08 World Cup Media Campaign - Lets make a difference

[International RL]

Another idea, though pertaining more to the general media perception to rugby league and other sports, is the use of Reg Reagan. My mate and I have often kicked around the idea of getting in touch with Matty Johns. He is an avid Rugby League man, hates union and AFL and is adored by a huge portion of people (league and non-league) for his charism and funny characters. A lot of this population is easily influenced, as is evidenced by the whole 'love' for Boony by people who never saw the bloke bat.

A huge problem in Sydney particularly, is the largely apathetic attitude Rugby League people have to their sport. Even huge league fans that I know seem to take the "she'll be right" mentality, in just assuming that their code isn't going anywhere, despite the massive assault it is under from other codes.

Given that AFL is now going to Seven, I'd like to see Matty under the guise of Reg perhaps host a segment that really hammers the other codes. This might help to make them less accepted by a) leaguies who are apathetic and perhaps even partial to the odd swans or waratahs game and b) to the easily influenced fad crowd.

I know that this isn't the exact right area to post this, and i apologise. But i wasn't sure where else to stick it as it's still media related.

 

[ali]

Good thread and great to see the discussion in full flow.

IMO, the subforum as proposed will indeed make a difference and will have numerous positive outcomes.

Ali, roopy has PMd me and ask me to look into it. I can tell you that LU Admin are behind this 100%.

Once you have a title and a firm idea of how you want it to be accessed, let me know and I'll make it happen. There will be one or two ground rules which we can discuss when you're ready but nothing major. I also think you should be a moderator of the subforum.

As for the access issue, my only suggestion is an open to forum for all to read, but permission required to join. ie Open but with a select membership - I think your option #3 says the same thing.
There are subforums like this already.
The F7s Management forum for example is viewable by all members and guests but they can't post there. The only members who can post are those who belong to the F7s Mgt usergroup.
That way the moderators decide who can post (and cannot post) in the subforum.

That's just one suggestion, the vBulletin format is quite flexible. I do agree that such a subforum should have a zero tolerance on trolls or spammers.
It should be kept strictly on a solid foundation of discussion about the promotion and media of the international game in the lead up to the 08 World Cup.

Let me know when you're ready to get started.

Cheers. :thumn

What I don't want is a situation when a casual passer by comes in and has a look, but decides it's too much effort to get involved. I think I joined the Sharks sub forum about 3 months too late, because I didn't bother reading a sticky explaining what I had to do to join. If we are to make an impact then we need a lot of people involved, and they must stick to it.

But how about this for an idea. We leave it as a completely open forum moderated heavily. But if anyone has a suggestion which they believe is a little bit too sensitive, we communicate by email. I don't mind collecting a list of email adresses of the active members, and then circulating it by email to the group. I could also send out a fortnightly email summarising what's been going on in the forum, with the intention of keeping everyone keen.

On another note Willow, do you reckon you would be able to tee anything up with the RLEF about getting their press releases onto league unlimited. A few major world cup announcements have gone by, and nothing has got onto the front page here. www.rlef.eu.com is churning out about 3 stories a week at the moment, so it would be great if we could carry that news on here.

 

[ali]

Steve Mascord is very pro-international league, so he is always a good ally to perhaps seek out. Maybe he could start publicising international results. After-all all the TV networks tell us about England v Uzbekistan in the other code.

You speak a lot of sense. I hailed Mascord's move to the Tele at the time as wonderful for RL and I still believe it will be. I'm not sure what the stats are, but far more RL fans will now be reading his work. It's only early days and I'm sure he doesn't want to push the boundaries with his editor too early on, but there has already been a few quality mentions of the international game in his articles. In the magazine in Mondays paper, in his season preview he wrote that international footy is in it's best shape for more than a quarter of a century and the world cup is coming up in 2008. I'd love to get his views on all this and when we get up and running I will try and email him.

As for Reg, he could be a wonderful asset to any campaign. I wouldn't want to see him go all out attacking another sport, though it would have been great to see him attack the bullsh*t around Union's 03 World cup or the attitude of the Melbourne media to Rugby League. But this is probably for debate elsewhere. I don't want to turn this into a League vs Union vs AFL thing, this is about making RL fans more aware of international Rugby League. Once we can get the Rugby League community on our side, we can start worrying about Peter Fitzsimons, Mike Carlton and others who will no doubt rip into the tournament come 2008. But we need a few League journos ready to stand up to these guys when the inevitable happens, not siding with them.

 

[ali]

You speak a lot of sense. I hailed Mascord's move to the Tele at the time as wonderful for RL and I still believe it will be. I'm not sure what the stats are, but far more RL fans will now be reading his work. It's only early days and I'm sure he doesn't want to push the boundaries with his editor too early on, but there has already been a few quality mentions of the international game in his articles. In the magazine in Mondays paper, in his season preview he wrote that international footy is in it's best shape for more than a quarter of a century and the world cup is coming up in 2008. I'd love to get his views on all this and when we get up and running I will try and email him.

As for Reg, he could be a wonderful asset to any campaign. I wouldn't want to see him go all out attacking another sport, though it would have been great to see him attack the bullsh*t around Union's 03 World cup or the attitude of the Melbourne media to Rugby League. But this is probably for debate elsewhere. I don't want to turn this into a League vs Union vs AFL thing, this is about making RL fans more aware of international Rugby League. Once we can get the Rugby League community on our side, we can start worrying about Peter Fitzsimons, Mike Carlton and others who will no doubt rip into the tournament come 2008. But we need a few League journos ready to stand up to these guys when the inevitable happens, not siding with them.

Anyone got any thoughts on my last proposal?

 

[Dakink]

One of the first targets we should look at, is helping Yanto out with the Dutch commissions failure to recognise League as a seperate sport to Union. He needs all the help he can get to get the game off the ground over there against opposition.

 

[ali]

One of the first targets we should look at, is helping Yanto out with the Dutch commissions failure to recognise League as a seperate sport to Union. He needs all the help he can get to get the game off the ground over there against opposition.

True, and I've sent an email. It's not just by emailing the Dutch bloke we can help out. We can use our media to discuss international issues that need action. For example, when writing the email to the Dutch guy, it would have been great to direct him to a rlif website. If we can get the media talking international footy, then the next step is using them as a tool to get action.

Around the same time i recieved an email from John Brady about the US TV coverage and thought about maybe mentioning the dutch issues to him, but decided not to. Actually now that I have got his email, I will mention what we are doing to him, given that he is director of media and communications at the NRL.

 

[Dakink]

True, and I've sent an email. It's not just by emailing the Dutch bloke we can help out. We can use our media to discuss international issues that need action. For example, when writing the email to the Dutch guy, it would have been great to direct him to a rlif website. If we can get the media talking international footy, then the next step is using them as a tool to get action.

Around the same time i recieved an email from John Brady about the US TV coverage and thought about maybe mentioning the dutch issues to him, but decided not to. Actually now that I have got his email, I will mention what we are doing to him, given that he is director of media and communications at the NRL.

Hopefully you pointed him to the RLEF site?

I am going to also write him an email - the more correspondance he gets, hopefully he will llisten! Are you able to PM me the general gist of what you said in your email so I can better constuct mine to support yours?

 

[roopy]

I think the new logo for estonia thread should be in the media subforum as well.
Anything involved in publicity really IMO.

 

[International RL]

Hey, for those of you who watched the Footy Show, Chief was pretty passionate in his want to promote the code nationally. I can only assume that he would lvoe to see it thrive internationally. Maybe we could get him to host a segment on the progress of each nation as they head towards the World cup and the qualifiers that are happening??

The footy show would be the perfect start to build awareness for the WC in the Rugby League community. They often show leadership with things that catch on such as REg and 'THats gold'. It would be a good avenue to get people talking, that will force the media to report on it. It may also encourage other pro-league journos to pipe up. Thoughts?

 

[linny]

Hi everyone,

Its great to see people that are passionate about Rugby League getting together and thinking constructively about the direction our sport should be going in.

I think the forum should be open to anyone that is going to contribute constructively while swiftly getting rid of people who are going to waste other people's time.

Our game really does suffer from incompetence from its administrators and also short-sightedness and generel reluctance to allow the game to prosper on an international stage.

I trully believe that Rugby League is one of the most competitive and fierce arenas that two nations could compete against each other, and with the right direction, a Rugby League World Cup would be one of the most spectacular sporting events in the world.

It's initiatives like this will direct Rugby League in the right direction.

 

[YANTO]

The first thing that needs to get set up us a world cup website.
this could then be the main focal point of International interest.
Even if it is an unofficial one I am sure we have enough contacts with the people running the countries to encourage them to forward all the latest news.
If Kenya and Singapore can produce a decent site surly someone can set one up.

The NNRLB have a WC section on theirs now http://nnrlb.atspace.com/page30.html
and this must be a first aim.

Has anyone seen the union wc website? very very good and informative.
http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/EN/Home/home.htm

 

[ali]

Hi everyone,

Its great to see people that are passionate about Rugby League getting together and thinking constructively about the direction our sport should be going in.

I think the forum should be open to anyone that is going to contribute constructively while swiftly getting rid of people who are going to waste other people's time.

Our game really does suffer from incompetence from its administrators and also short-sightedness and generel reluctance to allow the game to prosper on an international stage.

I trully believe that Rugby League is one of the most competitive and fierce arenas that two nations could compete against each other, and with the right direction, a Rugby League World Cup would be one of the most spectacular sporting events in the world.

It's initiatives like this will direct Rugby League in the right direction.

Welcome linny, I couldn't agree more. I hope you can stick around and get actively involved.

 

[International RL]

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[International RL]

The first thing that needs to get set up us a world cup website.
this could then be the main focal point of International interest.
Even if it is an unofficial one I am sure we have enough contacts with the people running the countries to encourage them to forward all the latest news.
If Kenya and Singapore can produce a decent site surly someone can set one up.

The NNRLB have a WC section on theirs now http://nnrlb.atspace.com/page30.html
and this must be a first aim.

Has anyone seen the union wc website? very very good and informative.
http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/EN/Home/home.htm

this should DEFINATELY be the first thing done. In fact I think this should be the starting point for us in terms of pressuring the ARL into action. The website needs to be offical and professionally done. This will help to make the public more aware of the existance of the event, allow for reporting of results and will make the media more aware of the qualifying games. The website can list all the nations that play the game and their progress and can be an avenue for press releases etc and let us know who is running what etc.

This HAS to happen ASAP

 

[ali]

I agree. This is something we definately need to consistently raise in the media. Colin Love apparently has ownership of the project. But I sense frustration coming from Richard Lewis, going by the South African news that appeared on the rlef website. I think if Love isn't well down the track, they may aswell just expand the rlef website.

 

[International RL]

Right, so we need to badger the ARL into action re: a professional website for the world cup with team lists, fixtures, results, news, announcements etc etc


do we have a contact address?

 

[ali]

Right, so we need to badger the ARL into action re: a professional website for the world cup with team lists, fixtures, results, news, announcements etc etc


do we have a contact address?

No I have never got anywhere with contacting the ARL through the NRL. They obviously think they are above the general public. I've had numerous email exchanges with Richard Lewis though.

Since I've got Rebecca Wilson's email address, I've dropped her an email with Yanto's list of complaints from the other forum. She's got it in for the ARL, so you never though she may just give it to them come Sunday.

I'd say come world cup announcement time, when hopefully someone like Love will get interviewd on the radio, we can encourage the media to ask him where is the RLIF website.

 

[International RL]

Could we talk to Lewis then? What is his email address. Surely if he makes some moves it can get the ball rolling

 

[colonel_123]

One thing I'd like to be seen re: webpage issues, would be a small change to the NRL site.

It's probably been mentioned but they have a "rugby league network" section down the bottom of the site and there is no link to the RLEF website.

 

[International RL]

Yeah I sent them an email about including news from that site

Just email them via the 'contact us' option, the more the better. They are generally pretty responsive to that kind of stuff.