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Reflections on WC and the future

Northern

Juniors
Messages
170
Well, did you think it was a success?
Great concept to have the three (in the end 4) competitions running together.
Great passion on show
Samoa levelling up with Tonga
Improvement in PNG
Crowd for final and semis
Free to air for all games
Some good TV audiences

on the downside
Crowds at some group games/ticket pricing
Northern hemisphere teams not progressing at same rate as Southern Hemisphere. Think the game needs it
Australia way ahead in women’s game

Overall, I have thoroughly enjoyed it. Obviously would have liked England to get to all three finals, but hey. Fascinating to see how the nations develop before next World Cup. Glad it’s only 3 years away. Fingers crossed the powers that be manage to ensure more international games in the in between years.
 

titoelcolombiano

First Grade
Messages
5,276
It was a huge success. The profits when they are released will be well beyond anything we've experienced before, which will justify the ticket pricing.

Pool games were predictable, but on the positive side, the QF stages onwards were amazing games. We've never had that. Usually you have one competitive semi and maybe a competitive final... that's it. Now we have at least four marquee pool games (one from each pool when the top two play each other), three marquee quarter finals, two marquee semi-finals and all of that builds to good crowds in the final (even if the match is a dud because people don't want to miss out).

We can now move forward and create an international calendar around 7 very competitive nations Aus, NZ, Eng, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji & PNG. In addition France sent their first ever squad that was filled with professional players, they will not look back from here and will improve as the years go on.

The three events in one World Cup was awesome and a plus for the tournament and the wheelchair game has been a revelation and a real chance for the game to get to the Paralympics.

We've had opportunities as a game in the past, most of which were squandered. This is our chance to move forward significantly. Record profits, record interest (in the international game), depth of quality playing nations like the game has never seen.

Samoa highlighting to IRL, NRL and SL bosses why the international game can reach way further than the club game can.
 

Perth Red

Post Whore
Messages
65,411
Enjoyed it all. But I’m biased as I enjoy international rugby league more than any other part of the sport.
lots of positives: great exposure for the game in uk, great crowds in the whole, should have made lots of money for the IRL, great to see Samoa and fiji step up to next level. Wheelchair RL the absolute highlight for me. coverage on kayo, first streaming World Cup which suits it perfectly and got good numbers. Vossy once again proving he is the #1 international rugby league commentator in the world

after the first game I had hopes for England but not to be, again!
Tight arse whinging fans the low point but I should be used to that lol
australia boring it up in the final and winning again the low light :)
 

taste2taste

Juniors
Messages
1,779
Overall the most successful WC in regards to attendances and TV viewers ( I read on BBC that the 2013 WC had a combined 13mil viewers and this WC had a combined 30mil )

Moving forward there's a few things I'd like to see

1) bring back the tier pools, this provides close games in the group stages.

2) this is what I'm most passionate about, emerging nations need thier own pool and should only be allowed a maximum 4 heritage players. They qualify using homegrown talent and these players deserve to play in the WC. If you put these countries in thier own pool ( with the top team qualifying for the finals ) they can play without fear they'll be beaten by 100. And c'mon, you've gotta admit, it's embarrassing for the game when they interview an Italian or Lebenese player and they have an Australian accent.

3) the USA should get automatic qualification. Soccer did it for decades while they tried to grow the sport in the USA, if its good enough for them it's good enough for us if we hope to make a dent in the biggest sporting market on the planet. I'm one of the rare bread that follows both league and union, a comment I've seen many times in union forums is they agree that league ( with its simple rules and open play ) is far more likely to take off in the USA

4) tightening what qualifies a heritage player. I have no problems with To'o and Taumalolo with 100% blood line to thier country of heritage .....but no way Keary should be playing for Ireland or Nathan Brown playing for Italy...it's just embarrassing

Lets play more internationals ( why don't we play Aus V Nz on anzac day?? ) and watch the game slowly grow.
 
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Matua

Bench
Messages
4,528
4) tightening what qualifies a heritage player. I have no problems with To'o and Taumalolo with 100% blood line to thier country of heritage .....but no way Keary should be playing for Ireland or Nathan Brown playing for Italy...it's just embarrassing
You'll remove some of the PI players this way. PI players will increasingly rely on grandparent heritage. I'm not 100% certain (info came from Great Aunty who knows both families) but I think both Luai and Harris-Tavita would have been ineligible for Samoa if not for grandparent heritage.
 

Last Week

Bench
Messages
3,642

Billythekid

First Grade
Messages
6,560
It was a successful tournament and I enjoyed it. It won’t be a paradigm shift for IRL though. What matters is what happens next and I just don’t see us building a consistent international schedule to build any momentum.
 

yakstorm

First Grade
Messages
5,293
It was a hugely successful tournament both on and off the field, and whilst we would have liked to have seen bigger crowds and tighter scoreline, there was still a lot to like.

For me, I'm hope for 2025, some of the on-field rules are tweaked. The six-again rule easily added another 20-30 points to the blow out scorelines, which we could do without.

I'm looking forward to the larger Women's & Wheelchair events in 2025. I feel the tournament really came alive as the Men's finals approached and these other events kicked off.

On the Men's groupings, I will admit I did miss the Super pools. Having the likes of Tonga not play a single match against England, New Zealand or Australia, took away some potential big fixtures that we've been able to enjoy in previous tournaments before the Finals.

Anyway, whilst I missed them, I am content with us sticking with the more traditional grouping format. Arguably if we had the 2017 format, Samoa possibly wouldn't have had the chance to bounce back from the opener, same if we had kept the 2008 format in 2017, Tonga's impact would have been smaller.
 

Last Week

Bench
Messages
3,642
I wonder how they picked the teams involved? Weird that Greece qualified for the World Cup but were left out of this
Greece are in another tournament which appears to be acting as a qualifyer for the next stage.

It does seem odd but I think I can understand considering most of these European nations have already qualified for the 2025.

 

PARRA_FAN

Coach
Messages
16,988
Overall the most successful WC in regards to attendances and TV viewers ( I read on BBC that the 2013 WC had a combined 13mil viewers and this WC had a combined 30mil )

Moving forward there's a few things I'd like to see

1) bring back the tier pools, this provides close games in the group stages.

2) this is what I'm most passionate about, emerging nations need thier own pool and should only be allowed a maximum 4 heritage players. They qualify using homegrown talent and these players deserve to play in the WC. If you put these countries in thier own pool ( with the top team qualifying for the finals ) they can play without fear they'll be beaten by 100. And c'mon, you've gotta admit, it's embarrassing for the game when they interview an Italian or Lebenese player and they have an Australian accent.

3) the USA should get automatic qualification.
Soccer did it for decades while they tried to grow the sport in the USA, if its good enough for them it's good enough for us if we hope to make a dent in the biggest sporting market on the planet. I'm one of the rare bread that follows both league and union, a comment I've seen many times in union forums is they agree that league ( with its simple rules and open play ) is far more likely to take off in the USA

4) tightening what qualifies a heritage player. I have no problems with To'o and Taumalolo with 100% blood line to thier country of heritage .....but no way Keary should be playing for Ireland or Nathan Brown playing for Italy...it's just embarrassing

Lets play more internationals ( why don't we play Aus V Nz on anzac day?? ) and watch the game slowly grow.

I understand your point but its not really embarrassing. I wouldve said the same thing years ago but this happens in nearly every sport, if your eligible for that country, let them play. An Aussie playing for Italy in Rugby Union in cricket there were Aussies playing for the Dutch, English playing for Ireland in Soccer, heck recently there was a guy from Cameroon playing for Switzerland scoring against his country of birth.

As for the USA, I dont agree with automatic qualifications, however I believe in the next world Cup the top 2 nations in the America's qualification, so USA have a much better chance in 2025. And you could possibly have Jamaica again, or even Canada.

I definitely agree with playing more Internationals especially Australia Vs NZ.
 

PARRA_FAN

Coach
Messages
16,988
Well where do you start. Was it a success? Yes it definitely was in terms of spreading the game Internationally. Some of the matches were great to watch and there was some great football, even if some of the scores were one sided.

Firstly it was great seeing new nations compete in the Mens Tournament, Jamaica and Greece. Jamaica showed plenty of passion and it was great seeing them score especially against the Kiwis, a massive moment in the tournament. As for Greece what an amazing effort, considering the sport was banned in the country up until recently and hard to work so hard to get to the World Cup. They scored probably one of the tries of the tournament and just seeing footage of fans in an Athens pub cheer on their team really made me smile.

Well done on both teams , I think both teams can improve.

Also I wouldnt thought years ago that a team from Brazil would be playing in a Rugby League tournament, well done on the Womens team for qualifying.

Yes they were blowouts in the tournament but if we play more internationals we may get closer scores.

Crowds werent great but in the knockout stages they were pretty good. 67,000 at Old Trafford was really impressive.

The refereeing certainly needs to improve, there were some pretty ordinary decisions in those games and the six again rule was overused and sometimes shouldve been used more. I think the strip rule needs to be looked at and have some common sense. I mean I saw at one period the bloke with the ball had 3 guys tackling him, his momentum had stopped, 2 players dropped off the tackle and the other stole the ball but it was play on. Cmon.

Anyway I enjoyed the tournament overall and look forward to the next one in 3 years away. That could come up quick and need to save money for that tournament because I'm super keen to go back to France.
 

Coastbloke

Bench
Messages
4,051
France is only 3 years away, so time is moving along fast.

The IRL has to get it’s house in order and pronto. The thing about our game is we swoon over the successes of Tonga and Samoan then abandon them until the next World Cup. So rugby league.

As hard as it may sound the IRL has to tell the NRL/ARLC/Players Union to walk the walk and talk the talk when they crap on about supporting IRL but do little in practise.

Tours are essential and I’m not just talking about ‘Roo/Lions/Kiwi tours. Pacific Island nations are now strong enough do tours as well. A 4N in Europe with England/France/Tonga/Fiji. A 4N in the SH with Aust/NZ/Samoa/PNG. Perhaps a 3N for Scotland/Ireland/Wales. Something for the smaller nations like Jamaica and Serbia.

The game has to get the media on side too. The Australian Sports lift out today had 2 pages of VFL and nothing about rugby league less than week from the WC final. I fear the game will again just fall into a familiar rut where the only conversation will be about player behaviour/NRL/Origin…One day, I dream of something like a Test match at a full Allianz between Aust and PNG or Fiji and genuinely not knowing the who the winner will be.

But we know how this will pan out..Something to do with guns and feet..
 

Perth Red

Post Whore
Messages
65,411
Enthused by an outstanding World Cup I’m now in full manipulation mode trying to convince the wife that a trip to France in October is a great idea! I’d love to go to 2025 and hopefully can convince her!
 

Coastbloke

Bench
Messages
4,051
Enthused by an outstanding World Cup I’m now in full manipulation mode trying to convince the wife that a trip to France in October is a great idea! I’d love to go to 2025 and hopefully can convince her!
Asking a woman would you like to go to Paris doesn’t sound to much of a tough job lol
 

Desert Qlder

First Grade
Messages
9,081
The V’Landys strategy of relying on State of Origin to produce draftees for the next World Cup ‘national all star’ teams is a bad move.

All the wrong lessons are being learnt.

What incentive to is there for nations to produce their own talent when they can rely on Australian state systems to do that work for them?

Now England and NZ will be scouring the Aussie juniors for whatever tenuous ‘heritage’ angle they can find. And dangle the Origin carrot in front of them.

Which we all know is what players secretly lust for anyway. The new V’Landys rule only affirms that.
 
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