LET’S consider this: will the undoubted success of Saturday’s Wigan-Hull match in Wollongong be eroded if both teams are well beaten by NRL opposition next weekend?
After weeks of discussion about adding glamour to Super League, the likes of Liam Marshall and Albert Kelly looked like glistening trans-hemisphere sports superstars on our screens at the weekend, plying their trade metres from the lapping shores of the Pacific.
The first half, in particular, of the round two Super League match at WIN Stadium displayed the kind of daring the NRL all-too-often lacks with the ball shifted to Marshall on the left wing at every opportunity and his team often rewarded with points.
Liam Marshall is a very fast man ðŸƒâ™‚ï¸ðŸ’¨ðŸ‘€
— Betfred Super League (@SuperLeague) February 10, 2018
And @WiganWarriorsRL will punish you with his pace... pic.twitter.com/4blAtsc2ce
And then there was the age-old sporting narrative of a team failing to capitalise on a couple of outrageous opportunities – and whether they would be punished.
They weren’t … Wigan were rewarded for their adventure on and off the pitch with a 24-10 win and everyone seemed happy with attendance of 12,416.
It seems to be the start of a new era in which Super League will spread its wings and break out of a northern paradigm in which money is becoming increasingly scarce.
Future matches in the NRL pre-season could be taken to places where the World Cup didn’t perform poorly last year – like central Queensland, Perth, Newcastle, Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie Adelaide and even Sydney suburban grounds which are increasingly being deserted by the domestic competition.
The message is clear: fill the holes the NRL leaving, service the fans who feel they are being overlooked by League Central. Fish where the fish are. From there, it’s but a small hop to places outside Australia where there seems to be a demand for the sport not being met, like Hamilton in New Zealand, Hawaii, Tonga, Hong Kong, Dubai…
GONG SQUAD 👊#SuperLeagueOnTour #SLWigHul pic.twitter.com/KabixK5CRJ
— Betfred Super League (@SuperLeague) February 10, 2018
But … and there is a ‘but’.
In the wake of Saturday’s game there is a positive perception of Super League among Australian rugby league fans.
That perception could be severely damaged by a big score from Melbourne against Leeds on Friday night at AAMI Park and similar margins when Hull plays St George Illawarra and South Sydney meets Wigan in a double header at ANZ Stadium the next day.
Before you shout at your computer about how these scores don’t mean anything really as we’ve had them before and Wigan beat Cronulla last year … I know. I know.
But that wasn’t the time we were trying to take Super League to the world. This is. The number of venue options for a return clash in Australia next year will shrink if the scores suggest Super League is a long way off the pace.
The reality doesn’t matter when you’re trying to sell tickets and get city councils and state governments to give you money. It’s about perception – that’s what they’re paying for. Super League finally has a sense of “otherness” in Oz, thanks to a successful promotion in the ‘Gong.
So when the Rhinos, Warriors and Hull play NRL opposition this weekend, the old cliché about them “representing Super League” will get trotted out again no doubt.
Only this time, it is real. They will earn hearts, minds, dollars and cents for the competition among the southern hemisphere rugby league public … or they won’t.
