Channel 9 have really started to lose the plot when it comes to coverage of Rugby League in this country, the last straw in an endless list of wrongdoings coming on Wednesday night when they shamelessly promoted Sonny Bill Williams at halftime during Rugby League’s showpiece event, the State of Origin.

They say Sonny Bill Williams was interviewed at halftime because Channel 9 also holds the free to air rights for this years Rugby World Cup, the problem is that the country tuned in to see Rugby League’s elite doing battle in what was Darren Lockyer’s farewell match and for Channel 9 to disrepect the code like this suggests they no longer deserve to hold the rights to the country’s number one code, Rugby League.

At the conclusion of the Origin match, watched by record numbers around the country, Channel 9 also aired a promo piece on the World Cup, they really have no shame. Cross promoting two codes that have been doing battle for as long as I can remember is just not on, it would be like advertising the GWS franchise during a Parramatta match.

Friday night NRL has been a joke for years now too, It’s nice to have a live game on a Friday night, but the second game is really just an afterthought. We get that game delayed from 9.30pm and it’s riddled with ads, I can’t be arsed to sit through all the ads and by the time the game starts I already know the result anyway. I’d much rather just watch it the next day or later that night on Fox Sports and avoid the ads, at least I’d get to see it in HD as well, which brings me onto my next gripe.

No NRL, State of Origin or Test Matches are being broadcast in High Definition or 3D this year and it really should be the last straw in a long list of disrespectful acts towards a code that they have been broadcasting for over 20 years.

How hard is it to broadcast the NRL in HD in this day and age, and why did they decide to make Gem their HD channel rather than their flagship channel, you know, the one with all of the sports coverage? They must think we are a bunch of mugs and I for one cannot wait until the next rights deal is up for grabs in 2013, if only it was sooner!

To add insult to injury, in April Channel 9 decided to go with the Royal wedding on their main channel instead of live Rugby League action. What a joke, considering they had promised that the wedding would be broadcast on Gem, and they go and delay the NRL by an hour. So we missed out on any live football that Friday night altogether.

City v Country was billed as the most important Origin selection trial in years, for once it actually meant something with a number of spots up for grabs in the NSW Origin side. What do Channel 9 do, they show it delayed after the “ANZAC” Test Match, which incidentally was held almost 2 weeks after ANZAC day, most probably to accomodate the Royal Wedding from the week before. A pointless mid season test match that should be held after State of Origin, if not limited to the end of the season.

Given the chance to show two live games on a Friday night, you would have thought that Channel 9 would have jumped at the chance. A few weeks ago the Rabbitohs took one of their home games over to Perth, the game could have started at 7.30pm in Perth for a 9.30pm broadcast time in the eastern states. But, you guessed it, Channel 9 stuffed that up as well, with the game kicking off at 7pm in Perth, and the broadcast not starting until 9.30pm on Channel 9, half an hour after the actual game started. By the end of the match, with an extra half an hour of ads thrown in, the game finished an hour after it had actually started. Massive oversight by a broadcaster that is clearly not in touch with it’s key demographic, rugby league fans.

To be honest if these actions had been from another broadcaster, we would have seen the Phil Gould’s and Danny Weidler’s all over it, no coincidence who pays their massive paychecks is there!