Official RLWC2017 Draw

[PaulyTom]

I think you could say if Sydney got maybe a Q/F and maybe a minnow game for Woolongong/ Gosford or Newcastle we would be happy. But in reality , NSW fans couldn't sellout the origin game 3 this year and there attendance for NRL games is subpar not helped being played in sub standard large stadiumsmakes it a hard sell.

 

[undertaker]

Now that I've just arrived back home, have had time to look at the draw and read the comments in this thread, here are my thoughts:

Draw is good. Underwhelmed by doubleheaders and some of the stadium choices. AAMI over Etihad and Mt Smart over Eden park shows a lack of ambition.

100% agree with the A/B/C/D pool groupings. Don't agree with the Quarter-Final distribution, with A1 vs B3, B1 vs A3, B2 vs D1 and A2 vs C1 and vice versa. Should've stuck to the 2013 RLWC format with A1 vs D1, B1 vs C1, B2 vs A3 and A2 vs B3, which is fairer. Agree with your points on the doubleheaders and stadium choices, as mentioned in another thread.

I would not want to be one of the teams playing in the first Quarter Final. Who in their right mind would schedule a game in Darwin in November? The weather will be atrociously hot and wet as it is right in the middle of the tropical wet season.

Unless Darwin/Northern Territory government have forked out millions to host those matches, I simply can't understand how the tournament organisers scheduled matches up there during that time of the year.

AAMI over Etihad is massively disappointing. Thats terrible. I honestly think they could have sold Etihad out for Australia vs England. .

This x 1000

We've gone from potentially having that match at the MCG (until Cricket Australia intervened and stated they didn't want any football matches held there in the two month or period before the Boxing Day test), to being held at a 30k seat stadium. This is the epitome of RL administration: set the pass bar very low and just try to scrape over it. Reminds me of George Carlin's comedy routine on how in today's politically correct society, "EEEEEEEEEEVERY child is speciaaaaaaaaaaaaaal"

0/10. Possibly the worst stadium allocation of any event ever scheduled in history. Rugby League showcasing itself to the world as the dumb backwater sport it truly is..

This.

In addition, I noticed in the draw there's no mid-week matches. All games on Friday/Saturday/Sunday. Not a fan of the plethora of Friday night matches, especially having the opening match, a Q/F and a S/F on a Friday night. Those 3 matches got better crowds had they been on the weekend (Saturday night).

Holy shit I just realised that the Darwin Quarter final will have the winner of pool A which will likely be Australia. While the Melbourne quarter final will have 2nd place of group B (Samoa, Tonga or Scotland) up against the winner of group D (likely PNG)

f**kING SWITCH IT AROUND!!

f**k me, that Darwin Quarter final really should be in Perth. The draw and pools are mostly fine. But the stadium allocation is all sorts of f**ked up.

Like with the Cricket World Cup last year where Australia and NZ were allocated set venues for their Q/F and S/F matches, common sense must prevail and unless Australia ends up in A3 and has to play NZ as B1, Australia's Q/F match MUST be scheduled at AAMI Park. That's the only way any credibility can be salvaged. It's going to be a complete utter joke if they end up playing in Darwin.

 

[roughyedspud]

I see england have been punted around the continent...melbourne,sydney,perth,darwin or wellington,brisbane or auckland then brisbane should we reach the final if we are too knackered from all the traveling...


Cheers

 

[Billythekid]

I love rugby league but f*ck sometimes I wish I followed a sport that wasn't continually screwed over by the people running the game. Every time you start to feel positive about the game and think its moving forward another stupid decision/s sets it back.

Darwin should not be hosting a finals match no matter how much the government payed. It's not just a matter of the size of the ground but the weather that time of year. It's just crazy and it's a disaster waiting to happen. The fact that Australia could be the one playing there just makes it even more of a farce.

I know Sydney haven't given the best support to international rugby league but to not have a finals match of any sort is ludicrous. Even if the government wasn't bidding I feel that says more about the people running the tournament than anything.

Double headers are an embarrassment for a WC and I'm not sure much else can be said. As per always we're selling ourselves short and not taking the tournament as seriously as it deserves and that's exactly what the media and public will do in return. If the people running the tournament treat it like a mickey mouse tournament why should the fans and media be any different? That's why the 2003 RWC was so successful, they treated the tournament like it was the pinnacle of the game and the fans responded.

We are playing far too many games in north queensland and ignoring places like Newcastle which deserve a game and would draw a good crowd.

That plus we have severely limited the size of the stadiums we're playing in. Outside of the 2 games at Suncorp will there be any other game with more than 32K people there?

I'm not sure why I waste my time on posts like this. We all know how stupid decisions like this are but the people running the game will keep making them regardless.

Thankfully the draw looks pretty good so hopefully the quality of the matches speak for themselves and we get damn good tv ratings. Hopefully this WC is a small success and doesn't set back all the good work achieved by the UK for the last world cup.

 

[East Coast Tiger]

Pros

Good draw for PNG
3 PNG homes game
Lebanon two games in Sydney
Perth getting game
Darwin getting a game
Canberra getting an Australian game
Brisbane final
Games in north, central and South Island of NZ.

Cons

No Fiji home game
Small stadia for Melbourne, Auckland
No games in NSW outside Sydney
Too many in NQ
Wrong game for Darwin
No islander teams in Sydney
And most of all, a general reliance on the same people going to a lot of games, especially in Cairns, Townsville and Canberra.

Overall, pretty poor bar a few good but pretty obvious choices.

Almost certainly won't be going to any games.

 

[PaulyTom]

Half of bankstown will be ready for the SFS clashes.

 

[johnny plath]

Just reading through comments here goes to prove you can't please everyone, and rugby league fans - no hope. It seems that people here hold the 2013 wc as the gold star, yet to be honest theres a few complaints about things in 2017 that don't seem that different to 2013 yet were praised.

I agree Darwin is an odd choice, but if we compare quarter finals from this and 2013, venue capacities in 2017 are larger across the board, apart from Darwin, which is only 1000 less than Wrexham which also hosted a quarter final, (did anyone complain that a quarter final was held in a shit heap in wrexham) and only drew just over 5000 for the match In all likelihood Aust v Tonga quarter final will be in Darwin, how big a venue would you realistically need, a packed Darwin might not be as bad as it sounds.

The double headers seem to be copping a bit of flak, yet the 2013 hosted double headers as well, without the negativity. Sure it was Cardiff and Wembley, but hey the principles the same - apparently selling the game short by having a World cup double header. Maybe the rationale for double headers in NQ is to try to capture those northern fans that apparently travel great distances - get them all there for one big event rather than half and half over a couple of weekends. I dunno, just speculating.

I agree that the lack of games in NSW is a disappointment, but in some ways maybe its rugby league finally saying that if you don't respect me, f**k you. Why wouldn't events NSW bid for some games - does it take rugby league for granted so much that it just expects the games biggest event will fall into their laps, because hey, we are the heartland of rugby league. Would they bid for other international events, or treat them with contempt as well, f**king tight arses.

Someone mentioned that with no exposure in NSW media coverage would suffer..... spare me but do you seriously think the Sydney media would talk it up.... the crap coming from so called journalists would be toxic. Hopefully RLIF will provide their own media and we'll get positive stories.

I don't even think opting for some smaller venues is going to be that bad an option, demand will be up and it will come across well on tv. I think we need to get away from this dick measuring contest that we want to have with other sports... at this time maybe this is what is right for our rlwc, f**k the rest, this will be great.

Final point, as for England and others getting tired travelling the continent, we have these things in Australia called planes, and between most cities its about a 1-2 hour trip. Its probably quicker getting between match venues than the 2013 world cup where I imagine there was a lot of driving and not much flying. Any way, lets find positives and make it as special as we can.

 

[miguel de cervantes]

I like it. No way was everyone going to be pleased, Brown has found some good compromises.

A lot of overreation here and some very contradictory critiques. Give the man some credit and have some faith, some of the choices appear to be quite smart. He is a pro.

--

The draw - is good, can't really complain about that. Even the French are happy with it.

Darwin 1/4 final - don't panic, games are allocated after pool matches, Australia won't play in Darwin

Games in Fiji - would have been good but not the end of the world

Games in PNG - great

AAMI over Eithiad - not a huge issue - even union played Aus v Eng there. Better to sell the game out solid. Better ground for football.

NZ coverage - good

No Sydney Final - agree with this, one semi final should possibly have been in Sydney instead of 2x Brisbane. That said, these are the only two games in Brisbane and should assure both sell out which is important, whereas Sydney after the pools I would have serious doubts.

Townsville double header - who cares, not a huge problem for minor games. More importantly, the semi-final isn't a double header, better still they are held in two different countries.

No suburban/regional NSW games - 3 games in Canberra. And regional/suburban games and stadia for a World Cup? You want Poms and French to travel the globe and then Australia but can't get your arse to a game in a capital city? Harden the XXXX up.

Too many games in NQ - they probably paid some good coin, have solid crowd records, give some teams a base allowing for fans there to adopt them and make it easier for Pacific Islanders to travel to the games.

You can't have your cake and eat it too. You can't pine for games in Penrith and Wollongong and complain about lack of risk taking or spreading the game.

If the games are well publiscised, and I'm sure with Channel 7 and Brown running the show, you will learn to love the draw.

 

[PaulyTom]

I have very few complaints.

I can see this tournament being very successful.

 

[roughyedspud]

You have a funny concept of time my friend

Sydney to perth is 5hours plus

Perth to darwin 4hours

Perth to wellington is 11hours with the shortest layover

Wellington to brisbane is 4hour

 

[adamkungl]

You have a funny concept of time my friend

Sydney to perth is 5hours plus

Perth to darwin 4hours

Perth to wellington is 11hours with the shortest layover

Wellington to brisbane is 4hour

At least there aren't any midweek games.

On the upside, it'll be an awesome trip for those who make it.

I tend to agree that the groups could have been state based to cut down on travel costs though
eg.
A - NSW + Melbourne + Canberra
B - NZ
C - PNG + North QLD
D - SE QLD

 

[donny donny]

Apparently NSW had more games up until recently and then they pulled their money so the games were moved elsewhere. If thats the case then its hard to blame the tournament organisers, they could hardly give them the games for free after they initially promised cash for them.

 

[PaulyTom]

I agree with Donny Donny , If NSW didn't want to stump up any money and or promotion surrounding the games then they deserve what they got.

 

[thorson1987]

Apparently NSW had more games up until recently and then they pulled their money so the games were moved elsewhere. If thats the case then its hard to blame the tournament organisers, they could hardly give them the games for free after they initially promised cash for them.

Agreed.

 

[Warriors Fever]

Almost certainly won't be going to any games.

Why not?

 

[Warriors Fever]

I'm more angry at Events NSW that there won't be more games in Sydney. If they didn't stump up cash for games and others did then that's fair, but why didn't they? They paid for the AFC and you know they would stump up cash for some fluffy AFL comp, why not the most popular game in Sydney. This government is so out of touch with the people. Anyway looking forward to plotting my trip next year, will definitely check out the Lebanese and try and get to NZ.

 

[undertaker]

Confirmed that Australia WILL play their Quarter-Final match in Darwin if they make it (the only rare exception would be if Australia finishes 3rd and NZ finishes 1st, in which case Australia's Q/F will be in either Wellington or Christchurch as NZ is the higher-seeded team. However, Australia would have to lose to England and have to have a complete off-day against either Lebanon or France for this to occur, which I don't see happening). There's no way NT government would've pumped in $1 million to be allocated a World Cup Q/F match if it wasn't on the condition that Australia had to play there. It will be now interesting to see what crowd the AAMI Park Q/F will get:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-19/darwin-set-to-host-rugby-league-world-cup-match/7642670

Darwin is set to host a quarter final in the 2017 Rugby League World Cup, in a deal that will most likely see the Australian national team play in the Top End.

The agreement struck between the World Cup organisers and the Northern Territory Government guarantees the Kangaroos will play in Darwin on November 17, if they reach the quarter finals.

 

[roughyedspud]

Oh its been decided australia will finish top of the group then....

Roll on melbourne!

 

[undertaker]

I'm more angry at Events NSW that there won't be more games in Sydney. If they didn't stump up cash for games and others did then that's fair, but why didn't they? They paid for the AFC and you know they would stump up cash for some fluffy AFL comp, why not the most popular game in Sydney. This government is so out of touch with the people. Anyway looking forward to plotting my trip next year, will definitely check out the Lebanese and try and get to NZ.

Yeah, its pathetic that the fate of the scheduling of matches has rested in the hands of tourism/state governments (in the case of Newcastle/Gosford/Wollongong/Western Sydney and any other potential venue in NSW, in the hands of Events NSW). I can't believe they were more than happy to pay for the AFC Asian Cup and they most certainly would if there was an AFL World Cup, yet didn't want to bid for games involving the most popular sport in NSW. Did they bid for the Australia/England vs Lebanon matches, or did the ARL just give it to them?

Very poor negotiating all round and this will need to be fixed if Australia hosts matches again in 2025.

 

[undertaker]

Oh its been decided australia will finish top of the group then....

Roll on melbourne!

No, it hasn't been decided. It is just like last year's Cricket World Cup, where if they made the Q/Fs, Australia was allocated to play their match at Adelaide Oval and New Zealand at Wellington, regardless of where they finished in the top 4 of their group.