NRL’s image blitz based around loss of support due to controversial Brisbane prop Matt Lodge
THE NRL’s plea for fans to #NRLtalkthegameup is hiding an alarming dropoff in support for the greatest game of all - and the reason for the decline is controversial Brisbane prop Matt Lodge writes PAUL KENT.
Opinion
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THE NRL’s new strategy to #NRLtalkthegameup hides a darker reason.
The NRL is in damage control to polish its image after a recent survey set off a small alarm inside NRL headquarters.
It came after the NRL’s chief commerical officer Andrew Abdo presented concerning information to the 16 club chief executives at last week’s annual conference on the Gold Coast which revealed the game’s handling of Matthew Lodge’s return to the NRL caused the game’s popularity to drop several percentage points among the game’s supporters.
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“We dropped a couple of percentage points over that period of time that we registered Lodge,” NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg said.
“It didn’t affect ratings or crowds but we took a hit.”
Last year the NRL began using net promoter score (NPS) data to measure its popularity within the community.
The data measures the popularity of brands from Telstra and Qantas to the NRL and its 16 clubs.
Of the seven reasons offered to explain the community concerns about why people either don’t support or play rugby league, the negativity surrounding the game was chief among them.
“It’s more about people’s perceptions about the game,” Greenberg said.
“It’s really about new people coming into the game. One of our challenges is how do we get new people coming into the game.
“The strategy is pretty simple.
“We get the millions and millions of people who watch the game to be advocates for it.
“We don’t have enough of that.”
Greenberg has since admitted given his time again he would handle the Lodge registration and the messaging around it differently.
In a worrying sign of the hurdles the NRL faces, once the information was presented Cowboys chief executive Greg Tonner began speaking passionately about the need for clubs to protect the game against errant player behaviour, at least for as long as it took for someone to remind him his club was about to register Todd Carney.
The survey explains the NRL’s recent shift to insist Lodge begins paying the court ordered compensation to his victims.
Asked at the Fox League launch on February 21 whether the NRL would order Lodge to begin paying compensation to his victims in New York, Greenberg said: “Ultimately that is a matter for him and I understand he and his manager have been in contact with [the victims]. “But that’s not a matter for us to get involved in.
“We’re not in the business of telling people and players how to spend their money. That’s up to them.”
Less than a month later, days after the first meeting of the newly structured ARL Commission, Greenberg began to shift from that stance.
“We’re in dialogue with his agent and with his club and there is a strong desire to come up with a payment plan,” Greenberg said last month.
“There’s been dialogue between the parties but there is a strong principle around that.”
That stance has since continued to strengthen.
While he believes it is not the NRL’s job to garnish Lodge’s wage, he wants the Broncos to begin structuring a way for Lodge to begin paying his debt.
“If he (Lodge) has the capacity to start making payments then I would expect that to happen,” Greenberg said on Sunday.
“It will be up to the parties to negotiate the details but I want to see the intent to start paying.”
Broncos boss Paul White confirmed Greenberg’s instructions also on Sunday.
“If the NRL have decreed that there must be a payment plan, we as a club will support Matt and we will support that process,” White said.
“Todd Greenberg has been on the record about the possible requirements for Matt moving forward and I am happy to work within that process.”
Greenberg has since gone on social media asking fans to #NRLtalkthegameup after a controversial Tweet from the Telegraph’s Phil Rothfield.
Various NRL players are also hashtagging #NRLtalkthegameup on their social media platforms, although they have not revealed the NRL is paying them to do so.
He has also claimed many of the game’s problems are in fact false, blaming “crisis merchants” in the media.
This would be a massive slapdown to fans, though, suggesting they are unable to think for themselves on the merits of Lodge’s return.
Fans have shown their disapproval to Lodge playing in the NRL by constantly booing him when he runs the ball when he turns out for the Broncos each weekend.
“I’ve got no doubt that if they thought the CCTV footage was going to come out they wouldn’t have registered him,” one club boss said.