Absolutely.... too much pandering to the doctors and lawyers, and trying to appeal to Mums of kids who’re never going to take up rugby league.
UFC/MMA is the fastest growing sport on the planet - their audience is getting bigger and bigger - like it or not, there’s a thirst for brutality, yet we’re moving further and further away from it - yet every highlight reel shown on either 9 or fox inevitably has footage of the biggest hits, shoulder charges and biff... when people reminisce about great games of old, they don’t talk about the amazing handling and rarely even talk about the superb tries, they talk about the battles on the pitch, the rivalries and even god forbid the fights.
When people look back on old duals they loved, rarely is it halfback vs halfback in a battle of skill they talk about, it’s the big boys going at it, or it’s Tommy walloping every more skilful half in the game.
Our game has a much better chance of not only surviving, but growing if we embrace the beautiful brutality of our sport. Tighten up our contracts and playing agreements to nullify the doctors and lawyers (player disclaimers etc), let those who are tough enough to play the sport crack on with it, and market the sport as we did with Origin in the 90’s on the rivalries, the hatred, the bad blood - build stories that people buy into and can’t wait to see what happens. Going the way we are, we’re trying to attract an audience that is never going to convert - UFC/MMA has shown the audience is there for combat, let’s embrace it!
