NRL 360 International RL

[eal]

Did anyone else watch Tuesday's episode of NRL 360? Paul Kent was arguing that the international game is negatively affecting the NRL as many more injuries are supposedly being caused by the shortened pre-season of those who participated at the RLWC. Kent went on to say that the international game does nothing for the NRL and that Rugby League would be dead in 15 years worldwide without the NRL anyway. While Paul Kent is not a decision-maker in any capacity, his mindset is indicative of what the international game is up against.

[Sports Prophet]

1 hour ago, eal said:

Did anyone else watch Tuesday's episode of NRL 360? Paul Kent was arguing that the international game is negatively affecting the NRL as many more injuries are supposedly being caused by the shortened pre-season of those who participated at the RLWC. Kent went on to say that the international game does nothing for the NRL and that Rugby League would be dead in 15 years worldwide without the NRL anyway. While Paul Kent is not a decision-maker in any capacity, his mindset is indicative of what the international game is up against.

If said as you have posted, apart from the part in bold, he is correct in some part.

There was a shortened pre-season.

The international game doesn’t “do anything” for the NRL.

He’s not a doctor, so attributing injury due to a shortened pre season deserves to be argued as well.

Fortunately for those of us that do enjoy test matches, I wouldn’t say his mindset on the international game is indicative of the majority of league supporters or the decision makers.

PK’s strongest attribute is that he can talk louder than those on a panel with him, which I find easy to ignore.

[Davo5]

Paul Kent is a tool who likes the sound of his own very loud voice but in reality hasn’t a clue about the game.

[Jughead]

Most of what he says is probably right, in fairness. 

[ghost crayfish]

NRL 360 is an embarrassment. Stopped watching about a year ago and it was an excellent decision.

[thebrewxi]

Yes watched it. Depressing viewing. Although a lot is probably correct. However some of it was certainly not. "Why do we have to care about the international game? Does the NFL care about growing internationally?" The guy needs to know what he's talking about before he comments on it.

I suspect he's sort of right re the no nrl in 15 years thing. It wouldn't be dead but it would not be anything like it is (and before everyone piles in and says I love the NRL, I do. But I don't hate SL. Or the levels below. I do think the pro game here would be on borrowed time without the nrl.  But without a growing international presence for League, the NRL won't be what it is in 50 years time. Sydney is on track to be bigger than London. That looks a nice little place to stage a few NFL games in 15 years time? Ultimately soccer will swamp everything in Sydney. Etc. 

The really worrying thing for me is the night before he was slagging off the Panthers for having no class and that (which no one outside Sydney gives a 5hi+ about) went mad on twitter, with quarter of a million views. And lots of shouty people.

This? Pretty much nothing comparatively! 

[langpark]

Written version here:
https://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nrl-premiership/nrl-2023-bulldogs-exemptions-injuries-casualty-ward-international-schedule-knights-world-cup-samoa-kangaroos-news/news-story/3a9a1d3280cace3babebd444ec388910

Tragic, even by Paul K*nt standards.

[Hull Kingston Bronco]

8 hours ago, eal said:

Did anyone else watch Tuesday's episode of NRL 360? Paul Kent was arguing that the international game is negatively affecting the NRL as many more injuries are supposedly being caused by the shortened pre-season of those who participated at the RLWC. Kent went on to say that the international game does nothing for the NRL and that Rugby League would be dead in 15 years worldwide without the NRL anyway. While Paul Kent is not a decision-maker in any capacity, his mindset is indicative of what the international game is up against.

Paul Kent isn't a journo, he's just a typo

 

[Oxford]

One of the reasons I got rid of WatchNRL was that attitudes like the ones expressed by Kent were just part and parcel of the whole NRL scene; he's neither unusual nor particularly radical.

Apart from a few people who've expressed the need for more international games, you'd manage to count them using fingers and still have some to spare this has been the norm.

What people like Kent say isn't embarassing but people agreeing with him on here is. And it seems to happen far too often judging by other threads.

In general we agree we need more international games and to support people like Kent in any way is to make that less likely.

Above all this is a simplistic and illogical argument because  those with injuries can't all have been at the RLWC!

Worst of all it's an easy argument to make as no one will bother to check it's validity or evidence to support it.

 

 

[Jughead]

The obvious answer is push the season back immediately after World Cups. It’s not a huge inconvenience once every four years. 

There’s probably some truth in linking injuries to the shortened preseason but likely not the sole reason. 

[Damien]

There's injuries at the start of every season, I'm not even sure this season is worse than any other.

[EastLondonMike]

Paul Kents general view is that everyone else should fall in line with the NRL, and that the NRL shouldn't have to compromise for anything. It's an old fashion attitude based on self importance.

I'd hazard a guess and say SOO wasn't mentioned when discussing any impact rep games have on the NRL season.

I don't mind Kent at times, but he does like the should of his own voice, does think he's generally the authority on most things, does dismiss the opinion of others if they are different to his own and often has a slanted view on things due to his relationships within the game.

[Sports Prophet]

1 hour ago, ghost crayfish said:

NRL 360 is an embarrassment. Stopped watching about a year ago and it was an excellent decision.

Yeah, I realised I was just watching the same BS over and over again. 

Better off watching NRL tonight.

[MattSantos]

Kent and 360 and actually a lot of programming at Fox* is a symptom of the Aussie cultural landscape. Totally defunct of nuance and reasoning with clicks and being shouty trumping logic.

Kent rightly said it's the clubs paying the players. However, Crawley's point that it's not the clubs, it's the game paying was really interesting and one worth exploring in a different thread perhaps.

A solution is a proper organised calendar, Internationally that allows the top players to have the necessary rest etc etc. 

What's Vlandys view on International RL? Anyone know?

 

 

*Look at Matty Johns. He's such a joy when he's talking about the actual sport and the podcast show he does with Cooper Cronk could be the start of some decent programming. However, i feel as though the dumbed down Thursday shows are where the audiences are, thus he has to cater for that. Christ, their humour is awful!

[RugbyLeagueGeek]

This is why I believe having the NRL run the international game would be a bad idea for the northern hemisphere. IMO the NRL would run the international game in the best interests of the NRL. The game in Aus is already massive, and many seem to view the international game as an unwanted distraction. I think it's unlikely that the NRL would act in the best interests of the game in England, France etc, where we need the international game to help grow the sport. 

 

[langpark]

42 minutes ago, RugbyLeagueGeek said:

This is why I believe having the NRL run the international game would be a bad idea for the northern hemisphere. IMO the NRL would run the international game in the best interests of the NRL. The game in Aus is already massive, and many seem to view the international game as an unwanted distraction. I think it's unlikely that the NRL would act in the best interests of the game in England, France etc, where we need the international game to help grow the sport.

No sane person is even considering that as an option.  Only the K*nt and Phil Gould types ever suggest this nonsense.  They live in a goldfish bowl and do not realise that there is a world beyond Sydney.

[Copa]

10 hours ago, Sports Prophet said:

The international game doesn’t “do anything” for the NRL.

It’s helped give us great Fijian wingers…

[Copa]

3 hours ago, Hull Kingston Bronco said:

Paul Kent isn't a journo, he's just a typo

 

A few days ago one of the other commenters on with him said something along the lines of “have you seen what fans are saying about you online? Looks like quite a few are misspelling your surname too”

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

30 minutes ago, langpark said:

No sane person is even considering that as an option.  Only the K*nt and Phil Gould types ever suggest this nonsense.  They live in a goldfish bowl and do not realise that there is a world beyond Sydney.

It's bizarre they can't recognize it is a great bulwark against their big AFL threat ...and maybe even soccer 

Fumble ball has no international game .....we could have an amazing one if the NRL pulled thier fingers out 

I suspect a previous poster is right that in 30 years even Sydney will be overtaken with soccer (and maybe AFL)

[DI Keith Fowler]

I watched it and it was quite incredible to see him argue in one segment that international RL was of no value. Then about five minutes later scramble around for ways to stop the likes of Sua'ali'i going to RU to play for Australia in the WC.

Quite amazingly neither he nor the other presenters could put their finger on the staggeringly obvious conclusion they should have drawn. 

[Sports Prophet]

1 hour ago, RugbyLeagueGeek said:

This is why I believe having the NRL run the international game would be a bad idea for the northern hemisphere. IMO the NRL would run the international game in the best interests of the NRL. The game in Aus is already massive, and many seem to view the international game as an unwanted distraction. I think it's unlikely that the NRL would act in the best interests of the game in England, France etc, where we need the international game to help grow the sport. 

 

The only way you would ever consider giving the NRL keys to the international game is if you gave them the keys to the entire sport globally. This way the health of the sport globally is also directly in the best interest of the NRL.

At present, the NRL has built its own house for the south pacific, so has its own keys and I would say are doing a very good job in acting in it’s own and the sport’s best interests within this specific region.

[JM2010]

I think the only realistic option for NH RL is to build up SL to rival the NRL. To even partly achieve this they need to build increase the amount of fans attending games and viewing games and increasing the overall profile of RL in the UK. 
If this happens then the increased profile and money this generates needs to be used to increase the amount of kids playing the game. Sound easy!!!!

Also, as has been mentioned before, if the NRL don’t want International RL then we have to build up the NH internationals. France and Wales are the obvious ones but Scotland, Ireland, Serbia, Jamaica, Nigeria and other countries with high numbers of ex pats in the UK such as Poland, Ukraine etc need to be built up to be competitive.

The Aussies don’t need us any more because they’ve now got NZ, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji and PNG on their doorstep. We need something similar up here

[eal]

I noticed the Suaalii thing also. The panel sitting around wondering why Suaalii would go and play Rugby Union and what could be done to stop it. Never occurs to them that the international game may factor into that. Someone who wants to be a global sporting superstar isn't going to be content with playing in Campbelltown and Wollongong with an occasional out of state trip to Brisbane.

[Damien]

27 minutes ago, eal said:

I noticed the Suaalii thing also. The panel sitting around wondering why Suaalii would go and play Rugby Union and what could be done to stop it. Never occurs to them that the international game may factor into that. Someone who wants to be a global sporting superstar isn't going to be content with playing in Campbelltown and Wollongong with an occasional out of state trip to Brisbane.

Yes, it always seems to be the elephant in the room when certain NRL figures discuss issues like this.

[EastLondonMike]

1 minute ago, Damien said:

Yes, it always seems to be the elephant in the room when certain NRL figures discuss issues like this.

And we all know why.

Sadly the standard of SL and/or the England national team will have to improve to a certain level for any of this attitude, or current direction the NRL are pursuing, if things are to change. They are in the position of power with the players and quality of competition. Annoyingly.

The onus is on us to get better and better. Frustratingly we need to look at the small wins in the short term. More regular games against NZ, Tonga, Samoa, Fiji and PNG. And of course develop an annual a two game series (at least) with France, in France.