State of Queensland falls victim to NRL delayed reaction for season opener
Todd Balym
The Courier-Mail
March 03, 2014 11:00PM
WELCOME to Queensland State of Origin champions eight years in a row but still living in the rugby league dark ages.
The sunshine state will become the rugby league black hole of Australia on Thursday night as the only section of the entire country unable to witness the start of the NRL season live on free to air television.
In what is possibly the biggest slap in the face to rugby league’s most expansive heartland, viewers in Perth, Darwin, Hobart and Adelaide will be able to tune into Thursday’s NRL season kick-off between reigning premiers Sydney Roosters and powerhouse club South Sydney with a live broadcast on either Channel 9 or GEM.
Those capital cities don’t even boast rugby league clubs, some won’t even host NRL games this year, yet the small but growing supporter bases in those league outposts can witness the most anticipated start to the season.
Last year these two teams fought for the NRL minor premiership. It was a ratings bonanza and is set to be again with marquee match-ups like the heavyweight clash of Sonny Bill Williams and Sam Burgess or the battle of attacking superstars Greg Inglis and Michael Jennings.
Three Maroons’ Origin heroes – Inglis, Ben Te’o and Chris McQueen – will run out for the Rabbitohs but Queensland television viewers will be made to wait until 7.30pm for the broadcast to begin, despite the game actually kicking off 25 minutes earlier at ANZ Stadium.
On Thursday night Channel 9 has opted to stick to its one-hour nightly news program, followed by A Current Affair, before beginning the “live” telecast at 7.30pm.
By the time Queenslanders get to witness the kick off, most fans would have followed the progress of the game through any form of social media or radio.
The delay is obviously a result of Queensland not having daylight savings, but that problem has been solved for Friday night football.
Broncos fans will get every minute of Brisbane’s clash with bitter rivals Canterbury live as Nine has made the wise choice to make a minor alteration to their television schedule to accommodate Ben Barba’s hostile return to face his ex-teammates at the Bulldogs.
The network has simply flicked the 7pm A Current Affair program across to GEM so viewers can tune into the football, with the added bonus of skipping the half hour pre-game show.
The Courier Mail attempted to contact Channel 9 and the NRL late last night, but neither responded to our requests for comment.
Just last week NRL chief executive Dave Smith boasted that rugby league was poised and ready to become the biggest code in Australian sport.
That bold statement comes on the back of the record $1.2 billion television-rights deal, a financial windfall that continues to treat league fans like paupers through delayed telecasts in Queensland during daylight savings and every Sunday afternoon of the NRL regular season.
Last year the NRL took exemption to Sydney-centric accusations thrown its way, yet this is another point of league powerbrokers treating Queenslanders with contempt.
And if the NRL really wanted to conquer the country, it might have thought to expand its horizons beyond the city limits of NRL headquarters.
For a national competition with teams stretching from Townsville to Melbourne and across the Tasman to Auckland, Sydney will still host seven of the eight Round 1 games this week.
That’s seven home games for the nine Sydney-based clubs in a 16-team competition.
Only North Queensland, with their Saturday night clash with Canberra at 1300Smiles Stadium, get a home game to start the year.
Even then, it’s not a Sydney club being forced to travel.
