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Rugby League World Cup 2021 (Merged Threads)


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6 hours ago, Futtocks said:

Yes, it was after 9/11 and they thought that touring the UK might be dangerous if somebody bombed the Eiffel Tower. We need Chairman Mo to go and badger them into committing again.

If my recollection serves me right, he had to more than badger them. The 2001 Kangaroo Tour nearly didn't proceed for security reasons. Yet, when Maurice Lindsay went to sort it out, he learned that they were still smarting over the weather disaster 2000 WC which hadn't produced any profit. No participants got anything financially. When a sizable sum was offered by the RFL as compensation, the dangers were mitigated. 

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My blog: https://rugbyl.blogspot.co.nz/

It takes wisdom to know when a discussion has run its course.

It takes reasonableness to end that discussion. 

 

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Trying to look on the positive side let’s hope we see some stacked sides of the nations remaining. I’d say most NZ players would have dual eligibility plus from the likely Australian squad we could see:

Samoa - Haas, To’o, Luai, Paulo, Papalii, Tino

Tonga - Kaufusi, Fotuaika, Fifita

Italy - Tedesco

Wales - Frizell

Fiji - Saifiti, Sims, Koroisau

Cook Islands - Holmes, Molo

PNG - Coates

There’s probably more.. But going back to pessimist mode most of those would be blocked.

Edited by jim_57
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1 hour ago, jim_57 said:

Trying to look on the positive side let’s hope we see some stacked sides of the nations remaining. I’d say most NZ players would have dual eligibility plus from the likely Australian squad we could see:

Samoa - Haas, To’o, Luai, Paulo, Papalii, Tino

Tonga - Kaufusi, Fotuaika, Fifita

Italy - Tedesco

Wales - Frizell

Fiji - Saifiti, Sims, Koroisau

Cook Islands - Holmes, Molo

PNG - Coates

There’s probably more.. But going back to pessimist mode most of those would be blocked.

I thought Francis Molo was Samoan 

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The FTA metro rating for Eels/Raiders yesterday was 361k. Not high enough to make the top 20 programmes.

The FTA metro rating for the men`s Australian Soccer game at the Olympics yesterday was 627k. The night before, the women`s Australian Soccer game rated 635k.

It seems Australians have a healthy appetite for international competition.

The insularity of the past couple of decades is harming the NRL more than they realise. Long-term it will be an uphill battle to hold their own against sports who have a greater ability to engage the whole nation through their national teams.

Edited by unapologetic pedant
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As long as players are willing to do it, the tournament needs to go ahead without Australia and NZ. This is a big moment for international RL. The players have the chance to expose the administration for what they are by playing, sacrificing two weeks of leave to turn up to training earlier and making the tournament a success. Tonga beat Australia last start and beat NZ at the last world cup. Fiji knocked NZ out of the last world cup. Samoa has a potentially world class side. The tournament can still be a good one and it can show arrogant Sydney administrators that the game is bigger than them.

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39 minutes ago, unapologetic pedant said:

The FTA metro rating for Eels/Raiders yesterday was 361k. Not high enough to make the top 20 programmes.

The FTA metro rating for the men`s Australian Soccer game at the Olympics yesterday was 627k. The night before, the women`s Australian Soccer game rated 635k.

It seems Australians have a healthy appetite for international competition.

The insularity of the past couple of decades is harming the NRL more than they realise. Long-term it will be an uphill battle to hold their own against sports who have a greater ability to engage the whole nation through their national teams.

To be fair to that Metro rating, the NRL games are shown live by 2 different broadcasters at the same time (channel 9 & fox sports). So the audience is split. 

Not saying if you add the Fox audience ratings it would more. Just making the point  that it doesn’t paint the full picture.

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12 minutes ago, Jim from Oz said:

It is nothing but complete bastardry by the self-interested NRL clubs, and the likes of PVL and Phil Gould

put "Twitter" and "Phil Gould" into google and see his tweets today … they are absolutely staggering in their arrogance

He ain’t helping the claims of player safety is he. At least he’s being honest in his own mind 

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1 hour ago, AB90 said:

To be fair to that Metro rating, the NRL games are shown live by 2 different broadcasters at the same time (channel 9 & fox sports). So the audience is split. 

Not saying if you add the Fox audience ratings it would more. Just making the point  that it doesn’t paint the full picture.

Yes that adds another 240 000 on Foxtel ( pay TV ) plus the other ~270 000 that Foxtel streaming service Kayo averages per match, so we are talking about a total viewing audience of nearly 900 000.

Regardless of that, as Pedant says, any sport that can supplement its local competition with quality international fixtures is going to be at an advantage in the long-term.

Soccers` great disadvantage in this country is that the local League is woeful, and I`m not saying that to be spiteful, they struggle to put three passes together, this is why the match of the week averages about 50 000 on FTA and the rest about 10 000 on Pay TV.

If soccer in this country can eventually tap into the growing rivalries with some Asian nations at a club competition level, and stop losing any player with the remotest bit of talent to wealthier foreign soccer leagues, and that includes just about every competition in the world, local soccer could become the juggernaut it is just about everywhere else. In fact I have read several times over the years it is soccer the afl fears not League.

All built on the back of a strong international presence.

n.b. one thing the local players do do exceptionally well and on a par with their EPL counterparts is the after goal celebrations. They mightn`t score many, and half of them might be rebounds or own goals, but boy when they jag one, they certainly know all the antics, world class in fact.

Edited by The Rocket
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OK for what it's worth, I just sent this to the nrl.com/conact us "comments" section:

https://www.nrl.com/contact-us

I also sent it to:  feedback@nrl.com.au


To whom it may concern,

I’m a 57-year-old Sydney man who has been a fanatical rugby league supporter since the age of age 11, when I first discovered my beloved North Sydney Bears.

I am writing to express my complete and utter disgust at the ARLC decision to boycott the World Cup.

This event has been five years in the planning, has attracted record sponsorship, yet the ARLC has shown absolutely no regard for the massive damage it is doing to the international game of rugby league by this action.

The idea that this is about safety concerns surrounding Covid does not wash, as the RLWC organisers have bent over backwards to deal with those concerns.

You also say the players need to rest, yet half the teams will be back after two weeks of the tournament when they are eliminated, a week later another four teams will be back after the quarter-finals, and so on. Only the two teams in the final will be there for the last week.

The ARLC has thrown an atomic bomb into the middle of international rugby league, risking the game worldwide – and there is no hyperbole in saying that.
I can't emphasise enough how absolutely disgusted beyond belief I am in this short-sighted decision.

Regards

etc

Edited by Jim from Oz
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4 hours ago, jim_57 said:

Trying to look on the positive side let’s hope we see some stacked sides of the nations remaining. I’d say most NZ players would have dual eligibility plus from the likely Australian squad we could see:

Samoa - Haas, To’o, Luai, Paulo, Papalii, Tino

Tonga - Kaufusi, Fotuaika, Fifita

Italy - Tedesco

Wales - Frizell

Fiji - Saifiti, Sims, Koroisau

Cook Islands - Holmes, Molo

PNG - Coates

There’s probably more.. But going back to pessimist mode most of those would be blocked.

This is what worries me now … the NRL clubs (who do, after all, actually employ these players) will put massive pressure on the players of other countries besides Australia and NZ NOT to attend the RLWC.

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18 minutes ago, Jim from Oz said:

OK for what it's worth, I just sent this to the nrl.com/conact us "comments" section. I also sent it to:  feedback@nrl.com.au
 

To whom it may concern,

I’m a 57-year-old Sydney man who has been a fanatical rugby league supporter since the age of age 11, when I first discovered my beloved North Sydney Bears.

I am writing to express my complete and utter disgust at the ARLC decision to boycott the World Cup.

This event has been five years in the planning, has attracted record sponsorship, yet the ARLC has shown absolutely no regard for the massive damage it is doing to the international game of rugby league by this action.

The idea that this is about safety concerns surrounding Covid does not wash, as the RLWC organisers have bent over backwards to deal with those concerns.

You also say the players need to rest, yet half the teams will be back after two weeks of the tournament when they are eliminated, a week later another four teams will be back after the quarter-finals, and so on. Only the two teams in the final will be there for the last week.

The ARLC has thrown an atomic bomb into the middle of international rugby league, risking the game worldwide – and there is no hyperbole in saying that.
I can't emphasise enough how absolutely disgusted beyond belief I am in this short-sighted decision.

Regards

etc

I also sent an email to the RLPA telling them of my email above. Their email is: enquiries@rlpa.com.au

Edited by Jim from Oz
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6 hours ago, Devon Ram said:

 

Once again somebody knocking the attendance my understanding is a few stadiums have sold very well, so if you know different lets see the facts or are you just a knocker for the sake of knocking show the facts or shut up.

I think you’ve misunderstood my post. I’m not criticising the way the way the WC is being marketed right now, I’m arguing that the withdrawal of the other two ‘main’ nations will make it harder to market as a top event and therefore could result in mainly empty stadia due to less of a ‘buzz’ in the media over what should be a nationally celebrated event. I thought that would have been clear in my post, but if not then apologies.

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6 hours ago, Damien said:

It's a long time since I saw RL on the back page of the newspapers:

 

Let’s hope that the backlash does result in overturning the decision. What great free publicity we will have had from it all 🙏

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6 hours ago, Damien said:

It's a long time since I saw RL on the back page of the newspapers:

 

There’s the old saying any publicity is good publicity, and I’ve never seen Rugby League in as much media with as much time and prominence as this World Cup story. We need to get the message out quickly that the tournament going ahead, tickets are on sale and they are to be replaced by Australian Invitational and New Zealand Invitational sides and ride this publicity wave.

 

Imagine if it was all a hoax just to get the publicity, like boxers have a bit of a pre fight bust up, and Australia and New Zealand actually have every intention of playing. Genius marketing at no cost.

Edited by Sir Kevin Sinfield
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8 minutes ago, Sir Kevin Sinfield said:

Imagine if it was all a hoax just to get the publicity, like boxers have a bit of a pre fight bust up, and Australia and New Zealand actually have every intention of playing. Genius marketing at no cost.

Do you still believe that a fat man in a red suit brings you presents at Christmas?

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Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life. (Terry Pratchett)

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2 hours ago, AB90 said:

To be fair to that Metro rating, the NRL games are shown live by 2 different broadcasters at the same time (channel 9 & fox sports). So the audience is split. 

Not saying if you add the Fox audience ratings it would more. Just making the point  that it doesn’t paint the full picture.

When I`m putting a pro-NRL case on other threads I always stress the Foxtel ratings over FTA, since they give the most positive indication of RL`s popularity, particularly in relation to fans` willingness to pay to watch the game.

However, with Pay TV there is inevitably a strong element of preaching to the converted. For RL to be future-proofed, it needs to rate well on FTA.

With WCs and Olympics, there`s now every likelihood of an Aussie men`s or women`s team competing in a major Soccer tournament in most years, usually played during the Southern Hemisphere winter. It`s clear from the FTA ratings that national teams playing in prestigious global events captures the public imagination throughout the country.

The potential nightmare scenario for the NRL is that AFL dominates the domestic scene, Soccer and RU dominate the international scene, and NRL dominates neither and gets progressively squeezed.

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8 hours ago, GeordieSaint said:

I noticed a couple of you talking about 1895 2.0. I absolutely get the sentiment. But what can we actually achieve from a Northern Hemisphere perspective?

We’ve thrown away North America (rightly or wrongly). Our own clubs in England are just as bad as those in the NRL at times. There’s no money in the development pot (due to no WC) to throw at France or someone else. 

Slightly stumped for (realistic) options… 

It's also a question of what would be schisming from?

Playing a version of rugby under different rules from those used elsewhere? No representative contact between the countries?

So just what we have now and are trying to correct?

The AFL hoovers up players from GAA. Players move between league and union. Nothing will change that.

A 'breakaway' is absolutely meaningless.

Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life. (Terry Pratchett)

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11 minutes ago, Sir Kevin Sinfield said:

Imagine if it was all a hoax just to get the publicity, like boxers have a bit of a pre fight bust up, and Australia and New Zealand actually have every intention of playing. Genius marketing at no cost.

In our case, it`s more like someone setting fire to himself to raise awareness for a cause. Needs someone else to quickly douse the flames.

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10 minutes ago, GeordieSaint said:

Weak statement.

As they’ve not been involved (or so it seems) with any discussions so far. I expect they’ll speak with the organisers, get the reassurances over covid protocol then come out a bit stronger. 
 

 

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