While the genuine, hardcore Storm fans were shattered by Melbourne’s preliminary final loss yesterday, an exclusive Wooden Spooners survey reveals that 95% of Victorians didn’t even know the game was on.
Distracted by the big Aerial Ping Pong game on TV, where one suburban Melbourne team beat another suburban Melbourne team by 1,000 points, our survey only had 50 responses.
When asked if they watched the Storm’s preliminary final against Penrith, 99% of respondents had no clue who the Storm were, with most guessing they were Victoria’s latest A-League soccer team or one of the Big Bash League T20 teams. The remaining 1% said they knew who the Storm were, but didn’t bother watching any games as they always clashed with their beloved North Melbourne Kangaroos matches.
Another survey question was if anyone would watch the NRL Grand Final next Sunday night, with 105% of responders saying that the real footy finished last night. A handful of people also queried if that was the game the Wallabies were playing in.
NRL CEO Andrew Abdo was distressed by the survey results, but vowed to keep rugby league alive in Victoria. “It’d be easy to give up and ship the Storm to Queensland. They’ve been the unoffical fourth Queensland team for a decade, Queenslanders love them, and the Storm are almost unbeatable up there, but we’ll keep fighting. I know there’s about 15 rugby league fans in Victoria, and they’ll be hungry for live footy again when it’s allowed.”
Meanwhile, Storm coach Craig Bellamy has also vowed to fight the good fight. “Mate, if I have to go to every bloody school in this state to spread the good word about footy, then I will. I f****** hate Aerial Ping Pong! I’ll even call Molly and get him to help me out. Everyone loves Molly!”
