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The Roar

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Thursday night’s a crap night for football

26th August, 2014
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Belmore said goodbye to local product Josh Reynolds on Sunday. (AAP Image/Action Photographics, Charles Knight)
Expert
26th August, 2014
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2491 Reads

I switched on last Thursday night’s NRL contest between the Bulldogs and the Tigers almost as an afterthought. The swathes of vacant sky-blue seating at the Olympic Stadium confirmed I wasn’t alone in my ambivalence.

When the Nine Network brains trust booked this kinda-sorta western Sydney derby into the Round 24 Thursday night slot a few weeks back, they were no doubt free-diving into their Scrooge McDuck sized money vaults with glee about the impending ratings bonanza.

The game ultimately failed to crack the ratings top 20 nationwide that night, while The Footy Show which followed could only draw in 207,000 viewers across Sydney and Brisbane, down from 309,000 the previous week.

And while NRL games played in front of sub-10,000 crowds are hardly an anomaly, the Bulldogs-Tigers match-up which drew a hardy 9877 last week managed to pull in 22,225 five weeks earlier. On a Sunday afternoon. In the very same ‘soulless’ stadium that every rugby league fan supposedly enjoys as much as a colonoscopy.

Unfortunately for Nine, a perfect storm of factors rained down on their parade, including a spectacular month-long Tigers implosion, Thursday night shopping, the fact that a sizable percentage of the NRL loving population had work or school to contend with the next morning, ASADA, #ballboygate, and actual rainfall.

The Doggies had racked up a Zimbabwean’s cricket score after 30 minutes, the commentary team were more interested in whether Josh Morris’ leg was about to drop off than the actual game, and I decided re-watching the 1994 season of Frontline now available for free on YouTube – thank me later) was a more stimulating way to be spending my evening.

Nobody wins, apart from the guy whose one job it is to monitor average browse time stats at YouTube.

Imagine if The Big Bang Theory was filmed in a near-empty studio, with only half of the cast members managing to drop their ‘zingers’ – and I use the phrase very, very loosely – with the timing and flair expected. Home viewers wouldn’t know when they’re supposed to laugh, and the overall atmosphere would be as flat as Christmas In July celebrations hosted by Joe Hockey and The Treasury department.

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This is how Thursday Night Football presents, particularly to the neutral fan. Only some Rabbitohs razzle-dazzle served to lift the previous week’s instalment above the mediocre as well.

In fact, the only real positive I can draw from this month of Thursday night matches to close the season is that it means the shelving of the second Friday night game with its lengthy commercial breaks, fingers-in-ears attitude to the existence of social media breaking scores as they happen, and Ray Hadley.

Far from reaping maximum value from its NRL product, Nine’s Thursday night experiment serves only to devalue it.

Hopefully Nine boss David Gyngell, NRL boss Dave Smith and the gang get together over the off-season, put two and two together, and come up with something other than five.

And if Gynge insists on playing hardball, bring in James Packer to finalise the negotiations.

Screen that on a Thursday and you’d have a guaranteed hit.

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