The debate about which code is best is raging here in Aussie, but for kiwis we feel the real deal is being missed.
Rugby League (NRL) and Australian Football (AFL) a locked into a multi million battle for the hearts and minds of the people of New South Wales as both sports pee on the post to mark their turf, this market is traditionaly league territory and the market makes up a significant percentage of the share required for both codes to up the antee for TV rights, which in the end pays the players wages
AFL is by far the better attendants code with averages almost double that of Rugby League, the biggest average crowd (2007) for an AFL side “Collingwood” 54000, NRL “Brisbane Bronco’s” 34,000, and believe it or not Rugby’s most supported team in Australia is “Western Force” 34000. Details The force result should send a signal to the NRL watch your back, the Force have a large South African ex pat following and as both Aussie codes search for a future through market expansion it was no international competition that stopped AFL in New Zealand (VFL then), and many of the code swappers of late (NRL to Rugby) it is this international competition that factors in their decision.
The side battle may have been noticed this week by some in the know with the NRL, this week they had two Wallabies on the “Footy Show” and the NRL poster boy Wendall Sailor, Wendall attacked rugby and generally rubbished his time there, but during a conversation Matthew Johns suggested a hybrid game and said “at the end of the season wouldn’t it be great to see the Kangaroos playing the All Blacks”
Good idea Matthew but as Loti pointed out it, at the moment it would probably just show that Aussies are good at league and kiwis are good at rugby, another interesting development was Tamana Tahu saying “Im over league”
The NRL maybe the second code in Aussie at the moment but as long as they use Wendall as a poster boy, and if Rugby can pick up its act Rugby will be the second and eventually the number 1 winter code in Australia
ANZ Stadium asks rugby league fans “where they bloody hell are you?”
Monday Night Football Tigers v Titans
Cheers
That Kiwi Joker
June 30, 2008 at 6:13 am |
Unfortunately the ARU seems more interested in making dollars than looking after the fans. I am a Waratahs member and my $84 tickets for Saturday’s game against France’s 3rd XV were on the try line. If they made those tickets about $40, as they were not so long ago, more people would trek out to Homebush.
As for the atmosphere, you can’t blame the stadium. I have been at some very quiet games at the SFS, SCG, Sydney Kings & so on when the results have not been going our way… and let’s face it, the Wallabies didn’t exactly give us anything to cheer about in the first 40! The atmosphere in the pub at the Novotel before the game was good, maybe the ARU should hire that band to play on the sideline until the boys wake up…