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The NRL is in a weird position lately; there’s a haze of positivity rolling over the game.
A swathe of good news stories (one in particular we’ll get to a little later), a round of games that felt like it went forever but was full of great contests, and the season so far has been good, clean fun.
So why not try to enjoy some good times before someone comes along and ruins everything?
Head office is happy
Yesterday the Australian Rugby League Commission released an update from the first seven weeks of the season.
And it’s all good news.
Free-to-air TV ratings are up, pay-TV ratings are up. After a dive in 2018 the FTA numbers have bounced by four per cent. Fox League are building on a strong 2018 with a three per cent increase.
These days the common question that pops up in ratings discussions is: what about the NRL live pass?
It’s almost impossible for us to know how many are watching NRL in this form and for how long they’re streaming.
Telstra say the cumulative audience for the 2018 season on the NRL live pass was 1.7 million people, apparently a 60 per cent rise on 2017. I don’t know where the 2019 numbers are or if they exist yet, but I’m sure they’re out there somewhere.
Matchday crowds are up by around two per cent as well, at an average a tick under 16,000 people per game. The ARLC also say that club memberships are up by over two per cent.
RefsFaulters are happy
During last year’s crackdown in the early rounds, penalties were handed out like election leaflets. Everyone copped several whether they wanted them or not.
Then the NRL predictably collapsed in the face of incessant and high-profile whinging from people who should know better but couldn’t think beyond their next footstep.
This year, things are different. Referees are ‘calling what’s in front of them’, which apparently means they can turn a blind eye and HQ will pat them on the back. There’s been 300 fewer penalties to this point this year compared to last.
The NRL happily says less whistling and a few other things have saved one minute 45 seconds per game, or just about long enough for the Melbourne Storm to get off a tackled player. So the refs faulter has the best of both worlds: they can complain there’s not enough rule enforcement going on, then they can complain whenever there’s too much!
(AAP Image/Craig Golding)
Player-movement aficionados are ecstatic
Forget talking about who’s getting an Origin jersey – it’s player movement-rumour season, one of my favourite times of the year.
I’m solidly on the record as a free movement evangelist. Let players go where they want when they want so they can get as much cash as they can.
The weeks leading to June 30 are a veritable cornucopia of contract negotiations and teams being played off against each other in the press to get more cash.
This year looks like a beauty too, with some big, big names being bounced around as ‘possibly’ moving teams.
Latrell Mitchell’s going to Souths? Really? James Roberts is going to Souths too? Hmm. Mitch Moses to Brisbane? Why not? Jesse Ramien to anywhere? Why? Is Clint Gutherson is rolling back to Brookvale where it all started, or is he angling for that cash? Is Raiders halfback Aiden Sezer on the market? I hope not!
The only solid story out there right now is Broncos halfback Kodi Nikorima heading to New Zealand. June 30 is still a little bit away. Who knows what we’ll get?
Imagine if Souths did actually pinch Latrell Mitchell. That’s a league-changing power move right there.
Latrell Mitchell (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
Broncos beat writers are happy
Brisbane punted Wayne Bennett to snaffle a brand new, highly vaunted coach in Anthony Seibold. Under the shiny new regime, they’ve won two games from seven.
They’re two games away from eighth spot in tenth and they’ve been a mixture of adequate and deplorable.
Bennett turned his hand to the Rabbitohs and he has them six from seven and third on the table, winning ugly sometimes but getting the work done.
And aren’t the local scribes loving it. Ahead of this week’s game against Souths, the Brisbane papers have carpet bombed the joint with stories that are very favourable to Wayne and derisory at best to the new guy.
It’s a drama that’s not going anywhere and Thursday night’s press conferences are going to be good fun to watch.
Fans of the underdog are happy
The Raiders have started well with five wins but fell into some bad habits at Brookvale on Sunday. Usually a freewheeling attack that comes from all angles, there’s a new edge to Canberra’s play this year and fans of the Green Machine are quietly confident of a return to the finals for the first time since 2016.
Dean Pay’s Bulldogs were always going to do it tough this year, but they’ve shown enough at times to give fans a little bit of heart that things can turn around. The rise of Jayden Okunbor, the industry of Corey Harawira-Naera and the reliability of Josh Jackson and Aides Tolman combine to put in an honest shift for the supporters.
Des Hasler’s reappointment at the Sea Eagles raised plenty of eyebrows. Des was yesterday’s man, not up to speed with the game and with heavy baggage from his list management at Canterbury. Manly fans could be forgiven for thinking the season was going to be a long hard grind, especially after the first fortnight.
But Hasler has proven canny and of high quality, and the Sea Eagles are in the top eight with wins over top-four sides South Sydney and Canberra.
So rugby league’s had a good few weeks. Hell, even Buzz Rothfield was happy and tried to be positive before reverting to type in a piece about Penrith’s James Maloney.
Is everything going well, or am I just seeing things?