What's new
The Front Row Forums

Register a free account today to become a member of the world's largest Rugby League discussion forum! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Great article - how to win the turf war v NFL

grouch

First Grade
Messages
8,393
http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/jarryd-hayne-move-highlights-sports-turf-war-20141016-117060.html

The doomsayers will tell you it's all about the money. Jarryd Hayne himself sells it as a new challenge.
But the awkward truth for the NRL and other topline Australian competitions is big time US sports leagues like the NFL are slowly moving in on their turf – winning over a younger generation of fans, and now luring away its athletes.
While the NRL is most commonly shown on broadcast TV in standard definition, on delay, with a boorish boys club commentary team more concerned with playful banter than the game itself, the NFL is beamed into the homes and phones of a younger generation live andin crisp HD, by a team of independent analysts who focus in on teams' every moves.
This is a game followed by hundreds of millions, played in frontof hundreds of thousands and performed by names bigger than Hollywood stars.
Advertisement
In Australia it is no longer the novelty it was 20 years ago, airing by the grace of Don Lane's fading star for a three-hour slot on a Tuesday night on ABC TV.
For plugged-in fans it is ubiquitous on social media from August to February, with every player transgression or achievement an event in itself. Internet subscriptions allow Australian fans to watch every game whenever and wherever in the highest quality.
1413432932047.jpg
Jarryd Hayne turns football fan at a Dallas Cowboys game. Photo: Instagram

It only takes a cursory glance at Jarryd Hayne's Twitter and Instagram accounts to see how won over he is by the quality and spectacle of the National Football League.
An avid fantasy football fan, an attendee of games in the US and a geeked-out fanboy when getting to meet one of the NFL's mid-level stars earlier this year, Hayne no longer wants to play the game he grew up loving as a kid from Minto.
Quite simply he, like a younger generation of NRL fans, has seen better and expects better.
This shift isn't so trivial to be purely about money. Even if Hayne was able to make the cut with a team next season he'd be making much less than what he would with Parramatta – a base salary for an NFL player entering the league in 2015 being just $435,000.
As Steve Mascord points out, this shift is about globalisation. It's about pre-internet boundaries being torn down so a bigger, brighter spectacle from half a world away can be enjoyed in Western Sydney as much as an NRL telecast.
Of course the fact the NRL is played here is the game's ultimate, undeniable advantage. But as the NRL makes its crust off television ratings with crowds dwindling, it's clear the NFL is a threat which can still hit much closer to home.
But there really is no reason to be pessimistic as long as the NRL and its broadcast partners are ready to rise to the challenge of producing a more professional, higher quality product.
They can start by providing a professional broadcast of analysts who strive to be incisive and independent, not bicker like a third rate Statlor and Waldorf or vie for careers as the next crossover comedy star. Or by forcing players to act like the professional athletes they are paid to be in their interactions with the public and commitments to the media. Or by adjusting scheduling to make each game an event worthy of the closest analysis, not just a State of Origin or Grand Final.
Most pertinently they can start by broadcasting the game in the latest and best technology - live - into every device they can.
Or else the game's lack of ambition will see it left behind as a younger generation – like Hayne – switch for good.
 

Starkers

Bench
Messages
2,979
The criticisms of delayed SD coverage and woeful, absolutely pitiful commentary, are entirely relevant. It is turning people away for sure. 15 year olds don't understand what the f**k warren and gould are talking about these days. And device technology is killing us I think.

The media comment and behaviour towards interviews etc is a construct of an aggressive and hostile media and a reactive and sluggish administration. Mascord and a few others have every right to complain, they are fans of the game and promote it in their columns. He and a few others only complain when there's legitimate reason to.

The others are merkins. I have no idea how or why the NRL is part of the media hyperbole we see on evening news or ACA, but it is. And I have no idea how to stop it.
 

Parra

Referee
Messages
24,894
The absolute garbage commentary and ancillary programming around the NRL does it's image no favours.

Watch the Hayne highlights reels with Rabs & Gus carrying on. Then watch the associated NFL footage.

The footy show, the 2GB buffoons, the 2SM whiners, the Matty Johns debacle show. All low-brow blokey humour. No attempt at being professional. No attempts at reasonable analysis. Watch the NFL shows on ESPN or The Rugby Club on Fox or a Soccer or motorsport event or support show. Watch the cricket or baseball. The difference in presenters attitudes and the content is striking when you compare it to anything associated with the NRL. The only TV that comes close to NRL is the woeful AFL programming.

Is the overall image something the professional athletes are embarrassed about. Comparing it to their counterparts in other sports is easier than ever. If you were a neutral observer, what conclusions would you draw about any of these sports based on commentators and "footy-shows" alone?
 

Perth Red

Post Whore
Messages
65,417
NRL is so archaic it isnt funny. All his points are good ones and the old boys club still massively influencing the game and the media is set to continue for a good long time. I had hoped the ARLC bringing in an outsider would bring a breath of fresh air but instead nothing has changed in any aspect of the games presentation, scheduling, media profile, national awareness, player profile or behaviour or expansion. Watching NFL on tv compared to Friday night footy on Ch9 is like watching the local amateur dramatics down the community centre compared to a west end musical on Shaftesbury avenue.
 

AlwaysGreen

Immortal
Messages
47,822
Article is spot on.

Article is spot on and in ten years will be prophetic.

No it's not. 20 years ago the NBA was the hottest show in town and it was predicted that basketball in Australia would boom. Although more players from Australia have made it to the nba since then the NBL is a joke and even the woman's game here is in decline.

The NFL is popular now but to think it's going to supercede league and have kids en masse choosing to play it is laughable and an embarrassment to anyone who believes it.
 

Parra

Referee
Messages
24,894
basketball in australia f**ked up by going pay-tv exclusive right when it was booming.

The NFL is popular now but to think it's going to supercede league and have kids en masse choosing to play it is laughable and an embarrassment to anyone who believes it.
You are the only person making this claim.
 

taipan

Referee
Messages
22,402
The absolute garbage commentary and ancillary programming around the NRL does it's image no favours.

Watch the Hayne highlights reels with Rabs & Gus carrying on. Then watch the associated NFL footage.

The footy show, the 2GB buffoons, the 2SM whiners, the Matty Johns debacle show. All low-brow blokey humour. No attempt at being professional. No attempts at reasonable analysis. Watch the NFL shows on ESPN or The Rugby Club on Fox or a Soccer or motorsport event or support show. Watch the cricket or baseball. The difference in presenters attitudes and the content is striking when you compare it to anything associated with the NRL. The only TV that comes close to NRL is the woeful AFL programming.

Is the overall image something the professional athletes are embarrassed about. Comparing it to their counterparts in other sports is easier than ever. If you were a neutral observer, what conclusions would you draw about any of these sports based on commentators and "footy-shows" alone?



With due respect only a few Pimms swiggers watch the rugby Club.
 

Parra

Referee
Messages
24,894
whether it is popular or not is not the point. It is a much better format and standard than anything done for the NRL.

I'd love to see a show of this quality for the NRL each week and I have no idea why it isn't being done. No idea why it hasn't been on for years.
 

taipan

Referee
Messages
22,402
There are better formats than the Rugby club,which is nothing more than what its name suggest "club".Kafer annoys the tits out of me.It is still aPimm's club in my book.

You need a format with serious thinkers involving former players/coaches plus fan reps who can offer another perspective.Even audience question time.
 

adamkungl

Immortal
Messages
42,955
That's great.

He'll be back in 2016 leaving knee-jerk hyperbole in his wake.

You think it's knee-jerk hyperbole to ask the NRL and channel 9 to deliver a product worthy of 2014?

Fact is, 9 is delivering a tv broadcast which hasn't improved in any real way since the mid 90s. SD, TV only, delayed broadcast, same head commentators (who are getting worse over time).

Fox is marginally better, but still seeks to protect their shrinking market rather than fully and proactively expand with the times.

There won't be a mass exodus of players or even fans - that would be hyperbole - but as time goes on and the EPL and NFL gain more fans, savvy NRL fans are seeing that the grass is greener on the other side.
Live, HD, professional internet broadcasts streamed from the other side of the world featuring international superstars.

The NRLs closest thing to international superstars can make more money and find new challenges playing Rugby in France or England. This will continue until Australian RL uses its considerable money, power and influence to lead international RL development rather than deliberately sabotaging it with rules stacked in our favour, little assistance to developing nations, and dragging out an overly long NRL season with no consideration for rep football.

This is why Burgess, SBW and Hayne have all left in one year. As fans, the best we can do is
1) constantly demand better from the NRL and its broadcasters
2) support international football in droves when given the chance
 
Last edited:

some11

Referee
Messages
23,313
savvy NRL fans are seeing that the grass is greener on the other side.

Live, HD, professional internet broadcasts streamed from the other side of the world featuring international superstars.

I couldn't give two f**ks about international superstars if they don't play Rugby League.

So I'm supposed to turn my back on the game because of a broadcast deal that we were pretty much forced to take for short term pain/long term gain?
 

Parra

Referee
Messages
24,894
There's nothing stopping Fox.

Interesting that the two sports that are only 'big' in Australia are the only two that have this idiotic problem.
 
Messages
15,595
It's laughable, doom days predictions have been trotted out continuously for the last 20 yrs & get lapped up by the morons.

Yes coverage coulld be a lot better ,but anyone with a brain can see why we are stuck with the deal we have.

It is because they looked to the future with the last deal & will be in a position to get what is good for RL not the broadcasters.


At least it is a change from the Sokka taking over crap we have been hearing for the last few weeks.


I am never surprised by how gullible some people are.
 
Top