NRL targets women, with AFL squarely in its sights

Rose says:

08:33am | 28/02/13

Many of us who enjoy AFL couldn’t care less about ‘international honours’, it’s just not that important.
And Jessica Mauboy singing in an ad is not going to make me want to watch NRL, the ad is a cross between pimple cream/margarine/ soft drink ads. So generic that it’s boring.

Big Jay says:

08:54am | 28/02/13

I think you mean State of Origin!...That’s literally the biggest game in town.

Markus says:

09:32am | 28/02/13

League is probably not the ideal sport to use the international honours argument.

Once a year you have the honour of playing the same Kiwis you have been playing every single week.
Provided the match doesn’t clash with something more important, like State of Origin. Or a regular NRL round match.

Ando says:

09:58am | 28/02/13

“Many of us who enjoy AFL couldn’t care less about ‘international honours’, it’s just not that important.”
If other countries played the sport you would. I’m not suggesting rugby league internationals are the best example but the attraction of international sport is not open for debate. If AFL was a major sport in Enlgand, America or New Zealand I’m pretty sure internationals would attract a little interest.

JTO says:

10:07am | 28/02/13

I’m perfectly happy that my team’s players don’t get injured playing meaningless games to try and bolster gate takings and sell merchandise. I where a 15 year old guernsey to the games. You know what? It’s still the same apart from the AFL logo which has been updated. Once. How about that for a trump card? Continuity.

Hamish says:

10:49am | 28/02/13

NRL international honours? The only other teams are Yorkshire and Kiwi union-rejects.

PMP says:

12:42pm | 28/02/13

Not withstanding the laughability of your “international honours” argument Mahhrat, what does that have to do with attracting women to the game?

Mahhrat says:

02:12pm | 28/02/13

@PMP:  Not everyone is as against people bashing into each other as we appear to be in Australia mate.  I’m sure there are a number of countries with women far more interested than our own in watching Rugby League.

Australians tend to take the position as the pre-eminent sport lovers of the world, and anything we don’t approve of must therefore be shit.

We need to wake up to ourselves.  RL has the potential to reach hundreds of millions given where it’s played.  Good promotion of the code as family friendly, in a global market?  You’d get more women watching good RL games and the combined market for AFL.

Hamish says:

03:06pm | 28/02/13

Mahhrat, global? C’mon. It’s played in NSW, Qld, Yorkshire, some parts (the bad ones) of Auckland and I think there’s a ‘French’ team. Apparently it’s also really big in Papua New Guinea.

Levi says:

04:24pm | 28/02/13

@Hamish, so it’s more widely played and followed than your beloved AFL then? Oh good that’s what I thought you were trying to say. The best you guys can manage is the occasional scrap against some backwoods Irish, who don’t even play the same game with the same ball. Haha

It’s actually the national sport of PNG, and was extremely popular in southern France until the Vichy regime banned it in the 40’s as they were not fans of the working class.

Dave Mc says:

06:34pm | 28/02/13

International being ..?! 3 countries, 2 of which barely play it!

Levi says:

08:55am | 28/02/13

Then don’t bother commenting. No one would really care what an aerial ping pong folloing mexican thinks anyway mate.

Shane* says:

02:11pm | 28/02/13

@Levi,

The best bit of the ad was the end, when the Melbourne Storm held aloft the trophy that no-one down here cares about.

Funny that, all it took was a team to develop a professional culture, train hard, recruit wisely and leave the knuckleheads to the NSW teams.

Hell, you took 2 trophies off them and all they did was gut their team, start with the bare bones, and become Premiers again within two seasons.

Must be something in our Mexican water.

Jamie says:

10:33am | 28/02/13

Diving skills?? And where the brutish behaviour is left to the fans at the game..??

Levi says:

08:56am | 28/02/13

No one likes a string bean mate.

Rose says:

09:01am | 28/02/13

Generally I think that’s true, but there are players from all codes seem to be working hard to ugly themselves up with an array of very large, horrible tattoos.

RobJ says:

10:01am | 28/02/13

“No one likes a string bean mate.”

How many of them could be considered ‘string beans’?

Mahhrat says:

10:39am | 28/02/13

@RobJ - Stevie Milne, all day.  Friggin’ tip rat.

Dustin Fletcher.  I swear to God he’s a robot with some poor bastard’s skin on it.  That’s why he never breaks down.

The rest seem pretty fit though, I’d agree.

London Calling says:

12:58pm | 28/02/13

@Mahhrat

‘Dustin Fletcher.  I swear to God he’s a robot with some poor bastard’s skin on it. ’

LOL.

Essendon supporters gave him the nickname Inspector Gadget many, many years ago, it is most apt.

Sickemrex says:

02:24pm | 28/02/13

It depends on which limb you’re talking about, RobJ. AFL certainly has it in the arms department but league for legs and bums IMHO.

Markus says:

09:29am | 28/02/13

“I can understand people watching it if they had played it as a child, and find it titillating seeing men rolling around on top of each other in the mud, inserting fingers up each others bottoms, knowing they’re going off for a communal shower afterwards.”

Might be worth checking that that old VHS you own with ‘Sport’ written on the label is not actually gay porn, as opposed to sport.
Don’t fret too much, I’m sure plenty of people have made that mistake before.

RobJ says:

09:56am | 28/02/13

“I was a little boy watching rugby league and collecting footy cards, the players all had jobs and it was a cool thing if one of your team was the local milko. That was the end of it. Now it’s big business.”

I disagree, for example professionalism has improved Rugby Union 9my preference) no end (IMHO).

Big Jay says:

10:09am | 28/02/13

@Markus - I share your POV. It is this constant requirement for “growth” from sport bugs me, for a listed company I understand it, but for a sport, not so much. The chase for growth by and large is detracting, bit by bit, from the existing fanbase, the (legitimate) shoulder charge illustrates this point.

I guess people that like the old-fashioned, brutal sports can watch UFC.

Um What? says:

12:26pm | 28/02/13

“Ant, dear, sweetie, lovey. Women are far too intelligent to give a rats about NRL. You see, most of us can count past six.

Have a nice day. smile”

When was this tart appointed spokesperson for women everywhere?

NSS says:

01:59pm | 28/02/13

Oow, such a vehement reaction.  I suggest you grow a sense of humour, it makes life much happier.

You have a nice day too.

Mahhrat says:

02:26pm | 28/02/13

@Um What: I’m starting to think we’re dealing with a reverse-troll, who is trying to discredit feminism by being so deliberately offensive while trying to portray one.

While I’m sure such obviously poor examples of actual feminists exist, I’d suggest most of them aren’t as literate as NSS.  I think we’re dealing with an anti-feminist double-blind.

NSS says:

03:23pm | 28/02/13

Oh Mahrat, way to over-analyse, buddy! haha!  Thanks for the back-handed compliment, by the way. *eye roll* I am definitely a feminist (although not rabid). Some of us are quite moderate.

Sheesh, the joke was about NRL. You know, tackle six times, kick once. repeat ad nauseum? I prefer Aussie Rules or when up North, Rugby Union.

Tubesteak says:

12:24pm | 28/02/13

Giving women frontal lobotomies would increase their intelligence bcause it means they’ll talk less.

ibast says:

12:41pm | 28/02/13

Maybe they can offer some free alco-pops to women attending the game.  That would take the total game attendance from 2000 to 2050.

NSS says:

01:03pm | 28/02/13

Oow, there’s an idea, Tubey. It would work on male chauvinists too!

Markus says:

02:13pm | 28/02/13

@ibast, charging $8-12 per alcopop is where stadiums make the bulk of their money these days. There’s no way they will start giving them out for free.

Surely says:

02:15pm | 28/02/13

NSS,
Your no better than a Male chauvinist\

Colin says:

02:43pm | 28/02/13

@  Tubesteak

“Giving women frontal lobotomies would increase their intelligence bcause it means they’ll talk less…”

Riiiight. So tell me, Tubesteak, did you come less verbose after yours..?

Markus says:

02:44pm | 28/02/13

I thought that was a strange conclusion to come to as well.

I don’t even follow the NRL that closely, but it was pretty obvious that in that campaign the “Our” was referring to the NRL family of players and fans.

Even as I write this my memory is going back to an article I am sure I read on this very site that saw it the exact same way - the term ‘circling the wagons’ may have even been used - and then concluded that such a campaign is too focused on existing fanbase and would stunt growth of the game.

Levi says:

04:27pm | 28/02/13

“The game though isn’t as fast, athletic or as skilful as Australian rules”

Pfft keep telling yourself until you’ve played it mate. You’ll be finished in 5 minutes.

I don’t see how running around in a paddock playing force and backs and constantly shoving and blindsiding each other counts as either skill or athleticism.

London Calling says:

06:20pm | 28/02/13

@Levi

‘Pfft keep telling yourself until you’ve played it mate. You’ll be finished in 5 minutes.’

Here I was thinking that this post was about ‘watching’ the NRL. Hence the ad, to get a bigger TV audience and people, especially women, to go and watch the game.