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A few weeks ago there were two (yes two!) articles about rugby league in Tasmania.
One of these was posted on the NRL Tasmania Facebook site. It caught my eye and reinvigorated my interest in The Roar and the endless debates that occur here about footy.
For several years (2009-2013) I was President of the Tasmanian Rugby League (as it was then known). To describe it as a thankless task would be an understatement.
Working full time in my day job and devoting 20 hours a week to the fruitless exercise of trying to maintain a competition down here was, in hindsight, probably not a wise investment of time.
But gee we had some fun.
Over that period of time we managed to form seven clubs (losing three on the way), play interstate and intrastate matches, get some under 18 stuff happening, and get to spend every Saturday over summer watching true amateurs playing the greatest game of all purely for the love of it.
We made lots of friends (and enemies) and a small band of people worked tirelessly to keep the game going until the comp folded early in 2015.
So what went wrong?
They say history has a tendency to repeat itself. Sadly, for Tassie rugby league, this is very much true.
The first rugby league competition was played here in the 1950s and early 1960s but died for reasons hidden in history.
Two more attempts were made to grow the game in the early and late 90s. At one stage there was a genuine state wide competition with ten clubs. I even remember seeing women’s league down here and a reserve grade comp at one stage.
Super League put paid to one incarnation of the game here.
To make matters worse, rugby union is weak down here with ten clubs state wide playing one grade and very few junior teams. It is a great comp to play in but playing numbers are low.
There is actually no reason why rugby league cannot grow and thrive here in that environment. But, sadly, at the moment there is no regular full contact rugby league played anywhere in Tasmania.
So why is that?
Here are some interesting facts and figures which demonstrate that there is a spark that could be ignited down here to get the game rolling again if the powers that be can be bothered.
First of all, WIN Television advised me three years ago that a regular audience of 10,000 viewers watch NRL on Fridays and Sundays.
Secondly, State of Origin matches down here regularly attract television audiences in excess of 40,000 – as does the NRL grand final.
Thirdly, we had a trial match down here between the Storm and Broncos on February 18th 2012 (my birthday) at the North Hobart Football ground which drew in the vicinity of 15,000 people (official attendance was 11727 but the crowd was much larger than that).
We played our grand final prior to that trial match at 12 noon (the Storm match was at 4 pm) and it was estimated (not by me) that over 3500 people arrived early at the ground to watch that game simply because local league lovers had a chance to watch a game of footy.
Then what happened? Nothing. And slowly but surely league died in Tassie again.
On February 18th 2017, five years to the day the last game was played (and yes it’s on my birthday again) the Storm play the Canterbury Bulldogs in a trial match at North Hobart Football Oval. Its déjà vu all over again.
However, unlike last time, I and most of my league-loving friends will be just casual observers.
Crowd estimate? Your guess is as good as mine. But there is no doubt that the ball was dropped badly in 2012 and if the fans don’t flock to the game this time then the NRL will need to think about whether it should drop the ‘N’ in its name and re-title itself the MRL as in ‘Mainland Rugby League’ – and yes I am half serious about that.
A lot has been said about television deals, bunkers, player contracts, grassroots, development officers, referees, naughty players and the like over the past five years since the Storm last played here.
But in a time of declining participation rates in traditional markets, a potential player base and market sits here pretty much ignored.
If the national body is serious about becoming the number one code in Australia, then it must have a presence in every State, including dear old Tassie, which goes beyond counting touch football players and kids attending school clinics.
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