The Monday Buzz: NRL a laughing stock after finals weekend of embarrassment
Phil Rothfield
The Daily Telegraph
September 16, 2013 12:00AM
THE National Rugby League is officially in crisis with confidence in the game's administration at an all-time low.
The first weekend of the finals series will be remembered as one of the most embarrassing in the code’s history.
A seventh-tackle try, a scoreboard clock malfunction, poor crowds, no entertainment, inflated crowd figures and even shown up by the Swans and the AFL who got easily the biggest attendance of the weekend.
Last Sunday I went to Moree for the Group 19 grand final run by a bunch of volunteers.
Cronulla's first try of the elimination final against North Queensland has shockingly occurred on a seventh tackle.
A $10 entry fee, a referee on $100-a-game and officials who get paid nothing put on a better show than our so-called NRL professionals.
For the second year in a row the Cowboys were bumped out of finals by an unforgivable refereeing blunder.
Two referees, two touch judges and two guys in the video box all stuff up a tackle count. Six of them couldn’t count to six.
They should all be sacked immediately. I have been covering rugby league since the late 70s and cannot recall a more bungling administration.
Yes we had seven-tackle tries in the old days but the referees like Greg Hartley were part time and there was only one of them.
Mistakes were almost excusable. The game now spends a million dollars a year on professional referees yet they can’t even get simple things right in our biggest games.
This annual apology to the Cowboys is not good enough.
NRL CEO Dave Smith keeps telling us he wants to attract a whole new audience to rugby league.
He knows rusted-on fans will turn up every week but to grow the game, he needs to promote and take the sport to new customers. Where were the billboards around town, the flags or the buses to let casual observers know the NRL finals series was even on?
Four finals in one weekend in Sydney and half the town wouldn’t have known about it.
Where was the pre-finals advertising blitz? Where was the lunch time activity at Martin Place? Instead we got this.
Semi-final 1: Rabbitohs v Storm: 60,000 empty seats at Homebush.
Semi-final 2: Sharks v Cowboys: Seventh-tackle try blunder. Scoreboard clock breaks down.
Semi-final 3: Roosters v Eagles: No pre-match entertainment for more than an hour between games apart from a relay race.
Semi-final 4: Bulldogs v Knights: More than 50,000 empty seats at ANZ Stadium.
This is not good enough. Last week the AFL got more than 90,000 at one game.
Rugby league recently got $1.2 billion from Channel 9 and Fox Sports.
Why hasn’t some of that money been spent to properly promote the finals and get bums on seats? Why couldn’t they hire a decent band for entertainment in between games at the double header? (I saw so many young women and families leave after the first game because there was nothing to do for more than an hour).
All sports are about the game-day experience and entertainment. ANZ Stadium is a wonderful venue for State of Origin, grand finals, soccer internationals and British Lions rugby Tests.
But no rugby league semi-final should be played there unless there is a guarantee of a crowd of more than 40,000. The NRL has taken its eye off the ball at the most critical time of the year. Smith is concerned the entire game is being held back by poor administration around the clubs like Parramatta and the Wests Tigers.
He should throw his own administration into that category, too. That’s where the biggest issues are. The dramatic fall in TV ratings, the poor crowds, the zero confidence in referees and the non-existent marketing.
There’s no point fixing the struggling clubs unless the head office is in proper working order. The NRL needs to be setting the example. Right know they couldn’t run a chook raffle.
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