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Perhaps now that there’s a serious coach on board, international rugby league can become much more serious.
If the NRL is going to pay Mal Meninga $300,000 a year to coach the Kangaroos, then they also have to back it up by creating a proper international rugby league calendar.
2015 was a farce for the Kangaroos. One ANZAC Test and no matches scheduled until the next one just reinforces the message that powerbrokers do not treat rugby league seriously.
To further that, the three-Test series between England and New Zealand originally wasn’t even picked up by a major television broadcaster in Australia. The second and third Tests were subsequently beamed to our television screens after what I imagine was viewer backlash.
Having said that, the Rugby League World Cup is heading in the right direction.
There finally seems to be some consistency to how it will run and I’m looking forward to seeing what the 2017 version will produce. The Four Nations is another concept that seems to be picking up some steam. The 2014 tournament was the most exciting and competitive tournament of rugby league I’d ever seen.
Now it’s time to get it right.
For all the talk of the national coaching position being a full-time role, the NRL now needs to back that up by providing international rugby league a full-time schedule.
What’s going to happen in those years where there isn’t a World Cup or Four Nations? As we found out this year, practically nothing. Most fans of rugby league will always put the national team below NRL clubs and State of Origin in terms of what they will watch, and that is fair given what has been traditionally available to them.
But I think creating consistency in international scheduling could go a long way in strengthening the future of the game worldwide and perhaps even get rugby league fans excited about the international game.
Will a Rugby League World Cup ever rival a FIFA World Cup? Not in a million years.
Will a Rugby League World Cup ever rival a Rugby Union World Cup? Highly unlikely. But rugby union is the game that league should be modelling their international game came after, after all, the Rugby League World Cup dates back to 1954 in comparison to rugby union’s inaugural tournament held in 1987.
If there’s a sport that rugby league powerbrokers need to model themselves off to fix the international game, it’s their long-lost brothers.
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