MKCS
Juniors
- Messages
- 753
I think the lack of crowds is simply because international rugby league is a novelty, it's sad to say that because I love international league and wish it was huge but for the most part it's an end of season thing that we do for 4 weeks (Often less) and then we move on.
Look at the World Cup, FIFA makes hundreds of millions from the World Cup qualifying tournaments but with our own World Cup every single team currently qualified back in 2022 because they did well at the previous World Cup, what kind of rule is that?
Here is what I'd like to see and what I think would get the crowds back:
- Four international periods a year introduced, this would need to work around State Of Origin so whilst not ideal you'd need to probably do a week in February and cut the All-Star game, do a week in May, a week in August and then a week in November.
- Every couple of years should have a major international tournament, one would be the World Cup and another could perhaps be the return of the Four Nations? 12 teams play in 4 pools with the top teams from each pool playing in the Four Nations. To keep things interesting and fairer perhaps the three biggest teams (Australia, England and New Zealand) are relegated to just two pools meaning that a potential four nations could be something like Australia, England, Fiji and Tonga, a big breath of fresh air to the usual Australia, England, New Zealand and one other.
- Bring in World Cup qualifiers, every single team should have to qualify for the World Cup unless they're the host nation. Smaller nations would need to qualify in their own tournaments to even reach the qualifiers, these tournaments to reach the cup qualifiers could be held in smaller stadiums or regional areas giving something back to smaller Rugby League communities.
- Away from the major 13 on 13 tournaments I'd bring back the World Cup in 9s maybe the year before the Rugby League World Cup. They did it once, it seemed successful and then COVID hit, why not bring it back?
A potential schedule using the above for this year could be something like:
February: Opening matches of four nations qualifiers + friendlies
May: World Cup qualifiers
August: Final matches of four nations qualifiers + friendlies
October/November: Four Nations Tournament + Tours + Friendlies.
---
There is a lot of discussion about players not representing Australia playing Origin because they clearly want to play more rep games, take Jarome Luai for example who would be one of the first players picked for Samoa, Samoa has only played 4 games since the last World Cup so if he wants to compete at the highest level he's forced to play Origin.
With this schedule he could play 27 games a year for the Tigers (Potentially more) plus perhaps as many as 5-6 games for Samoa, he would no longer feel he needs to play Origin to compete at the highest level because he'd be busy with his commitments to Samoa with four nations qualifiers, World Cup qualifiers and major tournaments.
That's how you get more people through the door, you create the excitement of Australia Vs New Zealand, Samoa Vs Tonga and NSW Vs QLD with other nations and with time people will be desperate to see other rep games, for it to work though they need to be treated as just as important if not more than Origin.
Look at the World Cup, FIFA makes hundreds of millions from the World Cup qualifying tournaments but with our own World Cup every single team currently qualified back in 2022 because they did well at the previous World Cup, what kind of rule is that?
Here is what I'd like to see and what I think would get the crowds back:
- Four international periods a year introduced, this would need to work around State Of Origin so whilst not ideal you'd need to probably do a week in February and cut the All-Star game, do a week in May, a week in August and then a week in November.
- Every couple of years should have a major international tournament, one would be the World Cup and another could perhaps be the return of the Four Nations? 12 teams play in 4 pools with the top teams from each pool playing in the Four Nations. To keep things interesting and fairer perhaps the three biggest teams (Australia, England and New Zealand) are relegated to just two pools meaning that a potential four nations could be something like Australia, England, Fiji and Tonga, a big breath of fresh air to the usual Australia, England, New Zealand and one other.
- Bring in World Cup qualifiers, every single team should have to qualify for the World Cup unless they're the host nation. Smaller nations would need to qualify in their own tournaments to even reach the qualifiers, these tournaments to reach the cup qualifiers could be held in smaller stadiums or regional areas giving something back to smaller Rugby League communities.
- Away from the major 13 on 13 tournaments I'd bring back the World Cup in 9s maybe the year before the Rugby League World Cup. They did it once, it seemed successful and then COVID hit, why not bring it back?
A potential schedule using the above for this year could be something like:
February: Opening matches of four nations qualifiers + friendlies
May: World Cup qualifiers
August: Final matches of four nations qualifiers + friendlies
October/November: Four Nations Tournament + Tours + Friendlies.
---
There is a lot of discussion about players not representing Australia playing Origin because they clearly want to play more rep games, take Jarome Luai for example who would be one of the first players picked for Samoa, Samoa has only played 4 games since the last World Cup so if he wants to compete at the highest level he's forced to play Origin.
With this schedule he could play 27 games a year for the Tigers (Potentially more) plus perhaps as many as 5-6 games for Samoa, he would no longer feel he needs to play Origin to compete at the highest level because he'd be busy with his commitments to Samoa with four nations qualifiers, World Cup qualifiers and major tournaments.
That's how you get more people through the door, you create the excitement of Australia Vs New Zealand, Samoa Vs Tonga and NSW Vs QLD with other nations and with time people will be desperate to see other rep games, for it to work though they need to be treated as just as important if not more than Origin.
