clontaago
First Grader
INCENSED Brisbane Broncos chief executive Bruno Cullen last night launched a stinging multi-pronged attack on the NRL, highlighted by the club's shock first Monday night game.
Cullen is furious at the game's governing body for scheduling Brisbane's first Monday match, the round-10 game against Manly, Sea Eagles just two days before the year's State of Origin opener.
The NRL also ignored the premiers' request to play their post-Origin "back-up" fixture on the subsequent Friday night. They could have tried to do the worst possible thing for us, and they couldn't have done any better," Cullen fired. "It makes it hard, it makes it very, very hard.
"They always talk about wanting to build crowds, build attendance figures, then they do this.
"We welcome Monday night football and the chance to make it a success but you want a quality game. When they looked at the draw, that's the one game they should have trodden away from.
"It's all new territory and we said we'd have a go, but that's what they've given us to go with. They haven't given us a cannon - they've given us a popgun.
"No disrespect to the players that night, but it's almost a reserve grade clash. After all the rhetoric about wanting to get crowds, we're very, very disappointed."
Cullen is furious at the game's governing body for scheduling Brisbane's first Monday match, the round-10 game against Manly, Sea Eagles just two days before the year's State of Origin opener.
The NRL also ignored the premiers' request to play their post-Origin "back-up" fixture on the subsequent Friday night. They could have tried to do the worst possible thing for us, and they couldn't have done any better," Cullen fired. "It makes it hard, it makes it very, very hard.
"They always talk about wanting to build crowds, build attendance figures, then they do this.
"We welcome Monday night football and the chance to make it a success but you want a quality game. When they looked at the draw, that's the one game they should have trodden away from.
"It's all new territory and we said we'd have a go, but that's what they've given us to go with. They haven't given us a cannon - they've given us a popgun.
"No disrespect to the players that night, but it's almost a reserve grade clash. After all the rhetoric about wanting to get crowds, we're very, very disappointed."
