The upcoming round of the NRL will celebrate the important place that Indigenous Australians have in our national culture and the game of rugby league.
Many are arguing that this importance, along with the AFL furore over the past few weeks, have cemented the All Stars game’s place in the rugby league calendar. And while the concept was great to start with, it needs to be tinkered with.
Rugby league is a game built on tribalism, where each team is playing for pride and passion in front of a multitude of fans for whom the game means a great deal. The Indigenous All Stars have that in spades, but what about the NRL All Stars?
At Skilled Park earlier this year, how many fans were yelling and screaming in support of the NRL All Stars, hoping the Indigenous would lose? Not many, if any.
In the professional era, those players picked for the NRL All Stars will give their all, but you’d have to be kidding yourself to think that they felt any passion or pride in their jersey. In essence, the NRL All Stars exist solely to provide opposition for the Indigenous All Stars.
To ensure that the Indigenous All Stars concept remains sustainable, they need an opposition whose players will give their all to beat them, whose fans will yell as loud as any crowd in professional rugby league. League-starved fans in the South Pacific may hold the answer.
After researching the home-and-away internationals played by all nations recognised by the Rugby League International Federation, the four nations that have waited the longest to see their teams play at home are Fiji, Niue, Tonga and the Cook Islands.
While the Bati wiped the floor with Papua New Guinea this year and have made the semi-finals in two consecutive World Cups, Fijians haven’t seen their team play at home since 2010.
Two nations that have played at home more recently than any of these nations are Lebanon, who struggle to attract touring sides due to security reasons, and Morocco, where the rugby league team no longer exists.
An Indigenous All Stars team that toured the Pacific, and in turn hosted touring teams in places like Townsville, Sydney and Darwin, would not only have everything to play for, but would be facing opposition players and fans for whom the game genuinely means something.
In doing so, they will also be furthering the NRL’s agenda of growing the game of rugby league in these countries.
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