IF money talks, rugby league powerbrokers have a billion reasons to boast they have the platform to propel the code to unprecedented levels of success in 2013. Having secured a media rights deal worth more than $1 billion, members of the ARL Commission believe it now possesses the financial muscle to seriously challenge the AFL as Australian sport's pre-eminent winter code. I was surprised by this fact [i"We go into 2013 starting from a strong base," said CEO Smith. "Since 1998, 13 of the 16 teams have reached the grand final and every team has been in the finals the past four years"[/i More of the story here. www.couriermail.com.au/news/quee ... 6591078282

IF money talks, rugby league powerbrokers have a billion reasons to boast they have the platform to propel the code to unprecedented levels of success in 2013. Having secured a media rights deal worth more than $1 billion, members of the ARL Commission believe it now possesses the financial muscle to seriously challenge the AFL as Australian sport's pre-eminent winter code. I was surprised by this fact [i"We go into 2013 starting from a strong base," said CEO Smith. "Since 1998, 13 of the 16 teams have reached the grand final and every team has been in the finals the past four years"[/i More of the story here. www.couriermail.com.au/news/quee ... 6591078282

Which compares to 11 of the 14 (79%) SL teams (taking Crusaders and Widnes as one team) who have made the playoffs in the last 4 years, the teams who havent being London, Salford and Bradford. And 6 out of 14 (43%) have made the Grand Final.

I've known that about NRL for a while. If league in the UK could match that we might see a few more people converting from the even more predictable Premier League.

6 out of 14 making the grand final is in the last 15 years of super league since the grand final was introduced which IMO is shocking! If you look at the NRL or Rugby Union you have miles more different winners and finalists, which is why the game can be marketed better, as potential fans new to the game know their team has a chance of winning every year, it's not been like that in rugby league for about 30+ years!

To be fair, this is a big part of why licensing was introduced. Think as we progress with it, we will see a steady increase in those percentages.

We could certainly do with ether borrowing or hireing the Aussie guys that secured their sponsorship deal(s) and see if they could sprinkle some magic dust onto our game.
The AUS$1 billion deal is truly staggering compared to a few milliom quid on this side of the world.

I can't wait for the NRL to start, with all of the NRL games lie and the 2-3 Super League games on the box, theres nearly rugby league on every day. Don't forget you can watch online legally www.rlbet.co.uk/live-nrl-streami ... -streaming or it's on Premier Sports

I can't wait for the NRL to start, with all of the NRL games lie and the 2-3 Super League games on the box, theres nearly rugby league on every day. Don't forget you can watch online legally www.rlbet.co.uk/live-nrl-streami ... -streaming or it's on Premier Sports

That tells me that 8 clubs need to try a lot harder.


Regarding your point for new fans, how many Premier League clubs go into that season expecting to win the league? All but two have been won by the same three clubs afterall.

Similar story with RU. 25 of 21 premierships have been won by the same three clubs.

The NRL is a bit of a one-off, it's pretty much the national sport and brings in enough $ that each club can afford to pay at, or close to, the cap. That simply isn't the case over here, unless the salary cap or number of teams is reduced, a league that competitive isn't going to happen overnight. RL over here would require more revenue going into the smaller clubs (but this isn't really what this threads about, is it?).

My point is, there doesnt have to be 14 teams capable of winning the league for the league to be successful, there are plenty of examples which prove this.

Now thats dominant.

The NRL stat is also from the last 15 years. I also don't think it's shocking at all, especially as for many of those 15 years there were only 12 teams. It's not great, but in my opinion it shows the weakness of the League years ago. With the salary cap starting to bite I think there's much more chance for a club outside the new Big 4 to make the GF. There are always going to be teams who aren't going to challenge each year. Did any Wigan Athletic, London Welsh or Gold Coast fan really think their team would win their respective comps this year? For instance the Premier League has only had 7 different teams finish either 1st or 2nd in 20 years.
With the salary cap finally biting it comes down more and more to how a club is run, if other clubs still aren't catching up then I think they can only look at themselves for the solution.

You can not compare RL with football pal, football is a multi billon puns industry that's thriving, RL is a small northern sport the is struggling and can't afford 4 teams every year dominating.

and....POP goes the balloon of good feeling. 5.1533203125:5