Quote ="CyberPieMan"If the WCC was a proper comp and not just 2 friendlies on an under-card to Sunday's effort then many more would have made the effort (me included - I simply can't get excited about our game & quite frankly I've got better things to do), regardless of whether it's a chance to see the "superstars" of the NRL in action.
Add to that the media coverage: the BBC are only covering Sunday's game & none of their trails even mention us or Wire's game (that aside from slandering us in the narrative - penned by a Stainer I think). Not got Sly so I've no idea what they're doing.
Then you look at all the build up to the new season. Again, with almost every ignorant BBC pundit bleating on that the format was too complicated and they didn't understand it (no matter how simplistically or slowly it was explained), it gave anyone who was dithering about whether to attend games the perfect excuse to keep cherry-picking games.
The RFL have done next to nothing to promote these games beyond the core fan-base. Even the Wigan Ob's website leads with Latics' latest woes in the sport section.'"
The whole "Ryder Cup of RL" SL v NRL thing was a complete non starter as soon as it was opened up to whichever NRL team stuck their hand up without any qualification process. An expanded WCS will only work if all teams involved are there on merit.
But I genuinely believe there is enough to get excited about just taking our game in isolation without worrying about it being a friendly or part of a series of games. It's a game between arguably the two most famous clubs in RL, we haven't played Brisbane for almost 18 years and it will only be the 2nd time we've faced NRL opposition at the DW. There should be enough Wigan fans from the core fan-base wanting to attend this game without it needing to be heavily marketed or discounted. But as we've seen time and time again, if it doesn't count on a ST then it's not worth bothering with for quite a large minority.
