Only in a couple of Brisbane and Sydney schools where the kids are allowed to play every football code except rugby league... That'll change eventually though.


Have to laugh at Gutters. First he compares a sixteen team league in Australia to rugby union in its entirety worldwide and then tries to turn the S15 salary cap reduction into a positive...

Must be an interesting world he lives in.

A sporting competition cutting its cloth accordingly rather than blindingly spending cash to the extent that 14 of the 16 teams are running at a loss is a positive.......and believe me, the amount of money being offered globally for TV deals to sport will not last forever. The NRL may well end up like the NFL......very little sport involved but an awfull amount of TV

I compared the amount of money the IRB gets in hosting rights alone for its RWC, with the NRL contract for 2012 onwards......I could have just have easiy compared the amount of money the RLIF got for the hosting rights of the RLWC 2013 if you'd prefer. I believe the figure for the IRB was 100 million pounds......and the RLIF was slightly less than that....around about nothing IIRC.

Thread drift aside, Rugby League is not as massive in Australia as some posters on here would like other to believe. It's the 2nd placed football code and the third most popular team sport.....the reaction of some posters when faced with this fact smacks of insecurity and an unhealthy belief in the imaginary code wars created by a bored media.

Well, I actually live in Australia and can tell you that it is as big as many posters say here. Tell me more about the country i have lived in my entire life, please!

Where about in Australia do you live?

Northern NSW

Lol gutters, the RU spin is strong in this one!

these are not the trolls you're looking for
Really......so it's massive in Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Darwin, Tasmania and Canberra is it? Do you dispute the order of sports and their NATIONAL popularity below?

1. Cricket
2. AFL
3. RL
4. Union.

Cricket most popular! Are you joking? The "county" equivalent is nearly non existent. Don't get me wrong cricket is important to Aussies but nowhere near RL and AFL.

I read it in a book? That seems to be the accepted reply to these things....
The order would be:

=1.Rugby League
=1. AFL
3. Cricket
4.Soccer
5.Rugby Union

The only reason Cricket gets sprouted as No.1 is because it's played nationwide. But it's not in the same league as RL and AFL. And yes RL is massive in Canberra and Darwin. NSW and QLD add up to be over 52% of the population. AFL only has crowds; RL gets better TV ratings. RL has major keys of SoO and Internationals, which puts it beside, if not above AFL. Soccer is bigger than Rugby Union, It has =International appeal, But soccer has a far bigger club support.

here we go again.

Considering the media coverage nrl attendances are pretty poor. Apart from in Brisbane where elephant water polo could draw a 50k crowd at suncorp.

Its very poor tbh, it does have a number of contributing factors though.

There is no such thing as a national sport in Australia. In fact if you were to go on participation spread throughout the country netball would probably be the most national game!

RL is king in 60%
Afl is king in 40%

RU, soccer, basketball are 2nd tier sports

Cricket is something to watch in summer when tests are on and there is no footy and comes in the same category as golf, fishing etc in that it is more a pastime than sport!