The Australian Rugby League yesterday announced that it had handed control of the game across to, wait for it, the Australian Rugby League Commission.

This is big news for the game in that Rugby League has been embattled with public relations and financial crises largely as a result of players behaving badly, players behaving badly with women, players behaving badly with bookmakers and players behaving badly with alcohol. Although personally, I think the rot set in when the Tina Turner song was replaced from the launch campaigns back in the early 90s.

Anyways, the new Commission has the objectives of moving the game forward, with sound planning strategies and a stable, yet growing financial base. Admirable indeed.

I know that betting on football is a bit of a touchy subject at the moment, but I would like to bet some of my previously hard earned readies on the fact that the Australian Rugby League (or indeed the new Commission of the same name) doesn’t employ an astrologer.

Yes, well may you be surprised.

What do I base this startling and brave observation on? Quite simply, no electional astrologer worth her salt would possibly allow such a momentous handover to occur yesterday.

Why? Well, whilst I don’t have the time of the handover from which I can cast the chart, and get the whole picture, let’s take these factors into consideration.

Objective 1: To move the game forward.

Mars is (in my view at least) the natural ruler of any sporting competition. Further, it is Mars energy that normally drives us forward. Yet Mars is presently in arguably the worst condition it can be in. Far from moving forward, it is retrograde in Virgo and effectively moving backwards. During a Mars retrograde many efforts to make things happen are frustrated.

Objective 2: Sound planning strategies

Well, Mars in Virgo is certainly pretty good at planning- to the absolute nth detail. The danger here is losing sight of the big picture. Again, with Mars retrograde, many of these strategies may not come to fruition.

Objective 3: Stable, yet growing financial base

With a financial goal such as this, the electional astrologer would be wanting to make Venus as strong as possible. A few days ago Venus was in Pisces and exalted. Now she is in Aries, the sign of her detriment, ie she isn’t happy there. Yesterday she was conjunct Uranus…hmmmm do I need to say any more about this one? Suffice to comment that financial stability is not what comes to mind when I see Venus and Uranus playing together.

Now, I have taken these objectives from the press conference held yesterday, I would assume that there would be more. The ARL wants to make the game more female friendly and promote more of a culture of respect than, well, than the alternative (see my comment earlier about footballers behaving badly). Again, the two planets that you would want to be strong for this objective were weak- Venus in Aries and the Moon in Virgo. And that is all without even questioning the wisdom of agreeing and commencing a new set of structures under the influence of a retrograde Saturn.

The role of electional astrology is to select the best time for an event based on information including (but not limited to):

• The available time frame. There’s not a lot of benefit is selecting 2 years down the track or 2am in the morning if the event needs to occur within the next week and during normal business hours.
• The objectives of the client. If the event is a marriage, for example, and the objective is a committed and long lasting union, you will be wanting to make Saturn strong in the wedding chart and a fixed sign on the Ascendant and Descendant where possible. A good electional astrologer will not assume that she knows the clients’ objectives- eg, to take the wedding example again, the clients may want more importance to be based on the fun element of the occasion and an extra good hair day for the bride.
• The promise of the natal chart. All events use the clients’ natal chart and the potential within that.

So, given that none of the NRLs stated objectives appear to be supported by a chart cast anytime for yesterday morning, I don’t reckon they used an astrologer. Message to David Gallop for before your next press conference: Give me a call, I’m available…

For US readers, Rugby League is a game where 13 men (largely unpadded) chase an inflated ball around a paddock for 2 non-stop 40 minute halves. Check out last years ad on YouTube- the link is here– for an idea of what it is about and some eye candy. Oh, and before you write to me, not all players behave badly…just some- but as usual, it is the actions by the minority that gets reported.