I am someone who would not usually want to give the Manly Sea Eagles a rap, however Sea Eagles CEO Graham Lowe should be applauded with his plans to take a Manly game to Papua New Guinea.
I wrote an article a little while ago saying the NRL should take one round per year to a non-heartland area of the game – something that probably won’t happen – so its good to see a club take some initiative.
Last Monday we saw a poor crowd of just over 6,000 at the SFS to watch the Roosters take on the Cowboys. Granted it was a Monday game, but surely this was a perfect match for the Roosters to take on the road.
In 2009 we saw the Sharks take a home game against the Cowboys to Adelaide, with a crowd of just over 8,000 turning up to watch 15th and 16th placed teams battle it out. Some said after that it was a failure, but how many would have turned up at Toyota Stadium? Probably less than 8,000.
Whether taking a game to Papua New Guinea is the right thing to do considering the infrastructure and safety isn’t the be all and end all, rather it shows rugby league, and most importantly a Sydney rugby league club, thinking outside the box to generate revenue for themselves.
We had the Suncorp double header last year which saw the Bulldogs play their home game against the Gold Coast Titans, which would have been lucky to draw 10,000, to then be played in front of 50,000 fans in a rugby league festival on a Friday night.
Some NRL clubs cry poor and they most probably are, but it’s time for them to think about what they can do and not always blame the NRL, which of course through current television rights, deals and salary cap restrictions doesn’t exactly help the game at a time when its players are being targeted from other codes.
It’s good to see a club take a forward thinking approach to show up other clubs, and the NRL itself for something they should have pushed a long time ago.
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