Tuesday, March 20, 2007
NRL Week One
Bit hard to comment too much when you only saw the Warriors game plus highlights of most others. Although that reminds me. You can watch all the games on the nrl.com website about a day or so after they are played. I also saw the Warriors highlights on the website only a few hours after the match which was awesome.
Results and crowds I can find are below with the crowd figure included where I can find it and the stars are for the crowds and indicate:
***** Outstanding
**** Strong
*** Average
** Weak
* Pathetic
They are relative to what you would expect for that team. ie 20,000 for the Broncos is crap but for the Warriors would be awesome. Plus I factor in form, time, weather and location of teams ie two Sydney teams will get more along than a Sydney v Storm or Raiders game).
Broncos 16 Cowboys 23 (50,416) *****
Storm 18 Tigers 16 (13,535) ***
Warriors 34 Eels 18 (13,587) **
Sea Eagles 32 Raiders 6 (13,533) ***
Knights 25 Bulldogs 24 (18,791) ***
Titans 18 Dragons 20 (42,030) *****
Sharks 18 Panthers 0 (9,032) **
Rabbitohs 18 Roosters 6 (24,127) ****
Good wins for the Cowboys, Warriors, Sea Eagles, Dragons, Sharks and Rabbitohs. the Storm should probably have won a little more convincingly. The Knights were lucky as hell and Brian Smith said as much. The Roosters side looks truly awful on paper so the Rabbitohs should have beaten them. I didn't realise the Roosters were so weak. They shouldn't get within a country mile of the playoffs.
Stats
Sharks end 10 game losing streak
Panthers kept scoreless for first time since 1999
Warriors win first season opener since 2002 where they had a bye first round and won in round 2.
Warriors opening home game crowds...
1995 - 29,220*
1996 - 17,246*
1997 - 20,300
1998 - 9,500 (super league aftermath plus playing Souths)
1999 - 20,268
2000 - 20,546
2001 - 11,134 (ownership debacle)
2002 - 14,378
2003 - 16,291
2004 - 16,425
2005 - 13,682*
2006 - 10,035*
2007 - 13,587
*=counting me! A combination of not being in the country and being thousands of dollars in debt has kept me from the others.
The Warriors crowd was shit. I was expecting something in the ball park of 17-20,000 and I even heard rumours of a sellout. Don't know who started them, perhaps the club itself?
The Warriors barring injury and suspension should comfortably make the playoffs, possibly even making the top 4. Famous last words perhaps but they are a better team than last year and they probably would have made the playoffs then had they not lost 4 points to start the year. On top of that there are several teams who should struggle. The Roosters, Raiders, Panthers, Titans and probably the Rabbitohs, Tigers and Sharks as well when push comes to shove. You can probably throw in the Dragon also since Gasnier is gone for so long although that may galvanise them to a solid season. But that doesn't leave too many fighting for the playoff spots. In fact I've pretty much eliminated 8 teams from the reckoning so we may as well start the playoffs now. There will be a couple of surprises though in terms of crap teams on paper becoming ood teams on paper and good teams on paper folding like a piece of one.
Anyway, it was the highest crowd aggregate for a round in the history of the comp although that was largely down to the 8 games which is one more than previous seasons and the massive Broncos and Titans crowds...
Results and crowds I can find are below with the crowd figure included where I can find it and the stars are for the crowds and indicate:
***** Outstanding
**** Strong
*** Average
** Weak
* Pathetic
They are relative to what you would expect for that team. ie 20,000 for the Broncos is crap but for the Warriors would be awesome. Plus I factor in form, time, weather and location of teams ie two Sydney teams will get more along than a Sydney v Storm or Raiders game).
Broncos 16 Cowboys 23 (50,416) *****
Storm 18 Tigers 16 (13,535) ***
Warriors 34 Eels 18 (13,587) **
Sea Eagles 32 Raiders 6 (13,533) ***
Knights 25 Bulldogs 24 (18,791) ***
Titans 18 Dragons 20 (42,030) *****
Sharks 18 Panthers 0 (9,032) **
Rabbitohs 18 Roosters 6 (24,127) ****
Good wins for the Cowboys, Warriors, Sea Eagles, Dragons, Sharks and Rabbitohs. the Storm should probably have won a little more convincingly. The Knights were lucky as hell and Brian Smith said as much. The Roosters side looks truly awful on paper so the Rabbitohs should have beaten them. I didn't realise the Roosters were so weak. They shouldn't get within a country mile of the playoffs.
Stats
Sharks end 10 game losing streak
Panthers kept scoreless for first time since 1999
Warriors win first season opener since 2002 where they had a bye first round and won in round 2.
Warriors opening home game crowds...
1995 - 29,220*
1996 - 17,246*
1997 - 20,300
1998 - 9,500 (super league aftermath plus playing Souths)
1999 - 20,268
2000 - 20,546
2001 - 11,134 (ownership debacle)
2002 - 14,378
2003 - 16,291
2004 - 16,425
2005 - 13,682*
2006 - 10,035*
2007 - 13,587
*=counting me! A combination of not being in the country and being thousands of dollars in debt has kept me from the others.
The Warriors crowd was shit. I was expecting something in the ball park of 17-20,000 and I even heard rumours of a sellout. Don't know who started them, perhaps the club itself?
The Warriors barring injury and suspension should comfortably make the playoffs, possibly even making the top 4. Famous last words perhaps but they are a better team than last year and they probably would have made the playoffs then had they not lost 4 points to start the year. On top of that there are several teams who should struggle. The Roosters, Raiders, Panthers, Titans and probably the Rabbitohs, Tigers and Sharks as well when push comes to shove. You can probably throw in the Dragon also since Gasnier is gone for so long although that may galvanise them to a solid season. But that doesn't leave too many fighting for the playoff spots. In fact I've pretty much eliminated 8 teams from the reckoning so we may as well start the playoffs now. There will be a couple of surprises though in terms of crap teams on paper becoming ood teams on paper and good teams on paper folding like a piece of one.
Anyway, it was the highest crowd aggregate for a round in the history of the comp although that was largely down to the 8 games which is one more than previous seasons and the massive Broncos and Titans crowds...
NRL records highest crowd for a roundSome other good news for the Warriors. Their new reserve grade side beat the Parramatta Eels reserve grade team 28-6.
The opening weekend of the NRL has attracted the biggest aggregate crowd ever for a round of top-flight rugby league in Australia. A total of 185,051 fans turned out to the eight matches, eclipsing the previous record, 171,526 in round 22 of the 1995 season. The Brisbane Broncos pulled in the round's top figure, 50,416 at Suncorp Stadium for Friday's Queensland derby at Suncorp Stadium. Suncorp also accommodated 42,030 for the Gold Coast Titans' first ever match, against big drawcards St George Illawarra. The league's foray back into Monday night matches attracted 24,127 to a wet Aussie Stadium for the local derby between the Sydney Roosters and South Sydney on Monday night.
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