Sport Today

>    Listening to the 2UE radio program "Sports Today" and they had
>Ray Hadley (League Commentator) talking about todays (Wednesday) court
>hearing. He said that the hearing appeared to be going very badly for
>Super League with the ARL lawyers running all over thier News
>counterparts and that the Judge was very receptive to the orders being
>sought by the ARL. Amongst the usual legalese there were two surprises.
>The ARL sought an order to combat the threatened boycott by the SL
>alligned players. In short it asks that the court rule that News can not
>pay any player under SL contracts unless they play the game of Rugby
>League in an ARL approved competition. This means that players like
>Laurie Daley would not be able to get paid their $600,000+ salaries
>unless they are actually PLAYING football. The players are free to sit
>out the season but if they do then they can't be paid under their SL
>contracts. The second surprise, and I didn't quite understand Ray
>Hadley's explanation, was that any damages awarded against SL would be
>balanced against what they've already put into the game, I think. If true
>this would mean that if the ARL was awarded $100m damages then the money
>that SL has spent on players, ground improvements, junior and country
>football would be taken as part payment of damages and only the
>difference would then have to be paid to the ARL. As SL has already spent
>in excess of that figure the ARL might not get any cash in hand at the
>end of the day.
>Catchya round, Leigh
>* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
>* Leigh T. Gillespie                      *    "It takes leather balls *
>* Phone - Australia (077) 791219      *     to play Rugby!"            *

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>I've just watched the local news and apparently the ARL are trying to
>disrupt the start of super league in europe now. Flippin heck, not
>satisfied with denying Aussie fans rugby, they're going to try it here
>too. Maurice was quoted as saying the action was "outrageous" and has
>promised to fight it. Why can't the ARL leave us alone.

> >I've just watched the local news and apparently the ARL are trying to
> >disrupt the start of super league in europe now. Flippin heck, not
> >satisfied with denying Aussie fans rugby, they're going to try it here
> >too. Maurice was quoted as saying the action was "outrageous" and has
> >promised to fight it. Why can't the ARL leave us alone.

> All the ARL was trying to do was prevent Australian players from playing in
> England, I don't think the ARL want to stop the News Ltd sponsorship of the
> game in Europe.

> Richard

>> A free tip  to keep in mind when listening to 2UE.  They are VERY pro
>> ARL and tend to distort things in a major way.  I would not take
>> everything I hear, especially from Hadely seriously.

>> It's good to see Rupert is bringing in some additional 'fire power' as
>> everyone at SL is holding their breath at this point in time.

>> Greg

>Just heard that the judge granted all but one of the orders, so I guess
>you're wrong about this one Greg. Hadley must have interpreted things
>correctly.
>By the way, I was very disappointed with 2UE. Originally prepared to stand
>up to the bullying of News, the station eventually stopped pointing out
>the outrageous things that News and the people that they had bought were
>doing. I guess that this was because of threats to ban Hadley, and prevent
>2UE from broadcasting SL games. When it started to become clear that SL
>were going to lose the court case, the 2UE commentators seemed to become a
>bit braver. Same for the Sun Herald I think - half way through the court
>case the articles started to go against the rebels.

> >> A free tip  to keep in mind when listening to 2UE.  They are VERY pro
> >> ARL and tend to distort things in a major way.  I would not take
> >> everything I hear, especially from Hadely seriously.

> >> It's good to see Rupert is bringing in some additional 'fire power' as
> >> everyone at SL is holding their breath at this point in time.

> >> Greg

> >Just heard that the judge granted all but one of the orders, so I guess
> >you're wrong about this one Greg. Hadley must have interpreted things
> >correctly.

> >By the way, I was very disappointed with 2UE. Originally prepared to stand
> >up to the bullying of News, the station eventually stopped pointing out
> >the outrageous things that News and the people that they had bought were
> >doing. I guess that this was because of threats to ban Hadley, and prevent
> >2UE from broadcasting SL games. When it started to become clear that SL
> >were going to lose the court case, the 2UE commentators seemed to become a
> >bit braver. Same for the Sun Herald I think - half way through the court
> >case the articles started to go against the rebels.

> Actually, the Sun-Herald is still more even-handed than not.  You
> realise of course that Ian Heads is a Packer drone?  

> How do you reckon the SL will go in the appeal(s)?