We have just spent five glorious weeks in Australia visiting our son, his partner and their family and friends – it was great.
It was even better as a lifelong rugby league fan and someone who has spent a 40+ year career working in the sport. So what did I learn..?
Simple to start with, rugby league is a great game and, in my opinion the greatest game. Aussie Rules is impenetrable, and rugby union is, in Australia, where it should be everywhere else – the emperor is naked and clearly in your country plenty of people are prepared to share the news and treat him with the respect due.
So, let’s concentrate on the rugby league experience and learn some lessons from there.
First, it’s not my first visit. I’ve been several times since 1988 when we were at the Broncos’ first ever game in the Winfield Cup.
When we have been previously, it was on tour and we have had twenty-odd needy and nutty footballers with us. Just travelling as a couple is much more relaxed and enjoyable.
Aussies can whinge as much as Poms, as seen on our first weekend, which involved an early start to enjoy Wigan’s well-deserved victory over Penrith.
The Panthers are great advocates for the World Club Challenge – they turn up! Plenty of people (almost every Australian) complained about the match official and probably had some justification.
But Penrith had enough opportunity to win five matches and with some lack of cohesion, an unbelievable plan to not kick on fifth and superb, resolute defence from Wigan, they came up empty. Suck it up and try again next year. One year you will win…
Next is the unbelievable profile rugby league has in NSW and Queensland. There is more coverage on mainstream channels in one day than there is in a whole year in the UK.
It is impossible to avoid the coverage and I would say in comparison, rugby league in Australia gets more coverage than Premier League football in the UK – it’s mentioned just about every hour somewhere or other. No wonder we struggle in the commercial arena compared to the NRL.
I must mention some of the primetime TV slots that rugby league enjoys and the content. I was in a perverse heaven enjoying Matty Johns and his mates talking absolute bollocks – but it was bollocks about rugby league – dreamland for someone from a nation that invented and nurtured the sport but somehow has gone into a TV vacuum.
We had a few days in Melbourne and that was where we watched the Las Vegas extravaganza. It was superb!
From my social media feeds, I can’t understand why I wasn’t there – everyone else I know in UK Rugby League appeared to have gone.
Jacob Gagai scores a try at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
Maybe it would be an idea to include some Brits next year, given how much we like to use our passports. Well done to the teams who went, well done to the NRL for bringing it to life and let’s make it special from here on – and you should invite the rest of the Rugby League world to join in, their money is good too.
Head injuries don’t appear to have darkened the doors in Australia yet. I know, I know there are rules and interpretations but honestly, you are on a different planet.
I heard a TV pundit refer to a player’s bloodied head last week as resembling “a painter’s trousers”. The attack on Reece Walsh was deemed an accident, but similar such attacks will be punished.
It was an accident like me accelerating my car and then freewheeling at full speed into a pedestrian crossing: I didn’t mean it but put everything in place to guarantee it.
That in the current Super League area could have got ten weeks and forty lashes…alright, the last bit was an exaggeration.
Reece Walsh (Photo by Jason McCawley/Getty Images)
I’m not saying that Super League has it right, but the evidence says, unsurprisingly, that two heads in one space increases the incidence of concussive events.
Their actions are all to mitigate the potential damage in order to satisfy and maintain the insurance cover for the whole sport. Honestly, it is that serious.
You will find out and catch on eventually so it’s probably worth thinking about it now. We all loved the old days and we all played in different times but I respectfully suggest this is one area where the Super League is ahead (literally) of the NRL and it can lead to positive change to keep the game enjoyable for fans and safer for players – who would have thought that was possible.
Change happens, we know it does, so let’s get involved and make sure it is positive change. The alternative is no insurer will touch the sport and we will have to think of something else to do with our time and passion.
(Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
Finally, NRL games are ace. I was disappointed not to be at Leichhardt on Saturday for a very traditional Sydney footy event.
ARL has big stadiums and, to be fair, big crowds but it all feels a bit sanitised and removed from those original communities that spawned the great clubs.
The NRL still clings to a few of those. I am all in favour of spectator comfort and safety but surely, we can achieve that in some traditional “community” or “suburban” stadiums.
14,000 people were at the Tigers: if that had been played at the Football Stadium (note to self, check latest name before publishing), it might have attracted 20,000 but they would have rattled around and got nowhere near the atmosphere.
There is a balance between modern-day spectator comfort and retaining genuine connections to history, heritage and local communities. Lose it at your peril.
We went, en famille, to Manly v the Roosters, our son splashed out by getting an open-air box. That was not something I have ever experienced in the north of England, but it was superb.
A great atmosphere, fantastic spectacle and a wonderful way to mark the end of our latest stay in Australia. I have already proposed the idea to the good people at Rochdale Hornets, but I suspect that it’s a step too far just now.
All being well, we will be back next year to continue our rugby league sojourn, my wife is unaware that she is on that by the way.
My biggest learning is something I already knew, we are two nations divided by a common sport – both versions are fantastic and the more we engage the better it all gets – we complement each other and long may it continue.
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