With friend's like these...

[Bezant]

Ray Chesterton digs the boot in again....from the Herald Sun

League's just a blip in Victoria
Comment by Ray Chesterton
22mar06

MELBOURNE is the only storm in the world that never shows up on the rugby league radar.

And given the circumstances of the Commonwealth Games, it is impossible to imagine Melbourne Storm ever capturing enough of the minds and hearts of Victorians to promote thoughts of long-term viability.

Victorians have embraced the Commonwealth Games with soul-bursting fervour, turning the MCG into a cauldron of fiery spirals and rings for the opening ceremony that rivalled Nero's burning of Rome.
The ceremony involved everything Victorians see as part of their culture.
And that culture does not include rugby league. Never has. Never will.

Melbourne is not hostile to rugby league. It would be easier to accept if it was.
Easier to accept that the AFL sees rugby league as a threat to their domination of the Australian sporting scene, apart from Sydney and Brisbane, and was prepared to resort to nefarious and deceptive means to retain control.
The answer is much more painful.
Melbourne is simply indifferent to the Storm. It sees NRL as a simple novelty sporting event, not all that far removed from egg-and-spoon or sack races at a school carnival.
That perception is unlikely to change and the future of the Storm, who has a long-term assurance from News Ltd of their future, will never market itself sufficiently well to break through the wall of the Australian rules obsession that exists in Melbourne.
From a rugby league sense of achievement, taking rugby league to Melbourne has been monumental.
The Storm was born in 1998 then won the premiership the following year, a record achievement.
Along the way it attracted players of the calibre of Glenn Lazarus, Stephen Kearney, long-serving winger Matt Geyer and Brett Kimmorley.
Melbourne also has the enviable record of having made the semi-finals in six of its eight years.
It's commendable but the absence of home-grown champions and a junior development plan not yet flourishing, means the Storm is doomed, at least in the foreseeable future, to continue importing players to survive, the way desert communities import water. The problems will not go away.

 

[Noa]

The big mistake in the article is that the writer presumes that the lack of press correalates with the potential audience. My experience in melbourne over the last 3 years tells me there is a large untapped audience.

To start off with there are plenty of Ex-pats from QLD and NSW as well as quite a large pacific Island pop. Chesterton takes the arrogant journalists postion that they,the media, report what the people want to hear, when the fact is the media reports what they, themselves find important.

Look no further than every election for an example, when we're told x and y issues are going to decide the election but after the vote the media is nearly always wrong about what decided the result.

My point is that the media in Melbourne have minimal coverage of RL not because the audience isn’t there but because they choose not too. That’s either because there beholden to the AFL (probably), because there too arrogant to acknowledge the audience (definatley) or a combination of both (without a doubt).

 

[ucantseeme]

exactly right Noa

 

[The Dodger]

just look at the crowds the strom get when they play at home, higher than most sydney clubs.
so as much as they dont like it, the sport is their to stay.

 

[HammDoggy]

What Noa said is true, and when you consider who easy it is these days for those same ex-pats to get new and information on rugby league from other sources than the narrowminded Melbourne media, is shows you that the "Herald Sun" has no idea what peoples interests are.

 

[Baron Vo Mandor]

His a f**kwit hack ignore him!

 

[Noa]

What Noa said is true, and when you consider who easy it is these days for those same ex-pats to get new and information on rugby league from other sources than the narrowminded Melbourne media, is shows you that the "Herald Sun" has no idea what peoples interests are.

Just as an example a couple of days ago I bought Mondays Telegraph and SMH on the Tuesday .When asked why I was buying yesterdays Sydneys papers I said so as I can read the sport, her reponse was that alot of peaople do actually buy the Sydney papers for that reason alone because the Melbourne papers are absolute rubbish.

If it's not AFL in Melbourne then it's not important to the media. Ray could have written the same article on Soccer or any other sport.

 

[Steelers4eva]

Personally I think some aspects of the article are correct. You can drink in any of the pubs down there, and nine out of ten people think the melbourne storm is some sort of southerly buster. Only the true league fans know of their existance down there. The majority of melbournians don't know about RL and have no interest in it whatsoever. The crowds the storm attract are good by NRL standards but compare it to a Collingwood v Essendon game at the MCG and it shows how far the Storm have to go. The melbournians always love to claim that they are the sporting capital of Australia, but the majority are ignorant about things they don't know or understand. Its funny that they can make this claim when their sport (AFL) is regularly playing to sell out crowds in Sydney (even in years previous to winning last year). And before you melbourne guys jump on me, yes I have spent a lot of time in Melbourne.

 

[Woods99]

The Commonwealth Games Rugby Sevens drew a cumulative attendance of 150,000 over two days. So some Melbournians know something about sports other than AFL.

 

[Danish]

just look at the crowds the strom get when they play at home, higher than most sydney clubs.
so as much as they dont like it, the sport is their to stay.

?????????????


I know Chesterton but there is no need to reply with out and out lies.

Melbourne's home average is very poor, but so was the swans for a long time.

There is no doubt plenty of room for League in Victoria. But we'd be stupid to think it could ever be more than a tiny niche compared with AFL. Focus on our heartlands of QLD and NSW, thats half the population of Australia right there anyway.

 

[gregstar]

just look at the crowds the strom get when they play at home, higher than most sydney clubs.
so as much as they dont like it, the sport is their to stay.

bwaaaaaaaaaaaaah! hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

 

[Hindyscrack]

The Commonwealth Games Rugby Sevens drew a cumulative attendance of 150,000 over two days. So some Melbournians know something about sports other than AFL.

and 70 odd thousand are turning up each day to watch track and field... your point being?

 

[Calixte]

The Commonwealth Games Rugby Sevens drew a cumulative attendance of 150,000 over two days. So some Melbournians know something about sports other than AFL.

Don't try and hide behind the Commonwealth Games apron.

The reason people went was because it was the Commonwealth Games.

Your test attendance at Telstra Dome last year was pretty ordinary, woods. What does that say about Melbourne interest in rah rah?

 

[Dr Crane]

The Commonwealth Games Rugby Sevens drew a cumulative attendance of 150,000 over two days. So some Melbournians know something about sports other than AFL.

Theatre going....You can't compare CG Sevens to week in week out NRL.

 

[Danish]

The Commonwealth Games Rugby Sevens drew a cumulative attendance of 150,000 over two days. So some Melbournians know something about sports other than AFL.

That proves nothing.

To prove the interest you should probably add up the melbourne union club crowds against the storm........... oh wait. They dont have one.

Melbournians constantly turn up sh*t house crowds to all things not AFL. Look at their empty boxing day test crowds for proof. 60,000 on the first day, 15-20,000 the following.

Unless it has lanky men in tight shorts who cant hold on to a ball to save their lives they aren't interested.

 

[Thomas]

But the VRL is making inroads. The ARL/NRL are putting in $23 million into the game down there...and about time I might add.

I can't see anything changing though unless something happens in the media. You can have the best team with the best junior setup, but without media coverage, you ain't got squat.

 

[clint]

I'm a journo from Sydney and a league nut and in Melbourne covering the Commonwealth Games, and what the article says is true.

The press virtually ignores league -- there is the occassional storm article, but to get the results of the weekend's round i had to turn to the results details page. If there was mainstream interest in the game down here the papers would give it better than that I assure you.

I've also taken the time to talk about Rugby League to as many people as possible -- and most simply don't know the difference between League and Union. Most don't really care about the Storm, which i think is sad, but unfortunately reality.

 

[Kurt Angle]

The Commonwealth Games Rugby Sevens drew a cumulative attendance of 150,000 over two days. So some Melbournians know something about sports other than AFL.

And yet the Melbourne sporting public made it clear they didn't want a S14 team.

 

[Bezant]

The point is that very few in the Brisbane media and public cared about the Bears/Lions up until the very late 90's. However that changed due to investment into local juniors/comps and a winning team that won a few premierships. So why say never has or never will as Chesterton is arguing?

RL in Melbourne is now begining (after a poor start due to political issues in the game) to invest in local juniors/comps ($23M), attract marquee games (SoO and Tri-nations) and has a good young team that will consistently challenge for the premiership. It will just take time.

I bet that if the Storm win a premiership or two or the next 3-4 years and we continually play significant games down there while investing more in junior development RL will enter the Melbourne pschye.

If you dont believe me just ask Soccer (sorry the FFA) about how getting your infrastructure in place correctly can make all the difference in how seriously people perceive you sport.

 

[Hoops]

Melbournians constantly turn up sh*t house crowds to all things not AFL. Look at their empty boxing day test crowds for proof. 60,000 on the first day, 15-20,000 the following.

Thats crap most This century boxing day test average over 65,000 for the first day and over 25,000 for every other day.

2000-01 West Indies 73,233 - 32,210 - 19,896 - 7,960 - 133,299
2001-02 South Africa 61,796 - 30,055 - 39,494 - 21,680 - 153,025
2002-03 England 64,189 - 50,451 - 32,057 - 12,295 - 18,666 - 177,658
2003-04 India 62,613 - 39,566 - 33,256 - 14,965 - 29,262 - 179,662
2004-05 Pakistan 61,552 - 34,656 - 20,086 - 12,785 - 129,079
2005-06 South Africa 71,910 - 40,722 - 37,800 - 18,905 - 23,000 - 192,337

The SCG would be lucky to average 100,000 within that period
Lets not forget that all up only a couple hundred more peple were in attendance at the super test in Sydney than the 3 one dayers in Melbourne.