Daily Telegraph journalist Paul Crawley believes the NRL should abolish the current fixturing system and move to conferences, in order to establish rivalries and build crowds.
Cronulla's last gasp semi-final win over Penrith over the weekend saw less than 20,000 fans walk through the gates, which is a disappointing result for such a huge clash with a lot on the line.
Crawley joined NRL 360 on Tuesday night and spoke about the crowd issue, suggesting the figures haven't grown for a number of years.
“I just think the problem for rugby league is that our crowds have been the same for basically as long as I remember,” Crawley said.
“They’ve hovered around the 14-16,000 average season on season on season. This year, we talked about the crowds being up but it’s actually, when you look at the NRL era, it’s smack bang in the middle per game.”
Crowds in 2018 have been up 3.8%, although that still seems them at 15,675 fans a game, according to NRL.com.
Crawley understands his idea to boost crowds and fan engagement may be radical, but he believes the fans would benefit greatly from a conference-style system.
“It got me thinking about the crowds and something Peter Doust said years and years ago when he spoke about playing conferences,” Crawley said.
“I believe we need to do what the fans want. What the fans want, in Sydney particularly, is rivalry. More local derbies. The only way to do it, you can’t have two home-and-away rounds against everyone in the comp, it’s too many rounds.
“I reckon we split the comp in two. You have the Sydney teams in a conference, you have the out of town teams in a conference. I know there’s a difference in one team there so whether they could do it every eight years that team swaps over to the other division or you expand by two teams.
“This year for example, the top ten Sydney crowds were all against Sydney rivals. That would have to help in building crowds. You’ve got to do what the fans want.”
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