@The Answer – To be fair, Australian league fans also complain about rugby union, who haven’t really stolen anyone of note in years, and Japanese rugby, who haven’t stolen anyone of note yet at all. I always roll my eyes when I hear how Super League is supposedly poaching the NRL’s top talent – Monaghan, Riddell, Mogg et al are good players, but they are not the NRL’s best of the best. Monaghan left the NRL in part because he couldn’t get a starting gig as a halfback there, and Riddell hadn’t played representative football since 2005 (and even then, it was only for City). King is the only one mentioned who realistically still enjoyed star status in the NRL before leaving.

To be honest, the only time I can remember the NRL’s real elite (someone like Thurston, Slater, Stewart, Prince, Lockyer, Cameron Smith, etc) opting out of the NRL whilst still in their prime was the case of Sonny Bill Williams. For the most part, the NRL really haven’t had trouble keeping their best of the best – it’s been in maintaining the core of ‘good’ players beneath them that they’ve experienced difficulties.

As the article says a bizarre parrallel exists when we complain the ESL is pinching our best players but then deride the competition as being for clapped out has beens.

Which club wouldn’t want Matt King, Michael Monaghan, Mark Riddell or Adam Mogg on their roster just to name a few.

It might take the Aussies a year or two to really get into the concept, that or a glitzy advertising campaign, but I think it is well worth it.

Billo already mentioned the Wigan v Brisbane clash and I think any league fan at the time remembers it well – that was a chance to see the two best club teams at the time go round and I think if you give people the chance in Brisbane or Sydney to watch it now, they would, even a this time of year (as shown with 25k at the Charity Sheild).

It’s great braging rights for the fans – I recall St Helens having it emblazened on their jerseys.

And I for one would have loved to be cheering on the Rhinos to down Manly at Telstra so I don’t have to listen to Manly fans carry on with “we are the champions of the world”.

I think in Australia, what was a great concept in the early 90s was tarnished by what it evolved into during the Super League War.

Although I think the memories of almost hundred point floggings mid week in Sydney have fadded and they should definitely bring the one off game back down here again asap – I do think a tournament is a bridge too far at this stage.

And therein the problem lies. If the NRL schedules the WCC shortly after the Grand Final, a loss by the NRL team will be attributed by Australians to the fact that they haven’t really given a damn about the game (’still celebrating the GF victory’). If the NRL team wins, the concept’s pretty much dead there and then – Australians will take the game as confirmation that the ESL is an inferior competition (’still hungover and they still won’) and stay away from the game thereafter.

Consider: Manly just broke a 5 year drought, during which NRL teams were routinely beaten by ESL competition, yet people in Australia have been more interested in a pre-season trial between the Dragons and the Rabbitohs. That’s what the WCC is up against. Apathy of that magnitude is simply not that easy to market your way around.

The cooperation needed would be to play the Grand Finals on the same weekend, which happened in 2008 in anticipation of the World Cup, so it could happen again.

As I’ve explained, the disruption to internationals would be minimal, because the timescale of the international season will be reduced to four weeks from 2009.

Why should the NRL bother taking the steps to ensure the concept kicks on?

Because the WCC has a unique selling point, as Champions v Champions, and if the NRL can’t market that concept it should hang its head in shame.

Incidentally, the game could also be played in centres other than Brisbane – Perth and Melbourne spring to mind in Australia, while there is also Auckland and even Hong Kong.

I just can’t understand why the NRL is so lukewarm about the whole idea of the WCC.

Heck, the Charity Shield match between the Dragons and the Rabbitohs got more press than the WCC. So how on earth can we say the status of the latter is on the rise?

@Billo – The problem is that this would require a certain degree of cooperation between the NRL and the SL to essentially centre their calender around the WCC, rather than just plugging it into a gap the way they do now. Holding it two weeks after the end of the premierships would be sensible – and, really, the only way to guarantee that the contest had any kind of credibility as a best-of-the-best fixture – but it’d disrupt the start of internationals and take some of the gloss off the Grand Final, and to be frank, too few people in Australia give a damn about the game for the NRL to give it such a prominent place in their calender.

The pertinent question for mine is ‘why should the NRL bother taking the steps to ensure the concept kicks on?’

@Oikee – I agree, but the game isn’t going to be held in Brisbane, and I very much doubt that any governing body would agree to stage a regular fixture in a city whose own team would only be involved a small percentage of the time (let’s say 20%, based on the NRL’s recent history).

Sorry, I meant to say that the 4-Nations will last four weeks, not one week.

On the two possible negatives you mention.

The emotion of winning a Grand Final lasts for about a week. That’s why I would suggest the WCC needs to be two weeks later, not one week. That would also allow the visiting team to get over the jetlag.

With the Tri-Nations turned into a 4-Nations tournament, the international tournament will now last only one week, rather than seven. That creates the time to fit the WCC into the schedule, and it would be a great way to precede and draw attention to the 4-Nations tournament itself, which would be played in the same hemisphere as the WCC.

I think it makes sense, which is probably why the Rugby League authorities will never do it.

That’s the best argument I’ve heard for moving the game to Aus. I think if it is going to be in Aus that is the time to do it.

I guess the real problem against it being after the Grand Final would be the emotional let down for the players and also a clash with an international tournaments which may be beginning.

However if the concept is to kick on it may be a necessary gamble.

I’m not going to argue that the WCC gets even close to the hype and interest of the NRL Grand Final, however the interest is certainly building. There was a large contingent of Manly fans who had made the trip over and plenty of Aussies in the UK were keen to see them at that game and the one against the Harlequins in London.

In fact, at the match in London I saw what I never thought I’d see at a rugby league match in the UK capital. Scalpers!

But all jokes aside just because it might not reach that level in Aus yet does mean it shouldn’t been expanded, perhaps the level of apathy comes from the fact that it was on at 5am local time in Sydney? Perhaps a match in Sydney might change all of that.

I think the Australian rugby league public needs to stop believing that if something isn’t going to be instantly bigger than State of Origin it isn’t worth pushing.

Of course, Manly are going to say they are now focused on the NRL. What do you expect “We’ll now hit the p*ss for six months”. It is the great sporting cliche to always be talking about the next great challenge.

The Link,

I’d opt for baby steps at present, a tournament structure could maybe come further down the line, I’m not sure the clubs would want to take so many weeks out of their schedule. At least there is no talk of binning it.

There’s nothing wrong with Australians playing over there, just like it’s not wrong that so many Kiwis and Islander guys play in the NRL. I was kind of glad Australia lost the World Cup because it shut Gould up.

If you were to belive him, any other nation should just give up against Australia from the start because they can’t possibly challenge them. And if they do it’s the referee’s fault. British refs who purposely try and stop Australia from winning.

The public hardly seems all that excited, either. The uninitiated third party, visiting Manly would most likely have no indication that anything special had happened. Go to League forums on the internet and WCC discussion is limited – not even the Manly fans are all that excited about the victory. A day after the victory, all the articles were about Manly turning their attention to the NRL season. The fans were following suit.

And let’s be honest – Leeds didn’t show any sign that they were a team who could justifiably claim to be the equal of any NRL team going around. They had every advantage possible over Manly and were well beaten, despite Manly’s form being well down on last year.

I’d love for the WCC to be revamped in such a manner that it becomes a true contest of champions, but saying that that single game demands it? You’re joking, surely. If anything, it just reaffirmed how low a standing the WCC has in Australia.

One issue with the 6 team format you propose, what’s in it for the bottom 4? Surely we need some kind of tournament structure to make it meaningful.

What if the winner of Catalans v Sharks played Manly and the winner of St Helens v Melbourne played Leeds? The winners of these games then play off a week later for the big one?