Excellent bump Undertaker!!!
This has been a bug bear of mine for a long time now.
The AFL gets a massive leg up on these special event/public holidays with regards to FTA coverage and it's about time RL joined the party.
I think it's criminal that our ANZAC Day clash is pay tv only when the AFL gets the chance to showcase its ANZAC game on FTA nationally.
Brutus, a lot of ppl on this forum need their memories refreshened and tweaked as they don't realise the EXTENT of how badly we're being screwed over by the TV networks. Most are under the impression that Ch9 have done a good job for the game and look at Foxtel as the anti-Christ because of the whole SL war. Amidst all the petty insults and snide remarks I read on other threads (some by moderators), I applaud ppl like you and docbrown for championing the cause and I believe that both of you, as well as a few other posters (PARRA_FAN is another), have the games' best interest at heart. It's all fun that we learn in high school about what the Nazis and other fascist pigs have done in world's history and we perceive their actions as "dictatorship", yet in the NRL, NRL fans and clubs have allowed Ch9 to dictate and control nearly every aspect of the game for so long. I could run into a whole list of things that have given me the green apple splatters since I started watching league. It's amazing that every other recognised competition in world sport has fixed scheduling and it's only NOW that the idea of fixed scheduling has been suggested. Also, it's completely unacceptable that only 2 out of 8 matches (with the occasional 3rd if the Warriors are playing at home on Sunday) are played during the day. However, these are only two aspects of the much bigger picture though...
Regarding this thread, even the most ardent of league supporters knows that when it comes to ANZAC day, one of the major events that day in this country is the AFL's Collingwood vs Essendon match (which is probably AFL's 2nd biggest match on the calendar after the GF. Probably their equivalent of RL's SOO). It doesn't matter how much you hate AFL (I hate it just as much as the average league supporter on this forum), YOU CANNOT DENY THE FACT that this match gets widespread exposure in the media (even in Sydney and Brisbane), is spoken about amongst many ppl, and craps all over the PROMOTION of our Anzac matches. It's not just a "match"; it is an "event" and that's the pivotal point that docbrown is also trying to stress as well. We only started doing the Roosters/Dragons match in 2002 and the Storm/Warriors match in 2009. The Collingwood/Essendon match began in 1994 (i think),
but has always been broadcasted live on FTA Australiawide. Roosters/Dragons has only been on FTA twice (2004 and 2010), Storm/Warriors match never. To be successful in any sales industry, you absolutely need the promotion and exposure and FTA reaches a much larger audience than PayTV. So, come ANZAC day, we just give the AFL a FREE KICK in NRL territory whilst Gallop et al. just sit back and do nothing whilst Vlad is sitting in the MCG members stand eating his souvlakis, laughing at Gallop from a great height, thanking the NRL for being so generous. It's amazing what even just A LITTLE competition does, as was shown in the Sydney and Brisbane tv ratings in 2010 of the AFL ANZAC match (compared to 2009) when the Roosters/Dragons game was shown (albeit only in Sydney and Brisbane after rumours of nationwide coverage, as stated at the beginning of this thread).
Miracles don't happen overnight. We all have to start from somewhere and I'm glad I'm not the only person that is pissed off with
