NRL on front page of NFL.com

[DOGS AND EELS!!!]

Yes Haynes dedication through endless hours on the play station cannot be replicated.

Back to topic NRL should be pushing hard to get NRL on US TV. Seems yanks are screaming for something to watch during the offseason.

hahahaha

 

[Parra Pride]

I'd say the bigger shame was when Hayne single-handedly dragged his shitful team to the GF, only to be beaten by a filthy Newscorp team who systematically cheated the cap and every RL fan along with it.

This guy get's it.

 

[Nerd]

Great promotion for Rugby League on the NFL site.

 

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

Great promotion for Rugby League on the NFL site.

Great promotion of *Rugby...

 

[Sleep]

Imagine we had never heard of gridiron.

You hear a player was from the national football league.

Would you say he played football ? Or football league ?

The gridiron is what they call the field they play on. Americans simply call it football. The NFL is the league he plays in.

 

[VictoryFC]

Imagine we had never heard of gridiron.

You hear a player was from the national football league.

Would you say he played football ? Or football league ?

Truer words havent been spoken.

People think it actually matters to differentiate between the two.

People over there not only dont know the difference, but they care even less. It only matters to those partaking in code wars here.

 

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

The gridiron is what they call the field they play on. Americans simply call it football. The NFL is the league he plays in.

But once they start talking to an international audience, they understand that "Football" means many things. And, in their domestic market, they have no competition for the name.

GridIron Football or American Football are used everywhere else.

 

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

Truer words havent been spoken.

People think it actually matters to differentiate between the two.

People over there not only dont know the difference, but they care even less. It only matters to those partaking in code wars here.

Actually, it is those of use that would like to see the game grow beyond 2 Australian States and a few Northern England provices.

Im living in China ATM (probably a lot of potential if the game decided to give a shit), but it is impossible to explain the difference between "Rugby" and "Rugby".

Ive just taken to calling it GridIron Rugby or Australian GridIron (which is probably historically accurate anyway; the innovations introduced to American Football in 1883 are almost identical to those introduced to Northern Union in 1895. I find it had to believe that was only coincidence...)

 

[Parra]

Would be good for some research to expose those rule change links. I can't believe that it was coincidence either. Although the motives for change were very different. Were rule changes made for the initial northern union break, or just the organising body?

 

[Snappy]

They should have out some Origin highlights in the video package, including him standing on the fence last year, which IMO is one of the best Origin moments of the last decade.

 

[VictoryFC]

Actually, it is those of use that would like to see the game grow beyond 2 Australian States and a few Northern England provices.

Im living in China ATM (probably a lot of potential if the game decided to give a shit), but it is impossible to explain the difference between "Rugby" and "Rugby".

Ive just taken to calling it GridIron Rugby or Australian GridIron (which is probably historically accurate anyway; the innovations introduced to American Football in 1883 are almost identical to those introduced to Northern Union in 1895. I find it had to believe that was only coincidence...)

Yeah, it matters to people here, not over there.

To them, saying rugby league makes no difference. Its like saying baseball league. It wont make people who dont care about either rugby any less informed. To them its just rugby, of whatever kind.

But people here obsess like itll make any difference to either rugby code in the US.

 

[Scorpio30]

Oh FFS rebrand NRL as NRLL (National Rugby League League) then everyone can finally get their heads around the difference.

 

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

Yeah, it matters to people here, not over there.

To them, saying rugby league makes no difference. Its like saying baseball league. It wont make people who dont care about either rugby any less informed. To them its just rugby, of whatever kind.

But people here obsess like itll make any difference to either rugby code in the US.

Im not delusional enough to believe RL matters to anyone around the world other than Aussie/NZ/NorthEngland expats, but if you ever want the game to grow beyond that, you need to provide the opportunity for people to develop some passion for the game.

As long as we are struggling for recognition between Rugby and Rugby the game will never grow. Union has a strangle hold on the brand in most places, we can either bang our heads agaisnt the wall and sanctimoniously say "we have as much right as them to use the name" or we can pull ourselves out from their shadow and let the game stand on its own merits.

Or we can all say "f*ck it" and just keep the sport in our safe little niche market...

 

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

Would be good for some research to expose those rule change links. I can't believe that it was coincidence either.

Ive never been able to even find the names of the Northern Unions founding fathers, let alone the people would inspired them.

Their is so much information about the birth of the game here and yet almost nothing about the games true origin.

Although the motives for change were very different. Were rule changes made for the initial northern union break, or just the organising body?

The NU schism was due to the RFUs determination to maintain the archaic traditions of the game....

The most notable was the introduction of wages, but another massive part of the divide was the RFUs unwillingness to try new rules to make the game more exciting.

1895 say the NU try to clean up the ruck and promote lateral ball movement instead, promote tries over goals/FG and limit a teams opportunity with the ball to force them into expansive play. All of this was done in 1883 America when the colleges tried to formalise the rules in a more exciting format.

The difference between the American Colleges and NU was that America had no Rugby body determined to hold onto the past, whereas Britain did....

 

[bobmar28]

Actually, it is those of use that would like to see the game grow beyond 2 Australian States and a few Northern England provices.

Im living in China ATM (probably a lot of potential if the game decided to give a shit), but it is impossible to explain the difference between "Rugby" and "Rugby".

Ive just taken to calling it GridIron Rugby or Australian GridIron (which is probably historically accurate anyway; the innovations introduced to American Football in 1883 are almost identical to those introduced to Northern Union in 1895. I find it had to believe that was only coincidence...)

I heard one American commentator refer to it as Australian football. I don't know how the AFL people would feel about that.

 

[SLRBRONCOS]

They should have out some Origin highlights in the video package, including him standing on the fence last year, which IMO is one of the best Origin moments of the last decade.

Yep, from me, a very passionate Queenslander and there, I stood with applause, was great.

They should have shown the grubber down the touch line, game 1 2007, just maybe not the throw back into the hands of Lockyer ;-).

 

[Parra]

Ive never been able to even find the names of the Northern Unions founding fathers, let alone the people would inspired them.

Their is so much information about the birth of the game here and yet almost nothing about the games true origin.



The NU schism was due to the RFUs determination to maintain the archaic traditions of the game....

The most notable was the introduction of wages, but another massive part of the divide was the RFUs unwillingness to try new rules to make the game more exciting.

1895 say the NU try to clean up the ruck and promote lateral ball movement instead, promote tries over goals/FG and limit a teams opportunity with the ball to force them into expansive play. All of this was done in 1883 America when the colleges tried to formalise the rules in a more exciting format.

The difference between the American Colleges and NU was that America had no Rugby body determined to hold onto the past, whereas Britain did....

It is interesting. Been a while since I've read much, but my understanding was that the Northern Union split was about paying compensation for time lost at work due to a rugby injury. Which seems fair enough. Archaic? Not so much. Amateurism has a lot of values and benefits and amateur tradition continues in a lot of sports today. AFAIK rule changes were introduced to encourage paying spectators to choose Northern Union games - rules were changed to ensure the ball could be seen from the sidelines for example, and not buried in a scrum or ruck. Rules to simplify the game and ensure spectators could see the ball were gradually introduced.

In the US football was an amateur college based game. Under the existing rules serious injury and deaths were occurring & there was a real move to ban the game altogether. Rule changes were introduced (was a president even involved?) to make the game more structured and safer. US football was born. Pro leagues did not start in the States until much later - maybe the 30's? and were considered second-rate. To this day there is a massive interest in amateur footy in the US and some of the rules and tactics still vary from the pro game.

 

[LESStar58]

Thank f**k they're finally referring to it as Rugby League

Steve Mascord wrote a brilliant article about this not so long ago.

 

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

It is interesting. Been a while since I've read much, but my understanding was that the Northern Union split was about paying compensation for time lost at work due to a rugby injury. Which seems fair enough. Archaic? Not so much. Amateurism has a lot of values and benefits and amateur tradition continues in a lot of sports today.

Watch John Olivers segment on the NCAA and tell me then that militant amateurism is anything other than a cash grab by owners...

Id never suggest the choice to maintain amateurism was "archaic". That was just greedy owners and players that didnt have the power to fight them.

AFAIK rule changes were introduced to encourage paying spectators to choose Northern Union games - rules were changed to ensure the ball could be seen from the sidelines for example, and not buried in a scrum or ruck. Rules to simplify the game and ensure spectators could see the ball were gradually introduced.

Youre totally correct on this, but there were suggestions being made to innovate RUs rules long before NU took off.

I call their rules "archaic" because it was simple hard-headed conservativism that prevented the game from innovating in an entertaining and expansive way.

An conservative mindset that simply didnt exist in the Rugby bodies of 17th Century North America....

In the US football was an amateur college based game. Under the existing rules serious injury and deaths were occurring & there was a real move to ban the game altogether. Rule changes were introduced (was a president even involved?) to make the game more structured and safer. US football was born. Pro leagues did not start in the States until much later - maybe the 30's? and were considered second-rate. To this day there is a massive interest in amateur footy in the US and some of the rules and tactics still vary from the pro game.

Again youre correct (it was Teddy Roosevelt that forced the change), but that only explains the shift to mandatory padding and a limit to the number of players/the leeway in behaviour given to players on the field.

The choice to clean the ruck and focus on ball movement, etc. was purely for entertainment purposes, as it was in NU 15 years later.

And even this is off topic. The point is that NU almost certainly was inspired by the innovations of College Football 15 years early. So to call our game Gridiron Rugby, to differentiate from Union, is reasonable and logical.

 

[maccattack]

Again youre correct (it was Teddy Roosevelt that forced the change), So to call our game Gridiron Rugby, to differentiate from Union, is reasonable and logical.

You know I actually kinda like that name.

Also, Roosevelt pushed for rule changes with the intent of making the game unique to America so that they would have a game of their own.