Rugby league players should learn from footballers and start their own union
When speaking about 'ridiculous' fixture congestion in Super League, Hull FC's Mark Minichiello bemoaned the lack of a players' union. They should start one. By Gavin Willacy for No Helmets Required, part of the Guardian Sport Network.
https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/214bbbc2fd4f498f85c04ee255bd6c9ccbe988a7/56_227_4255_2553/master/4255.jpg?You would think most folk would quite enjoy two Easters in a month. More chocolate eggs, strange goings on down Lancashire hillsides, the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and another two days off.
But there's the rub. When players and reporters refer to the Whitsun weekend as "a second Easter" they mean Super League clubs playing twice in four days. Strap yourself in for a ferocious backlash.
Speaking before their shock defeat at home to Leigh on Friday, which was followed by another narrow loss in a tempestuous game at Catalans on Monday night, Hull FC second rower Mark Minichiello called it "ridiculous".
Most elements of the season that players don't like, coaches moan over and pundits waffle about are actually agreed by the clubs' chief executives. Super League works like that.
The club bosses vote for something then sit back and keep schtum while everyone blames the RFL. But this is a little different.
The RFL wanted to start Super League a week late to fit in Wayne Bennett's infamous England training camp in Dubai that ended up being cancelled anyway.
They couldn't push the season deeper into October as half of the players will be off to the World Cup training camps. So "two Easters" it was. The Recap: sign up for the best of the Guardians sport coverage.
The critical issue is how many days of rest teams are given between games. Ideally they have six days: a recovery day, a day off, three days training and a travel day.
Huddersfield and St Helens, the only two clubs out of the Challenge Cup due to play each other on Monday, were able to shift their game to the quarter-final weekend and rest up (a decision described as "wrong" and "a joke" by Castleford boss Daryl Powell).
Everyone else played on Monday, with just two days rest and recovery for most players.
Given that all involved say it's the game after Easter that is the killer, let's look at a bigger picture. From Magic to Round 17 next weekend, everyone (except Huddersfield and St Helens) will play four matches.
Widnes, Warrington and Wakefield have 12 blank days between those games; Catalans, Salford, Castleford and Hull had 11, as did Wigan, but they had an extra day's recovery over Whitsun.
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But thanks to Sky, Leeds and Leigh have the toughest schedule of all: they both must cope with only nine clear days between four games. After the Whitsun double, they also have to play again on Friday night.
Surely Sky could show one of the Championship promotion-chasers instead, such as Featherstone v Hull KR or Halifax at the Broncos (or even the lesser-spotted Toulouse at Batley)?.
"It's absolutely crazy to start a week later for a camp that didn't even happen," Italy international Minichiello, 35, told BBC radio. "The RFL don't look after their players at all. They are allowed to do what they want.".
Minichiello, who spent the first decade of his career in the NRL with Sydney Roosters, South Sydney Rabbitohs and Gold Coast Titans, finds it hard to believe there is no players' union in the UK.
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