Facebook followers could get Super League clubs relegated. What if the NRL did the same?

The number of social media followers forms part of controversial criteria on which English clubs will be judged to help determine who will make the cut for the Super League competition.

Twitter, Instagram and Facebook followers will have a bearing on whether some clubs get relegated, alongside more traditional measures such as on-field performance, infrastructure and finances. Sports management firm IMG has been tasked with ranking the English clubs, with Castleford Tigers and London Broncos currently sitting outside the top-flight positions.

If social media numbers alone were used solely to determine which clubs were cut from the NRL to match the Super League’s 12 teams, it would be bad news for the Dolphins, St George Illawarra, Manly, Newcastle and Cronulla, who have taken the bottom five spots.

Hunter Fujak, a lecturer at Deakin Business School, said social media rankings of NRL clubs provided some correlation of overall fan support, but cautioned about weighting the category too highly.

“Fundamentally it’s still a very passive form of support, all it takes is a click,” Fujak said.

“That doesn’t necessarily mean you’re engaging. If you’re watching a game, even on TV, you’re still involved in an active form of consumption, whereas just following a team [on social media] and never really interacting doesn’t add too much value.

The Dragons rank only above the NRL’s new boys - the Dolphins - when it comes to social media clout.Credit: Getty

“The other element with this is younger generations tend to follow individuals rather than teams compared to older generations. You look at [Brisbane fullback] Reece Walsh; he almost has more Instagram followers [413,000] than the Broncos do [455,000] which means he has more than most NRL clubs.”

An NRL club chief executive, speaking on the condition of anonymity given club sensitivities over rankings, said social media was an important measure if weighted correctly.

“It is important because a large chunk of your sponsorship program would be built off the back of your digital audience,” the club boss said.

“It’s a proxy for your digital audience.”

Fujak said the digital followings of large sporting clubs, such as English Premier League giants Manchester United, were global. While that worldwide appeal is a valuable asset, he said it was often easier to commercialise local support.

“If you are the Super League, do you want 100,000 fans locally who can come to your games, or do you want 300,000 fans dispersed around the world?” said Fujak, the author of Code Wars - the Battle for Fans, Dollars and Survival.

“You probably derive more value from 100,000 people in your local catchment who can come to games and support through season memberships.

“That’s the risk of over-relying on social media numbers; that they can be nationally or even globally dispersed. But there is some correlation between your digital following and your fan base size.

“If you look at the NRL, the order of Instagram followers is more or less aligned to what you would expect in terms of fan base size. It is a pretty good proxy for fan base size because it follows a logical correlation.”

The 12 highest-ranking English clubs will compete in the 2025 Super League season. A promotion and relegation system will determine whether clubs stay in the top league and or in the second-tier Championship.

The release of “soft” rankings this week – Leeds Rhinos, Wigan Warriors and St Helens took out the top three spots – is a pointer towards where teams will be classified at the end of the process. Most interest will centre on those teams jockeying for the final positions in the Super League competition.

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