The Rocket
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Posts posted by The Rocket
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14 hours ago, The Rocket said:
The introduction of Free-to-air Friday Night Footy will see 25 NRL games shown free on Sky Open (formerly Prime) this season, with seven of those being Warriors matches, plus three further additional free matches, for Anzac Day, Magic Round & State of Origin I.
Just to add a little more on this, the last time viewing figures were produced by Sky, admittedly on their pay-tv offering, off the top of my head - and this was a few years ago - games not involving the Warriors averaged about 30 000 and Warrior`s matches about 70 - 80 000.
Interesting now that 18 matches not involving the Warriors have been given a prime-time Friday night time-slot, you`d have to think that to be given such a spot Sky must be fairly confident (or know) that interest has grown significantly.
I`m not familiar with New Zealand tv viewing numbers but you`d have to think that to be given a prime-time Friday night spot in a country of five million, it`d have to be pulling over 100 000, and that`s being very conservative, possibly double that, also taking into account that the same game is being shown live on their Pay-tv station as well.
If this is a success, and a Kiwi 18th franchise can get their finances in order, they would be very hard to say no to.
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1 hour ago, Gerrumonside ref said:
What are the ticket sales looking like?
They were reporting in the Daily Telegraph over here today that almost 30 000 have been shifted now.
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Several promising developments in New Zealand following the One New Zealand Warriors successful return home last year.
One New Zealand Warriors riding commercial boom | Warriors
Buoyed by the watershed 2023 campaign on and off the field, One New Zealand Warriors CEO Cameron George said the club is in its strongest commercial position in its history.
“We’ve come off an exceptional year in 2023 when we sold out multiple games and achieved fantastic sales in our hospitality and merchandise areas but what’s happening now for 2024 is nothing short of phenomenal,” he said.
In a further exciting development:
Unprecedented.
The introduction of Free-to-air Friday Night Footy will see 25 NRL games shown free on Sky Open (formerly Prime) this season, with seven of those being Warriors matches, plus three further additional free matches, for Anzac Day, Magic Round & State of Origin I.
And to cap it all off a very confident former Canterbury Bankstown Bulldogs Rugby League club chair talking about some big announcements being made before the NRL`s Las Vegas weekend about an 18th NRL license bid coming out of New Zealand`s South Island city of Christchurch.
It`s all happening.
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Really interesting article on pathways coming out of New Zealand:
"NZR will never lack rugby union depth but the dirty secret is that 1st 15 footy is a certified Kiwi-NRL pipeline".
"the NRL pipeline is better for school leavers who have ambitions of being a professional footy player."
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10 hours ago, Futtocks said:
He hasn't come back from RU and been tested at the highest level yet.
Mate, he didn`t need to be tested at the highest level and I assume you are meaning at the international level, what he was doing at Parramatta was the highest level, he was a special.
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3 hours ago, Dunbar said:
My oder arrived and I have to say it is very very good.
That's my new beer for live Rugby League tv games this year.
Couple of questions:
How many live games is that a week now across the competitions?
What's the concensus on how early is too early for the NRL games?
My view is that if you have had your breakfast then crack on.
By the sounds of that 24 bottles isn`t going to be enough.
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4 hours ago, Futtocks said:
He was unlikely to play the FB position he wanted at the Roosters and he didn't want to join the Dragons (understandable) or indeed any NRL club where he might have to play against his old club.
I don't know if any Super League clubs approached him, but he'd be a very expensive signing. So, French RU it is.
Sad, but we've enjoyed eight years of a marvellous talent.
Hopefully will end up being a bit like Mark Gasnier and will be able to be lured back after getting the union bug out of his system, Warriors would be good.
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Shows the potential of this form of the game, 81 000 thousand senior clubs and 95 000 plus junior clubs, 551 000 participants all up.
Touch Football Australia
Financial year 2022-2023
Total Participants 551k
Total club adults 81.2k, down 2.6%
Total club Jnrs 95.7k, up 14.7%
Snr teams
Qlnd 3,759
NSW 3,572
WA 509
Vic 389
NT 265
Tas 242
ACT 235
SA 225
Even in fumbleball strongholds like Tasmania and South Oz there are still over 200 senior Touch Football teams in both states.-
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11 minutes ago, Dunbar said:
I would imagine so at the gross profit level but probably not at the operating profit as the pharmaceutical industry has a large R&D element that gambling doesn't.
True, and those little bags don`t pack themselves.
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14 hours ago, Sports Prophet said:
Surely a caution is not a misdemeanour classified as a criminal conviction?
Any idea if drink drivers have trouble getting into US?
He asked nervously.
Planning a holiday SP, forget it.
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11 hours ago, Dunbar said:
It would be hard to think of another income stream with the profit margin of a poker machine.
Drugs.
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On 28/01/2024 at 08:27, Damien said:
A third hotel bought by the NRL:
We`ve had the world rugby union bosses in Oz the last few days for the union sevens in Perth and trying to drum up some excitement over which city they will choose to host their WC final in 2027, they`ve also been making noise about saving Oz rugby union.
I wonder how much the timing of this NRL announcement is a not-so-subtle dig of what they are up against over here, $65m in assets, $200m plus in the bank. Do they really want to throw good money after bad.
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6 hours ago, tiffers said:
just as they do for "tickets" and push you to the club website to purchase.
I believe the same thing on the NRL website has been a very successful driver of ticket sales. I suppose it is taking advantage of impulse buying instinct, particularly after you have just watched some exhilarating highlights that have whet your appetite and decide you might catch a game this weekend.
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10 minutes ago, Click said:
There were no tries in those highlights that you don't see in a regular season of SL, I have no idea what you are talking about.
1 minute ago, Futtocks said:Yeah, plodders like Bevan French, Jai Field, Brian To'o and Sunia Turuva are ruining the WCC before it's even started.
Look don`t get me wrong, I`m well aware that there are plenty of other aspects where the game has come a long way, but seeing long-range open field running and broken field play resulting in tries or near tries are really a thing of the past, players are too well drilled in tackling these days, you just don`t see them much anymore, much is the pity. And btw no team is more suffocating than Penrith.
But I`ll be watching I can guarantee you that, no matter what time of day it is over here and mightily looking forward to it as well.
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1 hour ago, Damien said:
A reminder of how special the WCC can be. What a team Widnes had:
It`s a shame that new fans today won`t be seeing the long-range tries like they had in those days. That`s the sort of things that gets people hooked on the sport.
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10 hours ago, Yakstorm said:
Some really exciting looking sponsors there Yakstorm, a listed Queensland mineral producing company, a French Electrical products wholesaler, a company associated with the American giant Caterpillar. Very solid.
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11 hours ago, welshmagpie said:
They play Mackay on 3rd Feb, Townsville 6th Feb & then in Cairns on 9th Feb.
A coach and some players coming across from mainland France to complement.
Role Individual From Head Coach Laurent Garnier France Assistant Coach David Cazanave France Assistant Coach David Nicolossi Vanuatu Physical Trainer Didier Heysten New CaledoniaFAO Laurie Ferguson Australia Team Manager Dave Gatt Australia Isn`t it great to see the French Rugby League getting involved with this. Smart bit of forward thinking.
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3 hours ago, frank said:
and
how the game has become the most watched TV sport in NZ.
As much as I`d like to believe that, it does sounds a little iffy.
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2 hours ago, unapologetic pedant said:
Whereupon the ref calls a knock-on or double knock-on. In the unlikely event the ref plays on, a touch judge calls a knock-on or double knock-on. In the even more unlikely event that all three officials want to play on, media experts are aghast because "there had to be a knock-on in there somewhere".
So we may see an increase in "spectacular leaping contests" and "mad scrambles", but they won't determine possession. That will fall to on-field officials, captain's challenges and the bunker scouring all available angles for little bobbles.
Have faith my friend, we have already seen recently the NRL`s most welcomed and important explicit recognition that the game needs less interference from officials with their rejection of forward pass technology, stating they didn`t want the "flow" to quote Abdo, interrupted.
The NRL recognize that fan`s don`t want games being continually stopped by over-zealous officials and I`m assuming the pressure will be on to adopt a similar mentality around the officiating of knock-ons. Implicitly it would be the next logical step.
2 hours ago, unapologetic pedant said:Contradictory signals. They appear to recognize a need for more variety. Then they go and add another way to restart the game with a staged painstaking PTB. Same muddled thinking as when they replaced a scrum with a PTB for when the ball crosses the touch-line. The latter, supposedly to speed the game up.
Pray tell what you would have them do, some sort of variety act (and not a contested scrum) before the play resumes.
As usual the lack of creativity that beleaguers League comes to the fore. The resumption and proliferation of the short restart has been a welcome act of creativity in itself, I think we are yet to see the full repercussions of its adoption and the opportunities it will create elsewhere as teams get better and better at it. Think how the 40/20 has now forced defending teams to keep the wingers back late in the tackle count allowing for opportunities for overlap plays for teams bold enough to try it. It`s called variety and it`s wonderful and there ain`t enough of it.
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3 hours ago, fighting irish said:
Poetry.
Not quite but I`ll take it Irish. Another two reasons that crossed my mind for explaining the NRL`s rule change on this, apart from adding the potential for more material for the highlights reel is that 1) if the defending team fails to regather, the attacking team are immediately back on the attack in the red-zone as they call it, instead of wasting 2 or 3 plays getting there, and 2) this also may be a subtle way of reducing that incidence we have with the long drop-out of where the 115kg behemoth charges back at full tilt at the smallest bloke he can aim up against, or the situation of the defender getting his head in the wrong position (and knocking himself senseless) trying to stop this speeding behemoth. Any opportunity to reduce head-knocks in the game would be welcomed by the NRL.
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The NRL obviously think that fans enjoy watching the aerial contest for the ball, and I can understand this, given the attraction of the sight of the ball in flight, the delayed suspense of whether it will go the required 10 metres or not, the spectacular leaping contests for the ball and then of course the mad scramble when the ball hits the deck, which it often does.
Then there`s the nice juxtaposition of a team which may have been defending their line furiously, and their fans expecting them to be continuing to do so , are now suddenly and unexpectedly charging up field with the ball in their possession.
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Got to admit had a great laugh at this :
wigan-warriors-suffer-blow-for-world-club-challenge-87294/
Wigan Warriors have been handed a blow ahead of next month’s World Club Challenge clash against Penrith Panthers after confirmation that Penrith star Jarome Luai will likely be fit for the match.
Why not just say " after confirmation that the whole of Penrith`s team will be fit for the match".
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39 minutes ago, Dunbar said:
Don't worry about the result, if Penrith win then they are the best in the world, if they lose then they weren't trying because it's not important.
Aussie logic, love it.
Makes perfect sense to me.
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12 minutes ago, Josef K said:
That is fantastic news, i hope it’s a thriller.
As opposed to... think Penrith might put the cleaners through your mob, they`re not happy.
Vegas baby!!
in The General Rugby League Forum
Posted
Hopefully with a bit of an acceleration in ticket sales now as the game approaches and the NRL ramps up its` promotion, add several thousand walk-ups which I believe is fairly standard in Vegas, we may crack the 40 000 mark.