. He rang me. My office, tomorrow morning, 10 o'clock. 27:32 I thought, oh, here we go. 27:34 So anyway, we went in there and he said, mate, it's a shit story. You shouldn't have spoken about it. It's got nothing to do with covering the game. And I argued with my boss over it. 27:45 And to be fair, yeah, we didn't really relate much ground with each other. 27:53 And others in the meeting sort of all sort of distanced themselves a little bit from me. 27:59 Siding with the boss, clearly. 28:01 But the one guy that stood right next to me was Ica, right? Whose integrity is impeccable. 28:09 Who understood what the show was, what the story was we spoke about, and what the need for it was. 28:15 which is where him and I sat. That's the spot we sat on 360. And so he stood shoulder to shoulder with me. 28:23 And we just said, look, this is what the show is. 28:26 And there's going to be times they are uncomfortable conversations. So we had that issue there. And that was in the earlier days of 360. And... 28:38 We were the red-headed stepchild really at Fox at the time. 28:42 All the focus was on all the other shows. But over time, I think people started to see a credibility and all that and they started to come around our way. And it became one of the flagship, well, if not the flagship of the whole network now when we were there. 28:58 And because of that, because we did talk about it and we talked about what everyone else was talking about. 29:05 That's the truth of it. We talked about what the bloke on the job site tomorrow morning is going to be talking about. That's what we did. And so you need to be able to speak about those things. Now, I don't think they should be censored out of the game. 29:17 So if the new rule comes in, Kenti, and we don't know the interpretation of it yet, but do they talk about CTE? Do they talk about Saturday Cup morning? 29:25 I don't know. I think they're going to have to because it is part of the game. 29:29 But whether they talk about it during the game, That's going to be the thing. Now, again, I'm not really against that. It really annoys me when I sit down, like I said, and the commentators will get in a philosophical discussion over whether that should have been a trial. I'm not calling to the rule, but whether... 29:53 according to their interpretation or whatever. You know what I mean? Like, or whether that should be something that we need to look at further. Like, just call the game sometimes. So I agree. If it stays there, I tend to agree with it and leave the other stuff for elsewhere. But if you start getting into – if these powers allow this media cop for the NRL to get into stories that have been written online or in the paper – or into the magazine shows like 360 and 100% footy and agenda setters and things like that, that can be dangerous for the game because the game needs transparency and it needs inspection. 30:32 It's just, it makes the game stronger. One of the things that, I remember when the NRL came back together after Super League, And for the life of them, they tried to shut down all the noise around the game. And because everyone was at war, everyone was happy to give up other clubs and other coaches and players. It was just madness. 30:56 And the NRL tried very hard to shut it all down. 31:03 And in the end, and I had this conversation with David Gallup and John Brady, who ran the media at the time. 31:09 And we were just sitting there one day and... 31:12 They said to me, we actually realized it's the strength of the game. 31:18 And while they're talking about us, they're not talking about other sports. 31:22 Whether the game has grown beyond that now, that could be an argument. 31:27 I don't know. Anyway, we'll wait and see. Look, I'm loathe to sort of put the steel cap boots on and go and kick in just yet. 31:36 But it will be watched with interest. 31:38 What will be interesting, Kent, is how much more it gets mentioned. Does it continue to get mentioned? 31:45 It won't get mentioned. It'll be just left to just, it'll be like the, like I said, the client story. It'll be just left to starve of oxygen until no one says anything. And the problem is, yeah. Remember the old Abraham Lincoln quote? 32:05 Big on the quote slightly. You can fool all the people some of the time and you can fool some of the people all the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time. Everyone looks at the last part of that. That's the magic in that quote. That's going to disappear. 32:24 That's what will happen with rugby league if this rule is exploited. 32:30 And... 32:33 The other stuff's probably happening already. Some of the people all the time and all the people some of the time. And that's the danger. The game needs transparency and honesty, and the NRL need to understand their job. 32:45 They don't own the game. 32:48 The administration, the people that walk in there and put their shoes under the desk every day, they don't own the game. They are custodians of the game. They are there to protect the game, to grow the game, and to eventually hand it over to other people who you hope will do the same. 33:04 Very good, Kenti. Watch this space, everyone, because it'll be very interesting how all this plays out. Until tomorrow, we'll see you then. Bye-bye. 33:17 Chances are you're about to lose. For free and confidential support, call the number on the screen or visit the website.