Rebecca Wilson says attempting to expand rugby league is a futile exercise

[Twizzle]

NOBODY in the US cares about rugby league. In fact, it could be said that not too many people in South Australia or Perth give a toss either.

and not many people in Sydney give a toss what Beccy thinks either

 

[corbitised]

for all concerned, please lets not forget the fact it is a trial game, the fact that we're even discussing all this bullsh*t means it is a success, 10 000 people to a trial game in the US and it's not being called a success? the only other trial that is bigger, is the charity shield which is always televised, i mean for focks sake, step back and have a real good think about it people. bec is a nuffy!

 

[Tonearm Terrorwrist]

rebecca wilson is a merkin worse than a bundy hangover

 

[big boppa eel]

She is right a collosal waste of time and money for Souths, but great exposure for Rusty.

 

[Lockyer4President!]

Rebecca Wilson is a professional troll. I still don't understand why anyone bothers to read her column.

 

[mightybears]

she is a gossip columnist, don't take hr seriously when it comes to footy, and she was a front line media super league muppet back in the day, just behind capt ricketts and his CM lies.

 

[hutch]

The AFL is playing games in South Africa and Dubai I'll be interested to read Bec's thought's on this misadventure, oh that's right it travels well!!!!

I like the way anti-league journo's always bring out RL is only played in NSW and QLD and the north of England. Well forgive me if I am wrong but isn't the "global game" of rugby union only plyed in NSW and QLD also, I live in Melbourne and NO one is interested in RU, at least they know the Storm. League may be strong in the north but union is strong in the south, if it was so strong in England where are the big clubs (drawing at least 10,000) in Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, Newcastle, Birmingham etc. That's right there isn't any. As for Scotland, is it even played in Glasgow?

As for league not travelling well, didn't London Skolars and Harlequins just play a game in the centre of London? Or the Lebanese league sign a 3 year deal with the Bank of Beirut. Did I imagine a young Russian hooker playing for the Wests Tigers last year, or a couple of Irish players who have just signed to play with the London Skolars. Where is former Melbourne player Scott Hill these days. Did I imagine Stacey Jones great career as his ONLY pro clubs were in France and NZ? 2 Serbian guys have just signed to play lower division in France with Entraigues. Did the Fijian league not just announce they will be showing ALL world cup games on local TV as well as domestic matches.

Yes I can see your point Rebecca, league doesn't travel well.

great post. you should send it in to the tele. i would add more points such as tonga beating the junior roos, 32000 in moscow to see usa v russia a few years ago, rugby league being played in more than 30 countries around the world and new comps starting up around europe, the amnrl going strong in its 10th year and expanding, catalans making the challenge cup final and getting great crowds.

in fact, everybody should be sending letters into the tele. its articles like these, full of lies, that leads people to think that our great game is only played in nsw, qld and nth england. people believe whatever they read. lets bombard the tele with the great things about our games, and protest at the rough treatment this rugby league hater gives our sport.

if the arl or nrl had any balls, they would stand up to treatment like this. i dont see any other code out there get blasted like this, or have articles full of lies published. its disgraceful. anyone know the email address to send letters to?

 

[International RL]

Right...this s**t has just shown her true colours.

That is nothing but agenda driven dribble.

League doesn't have the international appeal of Aussie rules. So where apart from Victoria SA and Perth does AFL claim heart lands you mole? I nearly stopped reading after that.

How do we go about taking her down?

 

[ozzie]

BUT lets face it - it will do nothing for Rugby League in the long run. Was the popularity of the Canterbury visit cause a big explosion of RL teams no/yes? The Berry's were spewing about the loss of Mason with an injured? ankle as the game was being played on Artifical turf I believe.

 

[JW]

LOL Beccy.

Aussie Rules "travels well"? It is one of, if not the most regionally stunted sport in the world. If anything, over its alleged 150 year history, it has contracted.

 

[Newcastlerabbit]

Thats rediculous and just propaganda. Bondage, Gold.:crazy:

So why did farkendrongo come home???

:lol: :lol:

He got a call from Anasta.;-)

 

[Green Machine]

NOBODY in the US cares about rugby league. In fact, it could be said that not too many people in South Australia or Perth give a toss either.
League is not really like rugby union or Aussie rules. It doesn't travel well.

That ARC is the best travelled competition I have seen. It was here one day and gone the next. The North Melbourne exit from Sydney and Canberra and then to the Gold Coast is a good bit of travelling. The Brisbane Bears from the Gold Coast to Brisbane is a great bit of travelling. The Brumbies exit out of Canberra might be the next big travel well stories.

Rugby league "visionaries" believe otherwise. They have found any excuse in recent years to tell us that league is a game for the entire world - that it is just a matter of time before it reaches the huge markets of China, India and the US.

Lucky Baskerville, Giltinan or Harry Sunderland didn’t read Becky’s column

Former Super League boss John Ribot told a bunch of disciples in 1996 that his rebel mob would deliver the game to an audience in Beijing and Shanghai within a couple of seasons. It would, he promised, be a rugby league revolution.
Of course, Ribot was wrong.

The biggest mistake that Ribot made was employing Rebecca

The establishment had tried to jump on the international bandwagon nine years earlier. They took a State of Origin game to Los Angeles, claiming this was the start of something pretty big. What it really turned out to be, besides really, really stupid, was a chance for pampered footy players to fly business class to Hollywood.
Here we are in 2008 and another couple of nuts are at it again.
Those new-age visionaries Russell Crowe and Peter Holmes a Court decided to test the waters in the US this week by carting 32 Armani-clad footballers across the world to play an exhibition match in Florida against English champions Leeds.
They have done this in the biggest two weeks in the American NFL competition.
The Super Bowl is on next week, so it would be fair to say few Americans would have noticed the arrival of the South Sydney Rabbitohs in Florida.

Ice Hockey stages a big game in the week between the Conference Titles and the Super Bowl. I wonder why they do that during what Becky calls the two biggest weeks of the American NFL competition?

The trip is already a disaster in so many ways. Several key players have suffered season-threatening injuries. Another bloke had to come home for "personal reasons".
Americans who have met the Rabbitohs are still convinced they are representatives of an Australian airline.
But Holmes a Court is claiming that the trip is a success.
The local paper (the Jacksonville Times Union) featured the Rabbitohs on the front page.
He told the paper that he and Crowe were the only blokes in Australia who owned a "rugby" club (he didn't correct it to league, so still no one in Florida knows the difference between union and league). He wasn't coy either, claiming he and Crowe had turned around Souths' fortunes during the past year.
What he has failed to mention to anyone is that the match will not be televised here or in the US.
Fox Sports and Channel 9 both declined the opportunity to cover the match because, surprise surprise, they didn't think there would be enough interest in it - not just in the US but anywhere.

She will look a little bit silly if the game is replayed on Foxsports

Jacksonville is hardly a thriving metropolis. Appearing on the front page is like a minor celebrity turning up in Kalgoorlie and getting his dial on the front cover of the local rag.

That’s very amusing observation of Jacksonville. Jacksonville has an NFL team and already staged a Super Bowl. The same could not be said for Kalgoorlie. Would there be an oval in Kalgoorlie with grass on it. I look forward to the AFL staging a game in Kalgoolie,

Holmes a Court and Crowe will hear none of this.
Crowe is using his status as a star in the US to attract interest to the match. He says he will bring Greg Norman along to the North Florida University stadium for the match (capacity - a whopping 10,000) to prove how big the match is.
Rugby league will not be the winner on the day.


It is a sport that is played primarily in three places - NSW, Queensland and the north of England. Melbourne is a possible exception, but it would be fair to say that league is a very poor second to AFL in that city.

I like the quote about Melbourne being a possibility. I’m sure her bosses would not be happy with her if she said that there was no hope for the storm.

Its very attraction rests within its tribalism - suburb against suburb, state against state.

Since when has Brisbane, Gold Coast, Newcastle, Illawarra and North Queensland have become suburbs?

League is a quirky game which you either like or don't, depending on your heritage.

What is a quirky game? There is nothing as stupid as AFL. What has your heritage got to do with whether you like Rugby League or not?

Like AFL, if your dad went to the game, chances are you will want to go too.

So, one minute AFL travels well and the next minute you will only go to a game if your dad did?

It has no international appeal whatsoever, outside the north of England and small pockets of New Zealand. It should never have been taken west to Perth or east to the US or south to London.

Unlike the yearly AFL games at the Oval in London and the great International Series against the Irish

 

[roopy]

BUT lets face it - it will do nothing for Rugby League in the long run. Was the popularity of the Canterbury visit cause a big explosion of RL teams no/yes? The Berry's were spewing about the loss of Mason with an injured? ankle as the game was being played on Artifical turf I believe.

Not much is being said about the Jacksonville Axemen in all of this.
The Axemen have played two seasons in the AMNRL comp and are already drawing decent crowds to the very ground where this game will be played and have got untold publicity from this game.
If this game is a one off it will add a bit to the future of the axemen, but if it becomes a yearly fixture this ground will quickly become the home of League in the US.
The US grandfinal was played at the ground despite the Axemen not even making the finals. The first international game between the Axemen and Jamacia got a decent crowd earlier this year, and the ground is the likely future venue for Tomahawk test matches and future All-Star games (the US equivalent of SOO).

This is actually the second League training camp in Jacksonville, with Bradford and Leeds having a camp in 2000 which drew a crowd of 10k or so to some exhibition play involving the UK sides and the US national side.

Can the 1000-1500 crowds for the axemen side that can't make the US finals be turned into 5k crowds getting behind a wining side with a bit of support from Crowe and crew?
I think yes.

 

[flamin]

Unlike her previous articles which all seemed personal against a person or club, this is just a blatant attack on the game itself. She has basically come out and said rugby league is a terrible sport to watch and the only reason you would watch it is because your dad watched it.

I mean her columns in the past have been woeful, but I can't believe how this managed to get printed.

 

[Once Dead]

Did anyone notice that Beckie COULDN'T EVEN SPELL Armani properly when taking her parting shot in the article?

Souths will pay dearly for this misadventure, with several players already predictably injured. It is a self-indulgent journey that will fail to register even a glitch on the sporting horizon in the US and make those cynics at home long for the good old days when the Rabbitohs couldn't spell Amarni.

A M A R N I.....she probably copied the spelling on her 'real AMARNI suit'...Haha, Beckie, we all long for the days that you were not a fixture in newspapers......and when juvenile, high school spelling mistakes were not printed in newspapers, especially under the guise of the words of a 'professional' journalist.

BTW-Good to see you change your tune, Beckie, I thought you believed in Super League......

 

[Sonic Star]

She's just annoyed that most of her collegues are over in the US right now reporting the game and shes stuck here running around sydney trying to work the fat off her big ass.

 

[wittyfan]

She's bagging Ribot's vision for the game, yet that vision paid her wages for a time.

 

[Once Dead]

She's bagging Ribot's vision for the game, yet that vision paid her wages for a time.

Rebecca "John Ribot Disciple #34" Wilson.......all that needs to be said.

 

[El Diablo]

http://www.entertainoz.com.au/speakers.cfm?oid=15187

In 1992 Rebecca joined ABC Television hosting and reporting on Saturday Afternoon Sports before taking up the position of Super League Media Manager in 1995

Bourbon Beccy disciple #1

 

[dallymessenger]

Not much is being said about the Jacksonville Axemen in all of this.
The Axemen have played two seasons in the AMNRL comp and are already drawing decent crowds to the very ground where this game will be played and have got untold publicity from this game.
If this game is a one off it will add a bit to the future of the axemen, but if it becomes a yearly fixture this ground will quickly become the home of League in the US.
The US grandfinal was played at the ground despite the Axemen not even making the finals. The first international game between the Axemen and Jamacia got a decent crowd earlier this year, and the ground is the likely future venue for Tomahawk test matches and future All-Star games (the US equivalent of SOO).

This is actually the second League training camp in Jacksonville, with Bradford and Leeds having a camp in 2000 which drew a crowd of 10k or so to some exhibition play involving the UK sides and the US national side.

Can the 1000-1500 crowds for the axemen side that can't make the US finals be turned into 5k crowds getting behind a wining side with a bit of support from Crowe and crew?
I think yes.

great post.

ive always thought there is a market for RL in america, albeit a nieche one.

they love origin.

a small slice of the us market would still be bigger than many other countries