Rugby codes drop the ball in Melbourne

Roar Guru

By Redb, 23 Jun 2009 Redb is a Roar Guru

Tagged:: AFL, ARU, Bledisloe Cup, football, Melbourne, NRL, Rugby League, Rugby Union, Socceroos, wallabies, West Tigers

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Last weekend, the AFL, through its split round, gave both rugby codes an opportunity to shine in Melbourne with no AFL games on either Saturday or Sunday.

Rugby union scheduled a Test Match against Italy on an AFL-free Saturday night, and the NRL cleverly fixtured in a Storm home game on Sunday afternoon against West Tigers.

For the all the hype surrounding the first rugby league Origin in Melbourne and Storm’s odd 15,000 crowd, they have must have been disappointed to see just 10,417 turn up on a footy free mild Melbourne winter Sunday.

It certainly wasn’t for a lack of promotion, with double advertisements (One TV Advert for Origin followed by another for the Storm game) on Channel 9 pumping up both Origin 2 and the Storm and West Tigers game.

Yet just 10,000 turn up.

The CH 9 advertisements were quick to show Melbourne stars, with Slater and Inglis featured heavily, even on the West Tigers promotion, when due to Origin duty the duo would not be playing.

Now Melbournians may have some appreciation for rugby league, but many would not have realised Slater and Inglis would be missing, especially considering they were used in the TV promotions.

Even if some were aware, with no footy on, why not turn out for a look at the Storm?

What does this say about Storm or rugby league’s following if they drop to mid table in a couple of years or even lose Slater and Inglis? There are other players at Melbourne Storm. The brilliant Benji Marshall was playing.

In contrast to the Storm game but still as disappointing was rugby union’s crowd on Saturday night.

The contrast comes in terms of a lack of promotion for the game. There were not wall-to-wall TV advertisements for the Italy test.

There was some newspaper coverage but very little hype.

Rugby union managed to double the rugby league crowd, with 20,280 showing up at Etihad stadium. But this number must also disappoint the ARU.

If the ARU were using the Italy game as a litmus test for the Super 15 licence for Melbourne, it clearly shows they still don’t understand what makes Melbourne tick.

The perception that Melbournians will watch two flies crawling up a wall is a myth exposed by those north of the border who arrogantly perceive this as the reason behind the AFL’s huge crowds.

Melbourne is a sporting city, but we know second rate when we see it.

The Wallabies brand is not what used to be. An All Blacks Test would have done the trick.

However, the ARU took the Bledisloe to Hong Kong and gave Melbourne a second string Test in international rugby terms.

The Socceroos have the hype factor at the moment with their recent World Cup qualification. Many fans penciled in the Australia Vs Japan game long before it became dead rubber and bought tickets.

Even the 70,000 crowd was good but not spectacular for a true sporting contest at the MCG.

If that game had been a live World Cup qualifier, the MCG would have been filled to the brim. And deservingly so.

If Australia failed to qualify, the Socceroos would get similar treatment to the Wallabies in future years for playing a ‘dud’ nation and expecting the fans to just flock.

A Bledisloe Test, with real rivalry, would have generated fantastic interest in Melbourne. It’s not like rugby union has never been played in Melbourne before. The novelty factor died long ago.

I remember going to an Italy Test at Melbourne’s Olympic Park in the early 1990s on a freezing cold day when Campese scored a controversial try along the sideline.

For all the recent news of the Sydney Swans, and therefore by extension, Aussie Rules’ decline in Sydney (if decline can be a crowd of 41,000), it just goes to show the battle for the hearts and minds is a long and extremely winding road.

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The Crowd Says (270) | Page 2 of Comments

June 23rd 2009 @ 9:07am
sheek said | June 23rd 2009 @ 9:07am | Report comment

Redb,

Agree with what you say, but it shows how tough it is, cracking a ‘hostile’ market. Sydney Swans only has to drop slightly in on-field performance, & there is a significant loss in crowds. Developing ‘rusted-on’ fans is a tough trek for any code.

Melbourne Storm have had an outstanding league team these past few years, but struggle to attract fans outside the small faithful. What will happen to league in Melbourne when the Storm retreats into mediocrity, which it must at some point?

As for union, well, I’ve highlighted their failings. As a disenchanted fan, I’m unlikely to be objective. A super team in Melbourne is imperative, but I don’t know if the ARU has either the means or the will anymore to make it a success.

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June 23rd 2009 @ 9:10am
Fuchal said | June 23rd 2009 @ 9:10am | Report comment

So if we take your argument of the ARU having to give a Bledisloe EVERY year to an ungrateful Melbourne, by extension why isn’t the AFL giving the grand final hosting rights to Sydney?

Whilst I agree that more should be done to promote rugby in Victoria and, in particular, Melbourne, I don’t see the logic in arguing that Melbourne somehow deserves the Bledisloe annually. When you consider that every second year there is only one Bledisloe cup held in Australia, it makes more sense that Sydney or Brisbane are awarded THE premier rugby game; especially when the football codes are more competitive in Sydney and Brisbane than they ever will be in Melbourne.

Melbourne needs to remove its head from its exit hole if it is ever going to become a cosmopolitan city, and if it is ever going to become anything more than a one code football city.

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June 23rd 2009 @ 9:15am
Tom said | June 23rd 2009 @ 9:15am | Report comment

I rocked up to run a lap of the Tan on Sunday afternoon and didn’t even realise the game was on until I heard the cheering. Promotion can’t have been that good.

I think League and Union both have a place in Melbourne as niche sports, but it seems like they’re always going to struggle to attract a significant chunk of the mainstream AFL crowd.

Soccer has done a better job of marketing itself as complementary to the AFL. AFL in winter, soccer in summer. Soccer has the international component AFL is lacking. Soccer has the crowd atmosphere that’s not always a feature of AFL games.

As a product soccer is just easier to sell in that marketplace. At least at the moment.

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June 23rd 2009 @ 9:17am
El Capitan said | June 23rd 2009 @ 9:17am | Report comment

Redb,

A topic worth debating for sure. There was media coverage here in Qld in regards to the Wallabies test was overshaddowed to Dean Laidley (sp?) resignation from North Melbourne. In fact they said that there was only a handful of reporters at the Wallabies press confrence and all the rest to the AFL big news.

Melbourne media is just like Sydney and Brisbane media, biased to their own football coverage. On a recent trip to Melbourne I was suprised that majority of the sport coverage was about the AFL teams and next to no coverage to the NRL, Rugby and other sports going on. But then again I assume people from Melbourne would think the same here in Brisbane and Sydney, that there is nil coverage of AFL.

I wouldn’t say that they have dropped the ball, but perhaps missed timed a punt

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June 23rd 2009 @ 9:21am
Brett McKay said | June 23rd 2009 @ 9:21am | Report comment

Redb, I think there still an element of truth the the old classic “Melbournians will watch two flies crawling up a wall”, but as has been suggested several times in the the last week, the two flies need to be of suitable quality. Melbournians know the difference between champion flies and young’uns just graduating from maggot school. As much potential as a young maggot might have, he’s still not a champion fly. And the same goes for the opposition flies. If the opposition comprises good quality flies with virtually no following in Melbourne, then they won’t go and see them fly. Take Benji Marshall out of the Wests Tigers side, and there was just and many unknown flies and maggots as in the Storm side minus their Origin flies (who are actually genuine maggots, since they’re all Queenslanders). Same goes for the Wallabies-Italy Test. Hardly any champion flies, but plenty of second-rate flies and young maggots…

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June 23rd 2009 @ 9:46am
Tom Alexander. said | June 23rd 2009 @ 9:46am | Report comment

Lets keep things in perspective the fact that we are bickering over 10 000 for a Rugby League club match without it’s stars in Melbourne on a wet and wintery sunday afternoon at old olympic park shows how much the game has come along in this AFL mad city and state which i am enough of a realist to know we will never be able to convert.

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June 23rd 2009 @ 9:57am
Michael C said | June 23rd 2009 @ 9:57am | Report comment

Brett McKay -

I’m trying to work out how your cute ‘fly/maggot’ parallel suddenly became a loaded vitriolic attack on Queenslanders……good effort!!

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June 23rd 2009 @ 10:02am
JF said | June 23rd 2009 @ 10:02am | Report comment

The Italy test was never going to attract more than around 20K – it should have been played at a smaller venue as in the first test in Canberra, maybe Townsville or the Gold Coast (in the afternoon!). I don’t think the ARU would be so worried with that crowd, it seems as if they are happy to operate in their niche market and have dropped the ‘take over the world’ mentality the other 3 codes continue with. In previous years rugby has attracted the sporting bandwagoners which have now gone to support the socceroos, where will they go next after realising soccer is not that interesting? There is a definite market for rugby in melbourne as it appeals to the middle-class who often like to remove themselves from mainstream culture. The S15 team will be successful, Melbourne is large enough to make it work.

The state of RL in melbourne is more of a concern, the code suffers more than RU because it competes more directly with AFL. Both RL and AFL are the popular, peoples games, RL will never be able to compete with AFL at its own game.

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June 23rd 2009 @ 10:03am
Simon said | June 23rd 2009 @ 10:03am | Report comment

Actually, 20,000 + in Melb was OK for an experimental Wallabies side against a B-grade opposition! Only a very interested fan would have made that trek surely! And that came after all the hype had left the Italian team from the game the week before in Canberra.

But I agree, any code (including AFL) is a long, long way off winning the hearts of the people outside it’s traditional heartland.

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Roar Guru

June 23rd 2009 @ 10:05am
Redb said | June 23rd 2009 @ 10:05am | Report comment

Brett Mckay,

Most of the maggots at AFL games run around in red, orange and green uniforms and make the stupendously stupid decisions known to man.

Redb

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