NRL chiefs Dave Smith, Todd Greenberg join Touch Football team
Date
March 12, 2014 - 6:33PM
Michael Chammas
Rugby league reporter
NRL chief executive Dave Smith and head of football Todd Greenberg have reaffirmed the game's connection with Touch Football Australia by becoming board members of the organisation.
Smith joined former Eels skipper Nathan Hindmarsh in Coffs Harbour on Wednesday for the launch of the TFA National Touch League Championships, unveiling the new NRL Touch Football branding.
The NRL announced the partnership that represented the biggest boost to participation and game development in the code's history last August, increasing the game's participation levels beyond a million.
"Today was quite a significant day because we launched a combined NRL Touch Football branding," Smith said.
"With that comes the other opportunities around commercial and sponsors and we're able to grow the game. We have 550,000 new players, so that takes us over 1.1 millions players of rugby league. Boys and girls, mums and dads, men and women - it's a very significant player population and a very diverse range, and it reflects on the communities in which the game is played.
"Fundamentally, our game is growing in those areas anyway. We've positioned the new NRL touch football brand today, but the game is growing in significant areas."
Those increases include a 21.8 per cent boost in women's participation over the past year, while there has also been a 14 per cent boost in masters participation. The number of mini footballers has also increased by almost 6 per cent from the previous annual report.
"Add on to that nearly 900,000 of our backyard league and our community work, you've got a lot of people are being touched by the game in one way, shape or form," Smith said. "It's all about growth, it's all about market share."
Touch Football Australia chief executive Colm Maguire said the partnership was a great opportunity for touch football to go to the next level.
“It marks not only a significant milestone for the sport but a great opportunity to forge more formal governance links between both bodies; providing for the NRL a deeper understanding of our sport, our people and the way we conduct our business and our overall approach," Maguire said.
“We always considered this to be a very important step in terms of our future direction and building a stronger partnership in a phased approach, among other initiatives. One such consideration is the development and unveiling of the NRL Touch Football brand which will now also provide for existing and future participants of our sport a more visual demonstration and clearer signal of the product and the partnership in action.
“This is just one part of our phased announcements with other strategies and initiatives around joint participation, advertising and promotions and online activities ongoing."
