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NRL fans have it better than you realise

David Brown new author
Roar Rookie
19th June, 2017
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Cowboys player Coen Hess reacts after scoring a try during the NRL semi-final match between the North Queensland Cowboy's and the Brisbane Bronco's at 1300 Smiles Stadium in Townsville , Friday, Sept. 16, 2016. (AAP Image/Dave Hunt)
David Brown new author
Roar Rookie
19th June, 2017
55

As a NRL-loving Brit I read loads of articles on The Roar and on other sites and am genuinely confused by this doom and gloom laden picture I am constantly being bombarded with about the great game.

Our old Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, could be talking about you lot when he declared: “Our people have never had it so good.”

I guess context is everything and you must understand how dire the state of rugby league is in the UK.

Open up our national newspapers and you’d be hard pressed to see a mention in the sport’s pages of the game.

In some papers women’s rugby union, American sports and yachting will all get more column inches even though they have far fewer professional or amateur participants or viewers.

Being a northern sport, untouched by the interest of the wealthy, it has second-class status. Oh how giddy I get when I see tomes of writing in your papers.

Your administrators are all a load of clueless duffers apparently but we have this nailed down.

Witness Bradford Bulls going into administration in 2012, 2014 and finally folding in 2016.

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The RFL in their wisdom decided that poor governance shouldn’t be a hindrance and fully reinstated them again back into the fold this year.

Well, they do own Bradford’s stadium so I guess they needed someone to pay the rent.

They also have a head coach that is not allowed to coach! Geoff Toovey wasn’t granted a work visa but mysteriously is still on holiday in Bradford all this time.

They surprisingly did do one good thing which made league fans simultaneously drop their bacon sandwiches on the kitchen floor by taking the national set-up seriously.

Wayne Bennett was brought in at a fair expense to bring about change. He organized a mid-season England training session abroad but this was cancelled by the RFL at the last minute as the parochial interests of the clubs took precedence.

We love to triumph a bold new direction as long as there is an understanding that no change should actually happen.

Your players are rewarded handsomely which is only right for such a brutal and skilled game although there seems to be discontent nearer the low levels of player in the NRL.

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In the 2016 World Club Challenge the young Leeds halves of Sutcliffe and Lilley were up against Morgan and Thurston. They were on a combined annual income of £30,000 a year.

Seeing that to rent a one bed flat in a stabby area of South London costs a grand a month please just be happy your players can afford food!

The main reason I would watch NRL over Super League is the wonderful coverage you get and still you seem to have it in for Gould et al.

The knowledge, humour and ease your boys have over us is embarrassing, (perhaps with the exception of ‘Blocker’ Roach who is a living example of why lax concussion rules in the old days were a foolhardy thing).

We have the combined commentary power of Eddie Hemmings, a man whose knowledge is in a race to the bottom with his humour and the two old meat heads, Barrie McDermott and Terry O’Connor.

These guys are an out dated stereotype of what a Londoner assumes a northerner is. In your currency it would be having two Les Pattersons in the commentary booth.

But even worse is the camera work. Imagine watching Test cricket but you miss the first ball of every over because they are showing a super slow motion replay of last over’s forward defensive shot. It’ll drive you insane.

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This is league on Sky. All flow and momentum (and enjoyment) is lost due to pointless replays. Watching the NRL is thrilling and enjoyable but I just end up shouting at the TV with SL.

Coming from the Old Dart I know about negativity for a good reason, cut me and I bleed despondency and grey clouds.

This is not your territory, this is not you. Rejoice in the fact that you have a game that is on telly, that is splashed across the media, that is a glorious spectacle.

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