Origin opener attracts record-low TV ratings

But it is still compromised. He is saying the success of Origin is more important than the integrity of the NRL.

Remind me how much pokie money is pumped into NRL annually from their Leagues club operations. And remind me how much longer that whole outdated Leagues club funding model will remain viable. The significant underpinning of the NRL competition by pokies revenue is a model which is on borrowed time my friend. Speak to people in the know at NRL clubs, which I have, and many see that a day of reckoning is coming for some NRL clubs. Some NRL clubs are doubling down on significant Leagues club expansions which is crazy. Anyway luck to the Titans… but they will only survive as long as the patience of their private backers lasts. If I was a betting man I’d be betting they end up on the scrap heap along with other defunct NRL that played out of the region.

Thanks Peter, I should've gone to the ABS before I shot my mouth off. I worked at the ABS 35-38 years ago back when Perth overtook Adelaide as Australia's 4th biggest city. I didn't play many games as a senior in Canberra but I could tackle and the best way to tackle big guys is around the legs although the likes of Mal Meninga and Les Boyd would be very hard due to their huge legs and low centre of gravity. John Raypa was a great exponent of bringing down tall timber. There are many players in the NRL that can't play SoO because they come from Aotearoa and other Pacific Islands.

Thanks Peter, I should've gone to the ABS before I shot my mouth off. I worked at the ABS 35-38 years ago back when Perth overtook Adelaide as Australia's 4th biggest city. I didn't play many games as a senior in Canberra but I could tackle and the best way to tackle big guys is around the legs although the likes of Mal Meninga and Les Boyd would be very hard due to their huge legs and low centre of gravity. John Raper was a great exponent of bringing down tall timber. There are many players in the NRL that can't play SoO because they come from Aotearoa and other Pacific Islands.

Yes I have noticed players are getting bigger but the stats show a huge jump. I see your point, how many of us are prepared to risk life and limb to play it. I was playing in the Under 17 in 1972 and got knocked out in a trial match against a Parramatta junior team. I continued to get knocked out in most games that year and even got knocked out stopping at traffic lights when driving home. Given the effect it had on the functioning of my brain during my HSC and Uni years I wish I had listened to my dad and played soccer.

I take your point Tim but just the same I don't think I'd fancy tackling All Black Caleb Clarke. In the 1980's it was not uncommon for Rugby wingers to be relatively light weight, not always but often enough. Names like David Campese, John Wright, John Ferguson and Kerry Boustead were all leading try scorer's and stars in their own right during that era. All relatively light weight when compared to their contemporary counterparts. Caleb Clarke for instance is 1.89 metres tall and weighs 107 kg. His team mate Alex Hodgman is 1.96 metres tall and weighs a whopping 122 kg. Most of it muscle. A study of international rugby union players reveals that the average weight of a player in the Five Nations championship in 1955 was 13 stone 5lb (84.8kg). The average weight of players in the England squad for the 2019 Six Nations was just under 16 stone 7lb (105kg). That, in my opinion makes them not only imposing athletes but the change so dramatic as to effect not only the way the game is played but, and this was my original point who and how many of us are prepared to risk life and limb to play it. Judging by the player numbers it would seem that the answer to this question is fewer and fewer of us. Both forms of rugby and most probably American football is it would seem by natural evolution effectively marginalising itself.

The lack of atmosphere was because it was in Adelaide. They drink water that conducts electricity and play Victorian football but they are lovely people.

Rugby League a game for all shapes and sizes, AF is a game for Giants. Tall guys don't have the same advantage they have in AF because it is easy to bring tall guys down with good low tackling in RL and that is illegal in AF.

Sorry Tim but the Population of Australia in 1995 was, at least as far as the Australian Bureau of Statistics is concerned 15,788,312 people. Worldometer suggests it was somewhere around the 17 million mark but I am inclined to think the Australian Bureau of Statists figures are the more reliable. Apologies for my earlier over estimation but I simply didn't have the time back then to count them all individually. Oh the Good Old Days !! Thanks for the heads up by the way about where RL is mostly played. It had never occurred to me that it was mostly played in NSW and Qld. That must explain why those two teams are always playing one another in State of Origin. Silly me. There I was thinking that players these days came from Manukau in Aotearoa. Oops, my bad.

What are some of the questionable officiating decisions that blights the game?

I can't see councils converting their rectangular fields into oval grounds unless they were paid by the AFL. If Australia had played Gaelic Football they would have some international competition. Maybe the game will take off in India with all their big cricket grounds.

The population of Australian in 1995 was more than 18.196 million people and RL is mostly played in NSW and Qld. As you say Melbourne have to get their players from somewhere.

I only found it channel surfing and I'm St.George, a bitter twisted malcontent with delusions of grandeur.

Victoria has had one of the the best NRL teams since they were created. Only Manly and Easts could claim they are in the same league. It will be interesting to see how they go when the GOAT retires.

A friend of mine, a Collingwood fan who moved to Wollongong and then Sydney, had a second membership with the Swans for the reason you gave. Aussie Rules was played in Sydney before RL was created but it lost many of it's supporters when RL appeared. Sydney is a dump, except for God's country, the St.George shire. The North Shore is very nice with lovely people, including many St.George fans.

It is wierd that the US election received such a huge coverage in Australia. PVL would not have known that the US election would be on in that small time when SoO could be played.

The SoO isn't the pinnacle of the Rugby League world it is just between NSW and Qld. RL has international competition and is played by PNG and a few Pacific Islands and of course the Indigenous Australians who have produced heaps of RL stars. Rather than taking on the big kids there is always Soccer and Rules for the lightly built. That reminds me I have an ESL game recorded last night, Salford V Wakefield.

No problem Peter. I now understand what you meant with the Disney reference, all good. Professional sport is sports entertainment, it exists because it creates revenue. It is what it is but (I assume) you and I have followed your team before it became such a TV reliant beast. TBH I don’t care, I’ve accepted the ‘show’ for the sake of the game. State of Origin is the same these days. It’s an undeniable golden goose for the stakeholders but anyone older than 20yo knows the history and where the passion comes from. Like you though, my BRL team is located a couple of blocks over from home and I go down there for club footy every other week. 2-3 games, $5 entry, $5 beers, raffles, no replays. No better way to spend the arvo. All the best.

Yep, should be mid season for sure. It's better for the athletes for one thing, half of the blokes on the field on Wednesday were being kept together by strapping tape, and it showed in the quality of the game. When it's mid-season players are still mostly fit and its right in the middle of the traditional "footy" time of year. Besides, in any regular year they need the end for international tours. I'd be amazed if they don't move it back next year.

GWS, Remind us? How much money has the AFL pumped into both GWS & Gold Coast to keep the two weakest Franchises a live? To be fair AFL has had a shot in arm in QLD, but the Titans will go really well next season, so we’ll find out then how two clubs will fair on the “Glitter strip.”