VALE | An obituary to Monday Night NRL

Parramatta v St George Illawarra marks the final Monday Night NRL fixture for now as Foxtel moves the game to a Friday night.

I wish to say goodbye to a friend, sometimes overlooked far too often.

Well, I didn’t have Foxtel for a few of those years.

It all began in 2007 and has been ratings gold for Fox Sports ever since.

But after ten good but not great years the traditional Monday night game will move to the new traditional Friday 6pm timeslot.

Some will miss it.

Some being about the average crowd numbers to attend Monday Night Football in person. Some will welcome the new Friday night straight after work straight to the pub timeslot. The extra game being an excuse to have an extra beverage or two.

For the rest it will be great background noise as Melbourne takes on either Cronulla, Manly, Souths or Parra. A nice warm up to the Broncos or the Bulldogs game on Channel Nine.

Where do people sit on the subject of Monday v Friday night NRL?

The pro Monday argument

It allowed a good enough excuse to visit a local watering hole early in the week. What better way to convince loved ones to go to the pub under the guise of NRL. Until you get Foxtel anyway.

Another good thing is that it extended the sporting weekend to Monday.

Giving rugby league fans an extra night of authority with the TV Remote. Pre-Have You Been Paying Attention there was nothing else to watch, so without Monday night rugby league it’s over to a Kitchen Show, Renovation, Someone covering Hallelujah for the 100th time or any dross served up by the ABC.

The anti Monday night rugby league argument

That come Monday the sporting weekend should be over.

After watching Thursday and Friday night football, Super Saturday, The All Sydney NRL clash on a Sunday afternoon, Both F1 Free Practice Sessions, V8 Supercars first three laps before getting bored because it is not Bathurst, five minutes of an AFL game to try and get into AFL because you know you should before switching over to the NSW Cup rugby League, Races 4-8 at Eagle Farm, Sydney and Melbourne but not Morphettville, Intrust Super Cup, the early game of EPL, watching the split screen of 4 EPL games at once to ensure you are keeping an eye on your multi selections, refreshing the BBC Live Scores updates to keep an eye on three EFL Football League divisions, flicking between French, Spanish and German but not Italian football on BeIn Sports, USPGA Golf Tour, avoiding all non major Tennis, F1 qualifying and race, after watching both GP2 and GP3 races, and UK Super League one has reached sporting saturation by Monday night.

Plus tipsters all round the nation would much rather have their results on Sunday evening ready for the next week’s selections. The three day turnaround is causing fatigue for NRL Tipping punters everywhere. Especially in the post Origin period.

There’s been some great times on a Monday night though.

If I had to name one I couldn’t, I’d name them all.

But since you’re asking, and you’re not, there is one that sticks in the mind.

Who could forget the magical night when the South Sydney turned the table on the Roosters to produce the best piece of rugby league commentary since Alan Thomas declared Wally had the ball before a shower of cans rained on the old Lang Park.

Having been declared that not even Souths could lose from here with less than five minutes to go in Round 1 2012, the Rabbitohs duly provided the first class choke.

With that in mind the Rabbitohs secured an even better comeback when they beat the Roosters despite being down by 10 point with less than two minutes remaining. The call should go into sports calling folklore.

It has also provided one of rugby league’s saddest moments with the unfortunate incident involving Alex McKinnon in Melbourne.

In between it has provided the perfect accompaniment or ending to the week of rugby league at times. Or just another NRL game. We’re not quite sure how we feel to be honest.

The one good thing is we now don’t need to wait until Monday for the gold, it comes early on a Friday night.

MONDAY NIGHT NRL STATISTICS

With just a relatively meaningless Parramatta v Dragons game to go, we think it’s time to run through the statistics of crowds, win, and games of Monday night rugby league.

For the sporting nerd, here’s some of our best.

TOTAL GAMES MONDAY NIGHT NRL PLAYED

Is anyone surprised that Melbourne top the total of games played? Possibly. I would have thought Sharks. What about Broncos and NZ Warriors with the least? No.

TOTAL GAMES HOME AND AWAY

AVERAGE MONDAY NIGHT CROWDS

Started off with a bang in 2007, but has ultimately dropped over the 10 years. But there were two periods of slight improvement over those 10 years, including the last two seasons.

AVERAGE MONDAY NIGHT CROWDS PER CLUB

The Broncos are no surprise, and should be at the top given their one town status. Newcastle also represent an entire city, but their position at second is mildly surprising. Two of the coldest places are in the bottom three.

OVERALL MONDAY NIGHT RECORD

Canberra are the kings of Monday night wins, just ahead of Melbourne and Penrith. The Sharks and Dragons can battle for the poorest Monday night record as well as local bragging rights.

RECORD HOME AND AWAY

Newcastle winning over 70% of their home matches, and most teams have a pro home record. The only exception is the Roosters, and the Warriors who haven’t played any in NZ for obvious reasons.

MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL HONOUR ROLL