At the time of writing, the most recent article the ABC online had published online relating to rugby was from Wednesday, May 27.
I am compelled to record this point because I feel that although incidental, it is reflective of a creeping indifference to the game by the mass media.
Whether the mainstream media are reflective of community indifference, or the broader community’s apathy is a reflection of media bias is not for me to judge – at least not today – however you slice it, it does not portend well for the future of rugby. Absence and obsolescence are too close for comfort.
Over the same period, rugby league had eleven articles published. It might be claimed with some justification that this was because the NRL had only just recommenced the season but the AFL, who haven’t kicked a behind in anger for a couple of months, had no fewer than nine articles as well.
I acknowledge and concede both codes garner considerably more support than rugby, but is it reasonable or fair for the national broadcaster to give as much as ten times the coverage to these sports than they have given to rugby union?
(Ashley Feder/Getty Images)
Ironically, it mirrors a similar problem for rugby league in the UK, where it too struggles for relevance in a congested marketplace. It hardly needs mentioning but football is woven into the very fabric of life over there. There is football and then daylight and some distance away, the rest of the sporting community.
Rugby league has had moments of sporadic appeal in Britain, but for the most part the sport struggles for attention outside of its birthplace in the north of England. Even there it is overshadowed by the other codes. Rugby, although still a bit player, does have a broader following than its counterpart.
I mention this not to be dismissive of rugby league but to make this salient point. The ABC’s equivalent in the UK no longer features rugby league in the banner at the top of their sports homepage. They do for rugby and if memory serves me correctly they did once for rugby league as well, but not now.
Sure, the BBC takes a passing interest in the sport and try to be all things to all people like most progressive institutions, but at the end of the day idealism and reality have a habit of parting ways and it would seem in terms of prioritisation, rugby league is to the BBC not simply the best, it is not even second best.
Refocusing on our own national broadcaster, what would it matter if like this week there is no rugby news reported or content to access?
It beggars belief that despite the internecine fighting in the sport and the imminent debut of a brand new, five-franchise tournament, the ABC had absolutely nothing to report on rugby for a little over half a week.
It’s not like there’s not much going on in Australian rugby right now. (Hugh Peterswald/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)
I don’t know who pays the ferryman but I do know that according to mythology it was traditional to do so by placing a coin in or upon the mouth of the dead. Rugby’s finances are so perilous that it couldn’t afford to pay for its own funeral but we are being premature.
Rugby, though in a comatose state, is not yet dead. What rugby needs is a chance to breathe again. To breathe fresh air. It needs to find a mouthpiece.
I call upon the national broadcasters to help give rugby a voice.
I have always found rugby is best played on a level playing field. All I ask is the national broadcasters, and I include SBS in this, allow rugby to access and play on the same level playing field as the other codes.
At the risk of damning with faint praise, rugby may no longer matter to all or even to most Australians, but it still matters to many. Perhaps in saying as much I have inadvertantly suggested a new ABC blog page. Yes, it’s one thumb’s up from me for “Rugby matters”.
Peter
Guest
I am not disagreeing with you Michael. Please refer to my comment made at 12:42pm on the 2nd of June. I understand as well as anyone that the game needs to entertain and needs considerable reform. My article is not meant to be a critique of the media at the exclusion of all other problems facing the game and if you think that it is, you have misinterpreted it. The article is meant as a call to arms for it's supporters to remain cognisant of a worrying media trend and to be pro active in addressing it. No more and no less and to suggest otherwise is to draw a long bow. You claim that Rugby Union supporter's are "arrogant" and so "desperate" that they "blame" the A.B.C and in doing so unfavourably compare the code to Rugby League. You would do well to remember that it is not Rugby League that has 3 million registered players and up to 5 million non registered players worldwide nor was it Rugby League's World Cup last year that attracted 857 million viewers. In deriding Rugby Union and it's supporters in the face of such statistics strikes me as being in itself the hight of arrogance and desperation.
james
Guest
Why should they? The media is not an island and , on the whole, is struggling as much as RA. They need bums on seats to sell their product. Why would they give RA a free run when it is not delivering the goods ?
Michael gardiner
Guest
It is arrogance that got Rugby to the edge of the cliff and it will be arrogant assumptions that will destroy it. The game played in heaven, the game for the elite ( private schools example ) universities continue to favor only Rugby. I have know doubt that there is many more examples out there. The public are not stupid they notice the arrogant culture associated with Rugby. Here we have yet another article avoiding what is really wrong with Rugby, this article blames the ABC, other articles blame Rainlene Castle ect. My point is the game is no longer worth watching , is boring, plodding and not a good sport to watch. At the moment even the northern hemisphere Unions have agree, to change the rules to attract crowds, because Rugby is in trouble there also. The rule changes are not original they copy Rugby League. That says a lot, the game RL has been treated as a joke and inferior for many years by the arrogant ones , now RU supporters are so desperate they blame the ABC.
gatesy
Roar Guru
Let them eat cake! A famous and probably often abuse pronouncement, but apposite to your article. Rugby League and AFL and to a lesser extent, football are the games played for the masses (not necessarily by the masses). Those masses demand to have crumbs thrown to them. I like to think that Rugby folk are different.
matth
Roar Guru
To be fair it didn’t inspire a lot of confidence and I stopped watching before the end.
ScottD
Roar Guru
True enough mate but if you don't promote your sport properly you'll never persuade those that are on the fence to attend either in person or virtually
Micko
Roar Rookie
People like what they like, no matter how much they get something shoved down their throat. Spending money on advertising doesn't necessarily convert to fans. The AFL went to NZ to play matches on Anzac Day for a few years, yet they cut it short due to a perceived lack of interest from the kiwis.
ScottD
Roar Guru
I only see rugby from the WA lens but I can tell you that RA is woeful at advertising. It simply doesn't do it well. Sports get better reporting coverage when they become popular. To get popular you have have a strong base of support, a successful culture that inspires and to have good marketing. The days where rugby got great coverage it had all three of these attributes. If RA won't advertise and promote the game it will never achieve good support and without that there will be no success ....ergo no reporting of the game. If you build it, they will come.......but you first have to bite the bullet and promote it.
Peter
Roar Rookie
Farmer, I acknowledge your point but that in point of fact only makes their inattentive coverage more lamentable because the A.B.C to the best of my knowledge did have a broadcasting arrangement in place to broadcast Super Rugby games on radio. The fact that the A.B.C no longer covers the Shute Shield in New South Wales has also been lamented by many particularly in rural area's but it must be said that it's replacement network, Seven has done a commendable job.
Peter
Roar Rookie
You are probably right, the B.B.C may well have just the one banner for the rest of the world. If so, let me confirm, it does not include Rugby League, at least not in Australia. What does that say for Rugby League's international future I ask, when the national broadcaster in the sports own country of birth does not feel confident enough to prioritise the sport in the eyes of the rest of the world ? The Website much like the B.B.C itself is of course a governmental exercise in soft power diplomacy. That it give's the code a tab domestically but see's no reason to give Rugby League it's own tab internationally speaks volumes for the codes international appeal. League supporter's shouldn't feel too down hearted, it doesn't include Swimming or Curling or International Bocce either and they tend to be of passing interest at least once every four years for some people.
Micko
Roar Rookie
Missed it Matt, was it interesting or just usual corporate buzzwords & gobbledegook?
Peter
Roar Rookie
I hate to dispel the myth mate but we do not operate under a purely capitalist based socio-economic model either. I thought that would have been obvious in recent months. It is a country where capitalist or free market forces function in combination with state funded public services. That is why our children have access to public schools and our sick have access to public hospitals, that is why a Department of Roads can help build and maintain the infrastructure for free enterprise to thrive. That is also why we are able to fund a public broadcaster like the A.B.C. To inform and educate those that are not privileged enough to have access to pay tv or subscription services. I am not suggesting that Rugby is entitled to anything. What I am suggesting is that the Rugby Union remain cognicent of a deteriorating appetite for the game in the media and to bring to play whatever limited resources they can to lobby the national broadcaster for a more equitable deal. The A.B.C Charter requires that it reflect Australia's Cultural diversity and yet the other codes received 10 times the coverage last week. You might think that this was reasonable but I don't and said as much in my article. People talk of a sense of entitlement but it is not Rugby that boasts the million dollar war chest or the billion dollar commercial contract and the saturation media coverage that goes hand in hand with signing such deals. Under these circumstances I believe it is prudent if not incumbent on the Rugby Union in lobbying the national broadcaster to draw this distinction. Surely a better example of entitlement would have been Peter V'landy's request for a handout from the government at the beginning of the Coranavirus outbreak and yet as indecent and as ill-timed as his request was as an administrator we cannot help but admire the chutzpah in putting his code first. He was not too proud to beg. I am not implying that the Rugby Union go cap in hand to the A.B.C at the exclusion of all other marketing and promotional initiatives. Of course not but rugby players and spectators and administrators or the few that still remain must too pay their taxes and I see no reason why in seeking a better deal for Rugby they should not be entitled to do so.
Peter
Guest
Beni, I hate to dispel the myth mate but we do not operate under a purely capitalist based socio-economic model either. I thought that would have been obvious in recent months. It is a country where capitalist or free market forces function in combination with state funded public services. That is why our children have access to public schools and our sick have access to public hospitals, that is why a Department of Roads can help build and maintain the infrastructure for free enterprise to thrive. That is also why we are able to fund a public broadcaster like the A.B.C. To inform and educate those that are not privileged enough to have access to pay tv or subscription services. I am not suggesting that Rugby is entitled to anything. What I am suggesting is that the Rugby Union remain cognicent of a deteriorating appetite for the game in the media and to bring to play whatever limited resources they can to lobby the national broadcaster for a more equitable deal. The A.B.C Charter requires that it reflect Australia's Cultural diversity and yet the other codes received 10 times the coverage last week. You might think that this was reasonable but I don't and said as much in my article. People talk of a sense of entitlement but it is not Rugby that boasts the million dollar war chest or the billion dollar commercial contract and the saturation media coverage that goes hand in hand with signing such deals. Under these circumstances I believe it is prudent if not incumbent on the Rugby Union in lobbying the national broadcaster to draw this distinction. Surely a better example of entitlement would have been Peter V'landy's request for a handout from the government at the beginning of the Coranavirus outbreak and yet as indecent and as ill-timed as his request was as an administrator we cannot help but admire the chutzpah in putting his code first. He was not too proud to beg. I am not implying that the Rugby Union go cap in hand to the A.B.C at the exclusion of all other marketing and promotional initiatives. Of course not but rugby players and spectators and administrators or the few that still remain must too pay their taxes and I see no reason why in seeking a better deal for Rugby they should not be entitled to do so.
Gansher
Guest
I think there's only one banner for the whole of the world ex-UK.
Gepetto
Roar Rookie
The Roar should cover the Super Netball.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
So you really think the media, who have full access to them, are going to supply resources if they are invited? If they thought people wanted to read about rugby more they'd run a bunch of speculation articles like the media does with NRL. It's not a lack of access, it's a lack of readers.
Jimmy
Roar Guru
No I mean invite the media.
Docshay
Roar Rookie
Absolutely right, Jimmy. Rugby.com has been serving the "rusted-on" fans like us very well, but I don't think they saw themselves as being there to promote our game to the "masses"..
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
But their interest isn't limited by a lack of access. Because as we are aware, RA is essentially funding pre-prepared content. Just nobody is interesting on picking any of that up. The biggest issue is Aus Rugby has always had a small footprint, so that extremely valuable and free marketing, mainstream media, has always had a lower interest.
matth
Roar Guru
Long Interview with the CEO