Warrington Wolves • War of the Roses

Yes there's a danger of looking back at the old days with rose tinted glasses and one thing which wasn't great was the attendances especially in the pre Super League era. The game was carried by a few key derbies and rivalries and you would have excellent atmospheres in games against Wigan, Widnes or Saints. But a lot of the games you'd be shivering in the cold and rain in front of small crowds against Featherstone or Oldham or Barrow.

That first peak era I described in the 90s was based around a very strong international game (albeit of only 3 teams) with all time legends of the game coinciding at the same time, and a powerhouse Wigan team. There were definitely cracks beneath the surface which is why there was momentum behind Super League and summer rugby. I think we'd seen how football had transformed from a hooligan-dominated sport with lots of problems in the late 80s to a Premier League of all seater stadia and international superstars, and hoped Super League would give a similar boost in RL.

To an extent it did, but whereas the Premier League maintained its strength, Super League went on a slow backward slide.

We shouldn't ignore two big economic developments - the strengthening of the Aussie dollar in the late 2000s and the huge increases in TV money in the NRL which meant that we lost our ability to bring in the Jamie Lyons and Matt Kings and created a drag the other way with the best British players signing contracts in the NRL.

Statistics: Posted by sally cinnamon — Sat Nov 23, 2024 7:55 pm — Replies 34 — Views 3439

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