Agree with this Tru, but don't you think we've brought a lot of this on ourselves?
Firstly we can choose to play most or all our home games out of Kogarah and WIN, but choose not to, due to the financial incentives of playing at the bigger grounds. Clearly this is a reflection of our poor financial position otherwise why do this and make it harder for our team by diluting our home ground advantage?
Secondly, our team has been dogsh#t for going on 5 years since Bennett left. Not only have we not been very successful, but we hardly play an attractive brand of footy either. We're always near the bottom teams when scoring points. Why would any non-dragons fan tune in to watch us?
So we can hardly expect to command the coveted and high rating slots like Friday nights. I remember the Raiders were in the same boat, they didn't play a Friday night game for something like 5 years.
End of the day money talks and lets face it, the NRL is a business. Make more money and play better footy and draw bigger crowds and bigger TV audiences, then things like home grounds and the draw will look after themselves.
Certainly as a club, the rvrg issue has diluted our home ground advantage, by dispersing games elsewhere for financial gain. Damned if you do and damned if you dont. I dont know our financial position, but i hear conflicting stories. Its probably not great.
Now our team has been in the wilderness during the Price era, and whilst 2015 wasnt great we were a bees d...k away from progressing into the 2nd week of the playoffs.
I dont expect us to get the exposure of the top 3-4 clubs, but as an example, i cannot find one instance where a Sydney club has had to play 3 weeks running interstate. Whilst some will say its an advantage, i.e set up camp / bond / etc, it takes you away from your HQ for virtually one month.
Also, there were 8 teams below us last year, of which none have as many Dudday Night ( Monday ) games as us.
The disparity between the haves and have nots its way too great.
The clubs decisions and the teams performance may have played into the hands of the NRL, but they sure have paid an unduly heavy price.
