Once upon a time, Rugby League was a bigger sport than Rugby Union. Rugby Union clubs used to get 5 men and a dog turn up to club matches, and the players officially earned nowt. Big names from Union came to League to earn an honest crust and found the game to be enjoyable but considerably tougher than they expected (see Jonathan Davies).

Rugby League formed Super League in 1996 the year after Rugby Union went professional. From that point onwards Rugby League has been on a downward trajectory. Rugby Union has all the things that IMG would like to see in Rugby League - large national media interest, average attendances of 10,748 (although way down on pre-pandemic figures), international games, European club competitions and plenty of TV coverage. The downside is the game is that it is absolutely riddled with debt, currently standing at £510 Million amongst all the clubs.

If IMG can raise standards in Rugby League to average attendances of 10,000, increase TV Coverage (possibly through IMG streaming services) and increase the number of International games, then it might be a good solid base to assail Rugby Union and without the debt.

Rugby Union has a huge problem with needing 15 players and 8 reserves for any given match, needing to have huge squads and with wages on a spiral out of control. It is hard to see how long this situation can prevail. Rugby League recognised the issue of player numbers back in 1895 and realised that by removing flankers they would only have to pay 13 people instead of 15. The end results proved to be a faster more enjoyable game.

Just making the point that Warrington finished 11th - maybe it is the principle of receiving bad service, leads to more complaints.

I was just being a little mischievous, but the fact that remains is that Social Media and Team Performance are not a direct correlation, and if there is any correlation it is based on a much longer time period than one season.

The Rhinos are often quoted as the benchmark for Social Media, but the on-field team has yo-yoed up and down the League table, and even flirts with relegation on some occasions.

Well, Septimus, if I was DB I would employ a programmer to write me a script that would add a few thousand bots (fake accounts) on Twitter every week and program them to follow Leigh Leopards. It can easily be done. We would soon be top of the social media league. We could even go the whole hog and have virtual rugby teams playing for virtual trophies in virtual stadiums lol. A successful rugby team with exciting players will get you to the top table not cryptic messages and a photo of DB holding a leopard patterned pen, no doubt wearing his favourite leopard skin budgie smugglers haha. That image has just put me off my tea haha.

i agree that we are at a point of saturating the good games, by overplaying them. As a game we need to focus on bringing up the overall quality, so that the quality / intensity of a Wigan v Saints derby is replicated week in / week out. Whilst i'll admit you cant replace the rivalry of a local derby, you do need to be able to replicate the quality, intensity etc through the weekly rounds and if you can, there is no doubt in my mind that fan numbers would increase.
We have played Saints / Wire 5 or 6 times in a season with 2 league fixtures, 1 loop fixture, 1 CC round and then play off / grand final, and it gets too much, and detracts from the spectacle that it should be. I know you can always avoid it, especially if its a measure of success by making playoff andd finals, but something that needs to be considered.

with regards to social media, i have got both my daughters watching old clips off you-tube, admittedly a lot of it is Biff related , but they love the physical contact and get excited when there is a bit of biff. I feel a good social media presence should be mix of the old and the new. I know there will be sentimental fans, who love nothing better than seeing John Woods, Des Drummond, Alex Murphy, i'll chuck Tim Street in for one of my best mates wearing the club colours, but equally, its good for the new fans to see who has graced the colours previously

another aspect to social media, which also links in with attendance at games etc is something that i attended a work presentation on a couple of years ago
The premier league are working with a 3rd party about their content, but based on real time availability of information etc

they believe that the number of fans across the board is going to fall as the attention span of GEN Z ( i think it was they recognised them as) was very short. they dont like to sit and watch a game for 90 minutes, either physically there or on TV, so the premier league is looking at ways of attracting them with short / catchy footage, that keeps that at or watching the game, but know that they wont be watching (so to speak) as they will be on their phones watching replays / if he had done this, this is the likely scenario, the chances of joe bloggs scoring that was X, but if he has passed to fred smith, it was Y

it was a really strange insight into what the premier league was looking at, and the challenges they face in terms of attracting and retaining younger fans at the games.

so from a RL perspective, pretty sure we have the same challenges, but wont have the same amount of money available to produce that sort of quality of real time analysis / coverage

When it comes to social media I realise there are many platforms, but despite all that has gone on with Twitter recently, it does seem that our page is the only one without a verified tick (of any colour), be it either an inherited legacy, or someone not wanting to pay the £8 (plus VAT) a month, it looks a bit daft when most other teams at non-SL level also have a tick.