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Brisbane Broncos coach Ivan Henjak (left) looks at Darren Lockyer during the Broncos' team training session. AAP Image/Dave Hunt
For a very large percentage of rugby league supporters living here in Queensland, Friday night football is largely a pain in the you know what.
Just using my circle of friends and work colleagues and associates as a guide, I would have to say that only about 10 per cent of league fans in this part of the country actually support the Broncos.
That’s why, when we have to put up with them being shoved down our throats at 7:30pm Friday night, 18 times a season as we do, then I believe we have the right to be a little miffed to hear that the Broncos supporters are up in arms because their last game of the season will be on a Friday night.
They want the game against Manly, the last of the regular season, moved to the Sunday afternoon. Why is this so? They’ve laughed at the rest of the comp all year because their game each week is shown in the prime-time spot.
Why the sudden change of heart now?
It’s Darren Lockyer’s last home game before he retires and the Broncos faithful believes that merits a change to Channel 9’s scheduling.
“It’s Darren’s last game” (boo hoo).
“He deserves to get a big send off from a Sunday afternoon crowd” (whinge whinge).
“Channel 9 and the NRL should listen to what the fans want” (whine whine).
“Oh, the humanity!” (nah just kidding. Just thought I’d throw that one in).
And so on and so on and so on.
Well I’ve got a message for the Broncos supporters from the rest of the rugby league world: suck it up, cupcakes.
We, the rest of the rugby league world, don’t care. We’ve had to endure your constant whinging and whining for 23 years now.
In true ‘we’re always hard done by’ Queensland fashion, the Broncos have found yet another reason to cry foul and unroll the ‘why us?’ flag.
Hard done by? Geesh! If anything, they shouldn’t be complaining about the NRL, they should be grovelling at its feet.
In 1988 after they came into the comp, they were given a guarantee that Brisbane would remain a one-team city for five years.
But with the exception of three failed years from the Crushers, they still have single-club status in a city of more than two million people.
That alone should be enough for them, it would be for most clubs. But is it? No, they still want more!
Now they want the game’s biggest sponsor to kowtow to their wishes and move its biggest-rating game of the weekend to another timeslot because one of the Broncos players is retiring.
Well, I’m sorry to have to tell you this Broncos but Darren Lockyer is just another footballer, and just like the hundred thousand-odd others who have played the game before him he is not bigger than the game itself.
As great a footballer as he is and was, and I’ll grant you he’s probably in the top ten, he’s still not a god. All your petitions and rantings and ravings in the Courier Mail are not going to change Channel 9’s stance on this one.
Ratings equals advertising revenue and advertising revenue means more cash that can be spent sponsoring the game. Which pleases the rest of us no end as well because it means more money for every club.
You see, it’s not always just about the Broncos!
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