The NRL Finals will begin this weekend, and for rugby league boss Peter V’landys, the last stretch of episodes leading up to the season finale are here.
V’landys, largely credited with taking rugby league to unprecedented heights over the last six or seven years, has been at pains to point out for some time that rugby league is an “entertainment” product.
It is this mantra that resulted in set restarts replacing penalties, and other suggested rule tweaks – some of which play with the very foundations of the game.
V’landys’ insistence that rugby league is an entertainment product above all else was one of the driving forces behind the recently achieved record TV deal.
He has been all about providing a better entertainment product for fans and broadcasters, which in turn results in bigger crowds, more memberships and higher ratings.
More teams will enter the competition, starting with Perth next year followed by Papua New Guinea and then a 20th team likely to be in either New Zealand or Brisbane.
The NRL can do a lot more when it gets to 20 teams. Wildcard rounds, conferences and other initiatives will all be on the agenda.
In fact, we may see a wildcard round before that. It’s almost like a spin-off to the main show.
It is all but impossible to argue with the approach of V’landys.
He has put rugby league into a position of greatness; elevating its spot in the pecking order of Australian sport to the top of the mountain.
But that is something we cannot forget: rugby league is a sport.
At its heart it is tribal, it is competition, it is tactical and tough.
And while entertainment can sometimes align with those ingredients, it can often work in stark contrast to them.
Which is where I do have some concerns about the NRL’s obsession with rugby league’s “entertainment” factor and the all-too-regular steps away from tradition.
Because there is one fundamental difference between sport and entertainment that must be firmly in mind as we consider the future of the game.
Entertainment gets your attention.
Sport gets your loyalty.
A television series eventually ends.
A band stops producing hits.
A top singer goes from selling out stadiums to smaller venues, or even the local RSL.
The movie franchise runs out of road.
But a rugby league supporter can spend 70 years following the same club – through premierships, wooden spoons, great players, terrible coaches and freezing Friday nights in July.
That is something far more valuable than entertainment.
It is tribalism.
There is nothing wrong with making rugby league more entertaining.
Nobody wants the game to get stale.
But you cannot forget your core fans in the mission to attract new ones.
If you build a fan base that will brush rugby league aside like a series they once binged but could now take or leave, you could be opening yourself up for huge vulnerabilities in the future.
At its core rugby league still needs to be about becoming so passionate about your team that you’d miss your best mate’s wedding to watch them play in Round 6.
It needs to be about buying jerseys, about the quest for selfies and autographs, and the club you support being part of your DNA.
If you build a fan base that will call it quits when their team starts losing, the equivalent of when a TV show is losing its shine after season four or five, you risk losing newfound supporters as quickly as you got them.
Which is why V’landys needs to be careful about his approach, especially now that the more reserved and cautious Andrew Abdo is not there as a handbrake of sorts.
As much as many fans seemed to be behind the NRL’s call to move this weekend’s final between Cronulla and North Queensland from Shark Park to Allianz Stadium, I felt for Sharks fans.
I’m comfortable with the first week of Finals being a reward for those fans who toil through the winter, spending chilly nights at suburban venues cheering their team through the highs and lows.
Let weeks two and three head to the big venues, where those with bigger budgets and the willingness to travel can take over.
As for rule changes, play with the foundations of the game at your peril.
The idea of the scoring team potentially being forced to kick-off is an example of taking things too far.
And the irony is it’s being considered to solve a problem the NRL itself created with set restarts, that being the potential for blow-outs and rushes of momentum.
The best sporting competitions in the world are built on tradition, where loyal fans can tell you play-by-play moments that happened years before they were born.
This is years of dedication to a sport an individual loves. A tradition and a passion often handed down from generation to the next.
Daring to trade that with the sugar hit of fans in it for the “entertainment” factor is risky, and I only hope the NRL knows it.
Peter V’landys is a shrewd operator.
His experience with racing means he knows how to mix a sport’s traditions with entertainment, and both grow and retain your audience in the process.
I just hope we don’t play with the fabric of rugby league too much in the years to come in search of a holy grail we may have already found.
Originally published in The Western Weekender