NRL chief executive Dave Smith. Credit:Peter Rae The jury is still out to lunch and deep into a three-day bender as it argues if Smith has made the right call in signing a $925m broadcast deal with Channel Nine for four matches from 2018, with the other billion to come from other media. That shock announcement raised the middle finger to Fox Sports, and at the same time embarrassed and angered one of the most influential men on the planet. Channelling Montgomery Burns from The Simpsons, News Corp supremo Rupert Murdoch smacked down rugby league and Smith when he bizarrely fronted the announcement of the AFL's $2.508 billion broadcast deal in Melbourne on Tuesday. The Empire strikes back. And how.

Crunch time for the NRL. Murdoch's claim that his company had "always preferred Aussie Rules" has raised all the eyebrows, not least because it rewrites history. (Er, Super League? Hello?) But this from News Corp chief executive Robert Thomson could not have been clearer: "Our intention is to make it [the AFL] even greater. It's an influential game and we intend to make it even more influential by complementing a wonderful sport with the powerful platforms we have in this country, and that includes the power of print as well as the depth of digital." Thomson then added that News Corp – which owns Fox Sports and is half-owner of Foxtel with Telstra – would be pushing AFL in the rugby league heartlands of NSW and Queensland because "there is obviously a growth opportunity because this is a wonderful game". Just how many readers would buy The Daily Telegraph and The Courier-Mail with scant rugby league coverage would be interesting, but the general translation is this: we will starve the game of relevance, because we can.

Thomson is an AFL and Essendon tragic, and close to former Bombers coach James Hird, who has previously described Thomson as "a great friend and mentor to me". If the hard talk was supposed to spook Smith, the word out of NRL headquarters is that it didn't. He was expecting to be whacked back, although this was a thunderous right cross. The fact remains, though, that without NRL matches Fox Sports is half a network. Without live rugby league, how many already jaded Foxtel subscribers would ask for a disconnection? There is two years left to run on the current broadcast deal, giving Smith plenty of time to break bread with Mr Burns. But Smith and the NRL will only be in a position of strength if it urgently repairs a game that is increasingly difficult to watch.

At 4pm last Sunday, I came to crossroads of my life. Netball or rugby league? Instead of watching the Bulldogs against the Titans on Nine, I watched the Diamonds sweep to victory in the Netball World Cup final against New Zealand on Ten. Rugby league administrators need to realise the game is becoming mind-numbingly frustrating to watch. There's a sprinkling of cracking games, although many are not. Those who apply the rules of the game send mixed messages. The game's commentariat has simplified the shoulder charge discussion down to this: players are doing to die – or the game has gone soft. The judiciary has now made it as clear as mud.

The crackdown on wrestling techniques has been promised for years. As we saw on Monday night, as the Storm entangled themselves in the legs of Sharks players, they are hollow threats. Meanwhile, referees will penalise defenders who have taken a nanosecond too long to get out of a tackle, but other players grab a ball carrier's leg, further slowing down the ruck with impunity. Forward passes? Jesus wept. Short balls out of dummy half are often passed diagonally forward– but beautiful, spiralling cut-outs that hit the chest of a winger at speed are immediately pulled up. In other news, shot clocks will be trialled in under-20s matches this weekend to stop time-wasting at scums and line drop-outs. An idea: to improve the speed and flow of the game, we could limit the video referee to whether a try has been scored instead of every single 50-50 decision on the field. Let's leave that to the four officials in the middle.

Speaking of those officials, when two players start to "play fight", grabbing at each others jumpers and making really angry faces, and then every player runs in, there's no need to stop the clock, bring the players out, and their respective captains, and then tell them not to "play fight" anymore. There's at least 10 minutes that can be saved per game, right there. Last year, I said in this space that the game is a mess. Not much has changed, as the game applies band-aids to the wounds. "You've got to give it to Dave Smith – he's got balls," said one media heavyweight last Monday after the Nine deal was trumpeted. We're about to learn how big they are. But to get the remaining billion, he needs to fix the game.

Hayne Train battered but running We've heard so much about Jarryd Hayne's stunning NFL debut for the San Francisco 49ers, but what we can't appreciate is how much it hurts. The former Eels fullback has told many of his close friends in Australia that his body is throbbing with pain from the collisons he's been put through. After lighting up the NFL with his 53-yard run against Houston Texans, he's said that the real tests are about to come, starting with the iconic Dallas Cowboys at Levi's Stadium on Monday morning (AEST). Doubtless, there will be a target on the chest of the "rugby star" with the upright running style. No matter what happens with Hayne, regardless of whether he makes the 49ers final squad at the end of this month, he deserves all the adulation thrown his way.

From the moment he embarked on this journey, many asked, "When would he come back to the NRL and which club would he play for?" In recent months, he had been heavily linked to the Roosters. "He was never coming back," says his long-time mentor Hayden Knowles, who also works at the Roosters. "There was no Plan B." Those who have spent time with Hayne in the US report he's a different man: he's relaxed, revelling in the hard work under professional coaches, and thriving on the big stage. He won't be returning to the NRL to play in front of 8000 people at Parramatta Stadium any time soon. There were reports this week that the Baird government was keen to cash-in on Hayne's success, raising the prospect of bringing a 49ers game to Sydney.

Not really Razer sharp There's missing the point and then there's not even being in the same suburb as the point. Helen Razer, the former Triple J co-host and now beautifully acerbic columnist and blogger, completely stuffed up her interpretation of this correspondent's piece about Nick Kyrgios and how he can learn something about humility from Jason Day. Wrote Razer in a column published by Crikey: "Certainly, it's nice that Day was humble in victory but, it's really not compulsory and nor is it particularly good form for a sports writer to call Kyrgios, a person of colour, a 'Wild Thing'. Particularly when his behaviour is here set against that of Day, also a person of colour, who we must conclude is, in Webster's view, a 'tame thing'." Host broadcaster Channel Seven dubbed Kyrgios "Wild Thing" at last summer's Australian Open. The New York Times has often called him the same thing.

I suspect it's because he is "wild" with his on-court antics. Or even paying homage to Rick "Wild Thing" Vaughn (Charlie Sheen) from the cult movie Major League. So, no, I'm not racial-ist, Helen. But it's okay. I still love you. Q and A We speak to GWS star Rhys Palmer ahead of the "Battle of the Bridge" against the Swans at Spotless Stadium on Saturday. How many of these matches have you played in?

I've played in all but one. I come from Fremantle where the rivalry (against West Coast) is really intense. Internally, this is a big week and in the not-too-distant future it will get that big for the public as well, especially if we're fighting it out for the top two spots. Kicked five last week after missing one early on described as "the blooper of the season". On fire... It was a good day. I made a little mistake early on, so it was good to bounce back. You've got a pacer with a few of the other boys, I understand. It's called "Comekissmequick". We flew it in from New Zealand. It's a filly who has had two starts. She raced a week just after landing. Speaking to the trainer in the last couple of days, she's going well and will race this Friday at Leeton.

You live in Newtown. Favourite place to eat? I love the joint because it reminds me of Fremantle: that cruisy feel, and alternative. Bloodwood (on King Street) would be my favourite place to eat. There's a million of them to choose from though. Big TV deal struck this week. All you guys will be multis very soon, yes? Fingers crossed, mate. Me and the boys compare ourselves to the EPL players and their massive contracts! The AFL normally look after us. The week

THE QUOTE "Man, you cried during The Notebook." – He won the PGA Championship but Jason Day's big sister, Kim, was having no truck with the pro golfer's claim that he wasn't the emotional type. THUMBS UP So said Keegan Hirst, who has become the first British rugby league to come out as gay: "The only time I felt free of the torment was when I stepped on the rugby pitch. Now I feel free." Apart from the personal satisfaction, he just made it a whole lot easier for countless more young men coming to terms with who they are. THUMBS DOWN

There's a conspiracy doing the rounds that Michael Cheika threw Quade Cooper to the wolves against the All Blacks, making it easier to drop him while avoiding claims of NSW bias. We find that hard to believe, but the Queenslander's performance at No.10 has sent a shiver down the spine in a World Cup year. It's a big weekend for … the Australian cricket team. Forget about sending captain Michael Clarke off into retirement as a winner in the fifth Test against England at The Oval. There's some careers that need saving. Hopefully, by the time you read this, the match is still going. It's an even bigger weekend for … the Bunnies and the Doggies, who are trying to nail down top four and top eight positions respectively in a Friday Night Football blockbuster at ANZ Stadium. FYI, Dogs fans: bottles are for drinking, not throwing.