Heritage XIII

Saw on CNN a couple of weeks ago when they do a 'what's happening in world sport' montage, 'the rugby league season begins'. Not sure what season they were talking about or the photo but was good to see 'rugby league' on CNN

I see Penrith are over the moon selling out '7000' at Penrith Stadium. The club should seriously be rethinking their small time thinking. With Stadiums allowed to increase to 50% on Oct 1, the Panthers could have taken their game to ANZ stadium. A 40,000 crowd could have been a distinct possibility given many Panthers fans have been starved of seeing their team in 2020. I am sure they would have gone to ANZ in their droves given the circumstances. Plus Roosters fans would also have come out in force but will largely be closed to attending Penrith. Also, the Panthers need to win games at ANZ stadium especially against top teams like the Roosters. Winning at Penrith won't mean diddly come grand final time at ANZ should they reach it. This is an opportunity missed & the Panthers small time thinking may come back to bit them.

Go the Carcaras!!

Streaming figures would be quite easy to ascertain but for some reason it's only starting to come out, the figures that is. In terms of Fox League ratings, as with all other programs, when a rating of say 200,000 comes out for a match, one shouldn't take that as a literal figure as perhaps a whole family or friends are watching the game. The match could literally have an audience of 600,000 in homes for all we know (not to mention pubs & clubs).

It's interesting cos it kind of mirrors what has happened in Australia. Apart from Labor in QLD, nationally Labor has courted AFL with leaders coming out espousing their team colors, poured lots of govt money into AFL & virtually ignored RL. In contrast the last 4 or 5 LNP (Conservatives) leaders (Howard, Abbott, Turnbull, Morrison) have come out & let the public know who they follow in the NRL, were seen at games, given the NRL massive funding for stadiums & even gave $50 million plus in grants for centres of excellence. Apart from Rudd, we had Gillard & Shorten (Labor has gone thru less leaders than the LNP last decade or so) but they were AFL lackies to the hilt

https://amp.nine.com.au/article/06d8d804-fd8e-492d-aff0-2117b5d3a671

Also lack of sponsorship is a big issue

New HQ for the RFL, Super League, RLEF?

Sale union announce attendances of 8k plus. Even if they were fudging numbers its still way higher than Salford. Sad indictment on the Red Devils.

I will say with a lot of conservative right wing govts in power atm, there is a lot of underlying support for Folau from the big end of town, so in a sordid way, SL could benefit from his signing more than be disadvantaged. I'd imagine there are a fair whack of conservative media companies in France esp Arab owned beIN Sports who would probably get behind his 'religious' cause or atleast his right to express it (if it is one thing conservative Christians & Muslims agree on is anti homosexuality) as a strike for conservative values. Anyways, just a possible observation/scenario!

They have to start somewhere & who is to say it won't become big with a bit of financial support. Plus they need to help create a pathway for African nations to be able to compete for quals for the RLWC plus it creates new possible venues for future world cups?

South Africa have twice tried to host a world cup saying they can get financial backing, surely they could prove they can host a tournament like this & assist these countries to participate? Perhaps its hubris. The IRL should see this, along with the Balkans Super League as a priority event outside the RLWC like they do with the Pacific challenges?

where are Ghana & Cameroon? Sad if they can't compete because of lack of money!? Surely this is a tournament the RLIF should get behind.

https://www.nrl.com/membership/ or go to club websites for updated figures usually

Should start off 2 less for Australasia Pacific and 1 less for the home nations & add 1 for Africa & 1 for Asia & 1 for Latin America.