In recent weeks, the Parramatta Eels have been playing in front of what I’d describe as being disappointing crowds. In our current home, ANZ Stadium, the sight of over 60000 empty seats is hardly inspiring for the athletes taking part in the contest.
This got me thinking about a particular grievance of mine – the poor profile of reserve grade. This is the essential launch pad of first grade careers, and yet it’s often wallowing on sub-standard suburban fields. It’s a poor indictment on our great game, and accordingly, the need to resurrect the reserve grade competition is the subject of this week’s spotlight.
With my interest in the impact of crowds on sporting performance, I’ve indulged in a little light reading on the subject. The consensus amongst a number of authors and sports psychologists appears to be that crowds can improve performance in sports that involve strength, endurance or teams. There is an effect, dubbed “social facilitation” by sports psychologists, whereby the energy from the crowd is believed to lift effort from athletes when fatigue is kicking in.
In essence, the size and noise of the crowd becomes a wild card in the players’ psyche. The crowd lifting footballers to new levels is a phenomena that we regularly witness in State of Origin or Grand Finals. Who will ever forget that barnstorming run made by Canberra’s Steve Jackson to score a remarkable extra-time try during their first ever premiership win? It was a level he never reached again, but he found that moment on the big stage, on the big day.
(Curiously, we can also see footballers being negatively impacted by the crowd in situations where concentration is required. Goal kicking is an instance where the player needs to “tune out” the crowd.)
Much of the debate about playing matches in vast amphitheatres such as ANZ Stadium has focussed on the lack of atmosphere – with a focus on the fan experience at the ground and watching on television. However, little has been discussed regarding the impact on the players.
If we consider that crowds of between ten and twenty thousand offer little atmosphere or “social facilitation” in larger stadiums, what then for the players plying their trade in reserve grade? These blokes are regularly running around at suburban grounds, populated by a few hundred diehard fans, and a collection of friends and family.
“So what?” You might say. “Nobody remembers who wins reserve grade!”
Perhaps, but for many NRL coaches, a player’s performance in an open age competition is a far better indicator of potential to play first grade than the NYC. Yet, whilst the under 20 Competition has been elevated to curtain raiser status, and the young players get to share the same stage as the game’s elite, senior players are running around at parks such as H. E. Laybutt Reserve (Blacktown) and Aubrey Keech Reserve (Mounties).
There are reports of a much needed upgrade to facilities at Blacktown.
Let me make it abundantly clear, there is plenty to like about watching a good game of footy at some of these small grounds. You hear the calls, the collisions and you’ll regularly see the stars watching their mates run around. Indeed, a Sunday arvo at Ringrose Park feels akin to the old days of the Sydney Premiership, but that’s the selfish opinion of a football tragic.
There are a number of negatives, and ignoring any financial advantage for the clubs of separating the top two grades, it’s difficult to find too many positives for the players. Let’s consider what players outside the top 17 deal with.
1. Small Crowds
I touched on the “social facilitation” of player performance that can result from taking the field in front of large crowds, so it would follow that it becomes difficult to lift playing in front of less than a thousand people at a local park.
It’s understandable that the crowds would be low. If a family has already attended an NRL match that weekend, they’ll hardly jump in the car to go and watch the footy at a suburban ground. Can you envisage Roosters supporters packing the kids up to travel up the motorway to the Central Coast to watch Wyong run around?
It could be argued that coaches are looking for self-motivated athletes who don’t rely on external influences to raise their standards. Whilst this may be true, it hardly prepares the rookies for their initiation to the NRL and the experience and pressure of playing in front of a larger audience. I can imagine that the more seasoned players must struggle to be inspired in this environment.
Spectator facilities for Mounties fans.
Though the NRL stadiums are hardly bulging at the seams during curtain raiser matches, the number of supporters in attendance is still far greater than you’d see rolling up at a field out the back of Blacktown or Mt Pritchard. It makes little sense that an under age competition is provided with a bigger stage than footballers on NRL contracts.
2. Substandard Grounds
Many of the players participating in the ISP are professional footballers. They either belong to the top 25 of an NRL club or they sit just outside the top squad on a second tier contract. As such, they earn their living from playing the game. Next year, it will be a top 30 for each club, so teams will be sending a greater number of higher paid players out to the boondocks to earn a quid.
Some of the venues are open parks that are not fenced off from community use during the week. Unsurprisingly, the playing surfaces are nothing like those experienced in the NRL, or in certain instances, they’re nowhere near as good as the grounds the players train on. It would therefore be fair to say that the risk of injury at such venues would be much greater. It may be unfair to use the term “substandard”, but you’d hardly use the term “elite”.
I love Sunday footy at Ringrose, but NRL contracted players deserve a bigger stage.
3. Psychological Separation
This is the greatest concern.
Perhaps I’m living in the past, but when a true reserve grade exists, they wear the same jersey as the senior team and play as the curtain raiser to the main game. They play in front of their club mates and the fans, and share the same dressing room as the top grade players.
In other words, they feel like they are a part of the club.
In the modern game, they wear the jerseys of Wenty, Blacktown, Mounties, Wyong, Newtown, Illawarra, North Sydney. What is their identity? Not too long ago, we even had the farce of the Storm and the Sharks sharing an ISP team – meaning team mates faced the genuine prospect of taking on each other should they earn elevation to first grade. It made a mockery of who they were.
What must it be like for Manly players to train in the northern suburbs then play in a different jersey at Blacktown? What about the Canberra players training in the nation’s capital and then playing out in western Sydney? Does this create an “us and them” divide within the club? Do the ISP players feel a separation from their club mates?
The Answer?
The answer was never an NYC played as a curtain raiser to NRL games. As much as I enjoy arriving early to watch this grade, there is still plenty of maturing for most young players before they become NRL regulars. To feature them as the preliminary match and to showcase them on television is actually setting many up for failure. They need time to develop away from the spotlight.
There has been talk about a state-wide ISP type competition, with NRL clubs fielding teams affiliated with regional areas. This concept would be a difficult ask given that the NRL clubs would require their contracted ISP players to remain with them through the week as they prepare for their next clash.
With certain stadiums not permitting three grades of football to be played on NRL match days, the under 20 competition is an ideal candidate for relocation to suburban grounds. In this instance, they would play as the main fixture with RM Cup and Sydney Shield matches being the curtain raisers. This would actually be a logical grade progression as some clubs place affiliated players or even additional players from their NYC squads into teams competing in Massey and Shield grades.
Although we are yet to hear the fine details, we can expect some changes to the Under 20 competition as it reverts to a state based rather than national competition. This then presents the ideal opportunity to elevate the profile of reserve grade.
The ISP may be the top tier of NSWRL senior football, but it needs to come back under the umbrella of the NRL. Many of the players have NRL contracts and they should be wearing the jerseys of their clubs.
The clashes should be the preliminary matches on game day because the players, and the fans, deserve it.
Eels forever!
Sixties
Sixties another really good article. I never really understood why the NYC took precedence over reserve grade. It was never the natural career path as has been shown by the fact that the vast majority of players come into NRL thru ISP.
The issue of “Social Facilitation” is an interesting comment and I have never heard this term used before. Putting SOO aside for a minute I have always noticed that during finals footy and especially GF’s that the standard of play lifts in this period. In my mind it mostly lifted beyond the experience of it being a GF.
The concept of Social Facilitation would explain this lift. Generally early in the next season you get a GF replay. In my view these games rarely live up to the hype. Of course sometimes they do and that would be due to a big crowd probably. The Broncos would get this a lot. Broncos Cowboys always a big crowd always a quality game
With SOO I always presumed the high quality games were a result of the quality of players but after reading your blog I am now leaning to the fact that Social Facilitation also plays a part in making these games what they are.
Just as an aside the fact that WSS is going to be 30,000 capacity as opposed to something much more significant is a good thing. Going to ANZ watching the Eels play in front of 15,000 fans would be as dissappointing to the players as it is to the fans
I reckon one of the greatest examples of social facilitation was the way Queensland could pick a player from reserve grade in the early years of Origin and they would rise to new levels (and it couldn’t just be explained by playing alongside talent). What about the way they won the series 3 to 0 during the Super League war! Even the great Wally Lewis was a far better player in the Origin arena than he was in weekly premiership games.
Sixties, this article really resonates with me, and sadly I see nothing in the years to come that the current NRL leadership is prepared to get their heads out of the sand and deal with it.
Like many I used to attend the 3 matches that used to be held on match day. I thought it great and was almost non stop entertainment from the start of the least graded game, lets say 3rd grade to cover all the subsequent brand changes. That grade allowed for young players to showcase their wares, also top players returning from injury and progress up the ladder as they got better. These players also were there to help the youngsters especially after additions were made when the junior rep comp finished in the first half of the season. Problem was that it was also seen as a retirement home for old players who wanted to keep going.
On big match days, when the 1st grade was going well, by the time the gates opened there were people lined up back to the leagues club and out onto O”Connel st, so the interest was there. The ground was near 1/3 full by half time of the 3rds and continued to grow until the main game. Archaic facilities but supporters came, today we all rightfully want better facilities though.
When I go to a game these days, I find the time gap between NYC and the start of the NRL match a wasted space, there is far too much non event time between the matches, & I include the time where the two teams come out and do their little stretch routines, its as exciting as watching mud dry. Stick it in a 1/4 full stadium at least for normal match games and the atmosphere is like taking a cold shower in a snow field, all you see is the steam coming out of peoples mouths with their breath.
No matter how good the facilities at Ringrose are, even the not too bad ones at Wyong, they are not crowd indusive places, I watched the Wenty side play the Wyong side there this year, along with the early match that Balmain played against another team in the Ron Massey Cup,(at least I think that’s who the games were played against) there would maybe around 800 people there when the early game was on, and many of them left, and few seemed to have arrived to watch the main game either. What may have hampered the crowd numbers on this day was that the eels played in Canberra, but I thought some may have traveled here if unable to go south.
Wyong is a nice ground and facilities not bad but still dated and small to provide any real atmosphere. Where is the inspiration for the players? Even a yell of support sounds like a yobbo and fades quickly without the atmosphere of a larger ground in a compacted oval like was old Cumberland or Pirtek. with over 5000 at the ground.
What does not help really in some respects is that large gap between games as mentioned above even for the NYC as it means people arrive later and may just see 20 minutes of that game, meaning even those players are playing in front of a void like ground even with 5000 there.
What likely doesn’t help is the likes of ANZ is that the players, unlike at the old ground could warm up on one of the outside ovals, nothing like that for them at Homebush or other places. Me! I would love to see at least two games on game day with no more than 20 minutes between matches, (the old time was around 10-15minutes to allow for injury time) the main game at the same time as now allowing more supporters to more of the 2nd game.
That said, the second game, with the abolition of the NYC comp needs to be a proper type of reserve grade game, it should also be playes in the NRL clubs colours as well. It may seem that it will be hard on the clubs playing in the current ISP comp which relies on those teams to keep the hard heads alive as well as keep interest in the local comps as they are now, there is no reason why what is now ISP and the lower grades of that comp in the NSWRL can not still keep going, especially those with the help of a local club. Certainly Wenty losing some players to the eels makes it hard for them, but they have survived over the many changes and I think they will continue to do so.
As for the new Stadium, I am in two minds as to the size of it, primarily because I do not see that the size really is future proofing it. The Parramatta district is growing and will continue to do so, that’s not to say that all will support the eels but many may, but the decision has been made and it will certainly make a huge difference at least for the near future.
What you say with having 15000 at the new stadium as against ANZ is very true, and the whole atmosphere will be much better, but it still needs the leaders of the NRL to realise that a proper Reserve grade competition is vital, it not just needs to play at the same day and at the same ground as the NRL game but it has to. Game day needs to be just that, supporters go to the venue to support not just their team but their teams, to watch the top 17 but also the potential future top players in a competition that will condition them better for the top side, they also need to see the amount of supporters at the ground is also there for them and cheer them on. A 1/3 empty Colosseum like ANZ is the same as playing at a bush ground with almost a full ground.
On the issue of the warm up before the game. This is something I don’t like also, prefer to see the team for the first time when they run out. There is no excuse for this at ANZ because there are warm areas under the stadium. The SOO players use them and a team in recent weeks used them as well. I do not see what they achieve by warming up on the field when they have an opportunity to do it in private.
I was under the impression that it may have been a directive from the NRL
If I get the chance, I’ll ask about this John.
Colin, I agree with your comments about future proofing the new stadium. We don’t need a colossus but 30K for a stadium with a fifty year life is just a bit underdone. 35 to 40K would have been a better fit.
When it’s built, we won’t get more than two games on match days as they wont allow too much traffic on it in one day. It’s a shame, but the days of 3 grades are over. However, there must be a place for a preliminary match, and that must be a true reserve grade.
I know we cannot have it all, yet it just seems to me that it is a wasted opportunity for the stadium as there are other ones that hold more than our new one will hold, and very much could be inadequate much earlier than thought. I guess its costing the club nothing in putting in for it and will reap the benefit overall.
I sort of bemoan the loss of character or something with the way the game has slipped in regard to the overall “game or match day experience” yes the 3 game set up is gone, and I don’t believe its for the overall long term good of the game though, & I guess I’m not convinced that the mob running the show will get the mix right with the replacement of the NYC from next year though.
Will they as a result get it right with the reserve grade/second match on game days? That is the big question for me, and I am actually a bit on the pessimistic side of the ledger there as well. There is no doubt there is a real need of a strong reserve grade side to showcase the NRL as a game and a genuine careers path from junior type football to showcase and make ready players for the top squad and game.
As the game gets stronger and more physical, I watch the injury situation that is happening through pretty well all clubs, and can impact teams a lot. The concept of the blood bin, and HIA checks allowing cleared players to return to the field, thing is if they cannot return then the replacement is from the bench and counted, meaning the team plays with only 3 interchanges.
I have said this in the past with some agreeing but many not, I would like to see the normal 4 man bench with fresh players for interchange, but the NRL needs to go a step further for players welfare, especially when they go down by an injury, and fail the concussion test, which means the team can be down a player or more, as was the case a few games back when we were left with one player only on the bench.
What I would like to see is two players named as replacements for match ending injuries, same conditions as the rules of years past that a replacement player who had completed at least a full half of the previous match for injuries. I believe that worked well and the player replaced was done so because he could not play on any longer and was not allowed back on the field.
The loss of one or two players to injury the way the game is played today really puts the strain on the remaining players and I believe their welfare is at stake, the two injury replacements would I believe ease that problem.
John, I tend to recollect that it was something that came from the NRL, as they believed it would add to the fan bases game day experience and to put on show what is part of the players normal pre game warm up, along with the supporters actually seeing what they do/get a better understanding of what they do before a match. I guess I can and could see some merit in their argument but in reality to many I don’t believe its worked, most supporters are generally uninterested in it,
I know when we went down the other month, I enjoyed the chats, and for me it was more trying to familiarise with some of the players, from a distance especially trying to pick their numbers, to which most did not have their match jerseys, when they got on to the field, but, I don’t think I took a lot of notice of what they did, I tend to recollect also that when the teams ran out onto the field at the match time there that was when the atmosphere picked up as each sides supporters cheered or booed accordingly,
Thing to me is that if there was just 15 minutes scheduled between games, those finishing later from work on week nights get more chance to see what they pay to see, that being players playing RL, and they might get to see more of the early games as well.
I suppose having the longer break between the games helps the caterers sell more health food and grog.
I thought we went to that game together. Do not remember any health food. Need to do it again. Let me know when you are available.
We did! Health food, Burgers (cold) chips, hot dogs etc. just being felicitous mate.
Give me a call with any offers, open house here tomorrow so hopping that we get a sale, once we have some certainty that way will make things a bit easier. I am just having problems with the cold nights. But on the day could be different also if raining would rule me out. Getting to be an old wimp I’m afraid.
Spot on Sixties, my sentiments precisely!
I know you love tradition mate.
Good read 60’s and some very valid points, the social facilation in the smaller grounds is a always a big part of the game day experience and should not be underestimated as a huge part of the home ground advantage.
Of more concern to me are the ticket prices, I’m a member at ANZ so I’m ok but for our home games adult tickets at the ground were $64, kids were $34. Just ridiculous pricing for a 80k plus stadium that barely gets 15k fans to home games.
I’m not sure if the club controls ticket pricing to home games or the NRL but what have they got to loose by slashing those prices to get bums on seats in the bigger stadiums on game. Not a lot of punters have the foresight to pre purchase tickets to get some better value, but at those prices you all but eliminate the chance of a healthy walk up crowd on any given game day.
That walk up crowd used to be the backbone of rugby league. In those days before on line ticketing, pre-purchasing meant getting to the ground extra early. Nowadays, how many people make a last minute decision to head to the footy? Older blokes like us have had to completely change our mindset when we go to away games. It must impact crowd figures.
Very valid points by both JJ and sixties, I used to love those lines, the day I think it was when the new tag of Electric Eels was put out and we played Manly on the day, I always arrived around 15 minutes before the season ticket holders who got in 5 minutes before the main gates were opened, the line at that point of time was at least 100 in front or me, the longest I ever saw, a rush to get grandstand (for want of a better description) seat or the splinter rows near the middle was on for young and old.
Loved it, these days it just seems a bit sterile or something.
Thanks Sixties. Good stuff. And a good game day experience for me (and many others who talk about it at the footy) would be to watch Reserve grade to see the players from our club who are trying to get into the NRL team (ditto for fans of other clubs). Yes, ticket and food prices keep some families away instead of encouraging them to go to the footy.
Absolutely mate. How many times do you go into fan forums and see fans calling for the inclusion of certain players? Yet it’s often based on hearsay or second hand reports because very few supporters have actually watched them play live. It’s not the fault of the fans that they haven’t seen the ISP. Why would most people attend two venues on the one weekend? Sometimes there is even a clash of times! Let’s fix this!
Good example was the ISP game against Wyong on the same day that the eels played in Canberra, not a lot of spectators at Wyong for the game.
As I said and John Eel also confirmed that the long warm up time for the first graders is also a waste and boring time, only need 20 minutes max between the two games and let the player warm up as they used to do outside or underneath at ANZ.