She Knows Rugby League
Rugby League is the most attended football code in Australia, with hundreds of thousands of fans supporting their chosen team throughout winter.
The fact that Rugby League is the least attended by women of all the football codes may have something to do with the rough nature of the game, not to mention the code's ongoing PR problems, incidents of violence and allegations of bad behavior by players.
But the good news is there is real change happening within the game and many NRL teams are taking it upon themselves to take a proactive approach to making the game more female and family friendly. For example, the South Sydney Rabbitohs have said goodbye to cheerleaders and poker machines in their club and the Manly Sea Eagles have engaged a number of high profile female ambassadors such as Sarah Murdoch and Wendy Harmer.
Regardless of the relatively rough nature of the game, you don’t have to go far to find some very passionate and diehard female NRL fans. Our own Kikki & Sassy, for example, develop heart problems if they have to miss a game with The Dragons or the Roosters, the teams who bring out their uniquely female passion for footy and ironically, are currently top and bottom of the ladder respectively.
The key objective of the game is for the team with the ball to run forward, pass the ball to each other in a backward motion and break through the defence line of their opposing team, who tackle the player with the ball in an attempt to minimise or halt their progression down the field.
When a player is tackled, they must roll the ball under his foot to another player to recommence play. A side is allowed five tackles before they must kick the ball or hand it over.
There are three main ways a team scores points in Rugby League:
1. A try – placing the ball over the try line – four points.
2. A conversion – kicking the ball through the goal posts after a try is scored – two points.
3. A drop goal – when a player gets close enough to the goalpost to drop the ball to the ground
and kick it through the posts – one point. A drop goal is most often kicked towards the end of a game, when the scores are either tied or very close.
Fast Fact
Following a try, the scoring team then has an opportunity to ‘convert’ with a kick for goal. Where this kick is taken from is relative ...
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You claim as "fact that "Rugby League is the least attended by women of all the football codes".
Yet from http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/league-girls-loyal-under-heavy-fire/story-e6frfgbo-1225734277308 we read:
researcher Repucom has found that 40.9 per cent of league fans were women at the end of 2008. The two-in-five ratio is just 0.8 per cent less than the gender split recorded in AFL, long suspected to be the most female-friendly football code.
The national poll of 4000 sports fans was conducted by Lynne Anderson, wife of former Australian Test coach Chris Anderson. She admitted rugby league's continued appeal among women was surprising at the end of last season, let alone during the first quarter of 2009 when feminine interest soared another 2 per cent.
I dont get why South Sydney got rid of their cheerleaders....I dont see anything wrong with them, they're just dancers.
what about off-side & 10 meter rules? More details please!
"Rugby League is the most attended football code in Australia"... I think the AFL would have a bit to say about that
Yeh it's not a great start to a "lesson" when your opening comment is incorrect!
I dont think we should care about the semantics of how many ppl go to what game so the above comments are pretty much a waste of time.
More info on offside, the scrum, what the heck a Five-Eighth is as well as the touch rules would be of benefit to all imo
I think one of the reasons Females dont go is simple the respect they give Women! I mean my 16yr old daughter has asked me as to why does Manly sitll have Brett Stewart in there team, when the Newcastle team sacked one or two of the team memebrs for drugs... does this mean that Manly think that an offence like his ( has been charged) he should not get the same as the others.
Sorry if I am going on here but I for one as a Mum & Wife will not be going to anymore games nor do I tell my friends to go either untill MANLY GET IN THERE HEADS you can't let a person whom they employ to do what he did and then give them a pat on the back and say it will be all right!!!