RUGBY LEAGUE supporters have been known to define our sport as ‘The Greatest Game’.
That was the description most often used by the late, lamented Malcolm Andrews, who for many years wrote about the game in Australia for League Express and for many Australian publications.
He actually wrote a book with that title.
Malcolm had a great love of rugby league, he enjoyed earning his living by writing about it, and he wasn’t afraid to get into an argument with anyone who contradicted him about rugby league’s greatness.
And like many Australian sports journalists, he seemed to have a never-ending supply of stories about rugby league and its players and coaches that meant that he could hold court and keep his mates entertained all night.
Those gatherings would often take place in The Strand, a pub in the Sydney suburb of Kings Cross, with Malcolm’s weekly League Express column being entitled ‘View From The Strand’.
Almost from the day we launched League Express in 1990 to Malcolm’s sad passing in 2018, his column was essential reading for everyone who subscribed to League Express and we have undoubtedly missed him ever since.
As the editor of League Express, both then and now, I cherish his memory.
It’s now seven years since Malcolm’s death and I wanted to return to the idea of rugby league being the Greatest Game.
Can we still make that claim with confidence?
In fact, you might ask whether we ever could make that claim.
There are six other forms of football that may also think of themselves as the greatest – association football, rugby union, american football, gaelic football, Aussie rules football and Canadian football.
At the highest level, all those sports draw higher crowds than our Super League competition.
NRL crowds may be comparable to Canadian Football crowds, for example, but Super League is still a long way behind those other forms of football in terms of actual support.
So doesn’t that make our claim of having the greatest game look slightly ridiculous?
Perhaps it might.
And that’s before we have considered other sports, primarily those that hit a ball, as opposed to passing it or kicking it, such as cricket, hockey, golf, tennis, baseball, hurling and several others. I dare say that the fans of those sports may consider them to be the greatest game of all.
But then again, what intrigues me is whether there are any objective criteria that we could construct that would persuade us that rugby league, or any other sport, is really the greatest.
And what perspective should we take?
We could think about this issue from the perspective of participants, spectators or we might even think financially. In the latter case the NFL and the FA Premier League would clearly lead the field.
But what about from the point of view of a potentially neutral spectator?
Would any of these sports have more inherent excitement than the others?
Many years ago, when I launched a rugby league club at what was then the Sheffield Polytechnic, later to become Sheffield Hallam University, we were able to play matches against other colleges while being surrounded by other students playing football. It was noticeable that as the games proceeded, many of the students who were watching football matches drifted over to watch our rugby league team. It was a straw in the wind that helped persuade me that rugby league was indeed a more exciting sport than football for anyone who approaches it without any preconceived notions.
But when it comes to spectator sport at the highest level, unfortunately the vast majority of fans come to the game with a multitude of preconceived notions.
And the main one is their attachment to their club. If you are an avid supporter of a football club, for example, the quality of what you are watching, and its inherent excitement, probably don’t matter much at all.
You are a member of a tribe and you will go home happy if your tribe wins, even if the quality of football has been questionable.
Rugby league is combative, skilful, fast moving and it is clearly played by great athletes. I’m convinced that it really is the greatest game.
But it has one significant drawback that it struggles to overcome.
It’s the greatest game when it’s an even contest.
And we’ve seen plenty of those games in the opening weeks of Super League. Just think of that dramatic golden-point game between Hull FC and Leigh Leopards in round four.
But on the other hand, rugby league is not the greatest game to watch when it’s a one-sided contest.
Just think of that game in round one, when St Helens defeated Salford 82-0.
Football can have an FA Cup game between Tamworth and Tottenham, with the non-league side holding the Premier League side to a 0-0 draw after 90 minutes.
But there’s no equivalent in rugby league.
And it’s not just that one-sided contests aren’t good to watch. They can be deeply dispiriting for supporters of the losing side.
Fans take heavy defeats very badly, so much so that sometimes they withdraw their support. Look at how Bradford’s support has fallen away since their success in the first ten years of Super League.
At its best, rugby league deserves the epithet of the greatest game.
The issue facing those who run the game is how to ensure that rugby league is always played at its best so that we can use that expression with confidence.
First published in Rugby League World magazine, Issue 507 (April 2025)
