Wrong.

Not only has rugby league competed with union internationally, it is extremely easy to argue that (for example) rugby league's international scene during the 1950s was equivalent to union in the same period.

Rugby league teams from Australia, Wales, England, France and New Zealand were all very capable in that period.

With proper support, there is no reason why that can't occur again.

You can't compare aplles and oranges though, if there were 3 Union teams in Sydney they may all be drawing 20,000+, or may not, who knows.

Are you suggesting that if there was one RL team in Sydney it would draw crowds of 70K+?

I hate RU as much as the next RL fan and am smuggly watching as it struggles along in oz but Sydney crowds are pathetic generally with most clubs only having approx 10,000 paying fans. Compared to the other major code, AFL, its very poor.

I would agree the difference is RL is a minority sport in the UK - soccer is the dominant game - in Australia RL is the equivelent of soccer here so you would expect in a city the size of Sydney to attract sizeable crowds - maybe I am being nieve but the championship sides in London would attract crowds of that size never mind the Arsenal's of this world.

The Rhinos attendances would put them half way up the championship ladder for average attendances - they will never surpass Leeds Utd that is the pull of soccer here.

minority sport or not, some SL clubs get a very healthy percentage of their local popualation attending games.

and others get less than 3rd division soccer teams.

Of all clubs London and Melbourne get the worse % per population
Prob Cas and NQ get the best

Some are RL mad places like Hull and Newcastle whilst others have healthy crowds due to the size of the city such as Leeds and Brisbane

10,000 huh

The only time I WATCHED A UNION GAME WAS AT nORTH sYDNEY OVAL ,before the manly and norths game,they had a exhibition game showing RL fans THE SKILLS INVOLVED IN ONION .i'LL TELL YU THE 24,000 CROWD BACK THEN COULDNT WAIT TILL IT WAS FOOKIN OVER.




iN oThEr WoRdS BoRiNg ............

shute sheild is on tv now

yep, usually Sydney clubs crowds range from 10-20,000 depending on which teams are playing and how they are fairing (and if its raining!). I was at SFS for a Roosters home game a couple of weeks ago, crowd was 24,000 but there was probably 11,000 Roosters fans and 13,000 Sth's fans. At last nights game there was about 9,000 Roosters fans and 2,000 Parra fans. Only Wests, Bulldogs and probably Sth's have more than an average of 10-12,000 home paying fans in Sydney.

I see the SL games being shown in some parts of Australia are also drawing bigger TV audiences that S14!

The has fallen out of Super 14 crowds.

Union is on a downward spiral.

good to see

1995?

YeS .



I WaS ThErE On ThE HiLl wItH My OlD MaN ,WhEn cLiFfY LyOnS aNaIlAteD tHe BEARS.

Is that the former Bear, Cliffy Lyons?

Yes.But he only became a superstar when he was wearing the manly colours.

no sydney club averages 10,000

perhaps you confused the sydney clubs with Hull KR.

the worst clubs are at around 13,000 and the best are at 18,000

I'm talking about home fans NOT club averages. The Roosters game was a perfect example of how averages can squew the reality. 24,000 will make the Roosters avg look good, reality was there was only around 10-11,000 Roosters fans at the game. Most Sydney games are made up of 10-12,000 home fans and 2-3,000 away fans when it is a Sydney team. Hence the Sydney avg of 15,000. A couple of big games a year helps mask the 10,000 and below crowds when they play out of towners.

Roosters, Penrith, Cronulla, Manly,Parra and St's (when playing in the Gong) all have around 10,000 home fans.

Wests, St's (in St George), Bulldogs, Sth's are the only clubs with a decent home fanbase approaching 15,000+

well if thats your criteria then bye bye storm, raiders and warriors who are pretty much the same then

I watched the Warriors v Souths U20s game as one of our boys was playing for Souths.

Yep. It's exactly the same as Jersey Flegg was.

corrigan got injured in first grade, looked serious

looks too small for me tbh. cant see what the fuss is about

Difference is none of those teams are having to fight with 8 other NRL teams for corporate $'s in their city. Also Warriros and Storm will get 20,000 before most Sydney clubs mentioned imo.

Penrith are the biggest enigma for me, massive RL area massive jnr and amateur scene, semi decent stadium, far enough away from other clubs not to be encroached yet they draw such poor crowds. Sure the team hasn't been much to write home about for some time but other equally bad teams have drawn a crowd.

financially the warriors, raiders and storm are worse off than most sydney clubs you talk about

so lets be fair, you want them out, well bye bye storm, raiders and warriors as well

penriths crowds are going well this year.

Penrith packed out the stadium so many times in 2003-2004 when they were doing well.

Like every team no one supports them when they lose.

Anyone can say how big the Broncos crowds are and credit to them but no other club has been as successful in a short amount of time as they have. They have only not made the finals once.

and they took a market of 9 teams in brisbane and became one.

their crowds are actually poor for the citys population.

they need another team.