by LEAGUE SUPER MEETING SECOND NIGHTLEAD
By Will Swanton of AAP
SYDNEY, March 18 AAP - The 12 loyal Australian Rugby League
clubs tonight held the key to the acceptance of a 15-point
compromise proposal from Super League that would result in a
22-team competition starting this Friday night.
The shock move by Super League players and coaches took the ARL
by surprise and tonight it was still locked in talks with players'
spokesmen Chris Johns and Simon Gillies, coaches' representative
Wayne Bennett and their lawyer Mark O'Neil.
However little will be resolved until a meeting of the loyal
clubs to be held at 10.15am tomorrow and a number of the conditions
sought by the rebels are unlikely to find favour in the ARL camp
which recently won federal court orders banning Super League until
2000.
Under the proposal, Super League-aligned clubs would agree to
field full strength sides in the ARL premiership in return for
certain conditions, which include:
* The Hunter Mariners and the Adelaide Rams would be admitted to
the ARL;
* Foxtel would be allowed to televise matches;
* Rebel teams would wear their Super League uniforms; and
* The players would stage their own Super League representative
matches.
Bennett claimed a number of the proposals were negotiable -
except the introduction of the Rams and Mariners to the ARL.
ARL chairman Ken Arthurson, who had previously claimed there was
no room for two more teams in his competition, todaywelcomed the
compromise move but indicated certain proposals were unacceptable.
The Rams and Mariners issue was likely to be discussed at length
at tonight's meeting and could be the major stumbling block to
acceptance of the proposal.
Bennett said Super League would not leave the new clubs in the
lurch despite the eagerness of the rebel players to return to the
field.
"One of the things we've all been brought up on in this country
is mateship, it's been a tradition that's been handed down over a
long period of time," Bennett said.
"They're our mates and it's not our intention to desert them."
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18-03 2025
Juiceman
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