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NRL TV viewership through the roof


Pulga

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9 minutes ago, The Rocket said:

 

I think you`re overcompensating now.

 

Slipping again.

Dunbar’s comment is actually referring to my views on RU (and to a lesser extent RL here). Don’t think I’ve ever commented on RL in Aus, primarily as I’d never seen it until this year, and from what I have seen the NRL is very different to RL in England. It’s two, three levels up.

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12 hours ago, AB90 said:

Yeah, it’s such a silly point.

So if a domestic sporting competition is not the best in the world at that respective sport then there is no point in watching it. Well if that’s the case then La Liga, Bundesliga, Seria A, Legue 1 and every other domestic football competition in the world should shut down as the Premier League is considered number 1.

It’s bizarre logic.

That’s not what I said though was it? What a weird straw man to throw out there, don’t make a silly point I didn’t make in order to call mine silly - that’s on you mate! 

 

I don’t agree that the quality of the bottom half of the NRL’s play has made them “awful to watch”, as stated, any more than the standard of play in SL (which is lower in almost all cases, the point I was clearly making) has made that awful to watch. I watch SL, and enjoy it. I think only Leigh and the Bulldogs fall into the unwatchable category, at most. 

 

 

 

Apparently this site says I "won the day" here on 23rd Jan, 19th Jan, 9th Jan also 13th December, whatever any of that means. Anyway, 4 times in a few weeks? The forum must be going to the dogs - you people need to seriously up your game. Where's Dutoni when you need him?

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On 20/09/2021 at 19:16, Hull Kingston Bronco said:


Hmmm, good news but guess you’d have to wonder how people in the game feel about V’Landy’s giving away contract extensions to Fox and Nine at reduced prices pretty much just because they asked him to then eh? It’s time Nine in particular were told to go and do one 

 

Smith and then Greenberg had a strategy to set up a very effective direct digital operation, as the NFL have done… seemed to be progressing well until the game’s media “partners” influenced their career execution for what I’m sure were wholly-unconnected reasons… 😂

 

On 20/09/2021 at 20:20, UTK said:

It is a very big concern how entangled with the broadcasters V'landys/Abdo appear to be, especially when those broadcasters are effectively able to control the media narrative around their decisions/tenure in the game. Those extensions received nothing but praise within the media cycle, glossing over the financial reality of the reduced broadcast deal.

The NRL digital arm is a very good example of the conflict of interest that has been permeated during V'landys tenure. Broadcasters have felt threatened by the potential of the digital arm and had been attempting to take control of it since it's inception. As soon as V'landys comes along the digital arm is gutted under the guise of Covid cost-cutting (no doubt a necessary exercise but the the digital arm received the largest proportional cut). This cut occurred despite the digital weekly audience growing by 1 million last year (from 3.5 - 4.5 million) and an audit in 2019 stating the asset could be valued at just under $1 billion within the next couple of years. 

Contrasting this with the approach of Smith/Greenberg in taking the steps to establish the independent digital arm paints a depressing picture of the power that broadcasters wield within the NRL admin at the moment.

 

23 hours ago, Damien said:

You only have to look how Smith was made out to be the Devil incarnate and a failure despite achieving some of the single biggest positives in RL history. Getting rid of News Corporation ownership was one of the biggest wins in the history of the game and fuelled all the growth in TV deals since. He also achieved record TV rights and huge growth in the digital side, club memberships, club funding etc. However in doing so he took on Murdoch and ultimately fell on his sword for the good of the game.

In contrast V'landys gets lauded by the media and gets a free ride despite doing little so far to justify it.

 

23 hours ago, rlno1 said:

Also Smith navigated the game and Sharks through the drug crisis whilst the AFL completely stuffed it up.

I`ve lumped all your quotes in together because I don`t want to get dragged into another argument over who is the best administrator but I`d just like to make a couple of points in general.

Firstly each boss we`ve had has bought something to the game. I liked David Gallop he bought a sense of stability and measuredness to the role that the game desperately need at the time, he was replaced because many thought he was too reactive and not proactive, in hindsight I can appreciate that. I thought it was Grant, who had been the CEO of a successful IT company, that dragged the clubs kicking and screaming ( they didn`t want to give up the money) into investing in the digital arm of the business, which from what I`ve been told is good as any sport anywhere and far superior and more viewed than our fierce rival down here. Apparently though Grant lacked inter-personal skills and couldn`t manage the clubs.

As far as negotiating broadcast deals, as part of the settlement of the Super League war News Corp was given last bid on any broadcast negotiations and more importantly they had seats on the NRL Board. This lead to the ridiculous situation where they were on both sides of the negotiating table, as Roy Masters used to say they`d be on the NRL side of the table formulating the sales package and then they`d duck around the other side and accept it.

It was only when this farcical agreement came to an end, it had an expiry date, that the NRL was able to negotiate completely independently of Fox Sports. Dave Smith`s tenure co-incided with this and ballooning broadcast deals in general. Smith did what any smart business man would do and negotiated a bumper rights deal with Channel 9 counting on the fact that Fox needed League desperately and would pay handsomely for what ever was left, he was right of course, but it led to that famous meeting where all the heads of sports in Oz gathered and the League representatives were seated closest to the toilets and Rupert Murdoch famously stated for all and sundry " afl has always been our favourite sport " and subsequently tacked another hundred million or so on to their deal just to show League up and teach them a lesson.

Greenberg was very smooth and great with the politicians and club bosses and was responsible for the negotiation of the refurbishment of stadium Australia to a rectangular 80 000 seater and the up-grade of the SFS to 50 000 state-of-the-art  facility. However he famously let the NRL running costs blow-out to $200m/pa and once said after his weekly phone-call to the afl boss " there`s room enough for both of us ". That`s while the afl were spending $200m alone in western Sydney and hundreds of millions more in Queensland.

V`landy`s for all his faults comes at a time that we need a head-kicker down here and a head-kicker he is who for better or worse is fiercely competitive with the other codes. As far as his cosy relationship with the Murdoch media, if you read our only mass-daily tabloid here in NSW ( News Corp owned ) it`s six pages minimum League, union you`d hardly know it existed and a half-page afl. You can`t beat that kind of media coverage.

The point I`m making in all of this is that all the different NRL bosses have all bought something to the game. Presently the greatest challenge, after Covid, to the game is the encroachment by afl into our traditional heartlands and I don`t think there is another sports administrator out there who would take this encroachment as personal and as such a threat to the game he played and loved as much a Peter V`landy`s.

 

 

 

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5 hours ago, Hull Kingston Bronco said:

That’s not what I said though was it? What a weird straw man to throw out there, don’t make a silly point I didn’t make in order to call mine silly - that’s on you mate! 

 

I don’t agree that the quality of the bottom half of the NRL’s play has made them “awful to watch”, as stated, any more than the standard of play in SL (which is lower in almost all cases, the point I was clearly making) has made that awful to watch. I watch SL, and enjoy it. I think only Leigh and the Bulldogs fall into the unwatchable category, at most. 

 

 

 

And the West tigers.....

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1 hour ago, Mr Frisky said:

And the West tigers.....

Nah, far from it, they’re hot and cold and I’ve enjoyed several of their games - and the soap opera behind their last decade, and it’s continuation under Madge, is worth the admission on its own 

Apparently this site says I "won the day" here on 23rd Jan, 19th Jan, 9th Jan also 13th December, whatever any of that means. Anyway, 4 times in a few weeks? The forum must be going to the dogs - you people need to seriously up your game. Where's Dutoni when you need him?

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10 hours ago, Hull Kingston Bronco said:

That’s not what I said though was it? What a weird straw man to throw out there, don’t make a silly point I didn’t make in order to call mine silly - that’s on you mate! 

 

I don’t agree that the quality of the bottom half of the NRL’s play has made them “awful to watch”, as stated, any more than the standard of play in SL (which is lower in almost all cases, the point I was clearly making) has made that awful to watch. I watch SL, and enjoy it. I think only Leigh and the Bulldogs fall into the unwatchable category, at most. 

 

 

 

Mate, I wasn’t specifically responding to what you said (apologies if it came off that way).

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12 hours ago, The Rocket said:

 

 

 

I`ve lumped all your quotes in together because I don`t want to get dragged into another argument over who is the best administrator but I`d just like to make a couple of points in general.

Firstly each boss we`ve had has bought something to the game. I liked David Gallop he bought a sense of stability and measuredness to the role that the game desperately need at the time, he was replaced because many thought he was too reactive and not proactive, in hindsight I can appreciate that. I thought it was Grant, who had been the CEO of a successful IT company, that dragged the clubs kicking and screaming ( they didn`t want to give up the money) into investing in the digital arm of the business, which from what I`ve been told is good as any sport anywhere and far superior and more viewed than our fierce rival down here. Apparently though Grant lacked inter-personal skills and couldn`t manage the clubs.

As far as negotiating broadcast deals, as part of the settlement of the Super League war News Corp was given last bid on any broadcast negotiations and more importantly they had seats on the NRL Board. This lead to the ridiculous situation where they were on both sides of the negotiating table, as Roy Masters used to say they`d be on the NRL side of the table formulating the sales package and then they`d duck around the other side and accept it.

It was only when this farcical agreement came to an end, it had an expiry date, that the NRL was able to negotiate completely independently of Fox Sports. Dave Smith`s tenure co-incided with this and ballooning broadcast deals in general. Smith did what any smart business man would do and negotiated a bumper rights deal with Channel 9 counting on the fact that Fox needed League desperately and would pay handsomely for what ever was left, he was right of course, but it led to that famous meeting where all the heads of sports in Oz gathered and the League representatives were seated closest to the toilets and Rupert Murdoch famously stated for all and sundry " afl has always been our favourite sport " and subsequently tacked another hundred million or so on to their deal just to show League up and teach them a lesson.

Greenberg was very smooth and great with the politicians and club bosses and was responsible for the negotiation of the refurbishment of stadium Australia to a rectangular 80 000 seater and the up-grade of the SFS to 50 000 state-of-the-art  facility. However he famously let the NRL running costs blow-out to $200m/pa and once said after his weekly phone-call to the afl boss " there`s room enough for both of us ". That`s while the afl were spending $200m alone in western Sydney and hundreds of millions more in Queensland.

V`landy`s for all his faults comes at a time that we need a head-kicker down here and a head-kicker he is who for better or worse is fiercely competitive with the other codes. As far as his cosy relationship with the Murdoch media, if you read our only mass-daily tabloid here in NSW ( News Corp owned ) it`s six pages minimum League, union you`d hardly know it existed and a half-page afl. You can`t beat that kind of media coverage.

The point I`m making in all of this is that all the different NRL bosses have all bought something to the game. Presently the greatest challenge, after Covid, to the game is the encroachment by afl into our traditional heartlands and I don`t think there is another sports administrator out there who would take this encroachment as personal and as such a threat to the game he played and loved as much a Peter V`landy`s.

 

 

 

I definitely agree that it's fair to say they have all brought different positives to the table and that V'landys has undoubtedly brought a predominant focus on securing the heartlands. He has promoted the real prospect of expansion in the form of the 17th team to combat this in SE QLD which I commend him for.

I do have a major issue with his brazen public approach towards the AFL however, especially with reference to the affiliated states. The disrespectful public comments he has made toward Victoria and WA in particular have been disgraceful. His infamous "rusted on AFL states" expansion comment was appalling when you consider those same states have spent tens of millions of dollars bidding for Origin/International games every year. Other derogatory comments about "AFL types" serve no function in battling the AFL in QLD/NSW either and make the sport look spiteful and insecure. 

The culmination of this disrespectful approach came just last week in the embarrassing turn of events where the NRL declared they wouldn't swap the Melbourne preliminary final time so fans would have to choose between the AFL GF/NRL. Obviously major backlash followed and the NRL was forced to renege on the gauntlet they had thrown down and changed the time.

I can get behind V'landys taking the fight to the AFL through his efforts to facilitate the 17th team however the rest of the carry on is completely unnecessary and makes us look worse as a sport. Sticking to action rather than words is going to be the best way to win the heartlands war.

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On 21/09/2021 at 23:32, The Rocket said:

 

 

 

I`ve lumped all your quotes in together because I don`t want to get dragged into another argument over who is the best administrator but I`d just like to make a couple of points in general.

Firstly each boss we`ve had has bought something to the game. I liked David Gallop he bought a sense of stability and measuredness to the role that the game desperately need at the time, he was replaced because many thought he was too reactive and not proactive, in hindsight I can appreciate that. I thought it was Grant, who had been the CEO of a successful IT company, that dragged the clubs kicking and screaming ( they didn`t want to give up the money) into investing in the digital arm of the business, which from what I`ve been told is good as any sport anywhere and far superior and more viewed than our fierce rival down here. Apparently though Grant lacked inter-personal skills and couldn`t manage the clubs.

As far as negotiating broadcast deals, as part of the settlement of the Super League war News Corp was given last bid on any broadcast negotiations and more importantly they had seats on the NRL Board. This lead to the ridiculous situation where they were on both sides of the negotiating table, as Roy Masters used to say they`d be on the NRL side of the table formulating the sales package and then they`d duck around the other side and accept it.

It was only when this farcical agreement came to an end, it had an expiry date, that the NRL was able to negotiate completely independently of Fox Sports. Dave Smith`s tenure co-incided with this and ballooning broadcast deals in general. Smith did what any smart business man would do and negotiated a bumper rights deal with Channel 9 counting on the fact that Fox needed League desperately and would pay handsomely for what ever was left, he was right of course, but it led to that famous meeting where all the heads of sports in Oz gathered and the League representatives were seated closest to the toilets and Rupert Murdoch famously stated for all and sundry " afl has always been our favourite sport " and subsequently tacked another hundred million or so on to their deal just to show League up and teach them a lesson.

Greenberg was very smooth and great with the politicians and club bosses and was responsible for the negotiation of the refurbishment of stadium Australia to a rectangular 80 000 seater and the up-grade of the SFS to 50 000 state-of-the-art  facility. However he famously let the NRL running costs blow-out to $200m/pa and once said after his weekly phone-call to the afl boss " there`s room enough for both of us ". That`s while the afl were spending $200m alone in western Sydney and hundreds of millions more in Queensland.

V`landy`s for all his faults comes at a time that we need a head-kicker down here and a head-kicker he is who for better or worse is fiercely competitive with the other codes. As far as his cosy relationship with the Murdoch media, if you read our only mass-daily tabloid here in NSW ( News Corp owned ) it`s six pages minimum League, union you`d hardly know it existed and a half-page afl. You can`t beat that kind of media coverage.

The point I`m making in all of this is that all the different NRL bosses have all bought something to the game. Presently the greatest challenge, after Covid, to the game is the encroachment by afl into our traditional heartlands and I don`t think there is another sports administrator out there who would take this encroachment as personal and as such a threat to the game he played and loved as much a Peter V`landy`s.

 

 

 

Gallop and V'landys are nowhere near under the same scrutiny as the others were. They are/were working for the owners, the Murdochs. V'landys is just a mouthpiece as Abdo has no personality.

Gallop brought measuredness and stability? He was the News Corp lawyer who was on the side that destabilised the game in the first place. This put it back 20 years so his boss could get his Pay TV network up and going. He did more to solidify AFL in the northern states then anything.

RL was the no1 code back then we were bigger then the AFL, if we weren't so successful Murdoch wouldn't have touched it.

Gallop sat there for 10 years while the game was ripped to shreds by the media and it's image destroyed.

TV deals were undervalued.

For mine Dave Smith would have been a great leader if he was allowed to do his job. I loved the way he wouldn't get back to the News Corp journos looking for the dirt when they rang, it ###### them off no end.

Most things he did were on the money and Murdoch knew this so they campaigned to get rid of him. A great loss.

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I have read alot about John Grant he was a league man down to his boots. He played in the 1972 World Cup, had a spell with Warrington and played for nothing when Souths in Brisbane hit financial trouble in the 70's, also acting as an interim coach for the club. Listen to the Brisbane RL podcast and you will hear him talked about very highly constantly.

I recall on Radio when Rebecca Wilson said the NRL board had no league experience and she stated that Grant had come from union AFTER playing league, the commentators on the other side didn't call her out, obviously they had no idea this was very unlikely in the 70's. She constantly ran him down. Not only that but he was very high up in the IT industry and had won awards so knew what was going on. 

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I read Rocket’s post with interest. I found it hard to recognise someone who “loves” our game, given that V’Landys has cut Australia away from international rugby league with a vicious disregard for every other country. He has treated us worse than he apparently treats the AFL. His vision is for the game to be played in West Sydney and South Queensland, and nowhere else. Which makes him the worst advocate for the game I can think of in my decades of watching it. Oh, and he’s a coward, as Simon Johnson said.

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33 minutes ago, Exiled Wiganer said:

I read Rocket’s post with interest. I found it hard to recognise someone who “loves” our game, given that V’Landys has cut Australia away from international rugby league with a vicious disregard for every other country. He has treated us worse than he apparently treats the AFL. His vision is for the game to be played in West Sydney and South Queensland, and nowhere else. Which makes him the worst advocate for the game I can think of in my decades of watching it. Oh, and he’s a coward, as Simon Johnson said.

The NRL tv deal is worth $2 billion Aus (£1.06 billion) up to 2027, which is £166 million per year (if it’s over six years). SL tv deal is £26 million per year, which is less than a sixth of the NRL. He’s not being insular, he’s merely protecting the most valuable asset in the sport by a country mile. 

There just isn’t the counterweight outside Australia to make Australian authorities in the sport to focus on what is happening outside it. Conversely, because Australia is the biggest show in RL world you have many from here that focus on Australia (watching their league, taking a keen interest on any new teams being created (second Brisbane team), commenting on the NRL boss etc. etc. It’s natural.

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50 minutes ago, Exiled Wiganer said:

I read Rocket’s post with interest. I found it hard to recognise someone who “loves” our game, given that V’Landys has cut Australia away from international rugby league with a vicious disregard for every other country. He has treated us worse than he apparently treats the AFL. His vision is for the game to be played in West Sydney and South Queensland, and nowhere else. Which makes him the worst advocate for the game I can think of in my decades of watching it. Oh, and he’s a coward, as Simon Johnson said.

Be patient mate, there`s no way despite this years fiasco with the WC that NH League won`t be part of V`landy`s plans for League, it`s just too big an asset with way too much untapped potential to disregard.

It`s interesting that our Government has just done exactly the same thing with the French Government over that scrapped submarine deal. The French basically found about it in the media. And that was a $90b(50b pound) deal. I wonder if there is something going on with our leaders with regard the NH, I have heard it said in the past that Oz is treated as a second class citizen sometimes by northern hemisphere powers, maybe this is an attempt to return the compliment, however I don`t know, I don`t mix in those circles.

We have to remember Leagues in a tricky position down here as well, as we`ve seen with both soccer and union, that if you don`t build your competition up to be competitive financially it can very quickly just become a feeder system for northern hemisphere competitions.

Everyone involved in running League down here will be aware of that, they`ll want there to be enough money in the NRL before they start worrying too much about the health of the northern hemisphere. That doesn`t mean they`ll want it to die off, for the reasons I stated above, but they`ll be much more concerned in the immediate future that our competition has the resources to compete with yours if it does take off. So there`s a bit of a balancing act there.

So look mate, be patient, I think big things are going to happen in the next few years.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

SportsIndustry, compiler of a detailed annual sports broadcast ratings breakdown of the various codes in Oz are reporting today that they expect the NRL to have outrated our main competitor the afl by between 15m and 17m viewers for the entire 2021 season, the word they actually used was trounced.

Up until 2018 the NRL had been outrated by the afl since 2014. In both 2018 and 2019 the NRL recorded narrow victories.

SportsIndustry are reporting that FTA and Foxtel set-top-box figures were roughly similar but with the NRL recording a sizeable advantage in the number of people viewing the game via streaming platforms.

On a personal note great news for Rugby League here is great news for Rugby League everywhere. It is to the benefit of everyone that the premier Rugby League competition in the world remains healthy and thriving.

 

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^ RL in Australia doesn’t make enough money to be impactful outside Australia (according to that Gus bloke almost all the clubs run at a loss, so every penny they have they use to invest inward), but nor does it make too little amount of money that would then force them to look outside Australia (hence they take a protective stance with their own competition taking priority over anything outside it, which is especially understandable when you compare the money generated inside Australia (however small that is in relative terms) to outside it). 

The main issue is Australia doesn’t have a big enough market domestically to alter things outside it. And even in this small market it’s only marginally the biggest code (Aussie Rules being a close 2nd nationally which controls the area west of that line they came up with to split the two of them). These NRL teams are very small in global terms. Comparatively speaking, from a financial and support base point of view, they would be lower second tier (and some upper third tier) English football clubs, and if those clubs were the big time players in football their impact would be negligible.

Comparing the two leagues (last pre-Covid season)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018–19_EFL_Championship average crowd 20,075

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_NRL_season average crowd 15,800

Having watched it for the first time this season the NRL is a fantastic product. It has completely changed my view on Australian RL (previously had it down as being a Wayne Bennett pragmatic type of game), but it’s simply too small a player to really effect RL outside Aus. So if it isn’t doing much for the game outside Australia, the only real impact of a healthy and thriving league that I can see is it is taking away the best players from here. 

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5 hours ago, DC77 said:

^ RL in Australia doesn’t make enough money to be impactful outside Australia (according to that Gus bloke almost all the clubs run at a loss, so every penny they have they use to invest inward), but nor does it make too little amount of money that would then force them to look outside Australia (hence they take a protective stance with their own competition taking priority over anything outside it, which is especially understandable when you compare the money generated inside Australia (however small that is in relative terms) to outside it). 

The main issue is Australia doesn’t have a big enough market domestically to alter things outside it. And even in this small market it’s only marginally the biggest code (Aussie Rules being a close 2nd nationally which controls the area west of that line they came up with to split the two of them). These NRL teams are very small in global terms. Comparatively speaking, from a financial and support base point of view, they would be lower second tier (and some upper third tier) English football clubs, and if those clubs were the big time players in football their impact would be negligible.

Comparing the two leagues (last pre-Covid season)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018–19_EFL_Championship average crowd 20,075

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_NRL_season average crowd 15,800

Having watched it for the first time this season the NRL is a fantastic product. It has completely changed my view on Australian RL (previously had it down as being a Wayne Bennett pragmatic type of game), but it’s simply too small a player to really effect RL outside Aus. So if it isn’t doing much for the game outside Australia, the only real impact of a healthy and thriving league that I can see is it is taking away the best players from here. 

I'm sorry but the decision not to send players for the WC was not because thier league/clubs were too small

So they could have positively influenced the game outside of Australia and didn't. And it had f*** all to do with money 

Chain rattling ****s

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16 hours ago, DC77 said:

Having watched it for the first time this season the NRL is a fantastic product.

So you have been banging on for years on here how boring and stifling Australian Rugby League is without actually watching it.

"The history of the world is the history of the triumph of the heartless over the mindless." — Sir Humphrey Appleby.

"If someone doesn't value evidence, what evidence are you going to provide to prove that they should value it? If someone doesn't value logic, what logical argument could you provide to show the importance of logic?" — Sam Harris

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3 hours ago, Dunbar said:

So you have been banging on for years on here how boring and stifling Australian Rugby League is without actually watching it.

As I said above, I don’t think I’ve ever commented on Australian RL as I’d never seen it before. I had a perception of it (based on the stuff Wayne Bennett served up with England, and the wrestle imported to SL (Wigan) from Australia. I’ve only ever commented on RL (and RU) in the UK. This post from a RL follower on another forum I found very interesting as it detailed some things I had noticed, but didn’t have the knowledge of the game to describe it or be as precise:

The British game is boring & predictable with defences too organised & set.

Watch games from the first decade of Super League and you see multiple line breaks and exciting, fast play because the RFL cracked down on players being allowed to slow the play-the-ball. As a result, defences were frequently not set in a regimented line and players could exploit that (Cunningham and Roby at Saints were brilliant for spotting a disorganised defence, then scooting into that space from dummy half, creating more disorganisation, so on the next tackle Saints would very often break a ragged defensive line and frequently score)

In 2008/2009, the authorities declared that more latitude would be given to defenders to clear the tackle. Some coaches began to take this to the extremes - Brown at Huddersfield, then Maguire at Wigan who introduced 'the wrestle' to extend the time the tackle seemed to be in progress and get the tackled player on their back to slow them getting to their feet even more - 'turtling' - followed by defenders timing their 'flop' onto a player being tackled to be just before the ref says 'held' then the 3/4 tackling players peel off one at a time. As that proved successful, more coaches followed and developed further techniques. The result is that with almost every play the ball, the defence is set. Then you have defending teams rotating the duty of rushing at the first receiver as soon as the ball is played, so they have no time to do anything but accept the tackle. 

Abolishing the scrums and bringing in the 6-again (both temporary measures due to Covid) have made it worse. Then you have Warrington who, whenever an opposition player does make a break and Warrington's defence near their own line is in disarray, one of their players - usually that whingeing lump Chris Hill - will lie on the floor holding their head so the ref stops the game whilst the physio/doc runs on. By the time play restarts, the Warrington defenders are recovered, got some air in their lungs, and fully organised. Threat averted... by cheating.

The British game is going backwards.

 

The response to this post (from another RL follower ) was:

Interesting 

I grew up 80’s & 90’s enjoying Rugby League but recent years struggled to get into it 
I don’t know enough about the tactics & nuances of the game but just found it became to monotonous you didn’t see so much the great tries by Offiah or Lydon etc 

 

This also struck a chord as I felt this was the case.

In the last 10 minutes of this podcast (#139) with Tony Collins and Mark Evans they talk about RL in Australia, and what the NRL has done to speed up the play the ball (essentially by having a deterrent on the wrestle).

This is my observation also as although the Aussies invented the wrestle, it seems to have affected them far less, as I found the NRL to be a very slick, attacking game. Previously I thought this was maybe just down to having better players who are able to execute plays quicker/better, but now I think it’s more down to difference in the way the games are officiated, with more leeway for spoiling/slowing down play in SL than the NRL. 

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14 minutes ago, DC77 said:

As I said above, I don’t think I’ve ever commented on Australian RL as I’d never seen it before.

This is what you said on October 11th 2020

"Australia RL is a slog.  Can you cherry pick good moments? Yeah you can, swamped by the wrestling in-between.  Go watch 30 minutes of Wigan playing at Wembley in the early 90s, then watch 30 minutes of Australian RL today. I have. It’s two different sports. One is open and full and running, then there’s the latter."

Now you are saying that "Having watched it for the first time this season the NRL is a fantastic product."

So you were lying when you said you watched it last year or you are lying now when you say you have watched it for the first time this season.

"The history of the world is the history of the triumph of the heartless over the mindless." — Sir Humphrey Appleby.

"If someone doesn't value evidence, what evidence are you going to provide to prove that they should value it? If someone doesn't value logic, what logical argument could you provide to show the importance of logic?" — Sam Harris

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6 minutes ago, Dunbar said:

So you were lying when you said you watched it last year or you are lying now when you say you have watched it for the first time this season.

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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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15 hours ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

I'm sorry but the decision not to send players for the WC was not because thier league/clubs were too small

So they could have positively influenced the game outside of Australia and didn't. And it had f*** all to do with money 

Chain rattling ****s

It was a combination of money not being lucrative enough for them to make the trip (the “successful” 2013 RLWC here made £4 million, which is chicken feed to the NRL) and COVID (unlike here, the situation in Australia is manic, with authorities only declaring a couple of days before the NRL final it looks ok to go ahead).

If it was a FIFA World Cup (just like it was with the Olympics) the Aussies would have made the necessary sacrifices/arrangements and packed their bags.

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30 minutes ago, Dunbar said:

This is what you said on October 11th 2020

"Australia RL is a slog.  Can you cherry pick good moments? Yeah you can, swamped by the wrestling in-between.  Go watch 30 minutes of Wigan playing at Wembley in the early 90s, then watch 30 minutes of Australian RL today. I have. It’s two different sports. One is open and full and running, then there’s the latter."

Now you are saying that "Having watched it for the first time this season the NRL is a fantastic product."

So you were lying when you said you watched it last year or you are lying now when you say you have watched it for the first time this season.

You are cherry picking a quote. God knows what game I’d seen (I could have been basing it on the Wayne Bennett borefest with England, and assumed that as he was a God of Aussie RL that this was the standard there). As I said, that perception was wrong. The Aussie influenced stuff on show here (Eng, SL) has no bearing on the game there.

You nicely side stepped (avoided) the actual crux of the post though. 

I want to see English RL thrive, not stick my head in the sand. The English game hasn’t had a star in decades, and a great big part of that is how the game is played (officiated) with spoiling, stifling play.

If the NRL was transported here (same players/officials) and working with the same profile as English RL, it would still generate far more headlines and followers as the players there are allowed to execute more eye catching plays with the officiating clamping down on the stuff they get away with in SL.

 

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4 minutes ago, DC77 said:

You are cherry picking a quote. God knows what game I’d seen (I could have been basing it on the Wayne Bennett borefest with England, and assumed that as he was a God of Aussie RL that this was the standard there). As I said, that perception was wrong. The Aussie influenced stuff on show here (Eng, SL) has no bearing on the game there.

You nicely side stepped (avoided) the actual crux of the post though. 

I want to see English RL thrive, not stick my head in the sand. The English game hasn’t had a star in decades, and a great big part of that is how the game is played (officiated) with spoiling, stifling play.

If the NRL was transported here (same players/officials) and working with the same profile as English RL, it would still generate far more headlines and followers as the players there are allowed to execute more eye catching plays with the officiating clamping down on the stuff they get away with in SL.

 

Just to let you know, I'm not going to bother with someone who makes claims about something without seeing it just to fit their own agenda.

"The history of the world is the history of the triumph of the heartless over the mindless." — Sir Humphrey Appleby.

"If someone doesn't value evidence, what evidence are you going to provide to prove that they should value it? If someone doesn't value logic, what logical argument could you provide to show the importance of logic?" — Sam Harris

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1 hour ago, DC77 said:

It was a combination of money not being lucrative enough for them to make the trip (the “successful” 2013 RLWC here made £4 million, which is chicken feed to the NRL) and COVID (unlike here, the situation in Australia is manic, with authorities only declaring a couple of days before the NRL final it looks ok to go ahead).

If it was a FIFA World Cup (just like it was with the Olympics) the Aussies would have made the necessary sacrifices/arrangements and packed their bags.

The development of the sport worldwide by having the WC this year would certainly have been far from chicken feed

As it is the WC will now be more overshadowed by other events. A very rare opportunity was lost. 

The NRL made a short term decision rather than push RL's worldwide profile

Long term a stronger / bigger Northern hemisphere will mean more money for them (a competitive and lucrative Kangaroo tour anyone?) 

I repeat - they are *****

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5 hours ago, DC77 said:

This is my observation also as although the Aussies invented the wrestle, it seems to have affected them far less, as I found the NRL to be a very slick, attacking game. Previously I thought this was maybe just down to having better players who are able to execute plays quicker/better, but now I think it’s more down to difference in the way the games are officiated, with more leeway for spoiling/slowing down play in SL than the NRL. 

I don`t take seriously anyone who describes tackling as "wrestling". Whether they are a casual or committed fan.

It`s revealing that you fail to mention the most obvious current difference between NRL and SL at the ruck. Relevant to the quote from another forum that you posted, this is also the most significant change between now and 2008/2009. Namely, the wanton disregard in the UK of the requirement to make a genuine attempt to play the ball with the foot.

There`s a Californian RL game posted in the international section (optimistically titled "World Championship"). The ref has a dubious grasp of the rulebook and consequently the rucks are painfully slow. I reckon around 80-90% would be penalized in NRL or SL. Lots of illegal working on the ground and late flopping in (what you might term "spoiling/slowing down"). 

Despite all that, there is abundant ball movement, more offloads in some plays than in the entire NRL GF, and superficially the game is highly entertaining. Why don`t you watch some of the CRL game, then compare with NRL and SL, then have a long think about the RL tackle and ruck and how the process affects or doesn`t affect the style of play.

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4 hours ago, Dunbar said:

Just to let you know, I'm not going to bother with someone who makes claims about something without seeing it just to fit their own agenda.

You aren’t interested in doing anything but sticking your head in the sand and pretending all is well.

RL has the potential to be very successful. Its direct competitor RU has shot itself in the foot by its changes (a major one which Mark Evans touches on in the podcast with “11 stone players now at least 14 stone”). There is a gap for RL to exploit. 

3 hours ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

The development of the sport worldwide by having the WC this year would certainly have been far from chicken feed

As it is the WC will now be more overshadowed by other events. A very rare opportunity was lost. 

The NRL made a short term decision rather than push RL's worldwide profile

Long term a stronger / bigger Northern hemisphere will mean more money for them (a competitive and lucrative Kangaroo tour anyone?) 

I repeat - they are *****

As I said the Aussies are going mental at the Covid situation there. One person in a region gets a positive result and it makes the news. The situation here is completely different.

In any case I think the biggest opportunity for change in RL is in the hands of those who run RL here, not Australia. 7k for Wigan vs Leeds in a play off game. And the match itself itself was fitting. In almost every NRL game I’ve seen this season an individual has stood out. The RL follower whose post I pasted above described RL in England as once being like this, with lots of open, broken play which attacking players could exploit. Now you have players holding on forever, allowing their defence to re-organise. 

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