NRL a league of its own

[TheFlash]

9 hours ago, The storm said:

Watched Brisbane V Souths and Wests V Melbourne with 32000 at Brisbane

This is a world class competition in anybodys book

Agreed. Light years ahead of anything served up over here. 

[Dave T]

Apart from at Test level, it doesn't really mean anything that the NRL is better than SL if that's what people decide. 

NRL isn't an option for me to go to each week. I don't have a choice between going to the Halliwell Jones or the Suncorp. 

I do however have a choice between going to watch the Wire or Sale Sharks or Man City. 

The NRL being a great comp is a good thing. 

[gingerjon]

27 minutes ago, Dave T said:

Apart from at Test level, it doesn't really mean anything that the NRL is better than SL if that's what people decide. 

NRL isn't an option for me to go to each week. I don't have a choice between going to the Halliwell Jones or the Suncorp. 

I do however have a choice between going to watch the Wire or Sale Sharks or Man City. 

The NRL being a great comp is a good thing. 

It shows a standard for the game that is possible when a whole bunch of advantages fall into place. But it really is a niche of a niche over here regardless of how good it is to watch or how popular is it is in Australia. And that is never going to change.

[Dave T]

1 minute ago, gingerjon said:

It shows a standard for the game that is possible when a whole bunch of advantages fall into place. But it really is a niche of a niche over here regardless of how good it is to watch or how popular is it is in Australia. And that is never going to change.

If we're being honest it shows some of the limitations of RL worldwide. The NRL despite its size doesn't have strong worldwide TV deals, has little international presence and shows no interest in proper expansion. 

It's their prerogative, but they have little interest in doing the stuff that some of our fans slate the RFL for. 

As you say, it is a niche product, the majority of RL viewers over here have zero interest in the NRL. Those who are interested should just enjoy it without using it as a stick to beat the British game with. 

SL is in a funny place here. 

It gets criticised as lower quality than the NRL. 

It gets criticised for being less exciting than the Championship. 

It basically can't win. I'm amazed any sponsors and media are interested at all with the game here based on the toxic fan base. 

[Mr Frisky]

7 hours ago, TheFlash said:

Agreed. Light years ahead of anything served up over here. 

Take it you go to both SL and NRL games to compare lad.

As someone who has attended many games in both comps I would say that overall the NRL is a higher standard of comp - but certainly not 'light years ahead"- what ever that means.

I would also say there are as many exciting SL games per season as NRL games - and the same number of poor games in both comps.

I've been to NRL games with 30,000 or 40,000 fans in would say the match experience and atmosphere of a top SL game is better - think Wigan/Saints in front of 25,000, or Friday night under lights at Leeds when they were a great team etc - far superior experience than any NRL game due to the fans and how we in the UK contribute to the atmosphere- even better than Origin. Aussies are a lot more like Americans - they sit with their light beers and wait to be entertained rather than contribute.

Just my opinion but we do put the UK game down and most who do don't really attend or know anything about the NRL.

[TheFlash]

15 minutes ago, Mr Frisky said:

Take it you go to both SL and NRL games to compare lad.

As someone who has attended many games in both comps I would say that overall the NRL is a higher standard of comp - but certainly not 'light years ahead"- what ever that means.

I find it hard to agree with that, "lad". I find the NRL to be of far higher quality, and the product to be far better packaged, marketed, and distributed via social media etc. I think it is miles more attractive to casual sports fans. 

I enjoy the Super League, but it seems to be a long way behind, particularly the lower end - your Wakefields and HKRs etc who would probably struggle in the Q Cup. 

[Mr Frisky]

5 minutes ago, TheFlash said:

I find it hard to agree with that, "lad". I find the NRL to be of far higher quality, and the product to be far better packaged, marketed, and distributed via social media etc. I think it is miles more attractive to casual sports fans. 

I enjoy the Super League, but it seems to be a long way behind, particularly the lower end - your Wakefields and HKRs etc who would probably struggle in the Q Cup. 

So you attend many NRL games to compare to SL?

[Dave T]

1 hour ago, TheFlash said:

 

I enjoy the Super League, but it seems to be a long way behind, particularly the lower end - your Wakefields and HKRs etc who would probably struggle in the Q Cup. 

But what is the relevance of that? 

Nobody in the UK cares what the Queensland Cup even is, its a regional RL comp on the other side of the world. It has no relevance to Wakefield. 

[The storm]

9 hours ago, TheFlash said:

Agreed. Light years ahead of anything served up over here. 

The queensland reds posted 11000 on the same weekend by the way 

[Jughead]

Maybe how good the NRL is comparatively would matter if we had regular games between clubs in the two competitions but we have one, if we’re lucky, which probably isn’t as big an event as it should be but then I’m getting away from the topic even more.

For what it’s worth, Super League is great. The last two Grand Finals have been settled by one point and four points and the last few Cup Finals have seen the underdogs winning at half time, a final settled by one point, one by fourteen and one by six points. Magic Weekend had a couple of one point victories and the Catalans win against Saints last year and 2019 saw two games settled by two points and two by eight points. That’s our biggest events that have been close and highly entertaining. There’s a disparity between clubs in Super League but there is in the NRL too. 

We have a good product, we, collectively (fans, players, coaches, journalists), put ourselves down and talk our product and game down, often unnecessarily. We’re not perfect and there’s things we would all like to improve on but we really do ourselves down and it’s depressing. 

[TheFlash]

1 hour ago, Dave T said:

But what is the relevance of that? 

Nobody in the UK cares what the Queensland Cup even is, its a regional RL comp on the other side of the world. It has no relevance to Wakefield. 

The thread is about whether or not the NRL is in a league of its own. 

That's the relevance of it. My point is that it is indeed in a League of its Own, and this is borne out by the fact that the poorer teams in England are far below NRL standard. I was using the Q Cup as a kind of indicator to what level they are at. Whether people in the UK "care" or not is irrelevant. 

[gingerjon]

2 hours ago, TheFlash said:

I think it is miles more attractive to casual sports fans. 

And yet, because it's Australian and we're not in Australia, it very obviously isn't.

Hence why, in the UK, if you had a spare 5p you could probably buy the UK broadcast rights for the NRL but not Super League.

[unapologetic pedant]

17 hours ago, Jughead said:

While comparisons are unfair and inaccurate due to many different factors, I would like to see the two competitions at least collaborate with each other because it is very much watching two very different products in terms of laws and officiating and having different rules for different competitions, both club and international level, is not really a good idea. 

There were 3 handovers given in Broncos/Souths for rollballs, i.e. for a practice which has become standard at all levels in the UK.

Such a contrast of rules is not in the same category as 2-point field goals or ball-stealing. The PTB is fundamental to the very existence of Rugby League. 

We didn`t get here by design. The RFL have never said they regard the rollball as superior and want it to replace the PTB. The change arose from our habitual preference on and off the field for short cuts and easy options. We`ll sort it out another time, and that time never arrives.

Our new rollball criteria are not written anywhere. They are manifestly at variance with the published laws of the game. What the RFL are currently presiding over is therefore not RL. It`s just an ersatz exercise, loosely based on the RL rulebook.

If the RFL are unable or unwilling to reinstate the PTB, do they expect the NRL and the rest of the world to adopt the rollball? Something will have to give eventually.

[TheFlash]

4 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

And yet, because it's Australian and we're not in Australia, it very obviously isn't.

Hence why, in the UK, if you had a spare 5p you could probably buy the UK broadcast rights for the NRL but not Super League.

Yeah - when I said "casual sports fans" I kind of meant more your people who would look at some highlights rather than subscribe to a satellite TV station. 

If you look at the NRL in terms of content, my Instagram feed is constantly bombarding me with NRL highlights, plays, tries, big hits etc. This includes official (via the NRL or Club pages) and unofficial sources.  I very rarely get any Super League clips on my feed, even though I follow several clubs. The volume of traffic is simply miniscule compared to the Aussie game.

Same with YouTube. The Eels Titans highlights are already uploaded on the NRL page (it was played today) with full commentary etc. It already has 26000 views. The Wakefield Toulouse game played yesterday has now been uploaded on the Super League YouTube channel. It has 687 views. 

This all points to one thing: the NRL as @The Rocket said in his first post, is in a League of its Own. Other leagues are relatively invisible by comparison.

[Mr Frisky]

1 hour ago, The storm said:

The queensland reds posted 11000 on the same weekend by the way 

Cross code?

[Dave T]

42 minutes ago, TheFlash said:

The thread is about whether or not the NRL is in a league of its own. 

That's the relevance of it. My point is that it is indeed in a League of its Own, and this is borne out by the fact that the poorer teams in England are far below NRL standard. I was using the Q Cup as a kind of indicator to what level they are at. Whether people in the UK "care" or not is irrelevant. 

I'm not questioning the relevance of your post on this thread, I'm questioning the relevance of a comparison of Wakefield to a Queensland Cup team. It doesn't mean anything to anyone. They don't play each other, they aren't competing with each other, they exist in two different worlds. 

Whether one is better than the other has no relevance to each other. 

[Anita Bath]

1 hour ago, The storm said:

The queensland reds posted 11000 on the same weekend by the way 

And a large number of those were freebies

[Dave T]

26 minutes ago, unapologetic pedant said:

There were 3 handovers given in Broncos/Souths for rollballs, i.e. for a practice which has become standard at all levels in the UK.

Such a contrast of rules is not in the same category as 2-point field goals or ball-stealing. The PTB is fundamental to the very existence of Rugby League. 

We didn`t get here by design. The RFL have never said they regard the rollball as superior and want it to replace the PTB. The change arose from our habitual preference on and off the field for short cuts and easy options. We`ll sort it out another time, and that time never arrives.

Our new rollball criteria are not written anywhere. They are manifestly at variance with the published laws of the game. What the RFL are currently presiding over is therefore not RL. It`s just an ersatz exercise, loosely based on the RL rulebook.

If the RFL are unable or unwilling to reinstate the PTB, do they expect the NRL and the rest of the world to adopt the rollball? Something will have to give eventually.

This just isn't a reflection of reality. 

The reason that there were 3 instances in that one game is because they are having a clampdown on something that they have ignored just like the RFL. The RFL have had clampdown before and then we move on, just like the NRL will until the next time some people get annoyed by it. 

In reality, it's not that big a deal. 

[Dave T]

34 minutes ago, TheFlash said:

Yeah - when I said "casual sports fans" I kind of meant more your people who would look at some highlights rather than subscribe to a satellite TV station. 

If you look at the NRL in terms of content, my Instagram feed is constantly bombarding me with NRL highlights, plays, tries, big hits etc. This includes official (via the NRL or Club pages) and unofficial sources.  I very rarely get any Super League clips on my feed, even though I follow several clubs. The volume of traffic is simply miniscule compared to the Aussie game.

Same with YouTube. The Eels Titans highlights are already uploaded on the NRL page (it was played today) with full commentary etc. It already has 26000 views. The Wakefield Toulouse game played yesterday has now been uploaded on the Super League YouTube channel. It has 687 views. 

This all points to one thing: the NRL as @The Rocket said in his first post, is in a League of its Own. Other leagues are relatively invisible by comparison.

Are you based in Oz? 

I get the complete opposite to you on my social media. 

[Dunbar]

5 minutes ago, Dave T said:

This just isn't a reflection of reality. 

The reason that there were 3 instances in that one game is because they are having a clampdown on something that they have ignored just like the RFL. The RFL have had clampdown before and then we move on, just like the NRL will until the next time some people get annoyed by it. 

In reality, it's not that big a deal. 

I think you are watching different games to me.  The play the ball in Australia is far far closer to what it has been in the game for decades and Australia have clamped down on it to ensure that integrity. 

The UK game has given up on it. As Unapologetic Pedant points out, RFL produced referee videos at the start of the year explain what they are looking for and how they will police the play the ball.  They don't marry up to the laws of the game in any way.

It may not bother you, but it is reality.

Edited March 13, 2022 by Dunbar

[Dave T]

25 minutes ago, Dunbar said:

I think you are watching different games to me.  The play the ball in Australia is far far closer to what it has been in the game for decades and Australia have clamped down on it to ensure that integrity. 

The UK game has given up on it. As Unapologetic Pedant points out, RFL produced referee videos at the start of the year explain what they are looking for and how they will police the play the ball.  They don't marry up to the laws of the game in any way.

It may not bother you, but it is reality.

3 instances being pulled in one game hardly reinforces the view that it isn't an issue in the NRL and has only become one because the RFL have ignored it. That doesn't make sense. 

And let's be honest here, if there were 3 in an SL games the fans would complain about the refs and RFL. 

Edited March 13, 2022 by Dave T

[Dunbar]

5 minutes ago, Dave T said:

3 instances being pulled in one game hardly reinforces the view that it isn't an issue in the NRL and has only become one because the RFL have ignored it. That doesn't make sense. 

And let's be honest here, if there were 3 in an SL games the fans would complain about the refs and RFL. 

I think you're miles off on this one.  It's not even as though we are speculating.  The videos on the RFL website actually state that the referees are only looking for 'balance and control' and not contact with the foot.

While over in the NRL they are adjudicating turn overs for incorrect play the balls when players don't attempt to make contact with the foot.

As I say, it is absolutely fine if it doesn't bother you but to suggest that this situation isn't reality is just bizarre. 

[Dave T]

1 minute ago, Dunbar said:

I think you're miles off on this one.  It's not even as though we are speculating.  The videos on the RFL website actually state that the referees are only looking for 'balance and control' and not contact with the foot.

While over in the NRL they are adjudicating turn overs for incorrect play the balls when players don't attempt to make contact with the foot.

As I say, it is absolutely fine if it doesn't bother you but to suggest that this situation isn't reality is just bizarre. 

I think you are missing my point, or rather I'm not being clear. 

These PTB's are a feature of the modern game because players are always looking to get quicker PTB's and the authorities on both sides of the world haven't been bothered about it. The NRL may have now taken a different approach and decided to go for the touch with the foot, but this hasn't always been the case. 

The RFL have decided that policing whether a toe touches a ball or not isn't the most important element of the PTB (I'm OK with that, I understand why others are not), but this 'issue' has not been solely an RFL one. 

If this has never been a problem in the NRL, how is it a regular thing that is pinged? 

But this is the pou t I made in my original post, the NRL are focusing on this, but they ignore other things that the RFL may focus on. They had a couple of weekends punishing high tackles last year, then gave up, they are bottling nasty tackles with on report right now. 

In reality, the same issues happen in both comps, the different bodies take different actions on different things at different times. I suspect that'll always be the case. 

[Sports Prophet]

I think the NRL have benefited from a vastly superior financial television deal. It’s been a while since I have watched Sky, but I even feel like Fox are presenting better coverage of all their sports than anything I remember Sky doing.

There is a sad reality that for the moment, the NRL and SL are not partners. Whilst they may not be competitors to the level that each are with AFL and RFU respectively, they are still competitors for the number one commodity that any professional sport has, the players. This brings favour to the idea many have around the NRL being the governor of the game globally. 

Another of the great advantages that the NRL has over SL is the power balance is firmly in favour of the NRL, whereas in the UK, the clubs are still very much steering the ship. This helps the sport to be delivered towards a single objective.

Any dreams of the hemispheres working in partnership for the betterment of the sport’s fortunes are going to be dreams for some time to come.

So for me, the best thing we can all do, is appreciate both leagues for what they are, whilst the RFL need to focus on their own backyard, because the NRL will put its remit before anything else, for which SL and the RFL feature very lowly.

[fighting irish]

19 hours ago, Dunbar said:

In this country, I can watch games from community level all the way to the top professional league and see teams that formed a huge part of my upbringing. 

From Australia, I can watch top class Rugby League with fantastic players and team names that conjure up evocative and exotic memories from my childhood.

I am not interested in which is better, I am just happy to enjoy both.

''Conjuring up evocative and exotic memories'' does it for me every time. 

Hear hear!