A-League showing up NRL with huge crowds
A-League showing up NRL with huge crowds
Phil Rothfield
TRADITION can be a wonderful thing in sport but it can also stand in the way of progress.
If we were welded on to tradition, there would be no one-day cricket, no Twenty20 Big Bash, no night games.
Aussie Rules in Sydney would be Pennant Hills v Newtown at Trumper Park instead of the Sydney Swans at the SCG.
We'd have unlimited-tackle rugby league, no Broncos, no Melbourne Storm. Wimbledon would still be long, boring sets with no tie-breakers.
There'd be no A-League and instead we'd have Hakoah v Marconi, Sydney Olympic v Apia Leichhardt, flares and fights.
Last weekend Sydney FC attracted 35,000 fans to Allianz Stadium.
On Saturday night the Wanderers and Sydney FC sold out Parramatta Stadium a week in advance.
It's something the Parramatta Eels haven't done since their grand final charge in 2009.
The atmosphere was extraordinary. This is something our tired and stale old rugby league administrators can learn from.
I'm referring to the NRL draw for the first round of next year's premiership.
The opening Thursday night game of the season is apparently going to be Souths against the Sydney Roosters because they are traditional rivals.
They'll get the usual crowd of 30-odd thousand. Few new customers but the same rusted-on fans that have been going to the same season-opener since 2004.
At the same time, the NRL is ignoring the opportunity to fill ANZ Stadium with a possible 80,000 crowd to launch the season.
The Bulldogs against the Roosters and Sonny Bill Williams would fill the Olympic venue in a blockbuster on Channel 9.
Sonny Bill walked out on the club in unforgivable circumstances.
The NRL should open the season with Sydney Roosters vs Bulldogs to capitalise on Sonny Bill Williams' return. Five years on, his first match against the Bulldogs is a promoter's dream.
The traditional rivals can play each other in any other round.
The trouble for NRL fans is that there is virtually no rugby league experience on the independent commission.
If Shane Mattiske's staff say they're launching the season with Rabbitohs v Roosters, no one on the commission challenges them.
Quite frankly, they don't know there are better alternatives.
Right now the A-League is teaching the NRL a thing or two about sports administration.
The launch of the A-League this year has been a spectacular success because Frank Lowy and his sharp executive staff have got their act together.
They had the courage to get rid of Clive Palmer at the end of last season and set up a new club in Sydney's west.
They are helping to fund the signings of marquee players like Alessandro Del Piero and Emile Heskey.
I watched three games over the weekend and enjoyed every minute of them.
The standard is hardly Premier League but there are moments of brilliance. Every game is a contest and the atmosphere is like nothing else in Australian sport.
Soon David Gallop will arrive and steer the game to even greater heights.
At the same time his old sport is just ambling along doing the same old thing.
They need a wake-up call and realise that you can't build a future by living in the past.
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