I think you'll find just about all of us Queenslanders have had stuff printed in the Courier Mail and Sunday Mail .... but they still don't have the balls to print the last one I sent a few ago. Try this one, lads .....
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For a newspaper that constantly reminds its readers of its massive readership, and sports writers who continually remind us of rugby leagueâs number one Queensland sporting popularity, it offends me deeply to see such lack of coverage or promotion for our own statewide Rugby League competition, the Bundy Gold Cup. Since the advent of the Brisbane Broncos in 1988, press coverage for our local version of the game has progressively deteriorated, reaching an all-time low in the last two weeks. Yes, I agree it is to be expected that the status and profile of the Broncos and Origin football command priority coverage, but not to the ridiculous stage that local Rugby League (and local sports in general) receives â¦. or should I say, doesnât receive. Courier Mail and Sunday Mail writers have regularly printed that the Bundy Gold Cup is the second best Rugby League competition in the world. Well, if this is the case and those sports writers truly believe this fact, then give it the press coverage that a competition of its standing, with its terrific history dating back 92 years, so richly deserves. Personally, I rate it higher for entertainment value than the predictable âruck five â one pass â switch â kick to the cornerâ NRL competition, and the English Super League which features lesser skills and imagination in general play than the Bundy Gold Cup, and displays major deficiencies in its tackling and defensive standards. One only has to look at the current crop of NRL stars who, until very recent seasons, were playing in our own tough-as-teak local version of the game, to see the quality of the game at this level. Commonly, the standard Bundy Gold Cup coverage in the Sunday Mail consists of a laughable single paragraph obviously put together from a quick fast-forward scan through a video of the ABC-TVâs coverage of Saturdayâs match. But not recently. For the past two weeks we have been spared this embarrassing situation, with the Sunday Mail opting for a single sentence result from the Rockhampton match last week, to not even a score in the sports classifieds this week !!! And for those who may suggest that the Courier Mailâs âMonday Sports Liftoutâ is where one should turn for local football, then think again. At most, this consists of one or two sentences listing scores, usually at the end of one paragraph on the most recent Toowoomba Clydesdales match â¦. and only this because they are the Broncos feeder side. Add to this a list of scorers and a competition table, and there you have it â professional press-writing of the highest quality, covering the premier local sport by the newspaper with the largest readership in Queensland. What a joke ! No actually, what an insult ! An analysis of the sports coverage in the Sunday Mail of 10 June 2001, reveals a breakdown as follows: State-of-origin (7 pages) , Sports classifieds (3 pages) , AFL (two and a half pages) , Golf (2 pages) , Rugby Union, Cricket and âSport Shortsâ (1 page each) , Tennis (two-thirds of a page) , Soccer and Motorsport (half page each) , Athletics (quarter of a page). This clearly is not an acceptable standard of coverage and promotion for any sport of the ilk of the Bundy Gold Cup, nor does it provide acceptable coverage of any local-level sport for that matter. Even drag-racing, hockey, basketball, equestrian, and of all things private school rugby union managed to get better coverage than the Bundy Gold Cup !!!! Noone, not least myself, is begrudging any of these sports their inclusion in the newspaper, and it would be ridiculous to suggest less coverage for the major national and international sports. But to give less coverage and space to local rugby league than early last century is ludicrous. All this achieves is to alienate the followers of this stateâs premier winter sport that donât wish to be swamped with more NRL than they already are on television, radio and in the papers. A thought just occurred to me â¦. do the decreasing crowd attendances at Broncos matches reflect what appears to be an anti-Bronco/NRL sentiment within the local community ? If so, is this not a message to the press what the public want, or more to the point, do not want ? I can assure you that this sentiment exists, and is continually growing within the local Rugby League community for a number of reasons. I feel I have to spell this out, that there is much more substance to the Local Rugby League fraternity than what Courier Mail and Sunday Mail papers give it credit for. By nature of the game, it is a tough sport played by men plenty tough to handle it. And the same goes for followers of the game. Rugby League does not begin and end with the national competition and Origin football, nor does it simply revolve around grass-roots competition and its local fans. Like the game itself, success comes from a team effort, in this case involving the promotion of all aspects of the game, and at all levels. As the printed press is one of the primary media sources linking the game to its fans, I feel it should adopt the lead role in addressing this problem â¦. and no doubt increase its readership in the process. (My name and no. were supplied ....) Cheers. Mud
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