The A-League can learn from NRL's mistakes

Saturday was a marquee night for football in Sydney. The A-League was the hottest ticket in town, and the Sydney Derby served up an atmosphere worthy of the occasion.

Putting aside the actual football on display, the derby was an absolute cracker in terms of atmosphere.

I flew down from Brisbane with my partner to watch the match and it was impossible not to be impressed by the wall of Wanderers supporters massed behind one goal.

They were loud, they were colourful and they supported their team in sync and en masse.

However, so too did the tens of thousands of Sydney FC fans who decked themselves out in sky blue to support a team supposedly unloved in the city.

Plenty are willing to criticise Sydney FC, but few acknowledge that the club has in excess of 13,000 members.

That’s a number some Sydney-based NRL clubs would look upon with envy, and given that I’ve been a member of a Sydney-based NRL club for years, I’m well within my right to say so.

The idea that a 30-something sports fan might not have supported a competition prior to the A-League is preposterous.

And the accusation that mentioning another sport is an attempt to start a ‘code war’ is not only offensive, it is – in my opinion – downright stupid.

As someone who year-in, year-out plonks down good money to be a member of an NRL club, I have no qualms about offering my opinion on the game.

And whatever damage limitation the NRL attempts to undertake this week, it’s safe to say the opening weekend of fixtures was a disaster.

Not only did the Sydney Derby smash every NRL game in terms of attendance, but the ‘Thursday night blockbuster’ between the Roosters and the Rabbitohs – Sydney rivals with over 100 years of history – was an absolute shambles.

An attendance half of what the NRL expected, delayed television coverage into a Queensland heartland, pointless ‘innovations’ like SpiderCam which detract from the viewing experience and incessant cross-promotions to shows most NRL fans have zero interest in.

How could the powers that be possibly get it so wrong?

Blame TV money for a start.

The NRL may have balanced the books last season, but it’s done so by alienating large swathes of its paying audience.

And if they’re hell-bent on wringing every last cent out of broadcast partners Channel Nine and Fox Sports, then all parties must accept that spectators will eventually stop attending and simply watch games on TV.

It’s been happening for years, and given the dreadful crowd figures across the board this weekend, all indications are that casual sports fans have by now lost interest.

They’d be better off going to an A-League game, as was palpably obvious on Saturday night.

The Sydney Derby produced one of the best atmospheres seen in the city in years, and it didn’t so much as trump the atmosphere of the NRL game I attended this weekend, as blow it out of the water.

Of the 10 tries I saw on Sunday, around eight were sent upstairs to the video referee.

It pretty much sums up NRL administration as I see it: paralysed by fear, incapable of decisiveness, looking backwards not forward.

Yet the game’s administrators spend much of their time sticking fingers in ears to drown out dissent, dictating down to supporters about what they should pay for.

Now NRL fans have had enough – they’re simply not interested in trudging out to Homebush on a Thursday night to watch two teams go around from the other side of town.

And if there’s one lesson FFA supremo David Gallop should take from his ex-employer, it’s that blithely ignoring your own fans will only be tolerated for so long.

The NRL used to be a great sport to watch live; now it’s just a TV game that more and more fans are switching off.

The A-League is in a position to capitalise, but only if administrators don’t ignore the will of the fans.