Jarryd Hayne's tackle - COLIN WHELAN, AAPIMAGE
After ill-fated attempts at making Brett Stewart and Greg Inglis as the face of the game, the NRL is set to go down the same path by making Jarryd Hayne the new face.
Hayne is now the best player in the world by a country mile and has single handedly got Parramatta from possible wooden spoon contenders to genuine title contenders. As I stated on The Roar two weeks ago the Eels are the real deal because of Hayne and they are getting stronger.
Despite the good form of Hayne no player with a chequered record in the past and no young player should ever be the face of the game. Hayne has landed in trouble before where he was shot at in Kings Cross and at the tender age of 21 still has plenty of growing up as a footballer and person.
The NRL promoted Stewart and Inglis as the face of the game and it backfired on them massively with both players facing court over alleged assault incidents.
Why is the NRL obsessed with having a face of the game for the code? Hayne may appeal to the Eels fans and maybe some casual fans, but does he appeal to the wider community?
Would Hayne appeal to the families or would someone such as Nathan Hindmarsh, Petero Civoniceva or Brett Kimmorley appeal to the families? After all the most important to attract is the mother and if the mother approves of the game the kids will flow into support of the sport.
Rugby League’s greatest appeal is the game itself and not the so-called athletes. The great success in the Tina Turner and before that The Greatest Game promotion was that it focused on wider aspects of the game. Simply The Best allowed women to feel a part of the game and focused on all aspects within Rugby League – the glamour, the battles, the fans, the families and the history. Whereas The Greatest Game promotion in the 1980’s more or less focused on the history, the emotion and the battles.
When the NRL starts to put together a campaign for the 2010 season it needs to be catchy and needs to appeal to the wider scale of the game. The NRL haven’t been able to really find the right niche in their advertising campaigns, but surely after the botched attempts with Stewart and Inglis surely won’t be that stupid to enter down the same path again. In saying this though it’s the NRL we’re talking about and anything is possible from that organisation.
Leave Hayne and the other players to do their best performing on the field and the NRL incorporate the history and the present into one great commercial that appeals to all ages and demographics and a tune that all fans can sing along too.
Sport in Australia changed in the late 1970’s with the advent of World Series Cricket and along with that came C’mon Aussie C’mon anthem. It was the original advertising theme song and still the best by a long shot.
The NRL needs to find something that can outstrip and outlast Simply The Best as the product will take care of itself, which AFL, Cricket, Rugby Union, Soccer, Netball and Motor Racing simply doesn’t have the quality of product that Rugby League has. All it needs now is a new anthem and no individual to be the face of the game no matter how good Hayne is or isn’t.
Matthew O’Neill is a Director and Columnist with www.rleague.com.
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