League's D-day

IT MAY be just coincidence that a week before the news breaks that the Grafton Rhinos are in crisis talks, the AFL sends former Geelong premiership-winning captain Tom Harley to Grafton to unveil the $80,000 of funding for new lights at Ellem Oval.

Or it may be a sign of things to come if the local rugby league community remains complacent about the future of their sport in the Clarence Valley.

Grafton has been a traditional heartland for rugby league in New South Wales.

But tradition obviously counts for little if the news that the 97-year-old South Grafton Rebels junior league club is also struggling to continue through lack of community support.

While the local league scene is stagnant to the point of the Rhinos' and Rebel's extinction, the AFL is slowly building its presence from the grass roots up.

The Lower Clarence Eagles and Grafton Tigers juniors are receiving support from the AFL - who no doubt have the Clarence pinned as a strategic hot-spot to strike at the heart of their rival code.

On the other hand, the Grafton Ghosts league club is enjoying huge success.

Back to back NRRRL premierships and Clayton Cups, a full roster of talent, and club members willing to go the extra mile all bode well for the Ghosts.

Perhaps the latest revelations that the Rhino's are on the endangered list is just a continuation of the 2007 debate whether Grafton can support two league clubs.

If the comments on The Daily Examiner website about yesterday's story are anything to go by, the community are already a step ahead of Country Rugby League.

Seventy five per cent of the voters in our poll believe the Rhinos won't make it onto the paddock in 2012.

The reader comments were interesting.

"Finally one club in Grafton, go the Ghosts," posted one.

"The (western) black Rhino of Africa is offically extinct now. This was announced just recently by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. I guess the writing is on the wall," posted another.

Who will put their hand up at Monday night's meeting to keep the Rhinos charging into the future?

If hands stay in pockets, it won't be long before more children are practicing banana kicks from the pocket, rather than conversions from the sideline.

Who will put their hand up at Monday night's meeting to keep the Rhinos charging into the future?