- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
When I was eight years old I watched a Broncos game on TV and saw Alfie Langer play. From that day on I was hooked, I had a hero and become a huge rugby league fan.
Living in country NSW I copped stick for supporting a Brisbane team, but like many other kids, Alfie inspired me.
Later in life I lived in Brisbane and worked with a guy who had a Raiders flag above his desk. He had never been to Canberra but was a huge fan because when he was a kid he fell in love with a big unit named Mal Meninga.
The best thing the NRL can do to increase its fan-base and turn some casual observers into huge fans, members, Foxtel subscribers, and internet forum contributors is to market more of the teams and more of the players.
We need to move away from the supposed surefire ratings winners on free-to-air to having all teams given an equal piece of free-to-air. Each Friday there is very little variation, it is the same players we see running around in the same few teams.
Only 30 per cent of households have Foxtel. My guess is that few households that have young children aren’t also forking out for Foxtel.
The NRL needs to market all the teams and all the players through free-to-air. This will create new fans who stick. Young kids in Queensland probably can’t stay up late enough to watch the inevitable delayed South Sydney game on a Friday night. We are missing the opportunity for young kids to become huge fans of players they just click with.
We watch a game and a player will do something magical, or something brave, or put in a big effort. Even though the player isn’t a genetic freak like Sonny Bill Williams, we become fans of these players.
Please NRL and Channel Nine, show some different teams in your prime time slots, there are people out their ready to become Shaun Johnson fans, or Jarrod Croker fans, and fans of teams in towns they have never been to before.
Reckon you can pick the winning team? Build your own dream team with Draftstars daily fantasy and compete on any match. For great odds on the NRL head on over to PlayUp. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.