NRL 2024 Round 1 Discussion

[Fozz]

Jack Bird in the centres and Lomax shifted to the wing. Bird seems too heavy for the backline these days

 

[Big Pete]

Jack Bird in the centres and Lomax shifted to the wing. Bird seems too heavy for the backline these days

Bird was looking robust during the trials, it appears he's slimmed down for the role.

We didn't see as much of it as I thought we would, but the Lomax to wing move just allows him and Sloan to alternate at fullback. It probably also takes the flick pass out of the equation entirely which is probably for the best.

 

[JayPee]

MIkaele doesnt even make the 17. Jakey Granville did though. Dead fucking set.

 

[Sproj]

MIkaele doesnt even make the 17. Jakey Granville did though. Dead fucking set.

Well your coach seems pretty stubborn and doesn't seem to like to change things up, like at all. Not really sure what difference he brings compared to Green really.

 

[Sproj]

I tell you what, you look at that Warriors side, we might be sleeping on them a bit. They look strong everywhere. They might well be the ones to close the gap along with the Roosters. Brissy and Penrith both look weaker and the Warriors and Roosters both look much stronger. Should be fun.

 

[Big Pete]

I tell you what, you look at that Warriors side, we might be sleeping on them a bit. They look strong everywhere. They might well be the ones to close the gap along with the Roosters. Brissy and Penrith both look weaker and the Warriors and Roosters both look much stronger. Should be fun.

Warriors - I'm not a huge gambler so don't read into this as an endorsement, but I was surprised they were below so many other teams in the market. I guess it goes to show how apprehensive the bookies are when the Warriors can add players the calibre of Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and Kurt Capewell to their roster after making the Top 4 and not be considered among the favourites. I'm curious to see how well Tuivasa-Sheck and Johnson combine and just how comfortable they look out there. By rights, they should be in the thick of this premiership race.

In other words, I agree.

If I had to pick two reasons...

Firstly, it's because they virtually came from nowhere to make the Top 4. There was hardly an indication they were about to have this amazing season. Outside of his experience at Penrith, Webster didn't have the best CV and while they were expected to improve if only because they were back in NZ, a lot of their best players were on the wrong side of 30 or looked like they had been chewed up and spat out. Usually when you see teams pull something like that off like the Bulldogs in 09 or Roosters/Panthers in 2010 there's usually a bounce back factor.

Making things tougher, it's the Warriors. Ever since 2004, they've never been able to keep a good thing going. Even when they had Cleary as coach, they could never build upon some of their more successful seasons and usually they'd finish with a wet sail and fall to a heap the following season (eg 2008 into 09, 2011 into 12).

New year, new Warriors but I think that's where the apprehension is coming from.

In the end, it won't really matter come kick off. I thought they looked good during the trials and RTS turns one of their biggest weaknesses into a strength.

 

[Sproj]

In other words, I agree.

If I had to pick two reasons...

Firstly, it's because they virtually came from nowhere to make the Top 4. There was hardly an indication they were about to have this amazing season. Outside of his experience at Penrith, Webster didn't have the best CV and while they were expected to improve if only because they were back in NZ, a lot of their best players were on the wrong side of 30 or looked like they had been chewed up and spat out. Usually when you see teams pull something like that off like the Bulldogs in 09 or Roosters/Panthers in 2010 there's usually a bounce back factor.

Making things tougher, it's the Warriors. Ever since 2004, they've never been able to keep a good thing going. Even when they had Cleary as coach, they could never build upon some of their more successful seasons and usually they'd finish with a wet sail and fall to a heap the following season (eg 2008 into 09, 2011 into 12).

New year, new Warriors but I think that's where the apprehension is coming from.

In the end, it won't really matter come kick off. I thought they looked good during the trials and RTS turns one of their biggest weakness into a strength.

And they've negated losing Curran by getting Capewell.

 

[JayPee]

Well your coach seems pretty stubborn and doesn't seem to like to change things up, like at all. Not really sure what difference he brings compared to Green really.

He changed a shitload compared to Green. Especially early on in his tenure. But he has this fascination with Jake Granville for some reason. I was suprised he picked kuli tbh.

 

[Foordy]

The figures don't back up the NRL's claim that the Vegas experiment was successful.

The First game only had a US TV viewership of 61k, while for the second game that viewership had reportedly dropped to 44k

 

[Sproj]

The figures don't back up the NRL's claim that the Vegas experiment was successful.

The First game only had a US TV viewership of 61k, while for the second game that viewership had reportedly dropped to 44k

If that is true, that is a major fail.

I actually remember thinking when they put the crowd up at 40k in the stadium or whatever that seemed really low and then began to also wonder...did they combine attendance for both games?

There were so many empty seats, it would have been pretty concerning for the NRL and it clearly was, they tried to cover the empty top stand so no one would notice no one was there and even on the first and second floors, there were chunks of empty seats.

I also wonder how many giveaways and 2-1s there were.

 

[Foordy]

If that is true, that is a major fail.

I actually remember thinking when they put the crowd up at 40k in the stadium or whatever that seemed really low and then began to also wonder...did they combine attendance for both games?

There were so many empty seats, it would have been pretty concerning for the NRL and it clearly was, they tried to cover the empty top stand so no one would notice no one was there and even on the first and second floors, there were chunks of empty seats.

I also wonder how many giveaways and 2-1s there were.

Those figures come directly from Abdo who also said that the ratings for the first game were 3 times higher than the most watched games on Fox Sports over the past 3 years ... now if He is talking about Fox Sports in Australia, then they are seriously overpaying for the TV rights, lol

Andrew Abdo Said:

“We had a 61,000 average viewership on Fox Sports 1 for the first game, which was more than one-third of the marquee college basketball clash between Xavier and Georgetown which preceded our games,” said NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo.

“That figure also compares to some US Major League Soccer games on Fox Sports 1.

“The second game attracted an average audience of 44,000. These are the two most watched NRL matches in the US on record.

“The audience of the first game was three times higher than the most watched NRL games on Fox Sports in the past three seasons and over 280 per cent higher than the most recent Saturday games on Fox Sports 1.

“These are positive signs in the first year of the long term venture.”

 

[Super Freak]

The college basketball game going into overtime didn't help matters. They had about 167k I believe, somewhere around there.

$150 USD for a game pass also didn't help.

NRL will need to go back to the drawing board regarding the viewership. One step would be making it free to watch the games. The US media that's been talking about the game has been really positive. If they make it free next year that will help increase viewership. Then they can start pushing to sell WatchNRL subscriptions.

They were never going to get big viewership numbers in the US straight up. It's not a well known game over there but each year they put on a good event, get some good press in the US media, those numbers will start to increase. And also not charging $150 for a game pass...

 

[ningnangnong]

All we've done is boost the US tourism market.

I reckon the majority of the crowd at the games were Aussies - is there any evidence to suggest otherwise?

 

[Big Pete]

All we've done is boost the US tourism market.

I reckon the majority of the crowd at the games were Aussies - is there any evidence to suggest otherwise?

I also think it was to drive discussion here in Australia and try to brand Rugby League as a global sport. That's why Gus is trying to push his narrative that the NRL should buy the ESL to capitilise on the buzz.

V'landys also has Fox in his pocket so even though TV ratings were dismal and they hardly had any engagement, they really tried to talk it up as much as possible during the coverage.

I'm curious if they'll really stick with it for four years.

 

[LittleDavey]

I reckon the NRL must have paid out a bunch of American 'reaction' Youtubers too, my feed was swamped in the week or two leading up to the weekend with probably a dozen guys all reacting to the Crowe commercial and then other things NRL as well - all incredibly positive reactions, to the extent it felt forced.

I mean, it's not bad marketing, word-of-mouth is how the game is going to grow there (if at all) and those guys all have a decent following of sports fans so I think the idea is sound. Just found it slightly amusing. Did anyone else notice this?

 

[broncos4life]

MIkaele doesnt even make the 17. Jakey Granville did though. Dead fucking set.

Man Toddy loves Granville. Those two must be best mates.

 

[broncos4life]

All we've done is boost the US tourism market.

I reckon the majority of the crowd at the games were Aussies - is there any evidence to suggest otherwise?

Judging by the television numbers there it was next to no impact. For mine this whole thing had been a huge waste of money and made a bunch of die hard Australian fans waste 1000’s of dollars to watch a game they could have seen at their usual stadium.

 

[Waynesaurus]

Vegas has been nothing but a huge distraction and disruption to the pre-season, start of the season and the players focus in general.