ARROGANT, SPINELESS, GUTLESS, SELFISH

[Bengal]

Give the ARL something worthwhile to promote.

thats the whole point of this thread

it should be up to all the bodies to promote it, or better yet and international body (RLIF) to promote it

Umm well that may be the point of this thread, but your interpretation of the line “give the ARL something worthwhile to promote” is different to what I had attended it to mean.

I’m not talking about the idea of just holding test matches which the ARL should then promote.
I’m talking about Great Britain and New Zealand producing teams that are capable of winning tests and winning them regularly against Australia.
Fair dinkum teams.
Teams that will arouse the interest of fans long since muted by the predictability of the outcome.

Teams that the ARL wouldn’t hesitate to promote knowing that they wouldn’t be selling bullsh*t to the fans i.e. something that won’t be another Kangaroo thrashing. That’s what I mean when I say give the ARL something to promote.

That is also what I mean when I say to Mr French if these countries cannot produce quality opposition; please tell me what brilliant marketing strategy he has in mind to sell what will then be yet another one-sided affair.

 

[dimitri]

um i think the fact that nz could beat australia without their best player and with an 18yr old rookie in his place shows that we definitely do have something to promote


:roll: :roll: :roll:

 

[Bengal]

um i think the fact that nz could beat australia without their best player and with an 18yr old rookie in his place shows that we definitely do have something to promote


:roll: :roll: :roll:

Consistently beat them, not just one offs.

If somehow we were able to get Australia to field their C team on a more regular basis International competition between OZ, GB and NZ would indeed be a much more interesting spectacle.

I better not forget that if we were to hold a two or three match series between Australia and New Zealand, history will tell us that Aussie would win that also. This renders any yapping about holding more than one-off test matches fruitless also.

The Kiwis and Poms need not only to win, but win consistently for the ARL to be able to run a decent ad campaign based on the unpredictability of the result. Ya know something like come one and all, witness what will be a titanic struggle between Australia and New Zealand. A game that will showcase all of Leagues superstars a game that no one dares to predict the result of beforehand, so on and so on.

Lol we can't say or promote anything along those lines at the moment (short of having the third rate team that is currently going around in GB at present).

But if GB and NZ pull finger then the opportunity of enthusiastic promotion will be there for the taking.

However I say again, it's bl**dy hard to promote likely one-sided affairs with any sort of gusto when the result is (usually) a forgone conclusion.

 

[Bengal]

A few further points of interest.
Did you catch the level of promotion for the Oz vs NZ test a few weeks back?
Basically there was sweet fa. One factor of course was the absence of many of the games stars, but the overriding influence was the fact that few pundits were predicting a Kiwi victory. With that in mind (a likely defeat) who in NZ would’ve had the guts to talk up New Zealand’s chances?

Lets move on to the current situation in Great Britain. The level of anticipation over there for the up-coming series is through the roof. The main reason for that, well we all know the answer to that. The likelihood of a real competitive series.
Competition makes promotion easy.
Lack of competition makes promotion a chore.
With this in mind I can see why the ARL’s poor attitude towards promoting International League exists.

 

[salivor]

I don't think it’s a case at all with NZ and Eng having to produce teams that can be competitive, we've already seen that they can do that, getting consistency is another thing. Australia will always have the depth and the resources but continue to play dirty on the international scene.

We've seen it time and time again. Complaining every time something doesn't seem quite right for them, getting rid of neutral referees because it didn't suit them not to have a referee that most of their players weren't used to week in week out, taking the likes of Tuqiri and El Masri when they'd recently represented Fiji and Lebonon, positioning tests after the State of Origin series and the list goes on and on.

Quite frankly I'm sick of the ARL only looking out for itself time and time again. Putting the NRL and State of Origin ahead of international footy and allowing those competitions to dictate when we can squeeze tests in. There’s your difference between League and Union. Union doesn't squeeze in international footy around its club competitions. NZ players didn't miss the World Cup so they could stay at home and play in the NPC. Could you imagine if a Rugby League World Cup was scheduled during the NRL season? The clubs would be screaming blue murder and attempting to stop their rep players from participating. The ESL clubs are just as bad not allowing NZ players enough time to get over here; we're now at the point where Daniel Anderson has given up on English based players because we all know it’s not worth the effort. You can't travel halfway around the world; have 2 days to recover and then go out and play and international test.

 

[JOBPS]

The predicted outcome of an event doesn't affect the attendance to the event. England Soccer would sell out any stadium in Britain no matter how bad the oposition were. England Rugby Union do the same with Twickenham EVERY game, even the pointless tests against the Barbarians are near sell outs.

Do you know why these associations sell tickets? because they promote and advertise. Rugby League bodies (ARL, NRL, Super League) need to wise up and start advertising their showpiece events. Its pointless getting full houses to the NRL Grand Final, all the State of Origin games, the Challenge Cup Final and the Super League Grand final (all 70,000+) if you then can't sell 40,000 tickets to a test between any two of Australia, New Zealand and Great Britain.

The ARL need to stop 'stealing' players. Once you have represented Lebannon you SHOULD NOT be able to play for Australia. In what other global sport can players do that? to my reckoning it's none.

But before we start organising the International Board we need to sort Australia and Britain out! BARLA and Super League need to come together, as do the ARL and NRL.

 

[dimitri]

few further points of interest.
Did you catch the level of promotion for the Oz vs NZ test a few weeks back?
Basically there was sweet fa. One factor of course was the absence of many of the games stars, but the overriding influence was the fact that few pundits were predicting a Kiwi victory. With that in mind (a likely defeat) who in NZ would’ve had the guts to talk up New Zealand’s chances?

people in australia didnt even know when it was going to be on tv until a day or 2 before the test

it wasnt even in the tv guide


:roll: :roll: :roll: :roll:

 

[Bengal]

The predicted outcome of an event doesn't affect the attendance to the event. England Soccer would sell out any stadium in Britain no matter how bad the oposition were. England Rugby Union do the same with Twickenham EVERY game, even the pointless tests against the Barbarians are near sell outs.

Do you know why these associations sell tickets? because they promote and advertise. Rugby League bodies (ARL, NRL, Super League) need to wise up and start advertising their showpiece events. Its pointless getting full houses to the NRL Grand Final, all the State of Origin games, the Challenge Cup Final and the Super League Grand final (all 70,000+) if you then can't sell 40,000 tickets to a test between any two of Australia, New Zealand and Great Britain.

The ARL need to stop 'stealing' players. Once you have represented Lebannon you SHOULD NOT be able to play for Australia. In what other global sport can players do that? to my reckoning it's none.

But before we start organising the International Board we need to sort Australia and Britain out! BARLA and Super League need to come together, as do the ARL and NRL.

English Soccer is not a good comparison to make I feel. That game is a religion over there, more so than AFL is to Victorians over here. That level of fanaticism coupled with the size of their population and adding in, that codes dominance makes attracting crowds for internationals an easy exercise. English Rugby Union is more in tune with League.
Apart from the fact that English Rugby doesn’t have an established club competition along the lines of the NRL or NPC I believe the reason they get good crowds (apart from good marketing and tradition) is because of the competitive nature of the Six Nations competition.
The fact that their club competition isn’t inspiring means the average pommie rah rah fan has to satisfy their appetite for top class rugby somewhere, this is yet another reason why rah rah fans attend Internationals more regularly than League fans.
As for Barbarian matches they may be pointless in your eyes, but they sure aren’t in mine I still have fond memories of Barbarian matches stretching back to when I was a kid (many decades ago ahhh).
These games are fun and entertaining and often showcase the best aspects of that sport.

Therefore I say again a predictable outcome does affect the level of enthusiasm of a league fan, in regards to any League game, not just Internationals.
Promoters recognize this; they recognize that predictability is a hard sell.
It’s so easy to say that we need to promote promote promote but how do we promote a one-sided contest?
What angle can be used to attract cynical league fans to these matches?

Salivor
The self serving interests that the ARL often invoke bugs the sh*t out of me also. For the sake of International League I was hoping like heck that they would overlook Richard Villasanti, therefore leaving him with no choice but to play for the Kiwis. But no they go and pick him, they didn’t need him but they still picked him anyway. I’ve said before that a Villasanti (or in the future a Benji Marshall) playing for NZ makes for a more interesting International than yet another good player playing for Australia.
Their pick of refs, their pick of star players from other countries, man it’s just too much!
This sort of stuff is the pits, but unlike the difficulties with promotion, these self serving actions are more easily able to be fixed, if not by the ARL officials waking up to themselves then by the GB, NZ and possibly other nations taking it on themselves to fix this problem.

A contingent of officials can be used to highlight to sponsors or TV officials the benefits to them of a close and competitive International competition (site the Union Tri-nations for example).
These sponsors or TV execs can then exert pressure on the ARL to ease off the dirty tactics for the benefit of all parties.

Still until the International scene is competitive, the NRL and ESL remains the bread and butter of our game and as such deserves their places at the head of the pack.

 

[terracesider]

International RU matches in the UK are guaranteed full houses not least because they are a fashionable social occasion, but they don't translate into bigger gates for the Zurich Premiership (or whatever it's called). Why are the so fashionable? Because for months before, they are relentlessly plugged in newpapers and on television.

It's not the game on the field itself that's the focus of the relentless propaganda, but the concept of "historic" rivalries between the countries, often linked to popular culture. I put "historic" in commas because the RU authorities have never been shy about inventing or rewriting history. It's a joke, even a dishonest disgrace, but it works.

 

[Bengal]

International RU matches in the UK are guaranteed full houses not least because they are a fashionable social occasion, but they don't translate into bigger gates for the Zurich Premiership (or whatever it's called). Why are the so fashionable? Because for months before, they are relentlessly plugged in newpapers and on television.

It's not the game on the field itself that's the focus of the relentless propaganda, but the concept of "historic" rivalries between the countries, often linked to popular culture. I put "historic" in commas because the RU authorities have never been shy about inventing or rewriting history. It's a joke, even a dishonest disgrace, but it works.

Interesting and justifiable perspective Terraceslider.

I guess that’s the good thing about having a sh*thouse competition.
Promoting Internationals months before they start is hardly going to detract from their Zurich premiership.
Whether it would be effective for League to market an end of year tri-nations series or international tour a month or two before it starts is hard to gage.
Whether it would even be appropriate to do so in what will be finals time, who knows?
Anything’s worth trying once I guess.

Still you’ve highlighted some angles we could use.

“Fashionable” “Social Occasion” “Rivalry” “Historic”.
I reckon we could make a half decent promo campaign using these words.

I gotta tell ya how disappointed I was with the promotion of the recent Aussie v Kiwi test, especially when I found out it was the 100th clash between these sides (from a kiwi point of view).

That’s 1 0 0 !!!

What an angle to work with.

Forget about the absence of many of the games star players.
Forget about the Rugby world cup.
Forget about the (perceived) likely outcome (i.e. an Australian win).
We could easily have taken the focus away from these factors by pushing the “100” theme

We should’ve had League personalities talking up the significance of this occasion.
We should’ve paid the Mad Butcher to drum up awareness of the significance of this upcoming event via the radio, TV, social occasions etc.
Stickers, flyers, posters with the number 100 emblazoned on them (in white on a black background) should’ve been made (with accompanying info featuring less prominently).
Banners, billboards anything showcasing the “100” theme should’ve been used.

The test just gone by didn’t get a full house, for a while there the turnout wasn’t looking the least bit promising, luckily it got a good crowd in the end, but it was a struggle.
It shouldn’t have been, what a wasted opportunity.

We all talk about events, occasions whatever; this could well have been promoted as one.

I’m not particularly keen on hype, but if that’s what we’ve got to do to draw the crowds well…

 

[Mr Angry]

Well said

If I was not a staunch RL fan I do not think I would know much about the upcoming tests in England here in Brisbane. Maybe one ad I have seen.

 

[flatcap]

I live in the south of england, in a city steeped in RU history, which probably doesn't help when I want to watch RL, but the interest is vaguely here, the RFL really need to tap this interest and one way in which this could have been done would have been to ensure gets weekly coverage on terrestrial TV. But they've blown that one with a new sky deal including just about everything but the kicthen sink, oh, and the challenge cup - at last something that is historically significant to british sport.

For the sake of international RL, I just hope GB win this series. It would be massive, so very emotional. I've countless seen the aussies relatively happy (but seemingly, never ecstatic) faces after winning yet another ashes/world cup/test match. Please please please GB win this one. It would mean so much. I get close to tears just thinking about the possibility...

 

[dimitri]

they played so well with 12 men this morning
it was unbelievable