Here, Wigan ace Sam Tomkins, Warrington stalwart Adrian Morley and Salford’s Aussie Luke Patten discuss what can be done to give rugby league a bigger share of the spotlight.
Sam Tomkins
I would love to see rugby league being as high profile in this country as it is in Australia.
If so, we would definitely be right up there with football.
In Australia, the game tends to get bred into people, hence the reason why it’s so huge and why it generates so much publicity and interest.
In my view, we possibly need to promote our own game better on TV. This has to be done if we are to really compete with other sports and prove to people just what a great product we have.
Rugby league is a great game, it’s a terrific spectator sport.
Pat Richards, my Wigan team-mate, is the current Super League Man of Steel and he’s recently been a guest on the Question of Sport show. This kind of thing is good for our game and it needs to happen more often.
Our personalities need to be in the spotlight. I’ve said in an earlier column this season that rugby league players are totally different from footballers, but we need as many outlets as possible to get a message out and to show people just what a great game rugby league is.
Rugby league is certainly a far better sport to watch than rugby union, but look at the publicity union receives compared to league – this really annoys me.
We need to shout it from the rooftops when we have games like the recent Wigan-Leeds clash. This type of game illustrates perfectly just what rugby league is all about.
I also think many players would greatly benefit and enjoy media training and it’s something our young players need to be introduced to and encouraged.
It has my full support, it’s something I’ve enjoyed. When you’ve just played a game and had a microphone pushed under your nose, it’s not easy. You need to know how to handle these situations.
But we have the personalities and the players and better promotion on TV would be beneficial to all.
Adrian Morley
It’s a really tough one. I’m biased but I genuinely believe that, as far as the product goes, rugby league is the best team sport around. I watch football and rugby union and, for me, they don’t compare when it comes to excitement.
It’s about us raising our profile. It’s great that we’re on Sky Sports, but if we had more coverage on the free to air channels that would help.
It would benefit us to be seen as a truly national sport, too. I know there is a team in London but traditionally rugby league is seen as a northern sport.
We need to break down those barriers and introduce the sport to other areas and develop new professional teams. People talk about how successful the NRL is down in Australia but what I would say is that it is easy to promote a game that already has such a foothold. The Australians just took the game to their hearts.
I don’t think a return to the days of promotion and relegation is a great idea either. In those days, we had a lot of yo-yo teams and clubs got into financial trouble.
Now there is more stability and teams can bring youngsters through – that has been one of the great successes of this Super League.
Luke Patten
When it comes to advertising and promotion of the game, you’ve got to think outside the box. From my experience with the NRL, they are working very hard on boosting on membership numbers.
It’s something that the Aussie Rules teams do very well.
People join as members and then they get special treatment – they are invited to member-only training sessions and can meet the players, that kind of thing.
In the AFL, some clubs have 30-40,000 members and that helps to pay for player wages and other improvements. And the members feel like they own a bit of the club and feel part of it.
It would also be fantastic to have more sides from across the country playing but that takes time and will not happen overnight.
Another thing that would help is if all the games were televised. I think the game stacks up really well in terms of excitement when you compare it to football or rugby union.
And I think if money did come into the game then you’d see more players staying or even coming across from rugby union.
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Super league tv!!! why not put it on freeview???? Make one game on sunday free to air! They can look after Challenge Cup games and some national league. Add to that some french and aussie coverage. Get enough interest in the channel they could look at a paychannel with super league at a cost of £10 per month.
Why not GIVE away sponsorship to the World club/challenge cup to 'ASDA or TESCO' and get them to promote the game/comp around the country, with the game on 'free-to-view tv.
Another angle to look at is having people that are employed in TV and the print media that are genuine Rugby League people.
When you have people like this in the UK & Europe you will have the same profile that RL has in Australia.
Super league should be offering scholarships in all types of media to RL minded people, whether ex players none players etc; so that they are employed in the media and in turn they can have a positive influence, on the game of Rugby League.
Firstly, the SL should be more competitive. The same old teams win the majority of the honours each season. This has to end.It's no use that 3or 4 teams are stacked and the rest have to look for scraps. Look at the NFL in the US. With an inferior product they are hugely successful. Player salary caps and roster limitations definitely needed. Also there is a vast area in the midlands where RL teams are almost non-existent . It would help if semi-pro teams were located in Birmingham, Bristol, and Glasgow. These teams would have the opportunity of moving up to the SL i n time. RL is a wonderful spectator sport .let's exploit it!Torred
All these points are correct, but you fellas have to do more than tell the public, you have to force change.If the current management cant achieve whats required to make the British game relevant, then make it happen. Get rid of dead wood at the top and make management accountable. I watched Saints v Hull KR at Widnes last week, the best part about the game was the spectators, the spectacle fell way short and at twenty five quid a pop way too deer. So far off the Aussies its not funny,I think you have to be the men to make things happen.
On another note and not intending to put a damper on the game, reality is that only maybe two players in the Antipodean select would even be considered at state of origin level, so a truly positive result cant be achieved no matter what the outcome.But the game will be two teams at the same level.