How odd from noobpie when he makes statements without links, but wants links from the likes of you and others. He needs to practice what he preaches
Tough guy and V'landys don't go together. Example. He didn't want the Kangaoroos to go to England to play in the RLWC, but in the meantime other international sports teams have gone there to play
NRL to move Storm preliminary final to avoid AFL grand final clash SHH
‘This is not us backing down’: NRL moved final after call from Storm owner
Peter V’landys insists moving the Storm preliminary final to avoid a clash with the AFL grand final will result in better ratings for the NRL, but it took a high-level intervention to get the ball rolling.www.smh.com.au
First bounce in the AFL grand final is due at 7.15pm in the eastern states, while the Storm’s showdown with either the Penrith Panthers or Parramatta Eels was scheduled to kick off at 7.50pm at Suncorp Stadium.
But the NRL will now play the game at 4pm.LOL The AFL wins again!
Over 9 million people in the UK alone watched Emma Raducanu's win in the US opne tennis and tennis wouldn't even be among the top 5 sports in the UK
Emma Raducanu’s US Open win serves up audience of 9.2m for C4
Broadcaster enjoys strong viewing figures after last-minute deal with Amazon to allow UK viewers to watch final for freewww.theguardian.com
Very interesting figures there!Just read this ridiculous article suggesting the NRL should have puffed its chest out and kept the Storm prelim at the same time as AFL grand final - indeed that it has sold its sport short in moving it....
NRL puts rugby league back in its box by appeasing AFL with finals fixture move | Nick Tedeschi
Rather than promote the stature of one of the most important games of the season, the league has undermined it
....generally, the tone suggests it has done so as a favour to the AFL
Firstly, and obviously this can't happen because the NRL grand final is on Sunday nights, but I am very confident the AFL would have not hesitated in moving the prelim if the roles were reversed and Sydney team was in a prelim against the NRL GF. Likely even if there was no northern club. There would have been no bravado in the first place to then have to back down from
But the reality is, the NRL prelim would have been smashed far worse than if the roles were reversed
Using the data of football preferences from Hunter Fujak's book, only 2% of people in Melbourne have an interest in rugby league but not the AFL.
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The Storm roosters prelim in 2019, which was on the night following the the AFL day grand final, rated 210K in Melbourne. You can probably expect something similar next Saturday now they have moved it but how many people in Melbourne would have watched instead of the AFL grand final.
Likewise last year an average 800K watched the AFL grand final in Sydney and Brisbane. About 640K average watched that storm roosters prelim on FTA in those cities in 2019 - perhaps as much as 850K if you assumed that 2/3rds of the foxtel viewers were in Sydney and Brisbane.
Even if Sydney and Brisbane, for the large chunk of people who like both sports, what do you think the bulk of them will watch?
The idea that the NRL moved it "in order to allow casual rugby league fans to watch an AFL match" is absurd. The moved it because they would have lost out far more than the AFL
Good to see Australian Football making inroads in the fast growing Brisbane suburbs!
Why this must be the last time the NRL bends for the AFL
Moving the Melbourne Storm’s preliminary final to accommodate the AFL decider is a minor concession when the Battle for Brisbane is far more significant.www.theage.com.au
Why this must be the last time the NRL bends for the AFL
When Matty Johns interviewed Peter V’landys in March for his new interview show Face to Face, he asked the ARL Commission chairman to make a choice.
“Hypothetically, if you turn on the TV on a Friday night and you have a choice between rugby union or AFL, which one do you watch?” Johns asked.
The Flintstones,” V’landys replied.
It was the latest in a long line of jabs V’landys had thrown at the AFL since becoming chairman two years ago, a clever ploy to appeal to rugby league’s rusted-on fans who never felt the likes of Todd Greenberg or John Grant stood up to the bullies from the rival code.
Mostly, V’landys has taken delight in shooting down the AFL grand final.
He branded it “second rate” when talk started in the middle of last year about the match being moved to Sydney because of Melbourne’s harsh lockdown.
The match was eventually moved to the Gabba in Brisbane, prompting another classic V’landysism.
“It’s like people going to an ABBA concert when they’re AC/DC fans,” he said. “They’ll like the rhythm for a while, but they’ll go back to the real heavy stuff, the rugba league.”
Those comments were conveniently forgotten on Monday when the NRL brought forward the kick-off time of the Melbourne Storm’s preliminary final from 7.50pm to 4pm on Saturday, September 25, to avoid a clash with that apparently second-rate ABBA concert otherwise known as the AFL grand final, which will be played between Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs at Perth’s Optus Stadium.
Like everything in rugby league, just whose idea it was to move the match depends on whom you talk to.
The NRL says it was their idea, just 10 days after chief executive Andrew Abdo had told News Corp: “We’ll stand our ground. Sports lovers will have to make a choice. League fans will be more interested in our preliminary final”.
The backflip only happened when Melbourne Storm chairman Matt Tripp phoned Abdo, then V’landys, asking for the match to be moved because the Storm are trying to win over fickle Victorian fans who know every word to Waterloo but can’t deny their primal desire to be Thunderstruck.
The NRL claims there was initial resistance from broadcaster Channel Nine, publisher of this masthead, to move the match, which is interesting because Nine says it was their idea.
Both parties can see the upside of the switch: a better spectacle because the match will be played on a dry surface, more people attending and most likely higher ratings, if last weekend’s TV numbers are anything to go by.
‘This is not us backing down’: NRL moved final after call from Storm owner
Which begs the question: why wasn’t it scheduled for 4pm in the first place?
It doesn’t really matter when the match is played because rugby league has a far more pressing battle they need to win with the AFL: the battle for Brisbane.
The ARL Commission meets on Thursday with the heavy question of a second Brisbane team atop the agenda, although don’t expect an announcement any time soon.
For all the talk of the financial strain on rugby league’s bottom line because of COVID-19, there now appears a genuine sense of urgency in getting a 17th franchise up and running for the 2023 season.
The AFL is trying to win over the sprawling, expanding western suburbs of Brisbane just as it did 15 years ago in the sprawling, expanding western suburbs of Sydney. Once again, the NRL seems late to the fight.
Queensland is in the middle of a population boom. Brisbane’s south-side and south-west corridor has a population of 2.1 million people with 45,000 moving into the area annually. Last year, more than 12,000 Victorians moved to the state.
V’landys and Abdo are currently trying to sell the idea of a new team to broadcasters Foxtel and Nine (from whom they need more money) and the current 16 clubs (from whom they need support).
With the undisclosed deal with Foxtel extended out until 2027, and a new free-to-air deal being struck with Nine, it’s a tricky one for the league as they weigh up bids from Redcliffe, Brisbane Easts’ Firehawks and the Ipswich Jets.
The magical figure in additional revenue the NRL wants from the broadcasters is said to be $25m per season for 12 additional matches, but that’s unlikely. At the very least, the NRL needs to cover the annual club grant of $13m to the new franchise, which seems more probable.
https://www.theage.com.au/sport/nrl...d-tricks-with-the-master-20210913-p58r8w.html
Both V’landys and Abdo have been meeting with the clubs in recent months, pitching the merits of a new team. The reaction has been varied: some see the bigger picture, some understand the extra value of a new franchise, all of them want more money from any additional broadcast revenue.
Self-interest will always win but in this instance the clubs should realise what the AFL is doing west of Brisbane.
The Brisbane Lions will shortly open a new $70m training facility in the Ipswich suburb of Springfield. Similar investment is being made in schools and grassroots programs across the region.
Redcliffe is considered the favourite to win the bid, although the Firehawks and Jets have been in talks of a merged franchise, which would certainly make their submission more appealing.
The NRL says it won’t be on the new franchise, whoever it is, to solely fight the good fight against the AFL.
Rugby league can afford to bend to the AFL on scheduling clashes. But it can’t allow the rival code to establish a second team in Brisbane before it does.
Just read this ridiculous article suggesting the NRL should have puffed its chest out and kept the Storm prelim at the same time as AFL grand final - indeed that it has sold its sport short in moving it....
NRL puts rugby league back in its box by appeasing AFL with finals fixture move | Nick Tedeschi
Rather than promote the stature of one of the most important games of the season, the league has undermined it
Over 9 million people in the UK alone watched Emma Raducanu's win in the US opne tennis and tennis wouldn't even be among the top 5 sports in the UK
Emma Raducanu’s US Open win serves up audience of 9.2m for C4
Broadcaster enjoys strong viewing figures after last-minute deal with Amazon to allow UK viewers to watch final for free
