US League pioneer looks to the future

Wednesday 25th November 2009

EXCLUSIVE

By Steve Mascord
Los Angeles

THE man behind the Jacksonville Axemen and successful pre-season games in Florida says the proposed American pro-rugby league competition does not need NRL or Super League stars and should not be played during the NFL season.

Daryl "Spinner" Howland has conceded to rugbyleague.com there will be no pre-season matches in Florida in January after successful games involving South Sydney and Leeds in 2008 and Leeds v Salford in 2009.

He says he's heard little in recent months about colleague David Nui's plan for a Major League Rugby national competition involving professional and semi-professional players staged over a short season with television exposure guaranteed.

But he said he had problems with the idea that the season would run from November to February, starting in 2001, allowing NRL and Super League players to guest with the franchises.

"We don't need NRL players - if they want to come, then fine," Howland told rugbyleague.com on Wednesday.

"The fact is that if Darren Lockyer came over here, 99.9999 per cent of the people you tell would not know who he was. Rugby league has no David Beckham, there is no rugby league superstar in America.

"We had (Steve) "Beaver" Menzies at the AMNRL grand final and when he was introduced to the crowd, all the non-Australian guys in my team said ‘who's that guy?'. I was embarrassed but it's a fact of life."

Howland said money would be better spent importing fringe first graders and youngsters from Australia and England.

"Maybe some guy who missed his window of opportunity and has a season to spare - the difference he would make to the local players would be almost the same as a big name," Howland said.

He also baulked at the idea of playing the games in the NRL and Super League off-seasons.

"Going up against the NFL is personally, from my point of view, not viable," he said. "The NFL is the greatest sporting organisation in the world. They are perfect. They do not make mistakes.

"And our demographic is exactly the same as theirs. There is no difference.

"I think we can have a professional presence in America as long as we don't take on the NFL and we are not over-expensive.

"But having said all that, whatever they come up with I am happy to put my support behind."

Howland added he understood why clubs did not want to visit Florida this year - and had staged the recent United States-Jamaica Test (pictured above) with that in mind.

"Most clubs around the world did not make any money this year," he said. "And those that might have, they don't want to be seen to be flaunting it by taking their players on a big expensive trip to America.

"It's a year to keep faith with fans and sponsors. I understand that. I probably would have made the same decision myself."