My connection to the modern NRL sanctioned run game is only tethered by my love of the Sharks. And it is getting more frayed every season. I have no time for any of the NRL crap and my joy of the game has been in a downward spiral for many years now. (and I know I am not alone) But the NRL doesn't see it that way.
I 100% sympathise with the part in bold, as I wrote about that feeling extensively in this thread:
http://forums.leagueunlimited.com/t...st-in-matches-involving-neutral-teams.458150/
It is all about control and making a profit. Not spreading the word and building good will.
How are kids that follow the game today, using todays digital information highways able to view what these guys they keep calling "The Immortals" actually played like.?
The Business is more concerned about counting the $$$$'s and seeing how far up Channel Neins arse they have to go.
This, this, THIS!
Although us 'older' folk have the memories to hold on to, the younger generation of today - who have exposure to the
internet websites and advancements in technology that weren't around when I first started watching league - are missing out BIG TIME.
Similar analogy can be made with cricket: the folk who were brought up watching and listening to Benaud/Lawry/Greig/Chappell were spoilt for all those years, compared to kids today who are raised listening to James Brayshaw squealing like a teenager whose balls haven't dropped yet, and banal commentary during the game about what pizza Shane Warne ordered the previous night....a clear dumbing down of the minds has been engineered by the higher echelons over the past decade.
It's incredibly frustrating to know that although the actual sport of RL craps all over the other 3 football codes (soccer/rugby union/AFL), the administration and numerous decisions they have made in the past leaves a lot to be desired. And I thought the new ARLC/independent commission was supposed to fix these problems from the Gallop era, and that the fans would get their game back, like people such as Gus Gould used to say ad nauseum since the Storm salary cap controversy.
As someone who loves rewatching highlights, it's disappointing to see the NRL website has highlights only going back to around 2013/14, even though they clearly uploaded videos prior to that, some of which can be found on Youtube.
Back to only 2013/14? Wow, that is a hell of a lot of footage they have wiped from their archives.
As I said, when I first started accessing the NRL website back at the start of the 2006 season, I distinctly remember their highlights/match replay archive went back to Rd 9 2001. There was someone from another Newcastle Knights website who was able to compile short 3-5 min highlights for us Knights fans to download at the time of renown matches during the 2001-06 Johns era (99% of which cannot be found anywhere on the internet), including the night where the Knights led 48-0 at half-time vs Cowboys. So thankful he went out of his way to do that, as I don't think he has that footage anymore.
Even on the official NRL YouTube channel, they only have highlights dating back to Rd 20 2010:
https://www.youtube.com/user/NRL/videos?view=0&sort=da&flow=grid
So excluding the marquee matches such as Origin and finals matches, any pre-2011 NRL era footage you find on YouTube is only going to appear in scattered fragments and you will have to be like a skilled metal detector to stumble upon what you are after.
To demonstrate my point, go on YouTube and search for AFL material from the same time period that I said you can't find much NRL material (e.g. type in AFL 2001 and look at the searches, and then type in NRL 2001 and look at the searches), and it's a no-contest: you find HEAPS of extended highlights from the AFL as well as full match replays (not that I would watch a full boring game of AFL, but I say this to demonstrate the point of how much the NRL is shooting themselves in the foot over this censorship debacle).
Nrl nfi in regards to videos etc
Beyond Home Entertainment do a range of DVD packages of games.
But I recently found some 1980s Monday night footy games I watched with glee.
Nrl needs someone putting together a channel with all this on it. A lot of people are interested and would watch games and highlights and 20-1 packages. Hell, There's a way to engage your fan base with requests and participation
99% of the time, it's only Origin or GFs that get released on DVD.
I remember when Optus had shared PayTV rights with Fox, they had their own RL channel that showed replays of old games. Although Fox hopefully will also do something similar when they get their own NRL channel next year, it will only be the classic matches that the media has mentioned in the past or games that have appeared on Fox's Chooseday Night Football that will be shown. There are heaps of other classic matches that won't be get a look in.
