As I boarded the train out to ANZ Stadium yesterday to watch the mighty Dragons take on the Roosters, it was with an air of optimism. Finally the NRL had been granted its wish with an all Sydney grand final.
The city was buzzing in anticipation of the match up. It was reasonable to expect the NRL would come to the party with a celebration befitting for the pinnacle NRL match of the year.
Boy was I wrong.
We reached the stadium prior to the National Youth League competition full-time siren, bracing ourselves for the emotional journey ahead and in readiness for the pre-match build up.
A quick trip to the bar and the boys and I were buckled in for the afternoon ahead. The NYC presentation came and went and the lips were wet in anticipation.
15 minutes passed, nothing yet on the field. 30 minutes later, still nothing. I had to ask my mate next to me: “This is the NRL grand final isn’t it? The biggest game of the year?”
45 minutes later and after 1000 ads on the big screen, we finally see some on field action: a relay race between the juniors of four NRL teams. Why only four and why were they racing? They simply entered the arena, stood around for 20 minutes, raced and then left the field. Brilliant.
It could only get better from here. Or so we thought. Next was half a lap in the back of a ute for some retired players. A nice sentiment but again very poorly executed. Surely a full lap of the field for each player would have sufficed.
Next up, it was firecracker time. Yes, firecracker time in broad daylight, that produced a lot of smoke and not much else. In addition were eight “entertainers” who came on to the field with backpacks loaded with firecrackers. Only three from eight went off with the remaining five looking on solemnly with a backpack of crackers yet to fire.
It was at this stage that I turned to the people behind me to ask their thoughts. Yes we all shared a laugh and agreed, just bring on the footy and end this nightmare.
But no, we were wrong again.
Ladies and Gentlemen, nothing gets a crowd pumped more for grand final day than a miming performance from a D-grade pop idol contender (Jessica Mauboy), along with a big screen cameo from Snoop Dog.
Next up was You Am I and Dan Sultan. Their rendition of the Rolling Stones hit ‘Brown Sugar’ was quite good and one couldn’t help but think the ‘Brown’ was befitting of the match day entertainment so far.
Thankfully, the players entered the arena and once again the great product that is rugby league saved the day for the NRL. In a match that was even until the 55 minute mark, the crowd came to life and carried the day for the powers that be.
With five minutes to play, we were in full song with the Dragons Army as we counted down the seconds until we could lift the roof off the stadium with the song we waited 31 years to sing and savour with a premiership victory, “When the saints go marching in”. The countdown began, 10 to 1. “Oh when the…… “. Hang on. What’s that we hear over the PA? We couldn’t believe it.
Instead of capturing the hearts and minds of the Dragons fans (80 per cent of the stadium) by playing our team song that we have waited 31 years to sing, the NRL instead decided to broadcast some rock song with absolutely zero relevance, followed by a U2 song.
Flabbergasted doesn’t do our feelings justice. Whilst nothing could ruin the sweet taste of victory, this was a massive oversight from an administration that seems to be past its use by date. I very rarely agree with Gus Gould but I’m beginning to think he is correct in his repeated attacks on the NRL administration.
Us fans can only hope the Independent Commission gets in soon and brings with it a very large broom.
I’m off to Kogarah to sing until we can sing no more: “Oh When The Saints Go Marching In…”
Mister Football
Guest
Regardless of where the respective TV deals end up - it has to be said that the performance of the NRL over last few years, on virtually every measure, has been impressive, even more so, when you consider all the bad press they have had along the way.
Roscoe
Guest
Dreaming!!!!
Hodgo
Guest
How is including the regionals just as bias (sic) ?? It is simply adding the rest of the country to the big 5 cities. There are no Rugby league 5 cities and there are no AFL 5 cities. The 5 cities are simply Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide. Relying only on these excludes 10 million people.
Hodgo
Guest
Why is the 5 cities the be all and end all? The 5 cities combined total about 12 million people. That excludes 10 million people
Richard
Guest
Well said John Hunt - can you imagine if the NRL had won the TV ratings – we would have been reminded again and again for the next 20 years. Yea, the Daily Telegraph is quite about it – and most of the talkback sports shows.
Nick the second
Guest
some people may of left it on channel 7
OneJayBee
Roar Rookie
The section in the program is titled "What They Play For" (sic!) "This is what will make winning the premiership all the more worthwhile - a stunning premiers ring" (!!!!!again!) . They say they have sponsored the league for 20 years but I can only recall them being mentioned the last 10 or so years (I'll check my old programmes). The bloody things are worth $6k each supposedly!! Probably beats a tankard at that rate!!
OneJayBee
Roar Rookie
Willy - the best moment I recall was when I was at a cup final at Wembley and a bloody chunk of perspex dropped in front of us - unfortunately that skydiver had hit the stadium roof and broken his leg (ouch) Cheers!!
bilbo
Guest
Corey - this is more a product of the success of the NSW teams than any interstate bias. Only one Qld team made the finals - and six NSW teams (if you include Canberra. Which I did.)
Corey
Guest
So was Leuluai, so NZ could be a major threat, imagine Leuluai and Marshall in the halves, both their preferred positions and Leuluai is the one who moves the troops while Marshall has the skill to put in a major blow by himself. Even PNG should show some class. They lost to the PMXIII but they have some more players to come back and if they scored without some of their best there then may be they can score even more.
beaver fever
Guest
I guess that 's a very big reason for GWS, gives NSW a double chance at finals and ultimately the flag. And thats why the NRL should not throw in the towel with the Storm.
bilbo
Guest
What was really interesting about the AFL GF was the changes in ratings for the replay - overall there was a 100K or so less people watching it, but where it increased and decreased was interesting. In Sydney and Brisbane, where we saw a lot of publication about the replayed GF, there was a 100K increase in both markets. Melbourne, however, saw a 200K decrease from the previous week. Not sure exactly what you can read into that, but it was interesting. I wonder if the AFL would be happy with this - they would love that more NSW/QLD folk tuned in, but would probably have preferred them to have tuned in to the first match, which was a classic, than the second, which was lopsided from the start.
bilbo
Guest
Eastern suburbs of Sydney tend to be upper socio-economic, and trendy - and Rugby League has never been trendy, especially not in this market. For those that do support sport, its traditionally rugby union and ever increasingly, soccer. My nephew goes to a rich, private school on the North Shore - the kids there love soccer, and Tim Cahill, and not much else.
bilbo
Guest
Absolutely agree that the NRL is undervalued - although I can remember that, at the time, it was considered a good deal. In hindsight, with the ever improving ratings (helped by the success of the Melbourne Storm), it now seems that the gap between the two TV deals is too large. I dont want to get into a code war - but if you were to point out the NRL's greatest strength it would definitely be its TV value. While there is always the argument as to what is the most watched code (regionals v 5 cities, two hours v three hours, digital channels and pay tv, GF and SOO), the fact that the NRL is pretty much on par with the AFL in tv viewing shows that the codes should be receiving much more similar tv deals. The AFL has a real presence in most Australian capitals and regular, weekly television coverage at reasonable hours, so it therefore should be doing much better than the NRL on TV. The fact that the NRL has managed to overcome this, is reflective of its true worth as a television product, and should be reflected in the next television deal.
ac
Guest
I thought from a tv perspective that the ads on nine interupted the whole show - footy and the entertainment. The NRL needs to see that each club's song is played when they win its a AFL tradition that is just great. The crowd claps and gets involved. I love the warm up sessions also. Matter of fact the AFL plays up to the fans more than the NRL does. The team that wins song is just great. I went to a swannies match and loved the end when we all got into the clap mood after they won. NRL they run on and then they plan and they run off. MMMMM
Mister Football
Guest
I would agree with all of that. If the AFL reaches $1 bill, then you'd have to think the NRL will breach $800 mill with ease, and given that running an NRL team costs less than running an AFL team (currently), then comparatively speaking, the NRL would be just as well off.
westy
Guest
I think it fair to say that the NRL's last contract relative to the AFL undersold itself. I do not enter into a debate where I do not have all the facts and figures. Suffice it to say both the the AFL and the NRL are premier television and pay TV sports in Australia . Whoever has the bragging rights in the dressing room and assuming it is the AFLand they get the 1 billion I think most objective bloggers would suggest the current 500 million deal for the NRL will be closer to at least 850million. The key for the NRL is ithe possibility of also selling off the SOO or the semi finals and grand final and test matches as seperate packages for seperate fees. They have watched 7 and 10's arrangements closely. There is more to the Johns rugby league show on 7 than meets the eye. It may be 7 positioning itself for some limited rugby league rights in the future This would at least give the code the resources to protect and develop its " future "stars to a better degree than it can do at present.
Kermit is a frog
Roar Pro
Tim Rogers was wasted. My main memory from the pre-game is that Jessica Mauboy's new album is coming out on Sony! Getting You Am I to play covers with guest vocalists was very strange. One main learning from the weekend though is that most the people can have a completely wrong impression of a booked act. Lionel Richie almost completely won over everyone at the MCG and at home on TV. And something strange happened with Richie - he played a couple of 'slow' sing-a-long songs first. Maybe there was a nervous and subdued atmosphere at the GF replay that made all this just seem to work a treat. You just never, never know.......but, You Am I doing covers with Tim Rogers playing 2nd fiddle to pretty average guest vocalists; that was very strange.
Kermit is a frog
Roar Pro
Do note though that AFL matches provide about 50% more air time. So, similar 'average' viewing ratings for an 80 min NRL game aren't the same value as similar 'average' viewing ratings for a 120 min AFL game. Head to head it'd be interesting to see what the average figure would be for most AFL matches to around 3/4 time (roughly 80-90 mins in).
mds1970
Roar Guru
Some of them don't - I wouldn't have a clue what Penrith's song is. Canberra have a beauty, Souths' one is good. Some of them, like Manly and Wests Tigers, have rock songs that aren't unique to their club. Last time I was at the SFS it sounded like the Roosters had finally got rid of their cringe-worthy Village People imitation, and gone back to an old song which was a vast improvement.