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Yesterday the NRL released a 45-minute documentary on the Kangaroos’ journey during the 2016 Four Nations.
While it included a good deal of on-field footage, there was some great behind-the-scenes material, depicting the team as they prepared for each match.
Although it was released on the official NRL website in a fairly understated way, it felt like it would make a good blueprint for where NRL media can go next.
While each club has their own website and media presence, there don’t tend to be many long form documentaries or behind-the-scenes looks at the life of the NRL.
For the most part, we either get comic sketches from The Footy Show or The Matty Johns Show, or training and preparation videos that clubs upload to their websites for promotional purposes.
Over the last few years, the latter have become more and more professional.
With digital technology rendering film-making easier and easier, several clubs have produced shorts that could easily have been expanded out into hour-long specials.
I remember a great Eels pre-season clip that depicted the team training on the Gold Coast. The editing, montage and musical accompaniment were perfectly synced.
Similarly, Souths have taken to using drone cameras to capture the ambience and scope of their preseason training.
If the plethora of American sports documentaries teach us anything, it’s that the strongest sporting codes have a clear sense of their own myths and narrative, and make sure to enshrine them.
Imagine a version of ESPN’s 30 for 30 series that was focused on Australian sports.
Obviously, economies of scale make that much more tenable in an American market.
Still, a documentary like the recent Netflix release Last Chance U would easily work in an Australian context.
Imagine a documentary about a year in the life of a struggling team, like the Knights, or a team that went through multiple player changes, like the Panthers.
Alternatively, imagine a documentary following the reigning champions as they struggle to hold onto their premiership.
For a code like the NRL in which consecutive victories are virtually a thing of the past, that would make for great television.
At the very least, the NRL should aim for longer features along the lines of the Kangaroos doco, preferably with less on-field content.
While watching replays and commentary is great, there’s something unique about witnessing a team preparing for a match.
You can certainly tell a lot about a team’s character from how they perform on the field, but there’s a different kind of insight that comes from seeing them train and hang out together.
It’d be great if the NRL managed to do something along those lines in 2017.
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