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18th club, whose next?

Messages
12,909
Just while I'm explaining google trends to people, this is an important graph to see:
View attachment 86991
View attachment 86992

Now just to explain, I use worldwide for this because if I only use Australia it cuts off the NRL support for the Warriors in NZ. Basically NZ, NSW & QLD are for the NRL what VIC, WA & SA are for AFL. That said the trend line for growth is roughly the same for the NRL if you only look at Australia (actually it results in an either bigger growth rate for the NRL but I still think it's important to include NZ).

So look at 2004. The NRL average was 25 to AFL's 49. Basically, people searched for AFL twice as much as NRL. Not surprising to be honest. NRL was only a couple of years out from Super League and it was on a low ebb.

In these 20 years search interest for the AFL has gone from an average of 49 to 80 -- a 63% increase. Population growth was about 35% in that time. So that's an organic increase for the AFL.

However, the NRL has gone from a 25 average in 2004 (it wasn't much higher in 2005 either) to a 76 average in 2003 - so it has TRIPLED the volume of searches for NRL in that time - remember population growth was only 35%. 304% vs 35%.

Now it's not because NRL fans are better at using google than AFL fans (NRL fans are smarter though because they don't watch stringbeans in tank tops fumble and molest each other) or do it more often on an individual basis. It's organic GROWING interest in NRL, particularly growing since 2017, even despite the covid blip which you can also see.

I'd also argue that the peaks in 2023 for AFL weren't far off where they were in 2007 and 2011 for AFL. So basically, the peak interest for AFL today is roughly what it was 13-17 years ago. Their average in 2023 was similar to what it was 2007, 2017 and 2019 too. Make of that what you will.

You can also see the gap between the NRL and AFL has closed to the point where the week by week graph for 2024 looks like this:

View attachment 86993

Now I may be just a backwater country media statistician and analyst, but that to me looks like two waves lines pretty much in synchronization. Essentially, the interest in AFL and NRL are now the same. If you include the boost from origin and internationals, I'd say overall in Australia and New Zealand, more people are searching for rugby league than AFL.

Now prediction time. If both trend lines continue, the NRL will start to pull away from the AFL and the gap will increase.
I think the introduction of the modern smart phone in 2007 has played a role. Prior to 2007 people were reliant on desktop PCs and laptops for access to the internet. Now they can search Google on their smart phones whenever they like.

Smart phones introduced a wider range of people to the internet. Prior to 2007 it was mostly technogy savvy people who had a PC or laptop. Almost everyone has a smart phone.

The good thing about more people having access to the internet is it lowers the brainwashing power of the mainstream media. The fumbleball-friendly ABC and commercial broadcasters cannot brainwash people into hating rugby league with their biased coverage because people can now access sites like LU. RL fans are on social media exposing fumbleball ambassadors who masquerade as journalists.
 
Last edited:

Vlad59

Juniors
Messages
1,545

Vlad59

Juniors
Messages
1,545
So 20 percent of an already low number of participants are actually people from nsw and qld staying in wa on a short term basis
He said the FIFO component included Perth born players. In any case what is your point? Perth can never have a team because of a small part of its player base being fifo? FMD check the squads across country nsw and elsewhere . There are overseas players everywhere on visas. A few of these threads are being destroyed by this rampant anti Perth bullshit. It’s tiring unintelligent and mischievous.
 

Perth Red

Post Whore
Messages
66,099
Define many? I'd say 15-20% of quads are fifo ... that includes Perth born players who also take up mining work.
the funny thing is over 18's males make up about 15% of the WA registered players. Of that about 15% of them, if that, work FIFO. Its less than 80 players out of 4000 lol. The way these merkins carry on you'd think the whole WA comp closed down every two weeks to accommodate the mine workers!
 

Perth Red

Post Whore
Messages
66,099
So 20 percent of an already low number of participants are actually people from nsw and qld staying in wa on a short term basis
haha thats not what he said at all. Theres probably less than 1% WA players who are short term WA inhabitants who are only here for the mining work. Most people stay here once they've moved here, hence our nation leading population growth.
 

AlwaysGreen

Immortal
Messages
48,034
the funny thing is over 18's males make up about 15% of the WA registered players. Of that about 15% of them, if that, work FIFO. Its less than 80 players out of 4000 lol. The way these merkins carry on you'd think the whole WA comp closed down every two weeks to accommodate the mine workers!
I believe about 5% of these figures.
 

docbrown

Coach
Messages
11,528
I think the introduction of the modern smart phone in 2007 has played a role. Prior to 2007 people were reliant on desktop PCs and laptops for access to the internet. Now they can search Google on their smart phones whenever they like.

Smart phones introduced a wider range of people to the internet. Prior to 2007 it was mostly technogy savvy people who had a PC or laptop. Almost everyone has a smart phone.

The good thing about more people having access to the internet is it lowers the brainwashing power of the mainstream media. The fumbleball-friendly ABC and commercial broadcasters cannot brainwash people into hating rugby league with their biased coverage because people can now access sites like LU. RL fans are on social media exposing fumbleball ambassadors who masquerade as journalists.
Sure. We're talking about 10s of billions of global searches in 2000 to a couple of trillion each year now. Modern smart phones play their part in term of increasing accessibility (see PNG) but remember people have been using the internet on their phone since 2001 (I was one of them). Google started to boom in 2000 and by 2004 it was already 'THE' search engine.

Another point to remember though, Australia was also an advanced adopter in internet access - our access rates have been high for 20+ years. In 2004 about 63% of the population had internet access. Now it's 99%.

But remember interest in the NRL has TRIPLED. So NRL growth has outpaced internet access growth (about twice the pace).

Also remember - I'm not just comparing NRL to things like Super Rugby (that has gone backwards) and AFL (which is peaking about what it was 13-17 years ago). Smartphone access might have helped but on a comparative basis between all codes, it doesn't explain why it would helped the NRL more than AFL or Super Rugby.
 

Bukowski

Juniors
Messages
1,732
He said the FIFO component included Perth born players. In any case what is your point? Perth can never have a team because of a small part of its player base being fifo? FMD check the squads across country nsw and elsewhere . There are overseas players everywhere on visas. A few of these threads are being destroyed by this rampant anti Perth bullshit. It’s tiring unintelligent and mischievous.
I'm not sure why anyone reads those 2 idiots posts.
 

nko11

Juniors
Messages
643
Just while I'm explaining google trends to people, this is an important graph to see:
View attachment 86991
View attachment 86992

Now just to explain, I use worldwide for this because if I only use Australia it cuts off the NRL support for the Warriors in NZ. Basically NZ, NSW & QLD are for the NRL what VIC, WA & SA are for AFL. That said the trend line for growth is roughly the same for the NRL if you only look at Australia (actually it results in an either bigger growth rate for the NRL but I still think it's important to include NZ).

So look at 2004. The NRL average was 25 to AFL's 49. Basically, people searched for AFL twice as much as NRL. Not surprising to be honest. NRL was only a couple of years out from Super League and it was on a low ebb.

In these 20 years search interest for the AFL has gone from an average of 49 to 80 -- a 63% increase. Population growth was about 35% in that time. So that's an organic increase for the AFL.

However, the NRL has gone from a 25 average in 2004 (it wasn't much higher in 2005 either) to a 76 average in 2003 - so it has TRIPLED the volume of searches for NRL in that time - remember population growth was only 35%. 304% vs 35%.

Now it's not because NRL fans are better at using google than AFL fans (NRL fans are smarter though because they don't watch stringbeans in tank tops fumble and molest each other) or do it more often on an individual basis. It's organic GROWING interest in NRL, particularly growing since 2017, even despite the covid blip which you can also see.

I'd also argue that the peaks in 2023 for AFL weren't far off where they were in 2007 and 2011 for AFL. So basically, the peak interest for AFL today is roughly what it was 13-17 years ago. Their average in 2023 was similar to what it was 2007, 2017 and 2019 too. Make of that what you will.

You can also see the gap between the NRL and AFL has closed to the point where the week by week graph for 2024 looks like this:

View attachment 86993

Now I may be just a backwater country media statistician and analyst, but that to me looks like two waves lines pretty much in synchronization. Essentially, the interest in AFL and NRL are now the same. If you include the boost from origin and internationals, I'd say overall in Australia and New Zealand, more people are searching for rugby league than AFL.

Now prediction time. If both trend lines continue, the NRL will start to pull away from the AFL and the gap will increase.
If you haven't listened already there's a good podcast with Hunter Fujak, author of "Code Wars". It's very critical, so prepare yourself. It's from April 2021, so also keep that in mind, it doesn't cover a lot of the NRL's current growth. But still interesting. He goes into these search trends as well. Has a nice part at the end. The NRL is the Sleeping Giant of Australian Sport.


https://player.whooshkaa.com/episode?id=811618
 
Messages
12,909
Sure. We're talking about 10s of billions of global searches in 2000 to a couple of trillion each year now. Modern smart phones play their part in term of increasing accessibility (see PNG) but remember people have been using the internet on their phone since 2001 (I was one of them). Google started to boom in 2000 and by 2004 it was already 'THE' search engine.

Another point to remember though, Australia was also an advanced adopter in internet access - our access rates have been high for 20+ years. In 2004 about 63% of the population had internet access. Now it's 99%.

But remember interest in the NRL has TRIPLED. So NRL growth has outpaced internet access growth (about twice the pace).

Also remember - I'm not just comparing NRL to things like Super Rugby (that has gone backwards) and AFL (which is peaking about what it was 13-17 years ago). Smartphone access might have helped but on a comparative basis between all codes, it doesn't explain why it would helped the NRL more than AFL or Super Rugby.
I'd imagine interstate migration and immigrants from New Zealand has played a role. Polynesians are not going to embrace fumbleball. There's a lot of resentment amongst fumbleball fans about the love Polynesians gave for rugby league. They know it's a demographic they'll never have on their side.

A-League and Super Rugby have gone backwards. I wouldn't be surprised if Super Rugby ceased to exist or became more niche than the NBL.

The local sports embedded on FTA are more dominant than ever over the international ones confined to PTV.

I remember searching the internet on a dumb phone 15 years ago. It was painfully slow and provided terrible resolution on a tiny screen. Back then I only used my PC to access the internet. These days I only a smart phone for almost everything. Smart TVs are changing the landscape even more.
 

docbrown

Coach
Messages
11,528
If you haven't listened already there's a good podcast with Hunter Fujak, author of "Code Wars". It's very critical, so prepare yourself. It's from April 2021, so also keep that in mind, it doesn't cover a lot of the NRL's current growth. But still interesting. He goes into these search trends as well. Has a nice part at the end. The NRL is the Sleeping Giant of Australian Sport.


https://player.whooshkaa.com/episode?id=811618
Nope I was in the states then. I know the name but we haven't met. I'll have a listen when I can.
 

docbrown

Coach
Messages
11,528
I'd imagine interstate migration and immigrants from New Zealand has played a role. Polynesians are not going to embrace fumbleball. There's a lot of resentment amongst fumbleball fans about the love Polynesians gave for rugby league. They know it's a demographic they'll never have on their side.

A-League and Super Rugby have gone backwards. I wouldn't be surprised if Super Rugby ceased to exist or became more niche than the NBL.

The local sports embedded on FTA are more dominant than ever over the international ones confined to PTV.

I remember searching the internet on a dumb phone 15 years ago. It was painfully slow and provided terrible resolution on a tiny screen. Back then I only used my PC to access the internet. These days I only a smart phone for almost everything. Smart TVs are changing the landscape even more.
Like I said, it's outpaced population growth 3 to 1 over that same time period. Interstate migration and immigrants from New Zealand combined are an even smaller subset than the overall population growth rates.

I agree with you about FTA. As much as you'll hear me criticise FTA, you still need it for access (for now).

I've spoken about Smart TVs before on the TV thread.
 

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