The National Rugby League

"What rugby league teaches you is that everything is temporary. The dead-set certainty is that there's adversity coming as well as success. You may as well make the most of it while you can." Matthew Elliott - football coach

As it was the last of the world's football codes to be invented, rugby league has always fought the hardest to survive. It broke away from union in 1896 over the issue of money for play. Working class players wanted money for 'broken time' - compensation for time off work due to injury. This idea was resisted by the upper-class players, who were happy to remain amateurs.

As rugby league's survival depended upon getting paying spectators, it changed its rules to heighten its appeal. It did away with the lineout, focussed on running rugby and made the scum nothing more than an excuse to sniff bums.

Despite being designed to be aesthetically superior to union, rugby league struggled to build a following in markets where union had been established. This was mainly because union used its influence to have league banned from grounds. In France, rugby union ever went a step further than banning league from grounds. It had rugby league banned outright, its assets seized, and league players blacklisted.

Australia was one of the few countries where league was able to gain a foothold. This was mainly because a battle with Australian football had kept rugby union weak. In 1908, that weakness was exploited when Australia's first rugby league competition was established in Sydney by test cricketer Victor Trumper. Rugby league quickly attracted the professional-minded players of both rugby union and Australian football, and went from strength to strength. Union retreated to private schools, and Australian football retreated to Victoria.

By the 1980s, rugby league was powerful enough to start expanding nation wide. In 1982, the Canberra Raiders were established. In 1987, the Brisbane Broncos were established. In 1988, the Newcastle Knights were established. In 1994, the Auckland Warriors, the Nth Queensland Cowboys and the Western Reds were established. Rugby league was taking the fight for national supremacy directly up to Australian football, and winning.

Unfortunately for the code, its potential caught the eye of News Ltd; a media giant that saw rugby league as an inefficient business that could be streamlined, and reconstituted into Australia's premier football code. News Ltd made a raid upon rugby league ranks. They signed up the best players, all the international boards, all of Australia's expansion teams and three teams in Sydney- Penrith, Cronulla and Canterbury. A new competition was launched, Super League, and News Ltd's global media might went into overdrive to sell the vision.

But Super League flopped - largely because it was unable to attain critical mass in Sydney. Fans of the Sydney's Super League teams were unable to engage in discussions with fans of the ARL teams.

The ARL's victory in Sydney ultimately won it the war. Much like the VFL defeated the SANFL and WAFL because it had the symbolic image of Melbourne to back it up, the ARL won the national battle because it had the symbolic image of Sydney to back it up.

As Sydney fell, a domino effect hit the other Super League clubs around Australia and all suffered massive downturns in crowds. A sporting competition, backed by the most powerful media company in the world, was on its knees in its first year.

With rugby league looking like it would soon become extinct, the AFL made plans for a second Sydney AFL team. Such was their confidence, the AFL even signed a contract with Stadium Australia to play 11 games a year at the venue from 2000. Much to the AFL's surprise, rugby league did not become extinct. Super League and the ARL merged to form the NRL and quickly reclaimed ground lost to the AFL and rugby union. In less than a decade, rugby league has reasserted itself as Sydney's favourite code.

In Brisbane, League also seems set to regain the upper hand. Since 2007, it has had three teams competing with the AFL's Brisbane Lions. If the Lions have a bad year, all Queensland AFL suffers. On the other hand, the NRL only needs one of the three teams to do well to ensure positive exposure year-in year-out. Furthermore, the NRL has three State of Origin games a year. Collectively, these games amount to same promotional exposure that could be attained by the Brisbane Lions playing in three Grand Finals a year.

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