OPINION
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The fastest growing area of the game is at the biggest risk of going backwards if the NRL cuts it from the Vegas schedule.
What area of the game?
The women’s game.
ARL Chairman Peter V’landys has told the media that four games this year was too many, with the crowd of 45,209 dropping off before the showpiece Panthers Sharks game.
Despite the fact there were 3 men’s games and just the one women’s game, three blowouts and one close game at Allegiant Stadium this year, the storyline that followed just a day after the US extravaganza was that it would be the Jillaroos facing the chop.
While PVL didn’t directly say it would be the women’s game, he didn’t launch to their defence either and the news headlines and stories were all too quick to place the blame on the Jillaroos for the “fan fatigue”.
The Jillaroos’ crime here, thumping England 90-4 in a dominant performance.
Jillaroos viciously THUMP England by 86! | 02:23
It’s a statement that’s prompted many women out there, as we edge closer to International Women’s Day, to wonder if you can ever win. First we weren’t good enough in sport, now the Jillaroos are clearly too good.
It’s business, I get that, the NRL wants to break into the elusive American market. But right now, one of the emerging superstars of American sport is a rugby player.
She’s a rugby player.
Ilona Maher.
The rugby star who boasts the tagline “Beast, beauty, brains” was just voted USA Today’s Sports Person of the Year, is on the front cover of Sports Illustrated and People magazine, came runner up on the US version of Dancing With the Stars and at last checking (although it’s rising solidly by the day) had 4.9 million Instagram followers.
She won bronze with Team USA at the Paris Olympics, but while plenty of people love watching the way she plays – she’s a weapon on the field – it’s what she has done off the field by challenging stereotypes of sportswomen, of body image and of self confidence, that has endeared her to the public worldwide.
A female rugby player has made massive waves in the US. Why wouldn’t you then show them what our women can do?
A give them a match up that would do just that.
The Jillaroos’ one-sided clash with England says a lot about the strength and the superiority of the women’s game in this country and possibly another convincing reason to keep it on the schedule. England weren’t as strong. But instead of cutting women from Vegas, the loss could encourage the Super League to invest more in strengthening their women’s game.
If it’s a contest, a showpiece, a wow factor that the NRL wants there are better matchups in the women’s game that would deliver that. Of the top of my head how about Australia v New Zealand? Or play the first Women’s Origin match there? Or maybe even an exhibition game with the NRLW Grand Finalists from the previous year?
Do Australia need a tougher opponent? | 11:24
There are solid alternatives rather than just cutting it altogether. To do that would send the worst message about the NRL’s commitment to the women’s game, to equality and to levelling the playing field. It says we ticked a box and now we go back to all three men’s games.
The greatest asset of the NRL, the one with the biggest potential, that’s growing faster than any other area of the game, is women. Scrap them now, you’re damaging your brand and your commitment to equality.
It would be the greatest sin of sin city itself.
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