More people watched NRL grand final on television than watched AFL grand final
* By Holly Byrnes, Media Writer
* From: The Daily Telegraph
* October 06, 2009 12:00AM
* 26 comments
Top raters...Melbourne Storm's Billy Slater and Cameron Smith hold up the NRL premiership trophy in front of their fans in Melbourne. Picture: Colleen Petch. Source: The Daily Telegraph
THIS is the story every league fan living south of the border should cut out, fold up and pop in the wallet for the next visit down the pub: The NRL Grand Final was more popular on TV than the AFL Grand Final.
In figures that will have Andrew Demetriou choking on his next footy frank, the NRL blockbuster on Sunday outrated the AFL equivalent two weeks ago by more than 200,000 footy fans across Australia.
The combined national and regional TV audience figures for the Geelong Cats v St Kilda Grand Final, spruiked at the time by the code's boss Demetriou as a benchmark, averaged 3.4 million.
But the league finale went better, attracting an average 3.6 million people across the country.
It is a staggering result for league and Channel 9, which won the ratings night, and defied the year's off-field dramas, which in June sidelined Nine's own Matthew Johns in the wake of the Cronulla group #@%!$ scandal.
While it's only taken four Grand Final appearances for two victories, Melbourne footy fans in particular appear to have finally seen the light on league, with the AFL stronghold thunderstruck by the Storm and Parramatta Eels decider.
Nine's coverage consolidated the code's footing south of the border, where the audience peaked at 925,000 viewers.
In a confidence-lifting victory for the game's administrators, the Melbourne market averaged 685,000 viewers, up from 492,000 last year.
The average five capital city audience of 2.42 million - up 342,000 nationally on 2008 - was the network's best ratings result in 2009.
An exuberant NRL chief executive David Gallop yesterday celebrated the results as "a huge show of public support for rugby league".
"Congratulations to Melbourne on winning two premierships in three years, to Parramatta for providing one of the greatest runs to a Grand Final and to all the fans who shared the experience," he said.
The growth in television ratings in 2009 "underlines the opportunities that lie ahead" for the competition, Gallop said.
It was a reasonably low-key welcome home for the Storm, with around 50 fans greeting them at Melbourne Airport yesterday ahead of the team's presentation to several hundred more at Princes Park.
More fans are expected for a civic reception today in Melbourne's Federation Square.
Skipper Cameron Smith raised the trophy and managed a reasonable impersonation of sports commentator Bruce McAvaney when asked how the celebrations had been following the Grand Final win.
"We had a couple of quiet beers with the boys and our families - just a couple ... and they were delicious," Smith said, attempting to mimic McAvaney's recent AFL commentary when he described a play from Hawks star Cyril Rioli as "delicious".
Centre Greg Inglis told the cheering crowd of his match-sealing field goal: "I just got the ball and kicked it, I snapped it low and flat and said 'please get over'."
"I've got a (premiership) ring. We've done a really good job."
The Storm had dual cause to celebrate after the club's under 20 side won the Toyota Cup grand final, with the team also presented to the crowd at the family day.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/ ... 5783107883