Punishment for poor nines squads

[souths_pride]

The star appearance is about marketing the event and selling tickets to the game and putting eyes in front of TV. Its not about if a fan of club A is happy to see rookies or not. If you want an event to generate $'s you need star pulling power. Out of all the pre season games and events the Nines is for me the very best by a country mile. It ticks all the boxes of being a big event, great for TV, potentially opens up new audiences and is a nice earner for all clubs involved. We need to stop seeing it as a pre season event and start seeing it as the start of the season event imo. Maybe moving it to two weeks before NRL club season starts would be a better option.

Having some of the stars that are not playing as event ambassadors, signing autographs, getting fans to become members, doing media interviews etc would be another way of keeping the star pulling power without necessarily being on the field.

I think while the Nines is good for marketing the game, you cannot force clubs to take it seriously and treat it as a 'start of the season event'. The reason for that is because the product that your selling isn't true 'rugby league' and therefore many teams and players will remain nonchalant about it. As a result, many coaches are going to be hesitant to commit their best players which makes the task of marketing harder. As for moving the event to two weeks before the NRL season starts - that will never happen as the coaches will never allow it, especially considering the issue of player burnout is a major talking point in the game at the moment.

 

[oikee]

Nice trail pics.
As Dugan recovers from a useless trial game, injuries can happen in any game, trial, friendly, nines, all-stars.
Talking of the all-stars, less than 10 thousand sold on the coast.
As i said, move the Titans to Logan. Why is this code persisting with teams in areas that are not league heartlands.
Move the Titans to Adelaide for all i care, but crowds of 6 thousand for the Titans is madness, even Rockhampton could support 10 thousand crowds.