ManlyBacker
Winging it
THE NRL has ruled out changing the home ground format for its next finals series, even though the competition's top ranked teams drew disappointing crowds over the weekend.
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A PATHETIC semi-final crowd of 13,972 has prompted Manly chairman Scott Penn to call for an immediate review of the finals format.
The miserable attendance embarrassed rugby league when a staggering 33,000 seats at the SFS were left empty for the Sea Eagles-North Queensland qualifying final on Saturday night.
It was the lowest semi-final crowd since 12,592 watched Melbourne play Canberra at Olympic Park in 1998.
An NRL rule, supported by all clubs late last year, ended suburban grounds being used in week one of the finals with all Sydney clubs to play at the SFS or ANZ Stadium.
But Penn said the NRL should have the ability to switch a game back to suburban grounds if an out-of-Sydney side is playing.
"To be honest, the crowd was very disappointing," Penn told The Daily Telegraph.
"Everyone agrees we have to move the bigger games to the bigger stadiums when two Sydney-based sides meet. But I think we need to look at the format when a Sydney side meets an out-of-town team. There has to be some alternative if we don't get anywhere near capacity.
"There should be leniency about playing that match at the club's home ground. Everyone wants to generate maximum revenue for the finals series.
"All clubs are on board and we want as many fans as possible watching the games.
"But the game needs to be flexible. If out-of-town teams are playing, we should look at going to the smaller venues.
"A decision was made and everyone went with it but no doubt the game on Saturday night would have looked better at Brookvale.
"We (Manly) had two bays at the SFS which were filled to capacity but the Cowboys also had two bays and there was only a couple of hundred people in there."
A capacity 20,000 crowd at Brookvale - 6000 more than the SFS - could have earned the NRL another $150,000. An 8.30pm kick-off was also deemed unfriendly to families.
NRL chief executive David Gallop stressed the current system would remain.
"The relevant crowd was the Friday night crowd (45,361 at ANZ Stadium for St George Illawarra-Wests Tigers match) which way exceeded any suburban crowd and was larger than what the SFS could handle," Gallop said.
"You can't give some Sydney clubs a home advantage and not others. That would be penalising clubs who have the ability to draw big crowds.
"We won't be reviewing it. I think this system has really worked well so far because it is as fair as can be to all Sydney clubs while maintaining the ability to play the regional games in front of the biggest possible crowds."
Penn said he had one solution.
"One of our members said to me the NRL should say the match will be played at Brookvale and then it move if the capacity is broken. I think that is quite a good idea. It should be based on demand. It is a good way around things," Penn said.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/nrl/sea-eagles-blame-everyone-but-themselves-for-pathetic-crowd-in-semi-final-against-north-queensland-cowboys/story-e6frexnr-1226134344691
Hasler fires off at NRL again
Manly coach Des Hasler has reignited his feud with the NRL, again slamming league bosses for ignoring Brookvale Oval after a paltry SFS crowd witnessed the Sea Eagles' convincing 42-8 qualifying final win over North Queensland on Saturday night.
Manly piled on 42 unanswered points to turn an eight-point deficit into a second half massacre before just 13,972 spectators.
Hasler was critical of the initial decision to ignore the Sea Eagles' home ground and took aim at NRL decision makers shortly after fulltime.
After spotting NRL director of communications John Brady sitting in the press conference room, the Manly boss asked out loud: "What was the crowd?"
Told it was about 13,000, Hasler continued: "Yeah disappointing, didn't work from that point of view."
"So, I'd mentioned to the NRL that if Manly are playing North Queensland it's not a hard one is it to work out that we would have easy got 20,000 (to Brookvale)."
"So 13,000 - it's probably 10, there's probably a bit of fudging there I don't know - but clearly there's a lesson there that maybe the game last night (Dragons-Tigers) could have been played here (the SFS) with a full house rather than a half empty stage at the ANZ."
"And we've had a quarter of the stadium tonight, but the NRL have got to try these things."
"There's a lesson there for all of us there. The NRL, we all make mistakes, and as long as we learn from them, as we have in the past..."
Sea Eagles skipper Jamie Lyon admitted the atmosphere was flat due to the lack of atmosphere generated by one of the smallest finals crowds in recent times.
"At the end when we were finishing the game they sounded alright but it was a bit quiet and there were a few empty seats out there," he said.
"It would have been good at Brookie."
But NRL boss David Gallop pointed out that all clubs - Manly included - voted for the home city rather than home ground format at the start of the season.
"The decision re: the home finals was agreed by all clubs because you couldn't have a situation where higher drawing Sydney teams were penalised and the lower drawing teams retained the home venue," he said.
You wouldn't have known it from his demeanour but Hasler was rightly proud of his players for fighting back after a below-par first half performance against a fired-up and committed Cowboys outfit.
It was a completely different Manly side after the break, the Sea Eagles completing 100 per cent of their sets to race in seven tries.
The points blitz has them on track to meet either Melbourne (providing the Storm beat Newcastle on Sunday) or St George Illawarra in week three of the finals.
"This side's always shown the ability to hang in there and to grind the game out so we needed to be able to do that tonight," Hasler said.
"This side's got a lot of character."
Neil Henry said of his side's second half collapse: "There are no excuses. The way we opened up at the back-end is a disappointing way to finish our season."
"That blowout at the end...it's a bit of a nightmare really."
http://www.sportal.com.au/league-news-display/hasler-slams-nrl,-again-137758
Read the full article
A PATHETIC semi-final crowd of 13,972 has prompted Manly chairman Scott Penn to call for an immediate review of the finals format.
The miserable attendance embarrassed rugby league when a staggering 33,000 seats at the SFS were left empty for the Sea Eagles-North Queensland qualifying final on Saturday night.
It was the lowest semi-final crowd since 12,592 watched Melbourne play Canberra at Olympic Park in 1998.
An NRL rule, supported by all clubs late last year, ended suburban grounds being used in week one of the finals with all Sydney clubs to play at the SFS or ANZ Stadium.
But Penn said the NRL should have the ability to switch a game back to suburban grounds if an out-of-Sydney side is playing.
"To be honest, the crowd was very disappointing," Penn told The Daily Telegraph.
"Everyone agrees we have to move the bigger games to the bigger stadiums when two Sydney-based sides meet. But I think we need to look at the format when a Sydney side meets an out-of-town team. There has to be some alternative if we don't get anywhere near capacity.
"There should be leniency about playing that match at the club's home ground. Everyone wants to generate maximum revenue for the finals series.
"All clubs are on board and we want as many fans as possible watching the games.
"But the game needs to be flexible. If out-of-town teams are playing, we should look at going to the smaller venues.
"A decision was made and everyone went with it but no doubt the game on Saturday night would have looked better at Brookvale.
"We (Manly) had two bays at the SFS which were filled to capacity but the Cowboys also had two bays and there was only a couple of hundred people in there."
A capacity 20,000 crowd at Brookvale - 6000 more than the SFS - could have earned the NRL another $150,000. An 8.30pm kick-off was also deemed unfriendly to families.
NRL chief executive David Gallop stressed the current system would remain.
"The relevant crowd was the Friday night crowd (45,361 at ANZ Stadium for St George Illawarra-Wests Tigers match) which way exceeded any suburban crowd and was larger than what the SFS could handle," Gallop said.
"You can't give some Sydney clubs a home advantage and not others. That would be penalising clubs who have the ability to draw big crowds.
"We won't be reviewing it. I think this system has really worked well so far because it is as fair as can be to all Sydney clubs while maintaining the ability to play the regional games in front of the biggest possible crowds."
Penn said he had one solution.
"One of our members said to me the NRL should say the match will be played at Brookvale and then it move if the capacity is broken. I think that is quite a good idea. It should be based on demand. It is a good way around things," Penn said.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/nrl/sea-eagles-blame-everyone-but-themselves-for-pathetic-crowd-in-semi-final-against-north-queensland-cowboys/story-e6frexnr-1226134344691
Hasler fires off at NRL again
Manly coach Des Hasler has reignited his feud with the NRL, again slamming league bosses for ignoring Brookvale Oval after a paltry SFS crowd witnessed the Sea Eagles' convincing 42-8 qualifying final win over North Queensland on Saturday night.
Manly piled on 42 unanswered points to turn an eight-point deficit into a second half massacre before just 13,972 spectators.
Hasler was critical of the initial decision to ignore the Sea Eagles' home ground and took aim at NRL decision makers shortly after fulltime.
After spotting NRL director of communications John Brady sitting in the press conference room, the Manly boss asked out loud: "What was the crowd?"
Told it was about 13,000, Hasler continued: "Yeah disappointing, didn't work from that point of view."
"So, I'd mentioned to the NRL that if Manly are playing North Queensland it's not a hard one is it to work out that we would have easy got 20,000 (to Brookvale)."
"So 13,000 - it's probably 10, there's probably a bit of fudging there I don't know - but clearly there's a lesson there that maybe the game last night (Dragons-Tigers) could have been played here (the SFS) with a full house rather than a half empty stage at the ANZ."
"And we've had a quarter of the stadium tonight, but the NRL have got to try these things."
"There's a lesson there for all of us there. The NRL, we all make mistakes, and as long as we learn from them, as we have in the past..."
Sea Eagles skipper Jamie Lyon admitted the atmosphere was flat due to the lack of atmosphere generated by one of the smallest finals crowds in recent times.
"At the end when we were finishing the game they sounded alright but it was a bit quiet and there were a few empty seats out there," he said.
"It would have been good at Brookie."
But NRL boss David Gallop pointed out that all clubs - Manly included - voted for the home city rather than home ground format at the start of the season.
"The decision re: the home finals was agreed by all clubs because you couldn't have a situation where higher drawing Sydney teams were penalised and the lower drawing teams retained the home venue," he said.
You wouldn't have known it from his demeanour but Hasler was rightly proud of his players for fighting back after a below-par first half performance against a fired-up and committed Cowboys outfit.
It was a completely different Manly side after the break, the Sea Eagles completing 100 per cent of their sets to race in seven tries.
The points blitz has them on track to meet either Melbourne (providing the Storm beat Newcastle on Sunday) or St George Illawarra in week three of the finals.
"This side's always shown the ability to hang in there and to grind the game out so we needed to be able to do that tonight," Hasler said.
"This side's got a lot of character."
Neil Henry said of his side's second half collapse: "There are no excuses. The way we opened up at the back-end is a disappointing way to finish our season."
"That blowout at the end...it's a bit of a nightmare really."
http://www.sportal.com.au/league-news-display/hasler-slams-nrl,-again-137758
