Hypocrisy (2015)

The NRL for a number of years now, has been working tirelessly to try and improve the image of the game to make it more appealing to women, and subsequently, families.

So much so that they now have on their calendar every year, an entire round dedicated to the women involved in the game, a women's round.

Only one round out of 26.

This Friday, the Australian Jillaroos will play against the New Zealand Ferns in the curtain raiser to the test between Australia and New Zealand.

Yet despite there now being 5 separate Fox Sports channels as well as Channel 9's main and GEM channels, it seems there is no way it is at all possible to show this game.

Tomorrow night, Fox Sports 1 (which tends to host nearly all the Rugby League content out of their 5 channels) will instead show between 6pm and the replay of the Test match:
*The second repeat of NRL 360 and the irrelevant Matthew Johns show in the space of 6 hours,
*90 minutes of two ageing boxers talking about themselves and their upcoming payday, err fight,
*An hour long package of the greatest UFC fights.

Channel 9 will show
*The alleged journalism of A Current Affair prior to the Test
*Over an hour of boxing hosted by the NRL Footy Show

GEM will show
*a 3 hour long Clint Eastwood movie
*the 1967 Bonnie and Clyde movie

A lot of this could be forgiven to an extent. But one thing in my mind can't.

A 75 minute slot after the Test match dedicated to an NRL program and that program isn't even doing anything remotely attached to Rugby League, it's boxing!

Why not have a replay of the Women's Rugby League Test match played then? It's got a hell of a lot more Rugby League content than the NRL Footy Show does even on it's best nights, but even moreso on Friday when it will be showing boxing, not Rugby League.

If the NRL is truly passionate about properly recognising the involvement of women in Rugby League, the most basic of first steps would be to ensure that the National Women's side is shown some level of interest.

As it stands, the Jillaroo's can't even get a link to their website (which I might add is hosted by Fox Sports Pulse, not even an official Rugby League body can be bothered to look after this task) from the NRL website.

If the National women's side can't get airtime over the NRL Footy Show boxing night and cannot even have the NRL give them web space, just how appreciated can the rest of the women involved in the game truly feel?

I believe if the game wants to recognise a group of people, then either do it properly and thoroughly, or don't do it at all. At present it looks half-arsed and somewhat patronising.

NRL & Channel Nineteen Ninety Nine (2013)

Late in August 2012, the Australian Rugby League Commission secured a $1.025 billion TV rights deal over 5 years.

In a time where people don’t ask questions, they go to Google; where people don’t buy DVD’s or CD’s, they download them from a multitude of platforms; where radio stations are online, you would think that the NRL and it’s accomplices would do what it can to maximise it’s exposure and reach by utilising the wonderful technology known to roughly 99.9% of the world.

The Internet.

Sadly though, it seems those involved in making decisions regarding the exposure of Rugby League across the internet are part of 0.01% who have no idea what an internet is.

Last year the NRL introduced an amazing concept whereby anyone overseas could log onto the NRL official site and get a live stream of any NRL game.

Oddly though, people outside NSW and QLD were unable to watch any NRL content on Channel 9 until, at best, midnight or after.

The TV rights deal in August ensured that the game must be shown live nationwide.

And league fans nationwide rejoiced.

In NSW and QLD on Friday nights, fans could watch the games in the order scheduled for Nine’s main channel, or they could watch their digital channel GEM and watch the second game live there (instead of after the other game had finished).

Brilliant.

Alas, outside NSW and QLD there are still issues. The main channel does not telecast NRL games live, only the GEM channel does. Which means if you want to watch the second game live, you can’t.

People in Papua New Guinea, Kazakhstan, Peru, Tonga, Hawaii, anywhere, you can watch any game live.

But if you live in Perth, Melbourne, Hobart, Adelaide etc, you have no option.

You’d even be lucky if you can tune in to listen to the game on the radio. The only radio you could hear it on is via the internet.

The Internet.

The place which also has live streaming, most of it illegal, of sports events from around the world.

The NRL’s inept vision and completely inept ability to think with any logic whatsoever regarding such simple, obvious and basic things means that those passionate fans who want to see their team play live on Friday nights have to resort to illegal measures.

A game that strives to have their players and administrators behaving with utmost respect and professionalism is the same game that forces its own fans to break the law just to watch a game that they are already streaming live around the world.

What exactly is the NRL going to lose by allowing people in Australia who live outside QLD and NSW, to watch the game on the same live stream that they allow people in Reykjavik to view?

There’s no reasonable or rational explanation for this obscene oversight. One person running the NRL Live streaming site could rectify this issue in a few hours.

If the NRL won’t do anything regarding live streaming for those Australians not living in NSW or QLD, then the NRL should make Channel 9 broadcast the game nationwide on it’s two channels the exact same way as it does in NSW and QLD.

This is not complicated stuff to do in today’s technological age.

Mad Monday - Channel 9 (2012)

All the good Channel Nine had done recently for Rugby League across the nation has been swiftly killed off by their own stupidity.

Back to square one.

Several weeks ago, after years or complaints from viewers across the nation, mostly by League fans outside of New South Wales and Queensland, for not showing NRL and Representative Rugby League at a reasonable hour, Channel Nine just a few weeks ago finally agreed to show all their League content on the Digital Channel GEM at the same time Nationwide as it is shown on Nine's primary channel in NSW and QLD.

A magnificent coup, long and well overdue. Fans rejoiced and rightfully so. Channel Nine for years had constantly told us all how important the rights to Rugby League was, only for of the country to see the game being snubbed for Rugby Union, Cricket, Hey Hey It's Saturday (on Wednesday) and countless number of crap movies no one ever watched because, as Nine's complaints department told me several times, they couldn't compete outside NSW and QLD with AFL.

So instead of showing the NRL live, they showed rubbish movies and crap American sitcoms with as much humour as 3 week old ham.

They also informed me on a number of occasions that League wouldn't be shown earlier in Victoria because it didn't rate well, which is hard to argue with considering all League content was screened at 11:57pm at the earliest, as there is a clause saying all League related programs must commence airing prior to midnight on the day of broadcast.

So after years of anguish, angst, animosity and being absolutely ignored, Channel Nine finally does the noble thing and gives League fans nationwide live coverage of their beloved game.

Until last weekend.

Back to square one.

The NRL scheduled all clubs to have a week off, and just three games were scheduled for the week. The Australia vs New Zealand Test Match on Friday night. The NYC Under 20's Origin game between NSW and QLD on Saturday night, and the City vs Country game on Sunday night.

Fox Sports showed the Saturday game live. Channel Nine in their wisdom, couldn't even televise the test match live nationwide.

Both the Friday and Sunday games were delayed telecasts.

When no other games were on, with no reason why they couldn't show the games live, they decided to shaft the game and its fans once again.

Back to square one.

We can no longer entrust this network to support Rugby League. They constantly whore the game to advertise its B-Grade programs but do nothing for the game in return.

The NRL needs to be tough on the next TV Rights deal, here are some suggestions:

* 1 live game every Friday night. The second game must be shown directly after the live game. Nationwide.
* 1 live game every Sunday.
* All Origin games will be shown live.
* All Test matches involving Australia, or played in Australia, are to be played live.
* City vs Country will be shown live.
* All Finals matches will be shown live.
* On Grand Final day, NSW Cup, NYC and NRL Grand Finals will be played live.

Every game will also include pre and post match broadcasts.

For every minute the games are delayed, Channel 9 will pay the NRL a fine of $1 million. That's motivation to show the games on time.

Let’s be honest, the game gives Nine its highest ratings every year and even provides the highest ratings of nearly all programs for the year, every year.

The Origin coverage and even the pathetic Footy Show have won several Logies over the years.

The game is doing more for Channel 9 than 9 is doing for the game.

That needs to change now, because we fans sure as hell don't want to be going....

...back to square one.

The National Debacle League (2009)

Since my move to Melbourne earlier this year I have been baffled by the contradictions surrounding Melbourne, Rugby League and the media. What follows is one fans view of the issues today’s game faces outside Rugby League heartland.

Melbourne

Melbourne has proudly assumed and boasted the title of “Australia’s sporting capital” for some time now.

The home of Cricket in Australia and Australian Rules Football, the Melbourne Storm NRL side which has picked up two premierships in it’s short existence, the Melbourne Tigers who dominated Australian basketball for a long time, home of the Australian Open tennis tournament, the 2009 Netball champions, a soccer team, home of horse racing’s most famous race and are proposing to have a team in the new Super 15’s Rugby Union Tournament.

However there is a distinct reluctance to allow any sport a fair chance of success in Melbourne if it is seen to challenge AFL.

Rugby League is scarcely mentioned in Victorian specific programs, the Friday and Sunday matches are shown at a later time then they are in Alice Springs, which is baffling considering Melbourne has a successful NRL team.

This is due almost entirely to the media’s lack of courage to support a game that would challenge AFL. The AFL also have a part to play as well. Not only is Rugby League cast aside, so to is Soccer. Rugby Union is a foreign language altogether.

The fact these other football codes are all but banished from Melbourne doesn’t actually support their ‘Australia’s sporting capital’ slogan optimistically.

AFL officials, media, players and fans are so confident that their sport is the best in the nation. While I’m not going to debate that issue, I will state that it’s hard to lose that argument when no other sport is given any air time.

Media

The NRL is owned by a media conglomerate. Newspapers and television deals make up the games existence. Melbourne is the second largest city in Australia. It has a successful Rugby league side who has won two Grand Finals in 1999 and 2007, also owned by the same media organisation.

Yet the only press associated with the game surrounds the controversies and not the game itself. The AFL media is completely different. Any negative press about AFL is reported in the news then buried quicker than a lawyer.

Why won’t Channel 9 telecast live NRL nationwide?

The AFL won’t lose any viewers in Melbourne.

At worst, Channel 9’s ratings nationwide on a Friday night would be no worse than what they currently are.

Furthermore, NRL ratings in Melbourne can only improve on their current record, given the games would be shown at a normal hour. The quip that NRL doesn’t rate in Melbourne is only true because you have to stay up til 4am to watch both games on a Friday night. When most of the population has been working all day, the prospect of staying up that late is borderline impossible. The Sunday game finishes at 2am Monday morning. Most people work on Monday’s. This programming defies logic. Why bother at all?

Channel 9 recently unveiled their new Digital channel, called GO! One would think that NRL could be seen live on at least one of these two channels. Instead Channel Nine has opted to take an anti-Australia stance and show nothing but substandard American rubbish on their new channel.

There’s no reason why NRL games can’t be shown live nationwide. It may actually help Channel 9 and Rugby League.

The fact that the same media organisations which own the NRL are the ones who proudly and extravagantly pump out controversy after controversy about the game is the ultimate insult. You’d think this would be against the best interests of their business.

NRL

The NRL needs to immediately rid itself of the media parasite which has been living off it for over a decade. It has done nothing but regularly drawn bad publicity to the game, which is drawn out and excessively magnified. No other sport in Australia is scrutinised as heavily as Rugby League.

Each code has its dramas and controversies, but Rugby League’s are exacerbated beyond belief. People are still talking about the Greg Inglis controversy with his girlfriend, which is still speculation, however an AFL player in a local match who was struck in the head by a spectator with a mallet, has been hastily removed from our minds.

Obvious problems.

Simple solutions.

However the NRL and Channel 9 are too simple to see them.

It’s time to take our game back!