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John C. Dillinger, chairman of the children’s charity Sick Kiddies announced that this week would officially be known as Rugby League World Cup Awareness Week. To celebrate the occasion, Dillinger donated $5 million of their funds to help promote the early detection and acknowledgment of rugby league World Cup related activities.
“99 percent of people out there just have no way of knowing what to look for when trying to identify a rugby league World Cup,” he said. “We’ve got people in countries all across the world crying out for someone to show them what a rugby league World Cup looks like. Who plays in it? What are the rules? These are the sorts of questions we hear all the time.”
The Rugby League World Cup Awareness Campaign faces some unique challenges, according to Dillinger.
Unlike most educational campaigns where the areas with the lowest levels of awareness are third world countries, the rugby league World Cup’s biggest challenge is raising its profile in big cities.
“We don’t need to preach to the converted,” said Mr Dillinger. “The third-world areas have received the message loud and clear. PNG, for example, are all over it and some of those blokes don’t even wear shoes, let alone own televisions or mobile phones. Likewise, you could walk down any street in Hull, Ipswich or South Auckland and people will say ‘yeah, we’ve heard about it’.”
“The hard part seems to be selling the game to people who own their own televisions and can see the game for themselves,” he added.
“We need these people to know that there’s a World Cup going on and that they can be involved. Some of them might even be living in countries that are already involved, who knows?”
According to a report issued by Switzerland’s top rugby league World Cup identification agency, most people are at low to negligible risk of exposure to rugby league World Cup coverage, even if they live in countries playing at the event.
Expected early warning signs of a rugby league World Cup, like regular games between more than a handful of nations, are often absent and outbreaks of rugby league World Cups have not been known to occur at regular intervals.
Rugby league World Cup organisers have been quick to applaud Mr Dillinger’s efforts. Glen Quagmire, the chairman of the Irish Rugby League Appreciation Society, hailed Dillinger as a “god-send” but stressed that the road ahead was a long one.
“We do need more new countries becoming aware of rugby league, but we can’t expect miracles. Getting a team up to international standard is a very, very tough task, diddly.”
“First we have to scour the NRL and Super League for players whose grandmother might have been born in one of these new countries or who has a name that sounds a bit different. Then, when we’ve got thirteen of these blokes, we have to design a jersey that best reflects our understanding of what that country is about,” he said, amidst a flurry of pelvic thrusts.
“You’ve got to remember that in the world of rugby league, international competition is right up there behind State of Origin, the NRL, Super League and the possibles/probables trial for the Parkes Spacemen.”
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