What can the NRL do to keep up with AFL?

Its no secret the AFL is dominating over the NRL, its televison rights are worth far more, and there are 3 channels fighting to be able to show it, my question is, why? Im not saying afl is a better game than league, because it is not, but one thing for sure is afl athletes are far more talented than nrl ones.
Afl have 4 quaters, which with over time run around 30 mins each, that equals 120 mins of hard running compared to leagues 80(some afl players run over 20 kilometers in one game, I dont think carl webb would run that in a season haha.

How is this for a laugh, canterbury bulldogs have under 5000 members, this year Hawthorn Hawks are expected to have around 50000.
Hawthorn profited 4 million dollars last yr, and we have to borrow half a million from the bank(after bieng declined what we originally wanted 1000000) just to stay alive.
I attended both grand finals this yr, Afl and NRL. The afl grand final was simply amazing, 100012 people, not one empty seat and you could barely move around the place. At the nrl gf, there were empty seats all around me, I honestly couldnt beleive it. I know theres a point that the afl final had two victorian sides and the nrl featured an interstate side, however I look back to the nrl gf of 04 which featured two Sydney teams, and still, they failed to sell it out. Hows this for a stat, game 3 of state of origin, the biggest game of the yr, 1-1 each, the deciding game of the series!!! AND STILL the crowd does not bother to sell out a measely 85000 seated stadium. What a joke.

Another stat, Carlton vs Richmond this yr, both sides had no chance of making the finals at the time, did the crowd care? Not at all, they were loyal and came along and supported their team, 75 thousand for a bottom 8 home and away game, at the same time, parramatta were playing penrith, two teams in the same situation, and how many ppl turn up? 4 thousand!:lmao

Heres another minor stat, Fatty from the nrl gets 500 000 a yr, sam newman from the afl show gets over 800000.
Lets face it NRL, the Afl is kicking your arse! Is that because afl requires so much more talent to play therefore is more exciting for fans to go and watch? Quite possibly. I was thinking about something..
If the nrl players got there best players together and challenged the afl`s best to a game of afl, then the league players would be demolished, however, if the nrls best played the afls best in a game of league, the afl`s freakish talent could hold thier own and put up a good contest.
What can the NRL do to stay above water? Who knows,whatever it is they need to do it quickly because the AFL will keep drawing more and more fans and soon there might only be one league in Aus.

your kidding me. afl players are no more talented on average than nrl players overall. certainly in some areas, but not in others. a league team would destroy and afl team at league.
a lot of it stems from the higher tv rights, more tv time and money means they can attract more fans, which gets more tv time and money, which attracts more fans etc etc

What can the nrl do to keep up with afl?

Events NSW boss Geoff Parmenter recently hosted a meeting between marketing bosses from the NRL, AFL, Soccer and rugby union. ...

Source: http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,24828212-5016360,00.html

<EDITED> Full article can be found here.


IN a first for Australian sport, the major football codes have joined forces to get Sydney sports fans off their backsides to attend matches next year. Events NSW boss Geoff Parmenter recently hosted a meeting between marketing bosses from the NRL, AFL, Soccer and rugby union. They all agreed to work together next year in a campaign to drive ticket sales in Sydney. One insider at the meeting told us: "Everyone spoke of their frustration that Sydney can't match Melbourne or Brisbane for drawing crowds. So instead of competing against each other, it was decided all the codes could do something about it by working together in a combined effort to increase crowds.'' There was talk of setting aside weekends for State of Origin-type matches in all codes - Manly v Brisbane, Swans v Geelong, Waratahs v the Reds and Sydney FC v Melbourne Victory. "The draws have been done for next year so it's probably going to be 2010 before we can set something up,'' said NRL marketing boss Paul Kind. The new marketing initiatives have the full support of Sydney's two biggest venues - ANZ Stadium at Homebush and the Sydney Cricket Ground Trust.

<EDITED>

we got to spread out. expansion is the only thing that could save league. but how coz that would mean a ****eload of sydney teams either get cut (again) or merge (again). This in turn destroys it for the die hard league fans which keep this game alive in the first place. i honestly dont like the longterm outlook for league and it mostly comes down to injuries. we watch it because of the courage and intensity it requires but mothers dont like it and so get their kids playing afl or soccer. union would be dead if not for the amount countries involved and their super 14 comp which is an international comp and not just the east coast and 1 nz team. bring a team to perth, again , i say. and another qld and nz team, and png, and another islanders team, and maybe a few pommy teams. **** it lets ggo an international superleague comp. sounds like a sell out butg somethings gotta be done, we cant just 'survive' forever

First of all, the NRL shouldnt have to compete, just run as an expansive business.

People like multiple sports, rugby league just needs to be promoted... heavily.

Once the NRL gets its sh!t together, then it can start to compete as a superior alternative to AFL.

It is useless to say that Melbourne/Adelaide/Perth is a waste of time cos they like AFL, because they are real people too and can just as easily embrace NRL if they are made to like it.

i do not like afl, however it appeals to people in victoria, west and south australia as well as both nsw and qld as opposed to nrl that is only popular in nsw and qld so of course their tv rights have to be worth more. friends of mine who like afl say you really have to watch afl live to fully appreciate it where nrl is good on tv, not as good as live but still good so that explains there higher crowd numbers.