But as Larry David says, a good compromise is where both parties walk away equally unhappy. If both sides feel like winners, one of them is kidding themselves.
The ‘fantasy’ would have been for professional rugby to compete with the AFL and NRL. The reality is its continued progression towards pro-am status, with the most financially ambitious players trickling off to Japan and Europe. The quality of playing stocks is going to be stretched during the critical three years of the Nine-Stan deal, and Nine’s main code – league – will be singing its siren song to the most exciting young talent.
Fundamentally, rugby’s challenge is the same now as it was before. In fact, now that there will be more rugby on free-to-air TV, the challenge is even more pressing. The game has simply got to become more attractive to watch. How does it do this? Not by parroting the diehards who tell the rest of us that we’re wrong, the game is awesome, and if only we watched more we would understand this.
How are the new broadcasters going to address the entertainment issue? There’s talk of drones and greater interactivity. OK, good. Union has been well served by its game-callers, but it would be nice if they could find expert former players who can comprehend, interpret and articulate the nuances of a complex sport that alienates an audience who can’t make head or tail of what’s going on out there.
Let's give rugby a chance. Love the sponteneity of the game.
There are 7 people in Australia who watch union, and only 4 of them care about it.
The problem is that league is where you end up in trying to maximise the entertainment value of rugby. It has removed nearly all the confusing laws. League is the evolution of rugby.
Love to hear Peter_Fitz opinion
Rugby doesn’t need to, and won’t change for Australian TV audiences. It’s doing just fine everywhere else.
Simple fix. Mic refs so crowd at game and also TV audience can hear rulings (I’m told American football does this) AND MAKE SCRUMS LESS TECHNICAL SO RESOLVED FASTER. Endless resets and props getting binned for simply being out-played, out-muscled, ruining the game.
One of the unique aspects of Rugby is that you don’t have to watch it to enjoy it. beer tellinglies hangingwithyourmates
I wonder how he explains soccer being the biggest sport in the world while being boring as bat shit...