People on FB and Twitter are generally unhappy about everything.
That's my point exactly. There is a lot of media noise nowadays and if you selectively listen to parts of it, you will hear only what you already think.
Take anything at all, any concept or review or opinion and almost all of those that are digested are either totally in agreement with your own, or totally opposite. For example, if you read product reviews on Amazon, the most easily available and the most likely searched for are the 5-star or 1-star ratings. On metacritic, it is the >90% or the <50% reviews. Nobody goes looking for "the middle" opinion, the "ok" opinion. Average Joe doesn't even write or post about something average, they only speak up if they love it or loathe it.
So yeah not at all surprised that @Cultured_Bogan can find lots of folks online who are disenfranchised. It's probably always been true that a significant proportion of League followers are falling away from the game, as new supporters come in. But in decades past, you didn't really hear about all the individual opinions. E.g. where are all the North Sydney supporters now? I am sure tens to perhaps hundreds of thousands of Bears supporters got pretty disenfranchised around 2000, but nobody was really listening in back then.
I personally am not disenfranchised with the NRL at all and I consciously avoid too much social media to try keep the bitching to a minimum. I focus on the actual matches played, and in that respect modern technology helps me connect with on-field action like never before.
And when we specifically talk about examples of "poor administration" by the NRL, things are offered up:
- failure to grow game in country, sometimes questionable support for international game
- potential salary cap issues, underhanded club deals, haves and have-nots
- perceived favouritism
- inconsistent decision-making in judiciary and refereeing
Probably all true to some extent.
But does one simultaneously balance those negatives with the known positives of the administration?
- Men of League and Beyond Blue
- NRL community programs - State of Mind, Voice Against Violence, School To work, League in Harmony
- Brain Cancer round
- Club engagement with schools
- New Women's NRL and rep competition, annual women's round
- Growth of Pacific Is footy and elevation of Tonga to Tier 1
- Indigenous round and All Stars match
- Amalgamation and oversight of Australia-wide touch football
- NRL active support of inclusivity, e.g. Macklemore, same-sex marriage statement, Israel Folau statement
- NRL concussion protocols and ongoing player safety
- RLPA bargaining agreement
- Largest ever TV deal
- NSW Govt investment in 3 state-of-art Rugby League stadiums
- Consistently top-rating Finals, Grand Final and Origin TV viewership
- Monopoly over Pay-TV highest rated programs
- Investment in NRL.com and match streaming technologies in partnership w Telstra and Foxtel
etc.
I don't deny that the NRL either founded or support great initiatives, and I'm fully aware of most of the above.
At the end of the day, it is a byproduct of the game though. While the product suffers (via administration,) all those positives are less significant.
You're happy with the organisation, and I am aware that you're not the only one. I'm not claiming that social media is solely an echo chamber for the disenfranchised, plenty love the game as much as ever and that's great for them (and you.) I'm not, and there's plenty like me. I love my club and will continue to support them, but the administration has lost me as an avid fan of the wider game.
