RL needs Internationals

[RugbyLeagueGeek]

17 minutes ago, Sports Prophet said:

Outside a WC how long has it been since we’ve seen 50 test matches across three seasons featuring WC level ranked nations?

 

I don't know and haven't got time to look it up.

6 minutes ago, Sports Prophet said:

You’re claiming apples and oranges but doing the same yourself by referencing the NRLs approach to SoO.

A standalone 4-game tournament has far more in common with a standalone 3-game series than it does a 20+ game annual league season that has been taking place over several months. They are obviously completely different. You still haven't been able to cite any other major sports events that are confirmed so late in the day. I get that your opinion is that the NRL are doing a great job with this tournament, but surely you can see why so many of us think that they're treating it like an afterthought?

[Sports Prophet]

1 minute ago, RugbyLeagueGeek said:

 

A standalone 4-game tournament has far more in common with a standalone 3-game series than it does a 20+ game annual league season that has been taking place over several months. They are obviously completely different. You still haven't been able to cite any other major sports events that are confirmed so late in the day. I get that your opinion is that the NRL are doing a great job with this tournament, but surely you can see why so many of us think that they're treating it like an afterthought?

There are no international tournaments with similar demands, participants and stature, so comparing to any other event is never going to be apples for apples. 

If the Pacific Cup, as I anticipate, sells very well this year, then we can somewhat demonstrate that releasing fixtures early, is not a desperate priority.

I think the NRL are doing a good job. Not a great job. The finance they throw at international footy is tremendous. The sums dwarf all other nations combined. I think that in itself is worthy of a lot more credit than they ever get from the majority of the Brit’s on this forum.

 

[RugbyLeagueGeek]

15 minutes ago, Sports Prophet said:

If the Pacific Cup, as I anticipate, sells very well this year, then we can somewhat demonstrate that releasing fixtures early, is not a desperate priority.

 

Why do they bother announcing SoO dates and venues 8 months out then? Why not leave that until the last minute as well?

[Hopie]

Last 4 world cups, wonder what the reason is for the reduced notice of the draw for 2017 and 2026?

6 hours ago, RugbyLeagueGeek said:

Why do they bother announcing SoO dates and venues 8 months out then? Why not leave that until the last minute as well?

Don't bother with SP on internationals, "never wrestle with a pig" etc

[Sports Prophet]

7 hours ago, RugbyLeagueGeek said:

Why do they bother announcing SoO dates and venues 8 months out then? Why not leave that until the last minute as well?

You continue to squabble over items which matter little compared to the bigger picture of what is delivered and how well it is delivered.

50 tests between WC quality nations in three years (not including WCs). From my research, that has never happened before this century. An unprecedented amount of quality international RL.

Two years ago, the NRL gave NZRL the opportunity to deliver the final in Hamilton IIRC. It was a disaster. No one attended. The NRL took that responsibility away and last year there was significant improvement. 

The NRL are continuing to improve the delivery of this event. 

[Sports Prophet]

15 hours ago, Hopie said:

Last 4 world cups, wonder what the reason is for the reduced notice of the draw for 2017 and 2026?

Don't bother with SP on internationals, "never wrestle with a pig" etc

Oink oink. I hazard a guess the fixtures for the WC haven’t been announced as it is a compressed tournament with less nations to prepare for. 

I don’t anticipate the NRL are holding off a tonne of state government bids for WC fixtures. The NSW government last time refused to pay for any fixtures and got two. The Qld government showed the most interest, but the sporting spend for Qld gov’t is focused on a global event to be held there in 2032.

For an event like that, I would say the minimum announcement period would need to be 12 months as it does involve nations with large numbers of fans from outside the Pacific. 

Not necessarily important to announce fixtures before flights can be booked. In my opinion of course.

Edited August 5 by Sports Prophet

[Anita Bath]

Yes, Queensland (as well as NSW) can easily refuse to ‘bid’ for games. What will RLWC do…hold them in Tasmania!

A world cup without Brisbane and Sydney would be like super league without Salford…..oh hold on a minute!!!!

[RugbyLeagueGeek]

9 hours ago, Sports Prophet said:

You continue to squabble over items which matter little compared to the bigger picture of what is delivered and how well it is delivered.

50 tests between WC quality nations in three years (not including WCs). From my research, that has never happened before this century. An unprecedented amount of quality international RL.

Two years ago, the NRL gave NZRL the opportunity to deliver the final in Hamilton IIRC. It was a disaster. No one attended. The NRL took that responsibility away and last year there was significant improvement. 

The NRL are continuing to improve the delivery of this event. 

I'm enjoying the mental gymnastics that you're having to undertake to avoid answering the question!

[Sports Prophet]

52 minutes ago, RugbyLeagueGeek said:

I'm enjoying the mental gymnastics that you're having to undertake to avoid answering the question!

No more than the ignorance you are demonstrating when I ask you a question around delivered activity, but that’s probably as needless a swipe as yours was, so how about we just hold it right there before this squabble escalates into further unnecessary swipes.

I did offer we let the tournament run its course and we come back and discuss the merits of the management and the shortfalls then and whether with the benefit of hindsight our opinions change. I think that is best for now.

Edited August 5 by Sports Prophet

[RugbyLeagueGeek]

1 hour ago, Sports Prophet said:

No more than the ignorance you are demonstrating when I ask you a question around delivered activity, but that’s probably as needless a swipe as yours was, so how about we just hold it right there before this squabble escalates into further unnecessary swipes.

That requires me to go away and look up loads of stats, which I haven't got time to do. And I'm not denying that you may be correct in your assertion. But it's a strawman argument. My question to you was pretty simple, but you are performing mental somersaults to avoid answering it.

[Sports Prophet]

3 hours ago, RugbyLeagueGeek said:

That requires me to go away and look up loads of stats, which I haven't got time to do. And I'm not denying that you may be correct in your assertion. But it's a strawman argument. My question to you was pretty simple, but you are performing mental somersaults to avoid answering it.

Why should I answer your questions if you don’t answer mine.

Talk about strawman. You’re the one asking for opinions on the management of a 40 year national institution worth hundreds of millions of dollars which governments are falling over themselves to host to try and validate a point about the announced dates of a micro regional event at its infancy worth a pittance in comparison.

I don’t need to answer your question because the question is a true strawman and has no relevance to my assertion - in which you seem to disagree with - that the NRL are doing a good job of developing the international game in their region.

Unlike the relevant details I presented to you which would directly support my opinion. 50 tests in three years underwritten by the NRL.

So if you think the answer to your question is of some relevance to my assertions above, why don’t you give me your opinion on why SoO fixtures are announced earlier and demonstrate how that is relevant to an appraisal of the NRLs performance of organising the Pacific test matches.

Edited August 5 by Sports Prophet

[RugbyLeagueGeek]

47 minutes ago, Sports Prophet said:

why don’t you give me your opinion on why SoO fixtures are announced earlier

Because they deem SoO to be far more important

48 minutes ago, Sports Prophet said:

demonstrate how that is relevant to an appraisal of the NRLs performance of organising the Pacific test matches.

Because they deem the Pacific tests to be far less important

[Sports Prophet]

1 hour ago, Sports Prophet said:

why don’t you give me your opinion on why SoO fixtures are announced earlier 

57 minutes ago, RugbyLeagueGeek said:

Because they deem SoO to be far more important

If that is the case, then pretty much across every metric, anyone would be stark raving mad to disagree with them.

 

 

1 hour ago, Sports Prophet said:

demonstrate how that is relevant to an appraisal of the NRLs performance of organising the Pacific test matches.

57 minutes ago, RugbyLeagueGeek said:

Because they deem the Pacific tests to be far less important

Deeming SoO as far more important than Pacific tests has absolutely no relevance to an assessment on how well the NRL performs in organising Pacific test matches. It only demonstrates that SoO is deemed more important and as I mentioned above, anyone disagreeing with them would be stark raving mad.

I can’t believe that is all you came up with.

Edited August 5 by Sports Prophet

[RugbyLeagueGeek]

16 minutes ago, Sports Prophet said:

If that is the case, then pretty much across every metric, anyone would be stark raving mad to disagree with them.

 

 

Deeming SoO as far more important than Pacific tests has absolutely no relevance to an assessment on how well the NRL performs in organising Pacific test matches. It only demonstrates that SoO is deemed more important and as I mentioned above, anyone disagreeing with them would be stark raving mad.

I can’t believe that is all you could come up with. I could have done better than that.

So we're in agreement - the powers-that-be deem SoO (and presumably you would agree also the NRL) as more important. And I don't blame them for that - those 2 comps are their cash cows. But for myself and seemingly quite a few others on here, deeming those comps as far more important doesn't excuse the NRL's late-notice organisation of the Pacific Champs - there's no reason why it couldn't have been confirmed and with tickets on sale far earlier. This just reinforces the perception that the tournament is an afterthought. You've explained that you're happy with what they're doing, but you seem to be in the minority with that opinion. We're just going round in circles now, so I'm going to leave it there.

[Sports Prophet]

52 minutes ago, RugbyLeagueGeek said:

So we're in agreement - the powers-that-be deem SoO (and presumably you would agree also the NRL) as more important. And I don't blame them for that - those 2 comps are their cash cows. But for myself and seemingly quite a few others on here, deeming those comps as far more important doesn't excuse the NRL's late-notice organisation of the Pacific Champs - there's no reason why it couldn't have been confirmed and with tickets on sale far earlier. This just reinforces the perception that the tournament is an afterthought. You've explained that you're happy with what they're doing, but you seem to be in the minority with that opinion. We're just going round in circles now, so I'm going to leave it there.

Circles indeed. I made it clear long ago I don’t think the NRL need to be excused for not announcing the Pacific tests yet. 

I look forward to see how the tournament pans out for us to take up the discussion further then.

[Bongo1]

Kiwis have released their fixtures

[Bongo1]

[Sports Prophet]

Hmmm fixtures first announced by one of the nations actually taking part instead of the NRL. What a good idea that is.

I know it won’t fit with those perpetuating a narrative of the NRL as some evil and uncaring overlord, but what if it the announcement of these fixtures was down to the nations participating? I mean, it stacks up, smaller organisations like Tonga, Samoa, PNG et al haven’t announced theirs yet.

What if, again, the NRL are giving the participating nations some ownership in the management and promotion of these events?

As an aside to all that, I’m confident we will see packed stadiums for the top tier of the Pacific Cup.

Looking forward to more amazing international RL proudly brought to you by the NRL  

Edited August 6 by Sports Prophet

[american]

 

[Sports Prophet]

32 minutes ago, american said:

 

Interesting. Wonder if that is a stand alone game. Surely not. Curtain raiser to the Pacific Cup final maybe?

Edited August 6 by Sports Prophet

[Anita Bath]

1 hour ago, Sports Prophet said:

Interesting. Wonder if that is a stand alone game. Surely not. Curtain raiser to the Pacific Cup final maybe?

Yes, curtain raiser to the Pacific Cup final.

[Sports Prophet]

Interesting location for the cup final. I guess the thought may be that all group games in NZ may exhaust interest and there is a good chance to fill a traditionally less supportive Sydney market with a single game, being the final.

 

[gingerjon]

Probably worth its own thread in time but for anyone who just wants to see the games laid out, the wiki pages does a good job of giving you that:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Rugby_League_Pacific_Championships

[Anita Bath]

Tickets as low as $5 for the game at suncorp.

[north yorks trinity]

On 04/08/2025 at 16:04, Sports Prophet said:

If the Pacific Cup, as I anticipate, sells very well this year, then we can somewhat demonstrate that releasing fixtures early, is not a desperate priority.

And if it doesn't sell well, the RL way would be to wind it down or abandon it. Either way RL administration constantly finds justification for not trying to improve the way things are run.