The Rocket
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Posts posted by The Rocket
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2 minutes ago, Dave T said:
Maybe, it would be interesting to know how much value are in overseas sports in the UK market. My impression is that these things are worth diddly squat in general.
I remember that Super rugby used to be able to sell their rights into Europe for about $40m AUS, that was up until about two broadcast deals ago when they collapsed in value significantly, probably coinciding with South Africa`s withdrawal and the decline of the Australian teams, but still revelatory regarding their potential value.
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43 minutes ago, ATLANTISMAN said:
NFL will end up taking over the game in the UK its a no brainer
Taking over and running Rugby League or replacing Rugby League with NFL ?
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"V’landys has just returned from a trip to the US, where he accompanied Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to the White House and met United States President Joe Biden.
Shortly after the gala dinner, V’landys told this masthead: “We worked out that if all this goes to plan, it has the potential to generate hundreds of millions for rugby league. Not tens of millions – hundreds of millions."
Massive if certainly, but if the NRL do pull this off and we do see the amounts of money that V`landys is talking about flowing into the game where do you think European Rugby League fits into the scheme of things.
Comments like this seem to get a lot of traction @geordie saint "The NH, particularly England and the RFL, need to realise the NRL don’t want or need England to be successful." I`m not so certain, they (the NRL) might just want to make their own fortress impenetrable first.
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21 hours ago, Lowdesert said:
We are witnessing some serious power at play here. Building RL into the PNG school curriculums as well as deflecting China’s political influence in Cairns.
Amazing times.
The Chinese Gov`t push loyalty to the state and the Chinese communist party in their nation`s school curriculum. In P.N.G., it will be loyalty to the NRL.
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2 hours ago, UTK said:
and it prevents Samoa from continuing to build upon their own support for zero additional benefit.
Well written, but you would have to think that touring as their national team to the other side of the world, something often the preserve of union teams would increase the prestige and profile of the Samoan national Rugby League, likewise any touring national team for that matter. HST, the Tongan tour was hardly inspirational though both on and off the field, shame to write the concept off so quickly though, but I do see your point.
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2 hours ago, The Future is League said:
Great picture mate, no wonder V`landys said he was pinching himself, I don`t think I`ve ever seen a picture where he is the one actually doing the listening, he looks a little starstruck to me, like Biden or not (and I like him) that`s in the presence of real power.
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20 minutes ago, StandOffHalf said:
Yeah, I thought the same about the Aussie's conservative opening. Once the Kiwis scored though, they didn't have any spark or change-up. They just seemed passive and accepting - almost as if they didn't exert themselves to fire a shot.
Well off, in terms of test match mindset.
Makes you wonder whether the Mal was outfoxed by Maguire here and the Aussies played their final last week. Aussies ambushed in Hamilton.
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2 minutes ago, Dunbar said:
the Kiwis confidence started to grow and they executed so well in attack.
Yes was thinking that watching the Kiwi`s during the game, so much about beating the Australian`s is having that belief you are better than them, not getting that belief because you find yourself in front, which we so often see with the Kiwi`s, but going into the game with that belief, I suppose that only comes with winning.
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Being reported in The Sydney Morning Herald:
"The only reason the NZRL moved the game to Hamilton was because the Test schedule was not locked in until the collective bargaining agreement was nailed down. October remains the best time to play Test football – it is foolish to suggest any other time during the year – and 12 months of promotion will help next year.
"Four nations taking part rather than three will also mean there is no rest weekend during the Pacific Championships, which helps the series maintain momentum.
"Australia, New Zealand, Tonga and potentially Fiji will make up the Pacific Championships next year, with international officials hopeful Samoa tour England, and Papua New Guinea, Cook Islands, Lebanon and potentially France round out the tier-two tournament."
Some interesting stuff in there.
Full article if you can open it.
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7 minutes ago, GeordieSaint said:
This Australian generation are so very bearable
That`s very kind of you Gordie, so many times we hear that the Aussie players are big-heads.
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I bet the Aussies are going to be smarting over that, and they are going to have to wait 12 months for revenge, funny in a way, a loss like this casts a whole shadow over Origin because Oz is no longer number 1, no matter what the rankings say, so it ain`t the best playing the best, today they have been comprehensively beaten by the Kiwi`s and lost their last tournament.
Now if only the Kiwi`s can beat them again in their next encounter, because the Aussies will come hard, another loss could really dent the Aussies supreme international confidence, and that I believe is three quarters of the challenge to beating them.
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38 minutes ago, Eddie said:
Sounds like a lot of people are complaining about the venue and subsequent poor crowd, which is obviously disappointing but if Mount Smart wasn’t available what can they do
Ended up at over 13 000, pity they didn`t seat a few more of them opposite the cameras, because the grandstand behind them was pretty full.
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52 minutes ago, UTK said:
Crowd is even worse than worst-case scenario, unfortunately shows how far the Kiwis brand has fallen and the work that needs to be done in International RL.
Was shocked and very disappointed when I switched the T.V on, weird though, when they swung the camera around, at least one end of the grandstand on that camera side of the ground was packed, why the blazes wouldn`t they have prioritised selling tickets on the other side of the ground.
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14 hours ago, graveyard johnny said:
and that's why they never win owt
3 hours ago, Farmduck said:1997: Newcastle with Lee Jackson and coached by Mal Reilly win GF
!987: Manly fly Kevin Ward out from England to play in their GF win over the Canberra Raiders.
btw: coached by Warrington born Bob Fulton.
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1 hour ago, George Watt said:
Cliff Watson would top him for hardness. In the 1970 Ashes series Cliff took on the several of the Aus. pack including use of the "Liverpool Kiss". It was the last Ashes series that GB won
I worked at the same hospital in Sydney as Cliff in the 1990`s, Cliff was a porter and I`d cross paths with him in the lifts sometimes, tbh, I had no idea who he was, all I knew was that he was literally the man-mountain who`d always say hello, and I mean man-mountain, he was a really big bloke. Years later I bought a retro-book of Rugby League photos and there he was giving it it to somebody or other, could of kicked myself that I didn`t know who he was at the time.
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7 hours ago, Big Picture said:
Compared to gridiron today's RL will appear simplistic, one-dimensional and boring, and also much too fast-paced. Usonians* will only need one look at teams making 7 or 8 metres per play with ridiculous ease to be turned off.
* The correct English word for the US national identity.
I`ll bet my bottom dollar that your average boof-head American football fan wouldn`t give a rats-###### about the so-called intricacies that we hear from a tiny proportion of NFL knobs who like to use that to explain that game`s popularity in the US.
You can bet that your averaqe American football fan is interested in exactly what we are: collisions/defending, passing/catching, running/athleticism and scoring, any so-called intricacies are a bonus and nice to think about a little, but likely play only a small part in the enjoyment of the sport. Just like the majority of League fans, myself included, when we watch Rugby League.
Now selling another sport to a country that has its` own tried and true products, that`s another matter, but telling me that your average NFL fan watches that game because of its` technical wizardry I think is nonsense. They watch because it is sport and it`s a high-octane macho collision sport.
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33 minutes ago, Sports Prophet said:
I’ve been told #18 for Perth will not happen and the focus for the leading backers has shifted to being granted team #19 spot, apparently exploring options with the Bears again which is even more disappointing.
I was wondering myself whether Perth might now get told that 19 or 20 may be more likely, especially given it seems the NRL are hell-bent on getting PNG in. I also wondered, even hoped they might announce Perth for 19 at the same time as 18 is confirmed. Does seem a little odd announcing 19 the same time and going back to an odd number of teams but I suppose they did it with the 17th, so why not the 19th. And they have made it very clear they want 20.
You mentioned in an earlier post that you had spoken to someone in NRL officialdom who like yourself thought the NRL was pursuing the wrong strategy and would be better off concentrating on Australia rather than pursuing overseas ventures.
I think what we are seeing from V`landys here with this American venture (which now really looks like it`s tying in with the Pacific stuff) is to outflank our main rival and end the code wars in one fell swoop. Despite even with his projected revenue gain from a successful US venture it will really only level up the existing revenue gap with f-ball but I think they probably feel that if they can get traction in the US it will give Rugby League in this country so much more cred than our rival and cement fumbleball`s image as some sort of antipodean (minus New Zealand) oddity. NRL will really have all the momentum then. It`s a big gamble for big rewards, but that does seem to be V`landys style.
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46 minutes ago, Dunbar said:
I don't think the key change has been holding players down longer, it is holding players up... keeping them upright and then managing them to the ground.
In the 2003 game, players were hit and went to groud quickly... there was a bit of messing around and holding down, but today, after contact it can take several seconds for a ball carrier to go to ground and some of this is the defence (upright tackling and the 3rd defender around legs) and some is the ball carrier looking for post contact metres.
The days when it was a collision sport are gone. It is now a collision and wresting sport... in arguably equal measure.
And it concerns me, most of the people on here formed their love of Rugby League in that era of far more open Rugby League, we`re still fans and just have accepted the incremental change because we are fans, boiling frog situation. You know I`d go as far as saying that if the NRL think they are going to win over fans in the U.S. with the modern game they are kidding themselves, it might work in the Pacific or NZ where people are comparing it to their union but the Yanks aren`t. Take a product like the game that was posted, that might be a different matter.
BTW, I wonder if that`s why the 3x`s Premiers Penrith didn`t get an invite to Las Vegas, their tiresome defence suffocates the life out of every game.
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10 minutes ago, daz39 said:
Exactly what i noticed, the whole tackle and play the ball process was much cleaner and could probably have had 2 plays in the time in takes in today's game with all the grabbing, laying, holding, rolling then protesting that goes on nowadays, but then i realised it was 20 years ago! (already).
Yeah like it always was, the whole point was to get the player to the ground then get up and back in the defensive line as quickly as possible. Somewhere along the line (thank you f***ing Craig Bellamy) it was realised if you held the player down longer the remaining players in the defensive line could be back, arranged and ready to spring forward. I honestly think the game is less attractive for it and not as attractive as we like to think and thus less appealing to potential new fans.
10 minutes ago, daz39 said:but then i realised it was 20 years ago! (already).
I really don`t think it would be hard to get back to that, the skills these days are unsurpassed, we should be seeing a lot more games like that one., games like the one posted are the reason people fell in love with Rugby League.
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11 hours ago, Damien said:
I think back 20 years to nights like this at Wigan when the atmosphere was electric against the Aussies in a sellout. Yes it maybe against Australia but everything about it as an event seems a world away now. I refuse to believe that we shouldn't be aiming for the same again against Tonga at these sorts of grounds:
Does it get any better, just spent an hour and a half being enthralled by that, what a sport. I`ll swear though, the game was a better spectacle when there wasn`t the `working` like we get in the tackle these days, even just those few seconds just seems to open up the game so much more.
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What else do you think when dreaming of those sun-drenched palm-tree lined beaches of the Pacific but a grizzly Bear. Stop it please North Sydney, you`re embarrassing yourself.
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17 minutes ago, Damien said:
Well cheers Sky for just recording half the PNG v Fiji game.
Well done Fiji, I'm delighted for them. They probably haven't reached quite the same heights as Tonga and traditionally seem to have less NRL regulars to call upon than Tonga and PNG. After PNG though they have the most home grown players and strongest domestic setup. With Fiji also being considerably larger than Tonga or Samoa the greater potential is certainly there.
There was talk during the game that there are plans for Fiji to field a Jersey Flegg team (U21`s) in the near future and apparently Melbourne Storm`s new partnership with Fijian Airways involves more Storm coaches on the ground and involvement with schools. Apparently, the Storm will be taking a pre-season game against Newcastle there next year as well. Augurs well for player development coming out of that nation.
I do wonder though whether Fiji is still a predominantly union stronghold and playing for your nation in Rugby League doesn`t yet have the same appeal, watching that young Bula today and Turuva last week and the attractive brand of League they play we may see that change.
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1 hour ago, Bamboozle said:
I don’t know what more Perth could actually do to prove that they are both worthy and ready for an NRL team.
Well ,they haven`t actually done anything yet, a few concrete proposals would be a start. But I`d suggest they might have to up the ante now that these PNG numbers have come in.
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Article in today`s The Australian:
NRL expansion: Australian government to provide $600 million in funding for PNG bid | The Australian
"It is understood the Federal government is prepared to bankroll a $600m expansion package — $60m injected annually for at least 10 years for sporting and economic development in PNG via the NRL’s overseas push into the Pacific."
$60 million per year !
"A proposed PNG franchise will have the financial and political support of Mr Albanese – and now US president Joe Biden – following the Australian Prime Minister’s trip to the White House."
No wonder they are going with Papua New Guinea.
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Where does English (and European) Rugby League fit into all this.
in The General Rugby League Forum
Posted
I just find it hard to imagine that there would be any benefit from letting the game in England going too far down the gurgler, but when and how would they step in.