2006 NRL Fixture Home team vs. Away team Round 1 March 10-12 Knights vs. Eels Rabbitohs vs. Roosters Eagles vs. Raiders Broncos vs. Cowboys Warriors vs. Storm Tigers vs. Dragons Bulldogs vs. Panthers Sharks BYE Round 2 March 17-19 Sharks vs. Broncos Raiders vs. Knights Dragons vs. Panthers Roosters vs. Storm Eels vs. Warriors Cowboys vs. Eagles Bulldogs vs. Tigers Rabbitohs BYE Round 3 March 24-26 Tigers vs. Warriors Knights vs. Bulldogs Rabbitohs vs. Dragons Roosters vs. Raiders Eagles vs. Sharks Broncos vs. Eels Cowboys vs. Storm Panthers BYE Round 4 March 31-April 2 Knights vs. Warriors Sharks vs. Rabbitohs Eels vs. Cowboys Dragons vs. Broncos Eagles vs. Roosters Tigers vs. Storm Raiders vs. Panthers Bulldogs BYE Round 5 April 7-9 Sharks vs. Roosters Warriors vs. Eagles Eels vs. Panthers Bulldogs vs. Raiders Cowboys vs. Tigers Dragons vs. Knights Broncos vs. Rabbitohs Storm BYE Round 6 April 14-17 Roosters vs. Broncos Eagles vs. Dragons Rabbitohs vs. Bulldogs Raiders vs. Warriors Tigers vs. Sharks Knights vs. Cowboys Panthers vs. Storm Eels BYE Round 7 April 21-25 Eels vs. Tigers Storm vs. Knights Broncos vs. Panthers Dragons vs. Roosters Sharks vs. Cowboys Warriors vs. Rabbitohs Bulldogs vs. Eagles Raiders BYE Round 8 April 28-30 Panthers vs. Sharks Warriors vs. Bulldogs Broncos vs. Raiders Storm vs. Dragons Eagles vs. Eels Rabbitohs vs. Knights Cowboys vs. Roosters Tigers BYE Test Match May 5 Australia vs. New Zealand Round 9 May 6-7 Cowboys vs. Panthers Knights vs. Broncos Eels vs. Raiders Tigers vs. Eagles Roosters vs. Bulldogs Rabbitohs vs. Storm Sharks vs. Dragons Warriors BYE City v Country May 12 Round 10 May 13-14 Storm vs. Cowboys Tigers vs. Knights Broncos vs. Eagles Dragons vs. Warriors Raiders vs. Sharks Bulldogs vs. Eels Panthers vs. Rabbitohs Roosters BYE Round 11 May 19-21 Roosters vs. Rabbitohs Knights vs. Raiders Warriors vs. Tigers Bulldogs vs. Sharks Eagles vs. Storm Panthers vs. Eels Broncos BYE Dragons BYE Cowboys BYE State of Origin 1 May 24 Round 12 May 26-28 Sharks vs. Warriors Broncos vs. Bulldogs Cowboys vs. Raiders Storm vs. Panthers Knights vs. Dragons Rabbitohs vs. Tigers Eels vs. Roosters Eagles BYE Round 13 June 2-4 Panthers vs. Eagles Storm vs. Roosters Dragons vs. Eels Raiders vs. Rabbitohs Tigers vs. Cowboys Bulldogs vs. Knights Warriors vs. Broncos Sharks BYE Round 14 June 9-11 Raiders vs. Bulldogs Panthers vs. Dragons Eels vs. Storm Roosters vs. Warriors Rabbitohs vs. Broncos Cowboys vs. Sharks Eagles vs. Tigers Knights BYE State of Origin 2 Jun 14 Round 15 June 16-18 Broncos vs. Dragons Tigers vs. Roosters Bulldogs vs. Cowboys Storm vs. Raiders Warriors vs. Knights Eels vs. Rabbitohs Sharks vs. Eagles Panthers BYE Round 16 June 23-25 Panthers vs. Tigers Dragons vs. Cowboys Storm vs. Bulldogs Rabbitohs vs. Warriors Raiders vs. Roosters Eagles vs. Broncos Knights vs. Sharks Eels BYE Round 17 June 30-July 2 Warriors vs. Panthers Eagles vs. Knights Broncos vs. Sharks Raiders vs. Eels Tigers vs. Bulldogs Cowboys vs. Rabbitohs Roosters BYE Dragons BYE Storm BYE State of Origin 3 Jul 5 Round 18 July 7-9 Roosters vs. Eagles Sharks vs. Tigers Bulldogs vs. Warriors Dragons vs. Rabbitohs Panthers vs. Raiders Storm vs. Broncos Eels vs. Knights Cowboys BYE Round 19 July 14-16 Roosters vs. Sharks Panthers vs. Cowboys Knights vs. Storm Warriors vs. Eels Rabbitohs vs. Eagles Raiders vs. Tigers Dragons vs. Bulldogs Broncos BYE Round 20 July 21-23 Eagles vs. Panthers Tigers vs. Eels Knights vs. Rabbitohs Bulldogs vs. Roosters Storm vs. Sharks Cowboys vs. Broncos Raiders vs. Dragons Warriors BYE Round 21 July 28-30 Panthers vs. Warriors Roosters vs. Cowboys Rabbitohs vs. Raiders Broncos vs. Tigers Eels vs. Eagles Dragons vs. Storm Sharks vs. Knights Bulldogs BYE Round 22 August 4-6 Storm vs. Tigers Roosters vs. Knights Warriors vs. Sharks Rabbitohs vs. Panthers Cowboys vs. Bulldogs Eels vs. Dragons Raiders vs. Broncos Eagles BYE Round 23 August 11-13 Broncos vs. Storm Bulldogs vs. Dragons Panthers vs. Roosters Knights vs. Eagles Tigers vs. Raiders Sharks vs. Eels Warriors vs. Cowboys Rabbitohs BYE Round 24 August 18-20 Eagles vs. Rabbitohs Sharks vs. Panthers Cowboys vs. Knights Bulldogs vs. Broncos Dragons vs. Tigers Roosters vs. Eels Storm vs. Warriors Raiders BYE Round 25 August 25-27 Rabbitohs vs. Cowboys Eels vs. Broncos Warriors vs. Roosters Knights vs. Panthers Dragons vs. Sharks Raiders vs. Storm Eagles vs. Bulldogs Tigers BYE Round 26 September 1-3 Broncos vs. Warriors Tigers vs. Rabbitohs Storm vs. Eagles Sharks vs. Raiders Cowboys vs. Eels Roosters vs. Dragons Panthers vs. Bulldogs Knights BYE Venues for the matches will be confirmed by the clubs, while dates for the matches will be released at least five weeks in advance.
Round 1 March 10-12 Knights vs. Eels - 25,000 sellout @ energy australia Rabbitohs vs. Roosters - 25,000 @ sydney football stadium Eagles vs. Raiders - 18,000 @ brookvale Broncos vs. Cowboys - 46,000 sellout @ lang park Warriors vs. Storm - 17,000 @ ericsson Tigers vs. Dragons - 43,000 @ telstra Bulldogs vs. Panthers - 21,000 @ telstra Sharks BYE ROUND 1 crowds = 195,000
Yeah, that sounds about right. Rounds 1-5 have generally been packing out the grounds in the last couple years. Roosters are playing Souths again in round 1! Should be good, we can get revenge on those pricks for their dirty play in our last game.
The numbers always fall dramatically after the first few rounds. Rugby league will never pose a threat to rugby union or AFL crowds. Soccer's A-League could even cause them some problems in a few years time. It is relatively close at the moment with a regular season average of around 11 - 12, 000 - which is a lot better than the NRL's debut year.
Not if they can help it. I hear they're going to slap up Craig Wing with a couple of Erikson mobile phones in the round 1 clash.
I saw Joe Williams and Sutton @ Bronte on the weekend. They look fit and are ready for 2006. From 2005 indication, the bunnies will be a force if these 2 can stay fit. But Harrison will be out for retubution in the tri colours, should be a good match IMO
AFL yeah, but Rugby Union? The Super 12(14) crowds are always pretty high because they're all state teams, and not clubs... The Waratah's average around 20-25,000 I think, but they represent all of NSW and only have a small number of home games each year. Realistically, you should probably compare their crowds with the Blues crowds at Origin time... and you know who would come out on top there. Or if you think that's not right, then get an aggregate of all Sydney NRL teams averages and put them togeather to see which comes out higher. Rugby League IS Australia's second biggest code, the GF last year got 4.3 million viewers to the AFL's 5 million, which is incredible considering the AFL had 2 non Victorian teams in it (Sydney being it's biggest piggyback) and was televised live all through the country! Whereas the NRL GF featured 2 teams from the traditional rugby league states and was not given live coverage in states such as SA, WA... If Sydney had not featured in the AFL then their numbers would have been closer to 4.5 million or less... Which means that the gap between the AFL and NRL is closing and not widening. The A-League is doing alright, but it didn't begin in a heap of controversy which saw people turn away from the sport like the NRL did... Generally speaking though, soccer needs to get the working class on its side for it to get any where near toppling Rugby League, and that just hasn't happened... I heard on radio that a recent survey said most working class people had no interest whatsoever in soccer or the A-League. Part of the problem with the A-League is that it's only on FOX, which reduces its accessability... a lot of people don't even know if its still going now! And then of course not even all Aussie soccer fans will support it... I know several guys where I work who play soccer and love the EPL etc, but won't watch the A-League because of the "low standard of play"...
I know! And we've got Anasta on board, which is pretty pleasing considering how well he played last year in a struggling Dogs outfit!
Mate I don't know where you got those figures from, neither grand final got close to those ratings. And I know you can't compare Super 12 / 14 to the NRL, I was just pointing out that it does draw high crowds. However the only place that the state / city thing comes into place is in New South Wales. The Queensland Reds can be compared to the Brisbane Broncos because there is only one team from each code in Brisbane. Despite being the smallest crowd puller out of the Australian side the Reds draw a similar average crowd to the Brisbane Broncos, which consequently is the biggest crowd pulling franchise in the NRL by same way. But obviously you still can't compare the two competitions because the Super 14 is about 10 rounds shorter than the NRL. I predict crowds to rise to AFL levels for the Australian Super 14 teams this year. I think the season crowd averages will look something like this.. Queensland Reds: 29, 000 ACT Brumbies: 21, 000 New South Wales Waratahs: 36, 000 Western Force: 38, 000 Total average 31, 000 - even if that was the competition was as long the NRL and the crowds were halved (which they wouldn't be) it would still be around the same as the NRL. No matter what you might think, the AFL is ever increasing the gap between itself and the rest of Australia's football code. It is the one true national code (after cricket) with well supported teams from all states (that matter).
your not wrong here everyone wants to see BIGDELL in SKYBLUE he himself will bring everyone to the first few games, and if he booms like LOTE, expect each game to sellout with ease. DELL will boosst the Tahs crowds by 5% IMO.........20% in the 1st few games. Once hated, now we love him
I got them from LU a while back, I'd have to did to find a source... but they are roughly what the final ratings are after taking into account all regional area's etc combined with the city-suberb ratings... The initial ratings that come out are just those for the major cities. <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div> The swans and Lions are just bandwagoner teams Wally... Didn't the Lions ratings etc drop pretty significantly last year when they went badly? Doesn't Iron Shef outrate swans games in Sydney when they're not playing badly? No matter what Victorians might think, the AFL isn't very different to the NRL. It's just the VFL with other teams tacted on to make it reach further, much like the NRL is just the NSWRL with other teams tacted on... The only difference is that the Super League war heavily crippled Rugby League for several years and gave the AFL a chance to take ground! Which incidently is quite ironic considering that the only reason Murdoch invested so much in rugby league was because as both the AFL and League were expanding his analysts conducted a study which projected that Rugby League would take over AFL at the rate it was growing.
Well the AFL certainly has the numbers on them at the moment. Sponsorship, advertising, television rights - it all equals money and exposure. The amount of people playing Aussie Rules is phenomenal also. Don't think I'm on their side though, if I could help it rugby union and rugby league would be the only summer footy codes.
True. But the NRL is playing its cards right at the moment and expanding well each year... They should probably make it an 18 team comp eventually, starting teams in Adelaide and Perth again. Did you know that the Western Reds were getting crowds of 30k? People in Perth would still go for rugby league given the chance, especially as the number of home games the FORCE will get would be limited in comparison.
Here's an interesting article from Brisbane BTW that I've just come across from after the NRL GF: <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div> Interesting from a Qld perspective.
I believe they started well in Perth and Adelaide but things got desparately bad. They wouldn't have folded otherwise. Perth now belongs to rugby union, I don't think rugby league has a chance to survive there. Queensland is strongly a rugy league state, as Victoria is an AFL one. New South Wales is split but mostly in rugby league's favour, the is rest is mainly AFL and cricket, with a sprinkling of rugby union.
You think so? Cricket is strong everywhere, but in Sydney the AFL GF gets around a quarter of what the NRL GF rates usually...
Anasta is overrated mate Sure you do need a 5/8th though...and he is the best on the market But I strongly doubt he will answer your troubles The whole backline doesnt gel like the fittler days Anasta is a punters nightmare 1 week on fire the next tragic I reckon Firman if given more of a go, would have found his place like he has at the cowboys, but hot head ricky didnt budge JAMIE SOWARD the answer to your troubles, Anasta too overrated.....heck Jason Smith, the ole timer was better then him........based on Dally M's and independent ratings from LU.COM, and Smith was injured for 6 games for the dally m count to go against him............heck i gotto stop, i am bleeding green already!!!