In an age of instant access to information, with millions of people at our finger tips via social media, and well paid marketing managers, the NRL has again showed that it can find a way to stuff up the most promotable opportunities the game has to offer.
A mere 200 people turned up to congratulate the State of Origin series winning New South Wales Blues at the Opera House at 1:30pm on Thursday.
Just 200 people. After nine years and Paul Gallen’s speech of the series triumph being for the “five million people in New South Wales”, a meagre 200 people were on hand to witness history.
It’s not because New South Welshman don’t possess passion, or partied too hard after the series clinching second match, it’s because no one knew this was even occurring.
At what point did the NRL ever indicate that Blues players would be celebrating the series win throughout the week leading up to Origin or directly following the match?
At 9:53am on Thursday morning a Facebook post and accompanying tweet was created stating the players would be at the location from 1:30 to 2:30pm.
If the NRL seriously thinks that league fans will believe that this was the earliest time they could relay the message then they are joking. People from within the NSW camp would have organised the celebration the night before at the latest.
Why? Because there would need to be a huge amount of organisation to transport more than 20 players and an equivalent amount of staff back to Sydney and then ensure the entire group would be at the Opera House at the correct time.
Why did the NRL not contact media outlets, organise press releases for radio and television and take to social media the night before?
Sheer incompetence from the marketing and promotions sector is the reason. The problem is this is not an isolated issue. The amount of people who thought the Knights were in fact the Wests Tigers in Round 13 due to the Knights wearing a bright orange jersey was staggering.
No one was informed beforehand, there was no press release from the NRL and there was definitely nothing indicating what the significance of the jersey (to support NSW Miners) was until the actual broadcast of the game.
In Round 16 the Raiders wore special gold socks to support the Men of League Foundation. Given that the NRL is closely involved with the Men of League Foundation and that it is a charitable cause, you would imagine that the promotion of this event would be prevalent across multimedia.
Instead pundits were again left confused as to why the Raiders were wearing these socks and relied on broadcast explanations. While these aren’t huge issues it underlines the lack of clear communication and promotion.
The selection of Justice Crew as the State of Origin 2 entertainment was beyond daft. Here is the game’s prize piece, the biggest Origin match in a decade, and the marketing guru’s place a soft pop dance crew, who are notably understood to be incapable of singing without auto tune, on centre stage.
The NRL has been notoriously poor in this aspect of their administration, however it is excellent to see this weekend’s special Rise for Alex Round being heavily promoted, wrist bands and gate takings included.
But above all television advertisements and press releases passed onto radio and newspapers have been exceptional. However, it should not take the tragic derailment of a young man’s life to force the NRL to act as a professional standard, particularly given the financial backing they now possess for promotion since the broadcast deal.
Gregg
Guest
Couldn't agree more with the article. For some reason RL always seems to stuff up or do things "half arsed" in an attempt to promote the game or games celebrations. NSW had already won the series so why was the opera house celebration not promoted all week through tv,radio and social media? No no not RL.. They waited till 930am of the same morning to come up with an idea then put a single tweet and something on facebook. How embarrassing. How the returning Australian Kangaroos world cup winning team from Britain, who beat the holders NZ, were not treated to a celebration of any kind is one of the games lowest moments and would never happen in any other sport in the world.
Storm Boy
Guest
The NSWRL run the NSW team. The NRL have enough difficulty getting the NRL on every weekend.
Red Roos for Perth WA
Guest
Tell me, has the NRL (bigwigs) got direct mic access to the cameramen televising the live NRL games? Every time a player shows some push and shove boarding on a bit of biff – the cameras quickly turn into the crowd. Is this just me or is Dave Gallop trying to portray the game as mummy and kiddies viewing safe.
Scrubbit
Guest
Good point on the NRL perhaps lacking in the good news push, but does anyone seriously think the NRL should organise and directly promote something that's supposed to be the responsibility of NSWRL? QRL organised their own parades and appearances etc etc. why can't NSWRL?
Flick
Roar Rookie
RL is a bit of a joke.
Peter Rabbit
Guest
I guess the Knights deliberately wore their orange guernsey against the Tigers so that people WOULD notice and talk about it. It seems to have worked.
Don
Roar Rookie
Same way Dave Gallop used to go to the sheds. He was the NRL boss but is was Geoff Carr and his mates in the NSWRL who ran the Blues team and it's promotions. Again, although people understandably think the NRL are responsible for all things Origin, they aren't. It is actually one of the few things left in the game outside of the local comps that each state body is responsible for. Hence the difference in prices at games etc. If the NRL was in charge the QRL wouldn't be allowed to simply increase prices like they did.
Bob
Guest
Work in the city and had the usual lunch stroll with a mate around the gardens and opera house. Part of it was fenced off and I vaguely recalled seeing a mention somewhere about the presentation. So we tried to enter the area and see the team only for security to turn us away. No explanation why. I think sans blue wig and wearing plain civvies security reasoned we must not be fans. That idiocy can't have helped the turnout.
Rooster1
Guest
Well why the hell was Dave Smith in the QLD sheds with their jersey on last series? Doesn't the NRL adjudicate on all Origin matters? Therefore the NRL is the promoter & rights holder bound to promote all their events
Rooster1
Guest
I m an old fart too, so I refuse to be a part of Fakebook or a Twit follower.
Bulldog
Guest
They can not find refs that can count to six so what do you expect. Apparently they short counted the tackle count when Cowboys had the ball vs Dragons last weekend..... It is astounding
Hayley Maher
Roar Pro
The NRL do a lot of great things within the game but for some reason they don't seem to promote any of it. I don't understand why. I know bad news sells so that's what the media runs with but the NRL could be doing a lot more to promote the great things they do.
sheek
Roar Guru
Oh heck, all NSW did was win state of origin, a two-horse race. It's not like they won the world cup in football.
Don
Roar Rookie
Not really. The NSWRL is responsible. The NRL have never arranged the QLD winning post celebrations. The NRL database and media contacts should be leveraged to get more exposure but when did the NSWRL decide to put the event on and when did they advise the media, fans and the NRL?
Dogs Of War
Roar Guru
Probably why I got a survey asking about the level of media access to players/clubs the other day, and what I expect to get. I did vote for more access by the media, and a lot of that to come from the NRL (because it has to take the lead so clubs follow).
AT
Guest
No, it was and is definitely the job of the NRL to promote the game at all levels.
AT
Guest
Too bad for us "Old Folk" that don't subscribe to Facebook or Twitter. I'm sure my sons would have loved to have been at the Opera House to see the Blues. But who knew?
mushi
Guest
Or that it isn't the NRL's job.
Rooster1
Guest
The lack of promotion by the NRL to the ceremony may have something to do with the vision of NRL CEO Dave Smith dressed in a maroons jersey in their sheds last year oblivious to the angst he caused south of the border.
turbodewd
Guest
James, that poorly-attended NSW shield-raising ceremony was a visual fail, agreed, but it was pretty trivial. It was only for a 1min news grab. But I super agree that the orange Newcastle outfit (seen at least twice) is sooo stupid! And my Raiders...my list of sads is huge: 1. The green in the socks is a clear dark/medium green while the jerseys is a light lime...whaaa? 2. Our away uniform is blue shorts, blue socks, white jersey - no lime?!?! [huge complaint!] 3. Our jersey has a huge red flower on the front - yuck. It should be perhaps blue or white to match team colors. 4. Our socks used to be lime...but now they are 50% white...and have weird shapes on there....just crappy