The nine Sydney rugby league clubs need to join forces in a greater spirit of co-operation if they are all to survive in the future. I know these clubs compete with each other on the field, and they compete off the field for the all-important corporate dollar.

But surely, on matters such as marketing, sponsorship, entertainment, ticket sales and game-day hospitality, there has to be an opportunity to centralise these activities into a working-group mentality, to get an even better financial result for all concerned.

Profit and cost-sharing among Sydney clubs could be the answer to competing with the likes of Brisbane and the Gold Coast, who are leaping ahead with the benefit of their huge crowds and hospitality revenues.

Calls to cut, merge or even relocate Sydney teams are misguided. Reducing the number of teams in Sydney would only be detrimental to the future of the game. It would be suicide to remove even one team from Sydney.

Look at what's happened to the support for our game on the North Shore after the sad loss of the North Sydney Bears.

Rugby league has died in this part of the metropolitan area. Schools and junior leagues have switched their allegiances to other codes. It's been devastating.

I understand the challenges the clubs face in competing with their one-town, one-team opponents. But I believe we should fight to preserve as many of these famous and well-established brands as possible.

The regional and interstate teams also rely on these Sydney teams for their own development.

When the Sydney clubs play away from home in other areas such as the Gold Coast, Brisbane, Townsville, Canberra and Newcastle, it's these famous and traditional Sydney brands that help build the crowds as fans flock to watch them take on their team.

The problem for the Sydney teams is that not all the regional or interstate sides do much for the attendances at regional games.

It is also important that the NRL increases its service and exposure in areas such as Campbelltown and Wollongong. We can't just give these great development areas a couple of token games per season. It's not enough. Speaking of insufficiency, here's an interesting stat:

It took exactly 102 minutes from the kick-off until the final siren to complete the game between Manly and Penrith at Brookvale Oval on Friday night.

In that time, how much footy did the fans actually see?

Answer: 50 minutes 25 seconds.

The 7800 hearty supporters who braved the freezing cold to attend the match saw only 50 minutes of action. I suggest other matches played this year might have provided even less action.

With pedantic rules and interpretations, constant video referee reviews, players and referees standing around at scrums wasting time before the restart of play, not to mention the wrestle, wrestle, wrestle, slow-the-game-down mentality of teams these days, our fans are being cheated of real football action.

Every now and then the elite athletes might break free of the wrestle-mania and excite us with their skills. But there's nowhere near enough of it. The game was not meant to pander to the insecurity and sensitivity of referees.

Our game was all about physicality and skill, giving us exciting, non-stop, end-to-end action.

We need more football, please.

Footy Show absentees reveal they are game's real enemies

Thursday night's forum on The Footy Show highlighted a number of things about the current state of rugby league.

The most significant factors for me were: confirmation our game lacks genuine decision-makers; our leadership group lacks confidence; and the communication or sharing of information about the future of the game is totally unsatisfactory.

I applaud those who did attend, and thank them for the enlightening and stimulating conversation.

This includes the game's boss, David Gallop. David has an unenviable job, made even more difficult because his position of CEO does not carry the autonomy and decision-making power it should. At least he keeps fronting up to answer the tough questions, even though he can't always give the answers he would like.

Just because I may grill him occasionally doesn't mean I don't respect the man. The problems in rugby league are not all his fault. In airing our frustrations to Mr Gallop, we hope the real policy-makers are listening.

The Footy Show offered an open invitation to people from all sections of our game to come forward and speak openly to league fans about the state of the game and its future.

The faithful supporters are concerned and understandably confused about the events of the past few years. They know they can't believe the spin-doctoring reports in certain sections of the media. I imagine they'd like to have seen bigger representation from people with positions of influence in our game.

They at least deserve an indication that league is in strong hands and working towards solutions.

Do you think The Footy Show forum gave you that confidence?

Another significant point was that not one News Limited journalist accepted an invitation to attend. This includes several brave souls who have relentlessly criticised The Footy Show and pursued their own personal smear campaigns against Channel Nine sporting personalities.

I'm confident these individuals run such childish agendas of their own accord, under the banner of protection from this media giant, without the express approval of their employers.

I can't imagine for one moment the owners of rugby league would want the game to lose two full hours of promotion for their product on free-to-air television on a Thursday evening, despite the fact several of their journalists appear committed to ending the show forever.

These people are an embarrassment to the News Ltd brand and have done the owners of our game no favours when it comes to their image and relationship with the rugby league public.

When given the opportunity to come forward and state their grievances, or partake in active discussion about the real issues in our game, these people pulled their heads back into their shells like frightened turtles.

Mind you, I'm not surprised.

This proves once and for all just how little credibility these vindictive mud slingers have and forever taints any opinion or comment they offer.

In the sense of moving forward, however, this should now open the door for News Ltd management to silence these irresponsible loose cannons. In the interests of the game, they should form a closer relationship with Channel Nine and help promote the remainder of this season so our 100th year of rugby league can hopefully finish on a high note.