The email dropped at 9.19am on Monday. A few heads should've dropped at the same time, mostly in embarrassment.
It was a media release from the NSWRL about the City Origin team and it read: "Due to a large number of eligible players becoming unavailable for various reasons we are unable to name 17 players by the planned 9.30am announcement this morning."
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This is rugby league at its shambolic worst.
A scheduled game that's been signed off by clubs, broadcasters and the NRL, that's been part of the draw released in December, and suddenly at the 11th hour they cannot find enough bodies to fill the jumpers for a fixture that's been going since 1911? In the final match before City-Country is scrapped for good?
Self-interested clubs and bungling officialdom killed off the City-Country game long ago but what's happened in the last week is an insult to the group of people who are starting to turn away in droves — the rugby league people of the bush.
It is the same self-interest that will eventually bury the All Stars match. The same self-interest that would quietly push aside international footy if given the chance.
It is the same self-interest, though, that will accept State of Origin because without those rivers of gold flowing in we're all out of jobs and would have to think about making an honest living for a change.
The people in the country and regional areas who keep the game going make an honest living during the day then run their footy clubs of a night and on the weekend.
![Proud tradition: Johnny Raper is tackled by the Country defence during the 1966 Sydney versus Country match.](/web/20170504104035im_/http://www.canberratimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/w/d/5/4/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gvwatx.png/1493625378937.jpg)
The pointy end of the game — from the players, coaches and administrators sitting on six-figure-plus contracts — are asked to give back for one week and one match a year and instead allow the annual fixture to descend into farce.
When I heard last week that Bulldogs coach Des Hasler was withdrawing his players from the game in Mudgee on Sunday because he could, and then Canberra were going to follow him, then Cronulla, then the Cowboys, it was those hard-working souls behind the scenes who I immediately thought of.
NRL clubs have been bleating — and with increasing volume — for some time about being "the lifeblood of the game". They want more funding and more representation on the ARL Commission.
All 16 clubs are important but they are not the lifeblood of the game, they are part of the game.
Those people who keep grassroots footy going for absolutely nothing other than their love and passion for the game are the true lifeblood of the game. Lose them and there is no game.
This reporter was fortunate enough to cut his journalistic teeth on bush footy, in the coalfields of the Hunter Valley. That's where you quickly learn how much it means to those who play and those coaches and officials who get them on the field.
The first game I covered was Kurri versus Maitland at Kurri Sportsground.
This the place where, in 1974, Johnny Raper played his final match. John Singleton drove his Bentley up from Sydney that day and Raper was more nervous about the expensive vehicle in the car park being scratched than the fact this was his final 80 minutes of football.
A few things stand out from that first match where I sat nervously in the stands with pad and pen.
A kid sitting on the fence was sledging Kurri captain-coach and former St George halfback Steve Linnane as he was about to find touch. The kid had little to say when the ball speared into him from close range and he fell backwards over the fence, much to the amusement of the crowd.
Another memory: late in the game, one of the big props was penalised and he subsequently booted the ball into the car park in frustration. The referee stopped the game as we waited for the prop to go fetch it.
Run an eye down the Kangaroos side for Friday night's Test against the Kiwis and you will discover what the country brings to the table: Blake Ferguson, Josh Dugan, Boyd Cordner, Trent Merrin, Tyson Frizell, Jordan McLean, James Maloney.
All of them out of the country rugby league system of NSW. How much funding does the Country Rugby League receive each year from head office? About $4.8 million. About $24 million over the next five years of the $1.8 billion television broadcast deal. It's not enough.
It wasn't that long ago that the City-Country match was a genuine NSW selection trial.
Former Blues coach Ricky Stuart declared it as much and he used the game in Albury in 2011 as a real shootout when deciding on Jamie Soward and Mitchell Pearce as his halves for Origin I.
Stuart's replacement, Laurie Daley, has been less inclined to use the match when it comes to picking his Blues side, and that's his choice. A kid from Junee, Daley is a proud supporter of bush footy.
If City-Country has died a natural death, so be it. But let it breathe one last time, for the sake of the people who keep the blood flowing through the game.
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