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Message: [QUOTE="Morkel, post: 3387270, member: 8215"] [IMG]https://broncoshq.com/attachments/nswrl_digest-png.17885/[/IMG] ------------------------------------- [B]NSWRL 002: NSWRL Plans For Success [SIZE=6]NSWRL should not be criticised for pushing for its own success.[/SIZE][/B] This week we speak to long-time shadow NSWRL administrator, Don Corruptnado, about the NSWRL's efforts in to making the NSWRL as successful as possible as a competition. "We cop a bit of flak from the fans, to be honest", claimed Don, "they really should be thanking us for making the competition that they play in as successful and profitable as possible, otherwise, if the comp goes down, where are they going to play?" he questions, as he quickly covers up a copy of Super League '97 magazine. "The way I see it, the premiership needs to mean something - it's a win for a club but it also needs to be a win for the NSWRL. I make no apologies for that. It's being called self-interest by some, but you have to remember that while they're competing with other clubs, we're competing with the AFL, Rugby, UFC, and Real Housewives for revenue from viewers, corporate sponsorships, and broadcasters. It's no different". Asked how the competition's administrators have gone about ensuring each premiership benefited the NSWRL, Don was quite proud. "It's twofold, actually. We have to keep the fans engaged, while also pushing strategically for outcomes that benefit the game. Let's look at the Storm, for instance. The NSRWL absolutely has to have a foothold in Victoria, otherwise the AFL win. We can't have that. The problem is that no one in Victoria gives a shit. The only way to make them relevant is to keep them at the top. Not just consistently in the finals, we have to make sure they are winning the comp every few years, otherwise their fans will be turning away from them and that isn't an option". [ATTACH type="full" alt="1650859361057.png"]18020[/ATTACH] [I]Storm fans - most have visited Melbourne at least once.[/I] If you look at the recent statistics, Don and his team have been doing a great job. The Storm are now one of the top supported clubs in the country, despite very few of their fans actually residing in Victoria. Their achievements on the field have resulted in a new generation growing up, looking for any tentative link to Melbourne in order to justify being a fan. "Yeah I'm a massive Storm fan", declares Archerfield resident Chris Dudgeon. "My uncle lives down there and we're really close, so it was only natural that we'd end up supporting the Storm. They are the pinnacle of a professional sports team". When asked who his favourite player from the Storm was, Chris had too many options to choose from. "How do you pick just one? It's a team of Superstars. Cameron Smith is the best to ever play the game, and they have some really talented backs like Abdocar and Vusivusi, but I think my favourite is Christian Winch. He is really under-rated and puts them on the front foot every set. He reminds me of a young Ryan Tandy and I'm sure his career will end up just as successful". Don backs up these sentiments. "Punters love a winner" he grins. "And if we can turn that in to a gain for us, like in this case the viability of a team in Melbourne, we'd be doing a dis-service to ourselves to overlook that opportunity". Asked what other initiatives the NRSWL had pushed for, Corruptnado was able to rattle off a list of teams that had been extremely important to the game's continued success. "We had a great program for a few years there called the Fairytale initiatives. We saw how much the fans loved the Dragons' victory in 2010, and how the love of the game was rekindled in a dwindling fan base, and decided that that would be an excellent move forward. We had to get through a couple of other token premierships, like a routine Storm one and obviously Sonny Bill needed a sweetener to return to League so we made sure he got a ring. But from there it was a really good run". [ATTACH type="full" alt="1650859460030.png"]18021[/ATTACH] [I]SBW throws another cracker of a forward pass.[/I] "The Rabbitohs was a great push for League in general, everyone loves the story of a struggling club coming out on top, and the exposure it gave us around the world with good old Rusty vindicated that one, we knew we made the right decision". "We learned from that that bringing a win to a long-suffering fanbase was a real boost to numbers and dollars, so after a few years of making sure of tight scorelines between the Broncos and Cowboys, we set those two up in 2015 and made sure the Cows got theirs. Again, these premierships can only be handed out once a year, so they need to count, this one had the added benefit of gifting Thurston his victory, as well as shutting Paul Green up". "We looked at a few for 2016. The Cowboys one really showed the benefit of an inaugural premiership, so we had to weigh up the Warriors or Sharks. We looked at them both, but eventually we got a call from Buzz (Phil Rothfield, chief writer for a top NSW based newspaper). He said that he had a heap of dirt on then CEO Todd Greenberg, mostly from his days at the Bulldogs. He was right too, some of the stuff he had would have buried him and really hurt the competition as a whole, so we agreed to push the Sharks that year in order to keep him quiet. [ATTACH type="full" alt="1650859576481.png"]18022[/ATTACH] [I]Phil Rothfield celebrates while sitting atop a mountain of evidence against NSWRL Ceo Greenberg[/I] "2017 had to be another Storm year to keep the quota up. That just really left the Warriors, we all chucked about that before moving on". "So we needed a new strategy. The fans were on board, how do we help the NSWRL itself as a whole? In 2018 Nick Politis (Roosters chairman) came to us with an intriguing offer. You see, the comp had this dreadful record hanging over it, where the last team to win back-to-back was Brisbane. We'd done pretty well to invalidate 1997 but even before that they had 1992 & 1993, and that was like a 25 year bad taste in our mouths. Politis offered to clear that headache with a Roosters double. Initially we thought it would be a hard sell, they'd won the spoon not long before but that man always has a plan. He'd already paper bagged a couple of superstars so the team actually looked pretty good on paper. A couple more paper bags later and we rubber stamped it". [ATTACH type="full" alt="1650859949556.png"]18023[/ATTACH] [I]"On the count of three, One, Two, Three, SALARY CAP lol"[/I] "That was a great result for the record books, but not so much for the fans. Look, they were happy that the record rightfully belonged to a NSW team again, but the Roosters themselves only have a few thousand fans, and what's more, their poaching of players got the other teams off-side. We also encountered a problem where AFL was really pushing hard in to traditional NRL heartlands, and was setting up a lot of junior pathways for their code. We saw a real shift in the grassroots and development programs in those last few years, and we realised that we needed to entice NRL clubs to develop players". "We saw that the Panthers had a pretty successful junior program going, and thought that that would be the best template to encourage other clubs to develop from within. We warmed them up a bit, gave them a few nudges and, after the Storm got one more, the Panthers got their hands on one as a reward". Asked what the plans for the future were, the answer was more of the same. "We're still on the Panthers for the moment. We're not yet sure if we're going to take them all the way this year. They are losing players, like all successful teams do, and we're trying our hardest to make sure they are still coming out on top, even as they roll out new, less experienced players. One win isn't going to be enough to convince teams to develop, they really need to see that you can develop, and still experience continued success, even as other teams pick their bones. We have them lined up near the pointy end for the next couple of years at least, make sure their player turnover doesn't hinder them. Let me just say that the refs are doing a fantastic job with this. Undefeated so far this year and even though the loss of players has started to hurt their squad, the refs and making sure that their opposition is kept at bay long enough for the Panthers to wear them down". [ATTACH type="full" alt="1650860146243.png"]18024[/ATTACH] [I]"Just look at how good we are".[/I] When asked to reflect on their programs, Don is philosophical. "Look, you can call it manipulation, rorting, corruption, I don't really care. We are a business, and we need to make sure we succeed, it's as simple as that. It's entertainment, we sell entertainment, we're not the Olympics or the World Athletics, we don't pretend to be. And don't get me wrong, all teams are on equal standing here, we're not picking teams for the hell of it. It's not all just the Storm, Panthers and Roosters. Other clubs just need to get better. They need to offer us something. We're open to ideas out there on how a victory for them can help the NSWRL as a whole. The market is constantly changing, and if there's a niche that they can fill, that's fantastic, we're happy to hear them out". [/QUOTE]

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