Union or League: which code looks stronger?
Roar Guru
By LeftArmSpinner, 26 Feb 2009 LeftArmSpinner is a Roar Guru
- Tagged:
- Rugby Union, Super Rugby
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As the winter football codes’ seasons commence, now is a good time to once again compare their relative offerings to the audience and their strengths and weaknesses on and off the field.
Space, time and my limited knowledge of AFL have restricted the discussion to league and union.
We are not witnessing the demise of either code in the forseeable future, nor the takeover, merger or creation of a hybrid game. We are living in times of change that will affect both codes in the long term.
Examining the respective health of the fundamentals of each code will give us an insight into the future for both. At this point, the best we can determine is the overall direction each code is heading in.
League continues its strategy of a more simple and easier to follow game. Union continues its strategy of a more complex game but is seeking more ball in play time and some degree of simplification through the ELVs.
Neither code appears to have managed to break out of its traditional roots and audience: League is still a working class man’s game. Union is still a white collar game.
However, junior players don’t see this distinction and happily play both codes in a season. Professional players are now moving across this divide much more freely in pursuit of the biggest pay packet and playing challenge.
The key ingredients for a successful professional sport are the best people, entertainment value to patrons, growing audiences and strong finances.
Professional sport begins with having the best players in the critical, playmaking and leadership positions and then supporting them with armies of competent, fit journeymen players.
Add to this experienced coaches with good man manangement skills and enough teams of approximately equal ability and you have the makings of an entertainment offering.
But true entertainment is about more than this.
It has to move the audience emotionally. Entertainment requires passion, tribalism, loyalty, enjoyment, pride, disappointment, anger and frustration.
Audiences and strong finances follow from this.
League’s “best player” stocks are being eroded. Union’s are increasing, particularly in the backs. But depth is an issue in some positions.
Both have very good coaches and sufficient journeyman support players.
League and union both can, and do, provide an emotional experience to their patrons.
League’s continued simplification and clever coaching is having the effect, on occasions, and according to Warren Ryan, of games that are too predictable. This has the potential to damage league’s most valuable asset, its television audience.
Television audiences, unlike spectators at the ground, can easily switch to another channel if they encounter a predictable game.
Union has always lagged league in entertainment and hence audience ratings.
The ELV’s are partially addressing this issue. The first two rounds of Super 14 have seen a significant improvement in entertainment levels.
Free to air television coverage is union’s stumbling block.
League has successfully introduced the Gold Coast team and grown its audience. Union is looking further afield in Japan and expanding the number of Super 14 games by almost 100 percent with more local derbies.
League is constrained by being a local code. Union benefits from being a global code.
Finally, neither league nor union are as financially strong as they need to be or would like to be.
The economics at player, club and code level are dictating that league is declining slowly, almost imperceptibly, and by a thousand cuts.
Union is, at best, steady, but with the financial fundamentals in their favour.
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pothale said | February 26th 2009 @ 8:07am | Report comment
The answer to the question is:
Union
sledgeross said | February 26th 2009 @ 8:55am | Report comment
The real answer is: neither.
League, as lefty points out, gains its strength from domestic competitions, while Union relies more on its international strength. Because their strengths are so different, I dont think you could honestly say on is stronger than the other at the moment.
Dan said | February 26th 2009 @ 9:18am | Report comment
Pothale,
He’s talking about in the Australian context, so no, the answer is not Union unfortunately. Sure, union has the international scene and seems to be attracting plenty of league players, but this is also part of the problem. League still has a far superior juniors structure and masses more people playing at a high level. Union scouts are actually going more to watch league these days than our own club rugby scene because the professionalism in League is higher at club level than anything union has to offer yet. This is a big problem, and the ARU need to find a way to bridge the gap between the S14 and the club so their reliance on league players doesn’t become crippling.
sheek said | February 26th 2009 @ 9:18am | Report comment
The reason why we still have two rugby codes after a century, is because neither has been able to kill off the other…..Obviously!
League’s great mantra, apart from paying players what they’re worth, was to create a game that would be more entertaining. If they had done so, union would have sunk beneath the waves. So clearly, league has not created the game to stop all arguments.
But union on the other hand, continues to dither along also. While union tries ever more so to control every facet of the game with a law, league is attempting to produce the first no-law game! One game suffers from too much officious interference, the other from too little officious interference.
In Australia, union continues to close the gap on league, but ever so slowly. Internationally, union is obviously the stronger game. But as AFL demonstrates in Australia, & NFL in America, who gives a hoot about the international situation, as long as you have a viable domestic comp.
Now after that verbal diatribe, I’m off to get a coffee!
Pippinu said | February 26th 2009 @ 9:29am | Report comment
The British experience is interesting, that after more than a century, League remains very strong in its Northern heartland, and has barely moved out of it.
One wonders whether at the end of the day, it ends up a bit like 1984 , with three great powers ruling various parts of the world, each taking tiny bits of territory from each other, and getting them back again, and so forth and so forth ad infinitum…
True Tah said | February 26th 2009 @ 9:31am | Report comment
Leagues great strength in Australia also tends to be its greatest weakness when expanding outwards…the suburban nature of the competition, which limits its appeal…the waning strength of the Sydney clubs however represents an opportunity for the game to go forward, given the growing strength of Qld, Melbourne and Newcastle financially.
The simple fact is, league in Australia is far too Sydney-centric, whilst AFL is similar in being Melbourne-centric, both the AFL itself and the clubs are far better off financially than their NRL counterparts, and unlike Sydney NRL fans, Melbourne AFL fans support their game in droves. Additionally AFL has minimal ambitions for overseas expansion, whereas league seems to want to talk about taking on union everywhere. NRL clubs will be forced the relocate or merge with others or become extinct, and that will be a real litmus test for the game, whether people can support their new entity – are they supporters of their club or of the game itself.
Right now, league holds the whip over union here in Australia. Union’s inability to set up a national competition is the reason why…I suspect that the NRL would be worried if Melbourne ever got a top class rugby side in national comp/trans tasman comp/super rugby – it would give union a wider presence over Australian than league, although not as strong in NSW/QLD.
Crosscoder said | February 26th 2009 @ 10:15am | Report comment
Union strength is its international presence,no question.Whilst its S14 clubs appear to be doing well,the grassroots base in Australia compared to rugby league,is like chalk and cheese.This despite union having free reign in many private schools.
The under 20 rl youth competition is proof enough,which has outstanding ratings on pay TV(rewarded witha vastly $1.7m pay Tv contract),and the quality of play and the skill of many of these players is unbelievable.
Yes rl will lose players to Japan and French ru as will Australian ru,but the increasing number of quality juniors will keep the rl production line flowing.. Rugby union tried to do this with the ARC comp,and it was doomed to failure as many within ru circles predicted.
I am always bemused by the claim that the “suburban” Sydney NRL clubs will either die or relocate, as if it were a forgone conclusion.The game has been through a SL war,and had in opposition a RWC2003 durting whichJ O’Neill stated would lead to the demise of rl).The game has not only survived but flourished.
I would also be concerned with the Perth S14 franchise should this intnl financial disaster continue for a couple more years.
Should the S14 expand to Melbourne it would indeed give the game a bigger presence,conversely there is just as much chance and more so of an NRL team in Perth and PNG,one negating the other.Not to forget another (Wellington or CC NRL team).
Tv contracts are based in the main on national spread combined with ratings(FTA and pay).The NRL can match at times the AFL and dwarf S14 with the exception of Bledisloe Cup games.The whip hand is therefore with AFL and the NRL on Tv contracts.The AFL according to Tv insiders who maintain the AFL were paid overs in their last contract,and the NRL should do better in the next.
Anyone who states that rl is still confined to 2 states,Auckland and the North of England is kidding themselves.The game is played in every county of England,throughout the British armed services,and in the vast majority of tertiary institutions(incl Oxford and Cambridge).Sport England granted the RFL nearly as much as rugby union in England due to the tremendous
growth at grassroots level (particularly London)and the spread of the game throughout England.
Whilst rugby union will hold the upper hand internationally for a long time,rl has spread its wings in many new places,as any code worth its salt must.
Anopinion said | February 26th 2009 @ 10:20am | Report comment
Dan you have very good point.
League has a good juniors base. Easy game to play and understand, therfore mastered at an early age. It is far easier at a junior league game to see who is going to develop into a good player at a senior level. Nick Farr Jones for example did not make his school’s first fifteen, yet he captained the Wallabies.
If union can not provide a strong club system for the development of players into their late twenty’s then they will have to pilfer, at a huge expense, from league.
My question therefore is, which is better value for money. Club structure or league recruits?
Signed, Chess or Chequers
Crosscoder said | February 26th 2009 @ 10:23am | Report comment
Pippinu
To state rugby league has barely moved out of its Northern heartland is incorrect.One of the reasons Sport England present ed the RFL with a grant of 29million pounds compared to union’s 30 million,was just that.The game has expanded out of the heartlands.
If you consider large numbers of junior teams in the capital,the majority of tertiary institutions ,the armed services,the game with teams in every county(via the RLC and with junior teams) is not outside the heartlands,then i have no idea of geography..
Not to forget the game is now in many Welsh schools ,that country has teams in the RLC and a SL team.Teams in Scotland and Ireland and it is confined to the heartland,yeah that will do me LOL.
Mark H said | February 26th 2009 @ 10:30am | Report comment
I suppose if Union players got around with crims and bashed a few people..girls too had few big nights up the Cross on the cans and the wizz. They would be all over league. Haha.
Now being serious, its a media issue. PBL / Ch 9 etc dont have a sake in Rugby. Ch 10 and 7 are a bit foolinsh not to have a look at trying to wrestle the S14s from Fox. That wont happen. If a clause was added so that a delay or something for free to air was added in the next contract, maybe there would be a change of sorts. League has lost a lot of fans of late Im not sure what it can do to fix it.