Opinion
You’ll have to excuse me if I’m a little tired and emotional in this column – the truth is I’m penning this while still pretty exhausted from going out to the footy on Thursday night to watch the Parramatta Eels go down to the Sydney Roosters.
Its round five and this was the Eels’ fourth Thursday night fixture so perhaps I should be used to being tired by now.
I’m not usually one to complain about the draw, but there are a couple of interesting quirks with their schedule. It’s important for me to be clear I don’t think any of these quirks are responsible for Parramatta’s underwhelming 1-4 start to the season.
The draw is randomly selected and sometimes it may be favourable for your team and other times not. I totally accept that and this piece is not an excuse for their form.
They have been the only team to play a rival coming off the bye three weeks in a row. Others face opponents coming off the bye three times, but not in consecutive weeks.
Bryce Cartwright and Eels teammates look dejected after conceding a try to the Roosters. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
In a couple of years we might have the data to do some useful analysis on this and whether it is a benefit or not. At this stage, I don’t know.
But the second quirk is the one I want to dig into a little bit more. In the first five rounds, Parramatta have had four Thursday night games (and the fifth game was played against the Sharks in the dreaded 6pm Friday timeslot).
Forget about the players, the real loser out of that decision is the fans and specifically, the fans that have memberships and like to go watch their teams play live.
Judging by the numbers so far this year there are lots of rugby league fans that fall into that category. In terms of live attendance, Round 4 of the NRL season was up 30 per cent compared to Round 4 in 2022 and in terms of overall attendance, it is up 31 per cent on 2022 after four rounds.
This has no doubt been buoyed by the introduction of the Dolphins, but still impressive figures nonetheless.
How much better could these figures have been if one of those Parramatta games was played at a more fan-friendly time?
Perhaps suggesting Thursday night is not ‘fan-friendly’ is an excuse – there is a generalisation about people in Sydney not wanting to travel and making any excuse not to leave their homes. But we need to accept the reality of the fans we are dealing with, particularly in Sydney.
Thursday night games are not child-friendly. By the time a family gets home from a Thursday night game it is 10.30pm at the earliest. It’s also challenging for people who do not live close to the stadium to commute in and out, especially during peak times.
I also wonder whether this draw has an impact on membership.
Unfortunately the membership conversation in the NRL looks different to how it does in the AFL. My observation is that in AFL, fans buy memberships year after year in an effort to financially support their clubs.
There is a culture of membership in the AFL which potentially explains why most AFL clubs have significantly more members than their NRL counterparts.
In a period where cost of living pressures are beginning to bite, the draw can have a real impact on whether people make a decision to renew a membership.
If you pay for a membership but can only get to a handful of games, would you still purchase one next year?
Other than ensuring that fans are happy, is attendance in person something that we as a game should worry about. Do we care about people watching in person given how much money the broadcast arrangement generates.
(Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
My view is rugby league is a TV sport. It is different to the AFL, which I feel is a much better experience in person as you can see the whole field.
In rugby league, I find watching on television a much more effective way of actually seeing what is going on. The numbers reflect what a good television product it is.
Whilst attendance is up, viewership is also up too. In Round 3, the NRL had an estimated 5.527 million viewers which was up 9 per cent on the same round last year. If you factor in attendances for this round, total live audience for the NRL was 5.687 million, which is up 20 per cent on the same point last year.
The only reason I can think of Parramatta having so many Thursday night games is to appease the broadcast audience. Why else would you put the Grand Final rematch on a Thursday night? In the penultimate round the same thing happens with the Eels and Panthers duking it out on a Thursday.
The goal is to get the right mix round by round to ensure plenty of people watch in person but also at home on the couch.
Fortunately, my sleep habits return to normal this week, with the Eels’ next game scheduled for Easter Monday in the afternoon and hopefully it means we see plenty of next-generation fans in attendance at a much more family friendly time.
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