It’s traditional of this column to start each year with a state of the league address and since this will be the final piece before it moves to another platform, it’s fitting that we do so this week.
Rugby league finds itself in a better position globally right now than at any other time when I’ve sat down to do this annual round-up – but there is a massive looming challenge in the form of falling TV rights contracts, for which no sport is properly prepared.
The NRL continues to return massive numbers in terms of commercial income, memberships, TV ratings and exposure.
It has prepared pretty well for the TV rights apocalypse, spending a fortune on an in-house digital unit that is already pumping out bespoke content and standing up to traditional media outlets trying to bully it.
The NRL remains insular. Its new chairman derided the idea of a team in one of only a handful of decent-sized cities in Australia and then the fact crowds were disappointing for a nines tournament in that same city a few weeks later was proffered as a reason he was right.
Chicken, meet egg.
But in many ways, the NRL is going down the track of the NFL in that everyone knows the owners don’t want to share the bounty and expansion is no longer seen as being in the interests of the sport but rather as a way to extort more money out of local authorities.
If a new city is to be annexed in the NFL, then an existing franchise has to move there, so the pie is not cut any smaller.
A reduction in TV monies could lead to some belt-tightening, but it would not bomb the game back to the Stone Age. There is enough financial fat for it to live off through a short commercial winter.
The English game is rather more fragile, with the television contract to expire after the 2021 World Cup – which is arguably a more utopian environment than the NRL, since its administrators currently don’t have to worry about annoying variables like players and matches.
This year, Super League has put a confident step forward with new branding and a couple of new TV shows as London depart and Toronto enter. Sonny Bill Williams and Israel Folau have given the competition publicity – good and bad – and crowds for the opening three weeks have been good.
AAP Image/Dean Pemberton
Games not available to English audiences will be shown in Australia this year (full disclosure, it’s a company in which I am a partner that’s doing this).
Super League’s estranged parent, the Rugby Football League, has also leapt into the streaming age with multiple games shown each weekend. Both bodies have upped their games digitally.
But if the game in Australia has an underground bunker in preparation for the TV rights A-bomb, the British game is huddling in an outhouse.
Lower-division clubs know their funding will be cut according to a pre-determined matrix in 2022.
There is a clear picture of how rationalisation and future profitability looks – one professional division, same teams every year – but tradition and an antiquated structure make it almost impossible to achieve.
North American expansion is showing no real signs of presenting the rivers of gold that were anticipated. The Wolfpack are struggling to compete, proposed teams in New York and Ottawa appear firmly on the back burner.
Promotion and relegation seems increasingly unfit for purpose but the Super League organisation is, effectively, the Super League clubs. The old turkeys going to the polls for the Christmas referendum comes to mind repeatedly.
Yet the World Cup, with its £25 million government funding, is the light at the end of the tunnel. It’s a chance for transformational change for the game.
The international game is the area where the TV rights should have the smallest impact because the IRL don’t get much TV money anyway.
With Australia beaten by a new international opponent for the first time in 68 years in 2019, the IRL is almost a blank canvas. It has no significant commercial partners yet, no overarching TV deal, no regular competitions aside from the World Cup, and the brand new World Cup Nines.
But with three new independent directors boasting impressive pedigrees, it is well placed to make moves in all of these areas. There is considerable work being done behind the scenes in the nines space as well and the IRL as a whole is open to private investment.
Its biggest hurdle is the availability of NRL players but then again, it needs to learn to cash in on the intellectual property of national teams without needing those players. In many markets the IRL seeks to exploit, no-one knows an NRL player anyway.
(Photo by Jason McCawley/Getty Images)
If you have a sport that is already on television weekly in wealthy markets and you can confer upon a team the right to call itself England, Australia, France and the United States, you should find a way to make money – even if the people wearing the jerseys in the first half of this sentence aren’t the same as those wearing in the them in the second.
Another challenge for the sport worldwide is participation. As a collision sport, rugby league will always be a no-no for a large portion of the population and that portion is probably increasing.
But the rise of the women’s game, the wheelchair game, tag and touch are helping change perceptions. We are not far from rugby league being better known in some of its newer frontiers as a women’s sport first.
The old prejudices of a ‘flat caps and whippets’ northern game, or a ‘boofhead westies’ pursuit have no relevance in Nuku’alofa or Vancouver and there’s no reason they should ever have any.
Many of the old power bases in the game are gone, with just a handful of the ageing Machiavellian figures still tugging at strings but with their influence deprecating year upon year.
If it can better negotiate with governments and big business, with those who used it for their own ends dead or dying, and become a grown up sport on the world stage without insecurity or arrogance, rugby league can finally emerge from what will one day be judged a period of adolescence.
InFerno
Roar Rookie
AND don’t get me started on the Judiciary and their fantastic consistency but hey I guess it’s the products fault right ?
Footy Fan
Guest
Really??? What I saw of the RU World Cup was of quite poor standard. Convinced me that I dont want to watch it. Pick, drive, repeat, repeat, repeat, kick - I find that dull. And then there's the 25 min on resetting scrums and collapsing mauls with penalties. Seriously, RL wipes the floor with all that tedium.
Cathar Treize
Roar Guru
Have the folk on here heard about the bloke who sta!lked my personal facebook page & posts under aliases incl my family members? I used to post under my real name until you turned up with your creepy sta!king. So this is the 3rd or 4th variation of my partner's name you've used. Do you really think it healthy to bring her into your little games? What do others think about this person's use of peoples private details? Is it funny? Is it the behaviour of a normal person?
Big Daddy
Guest
Nah, the best was " I, myself personally".
Will
Guest
Of course he grew up in Union hes a Kiwi. Its not like they grow up aspiring to play Rugby League. But you will tell me it's going gangbusters over there. Notice how he went downhill when playing Rugby League? Or society problem?
Cathar Treize
Roar Guru
grew up playing union, was first XV in college so I'd imagine he formed his habits/attitudes as a kid, most do. But you lost the argument when you resort to that.
Nick
Roar Guru
Except that places like Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia and Japan have a following of rugby to varying degrees - so there is a decent understanding of rugby style football. League would always have more a chance of "taking off" then AFL ever could in Asia. It can share grounds for a start. It's an own goal by the NRL.
Tim Buck 3
Roar Rookie
There is no chance Rugby League would take off in Asia as it's full of rusted on Soccer fans just as Perth is full of rusted on Aussie Rules fans. The State of Origin is the highest platform in the game and is restricted to people who have played in those two states. Melbourne is Brisbane's 2nd team and although they do play RL in England and France it is full of Aussies and a of course Pacific Islanders. We stopped the ABC from broadcasting games to the Asia-Pacific to keep the game for us so they will have to pay if they want to see it. The NRL Sales Department.
Chris.P.Bacon
Guest
"Rex Mossop was the doyen of league commentators.." ....yep, an absolute master of the spoken-word Tim - “I don’t want to sound incredulous, but I can’t believe it”. ;) One of his best.
Tim Buck 3
Roar Rookie
league – just individuals doing athletic stuff – Some players just run at the smallest defender they can see but there are skillful ball players who suck in defenders and put theirs runners through gaps. Artie Beetson was the doyen of ball distributers. Johnathon Thurston was the doyen of ball distributing half-backs and Greg Inglis was the doyen of centres although Reg Gasnier was a great ball distributor, so good he was relieved of defensive duties. Rex Mossop was the doyen of league commentators. Rex would always introduce a new word each time he appeared on TV.
Letsmakeittrulynational
Guest
Expansion ("a thing formed by the enlargement or broadening of something"). The "NRL" or NATIONAL Rugby League. These definitions alone should guide the powers that be to lean towards a new team in a new location. Whilst I'm not against a second Brisbane based team I am confused on how they meet either of the above definitions. They sit in a market which already has a team. A team currently with a strong corporate and fan base. A second team will bring more fans and corporate to the NRL there is no doubt. But it will also dilute the existing teams support meaning that the growth of the game wouldn't be as great as setting up a new team in a new market or "broadening" its footprint. A second Brisbane team also doesn't help with the "NATIONAL" part of the National Rugby League. At the moment, it should be called the ECRL (East Coast Rugby League) and is only a slither of the Nation. Like it or not, but there are other states West of NSW, QLD and VIC which believe it or not are also considered parts of Australia. If the NRL are hellbent on a second Brisbane team, then they must include an 18th team and that needs to be Perth (or even Adelaide or Darwin). To truely expand, they need to "broaden" the footprint. Not just tread over the same grounds. Of the 3 cities "west", Perth is the most likely. It has the larger of the populations compared to the other 2 cities. Junior team that already plays in the lower grades It has great facilities which includes a rectangular stadium and holds around 20k . A new time zone which offers another start time to sell TV rights A lot of expats from NZ, UK, eastern states itching to see live RL week in week out. A gap in the market left by the Western Force which frustrated fans could get behind The 9's crowd can't be used to mitigate and argument against a Perth Team. There are a number of factors which contributed to this but also bearing in mind that 15k (in a 20k rectangular stadium) turned up on the Saturday and 25k over the 2 days. The scheduling was shocking! Firstly they started early on a Friday night (ie 4:00). It also didn't help (but uncontrollable) that is was on a 41 degree day and no respite, but 10k still turned up. Secondly, the pooling of teams into 4 pools x 4 teams is fine on paper, but then each team only played 2 teams in their pool matches. Creating an unfair advancement system to move into next rounds. A fairer, more appropriate schedule (ie all day Sat and Sun) would have seen a better tournament and would have attracted more fans. Still 25k is a reasonable turnout given circumstances. Other competing sports also didn't help (first ever AFLW local derby, and NBL Wildcats). The NRL really needs to consider a true expansion to become truly National. Have your second Brisbane team, but you need to include a team West of your boarders!
Justin Kearney
Roar Rookie
That’s a demonstrably false and silly statement.
Cathar Treize
Roar Guru
Aww poor Will, then don't come on RL threads & you won't have to listen to all those big bad nasty leaguies. Simple solution hey!
Dogstar
Roar Rookie
Yes, Steve details please on your new initiative re ESL games.
Tom
Guest
"Why does Freo struggle for membership compared to West Coast Eagles?" Very few clubs in the whole country regardless of sport compare favorably with the West Coast Eagles. Yet the Dockers are hardly struggling, in a down year of 2019 they still had over 51000 members bringing in $18.5m at the gate and averaged over 40000 i home attendance.
Cathar Treize
Roar Guru
The NRL Touch Premiership is up & running & televised on Fox & Kayo. I think the NRL have been pushing it very hard & NRL branding is very evident. Interestingly a good percentage of female touch (& Tag) players are crossing over to the tackle version of the game.
Tim Buck 3
Roar Rookie
The flow is interrupted with rucks, mauls and scrums in which occurs the struggle for possession. Scrums are dangerous and RL have done the right thing to reduce their importance. It may look exciting but having your head pressed against the ground a few inches from your feet is frightening. Get rid of them.
Nick
Roar Guru
Here in Asia you get nothing through any ordinary PayTY subscription. Expat pubs will have the NRL pass so it can be streamed onto TV's. https://www.nrl.com/operations/the-game/international-broadcasters/ The NRL pass will only ever be bought by Australians who know about. No one else would have a clue it even exists. Trust me when I say this - one of the dumbest things the NRL has done is to discontinue letting ABC Australia broadcast the games in Asia-Pac. ABC Australia is considered an entertainment channel, and not a sport channel so the channel is on every single basic subscription service. The AFL is on ABC Australia and gets 5 games a week broadcast. The AFL is the only sport that isn't behind an additional paywall in Asia. Obviously the viewing numbers aren't high, but enough people know it's on so that there is at least some awareness of the code. Rugby league however is invisible in the biggest continent on the planet.
Davo
Guest
Nobody wants to touch Rugby League in Europe that's fact. Otherwise the BBC wouldn't live stream games and actually put them on television for the m62 hanger oners to enjoy
Will
Guest
Why can World Rugby take the financial hit and Rugby League can't when all we here from Rugby League fans is how exciting and fantastic it is and Rugby isn't? Or is this when the excuses come out left,right and centre? Ie. Other sports fault, the media etc.. :boxing: