KEY POINTS:
The phenomenal interest in the Warriors is not expected to translate into more people playing rugby league in New Zealand.
The Warriors have been the talk of the country since the incredible, last-gasp win over the Storm a fortnight ago that kept their NRL season alive, and
even the All Blacks' impressive win over the Wallabies in Brisbane was relegated down the sports pages.
League bosses, though, say they don't expect a knock-on rise in playing numbers. Even if it did happen, some areas of the country were not in a position to do much about it.
"There will be a spike in interest and doors will open easier, and hopefully wallets, but we don't see a rapid increase in junior numbers," NZRL general manager Peter Cordtz said.
"There are some capability issues in dealing with growth. It's all very well having interest in the game but unless you can deliver a quality rugby league experience, it's questionable whether people will remain in the game.
"There has to be the infrastructure to deal with it and we have some challenges at the moment. We have enough facilities but volunteer numbers are declining and it's always been difficult to get enough referees.
"That said, it's not a bad place to be as a code because we don't often have our day in the sun so we have to make the most of it."
Cordtz said he didn't expect numbers to increase because it was the end of the season and interest would have to remain until it started again in March. One thing that should keep rugby league's profile high is the upcoming World Cup in Australia.
Rugby league has experienced a slide in participation numbers since its peak in the mid- to late-1990s when 40,000 people were said to play the game. This statistic is not considered a true number considering a different formula was used to count participation levels.
There were about 20,000 registered players in 2002 and this has since dropped to 15,000. It's a number that doesn't match the profile of rugby league, considering it is the third most-watched sport on television, and is one of the reasons why Sparc have initiated a major review of everything to do with rugby league in New Zealand.
A huge increase in playing numbers was experienced when the Warriors entered the old Winfield Cup in 1995 but numbers remained unchanged on the back of the Warriors' surge to the grand final in 2002.
Auckland remains the stronghold of league in this country, accounting for about 9000 of the 15,000 registered players nationally. This number has remained steady since the turn of the century but the Auckland association still face a number of problems and prejudices.
"We have a huge profile, but it's a matter of converting it into numbers," Auckland chairman Cameron McGregor said.
"We have some unique barriers, like secondary schools.
"No matter how popular it becomes, we still can't change things like getting secondary schools to play the game so there are still prejudices there. The system is that rugby dominates and convinces them to convert to rugby even if they are playing rugby league. We would have to pull some political muscle to change things."
Rugby league is played in less than half of all Auckland secondary schools and is totally reliant on teachers or volunteers to run the programme. For this reason, Auckland rugby league put most of their efforts into developing the game at primary and intermediate school level.
At the last count, there were about 300 teams in schools. They have four coaching development officers heavily involved in this area and up to 30 per cent of their total budget of $2 million is spent on junior programmes.
There are also challenges at club level. There were 428 teams in Auckland this year, down from 464 in 2001.
"The biggest issue with our clubs is not getting the kids but coaches to look after the kids," McGregor said. "If we had more parents willing to give up their time to take the kids, we would have more teams."
There's little the Warriors can do to help, other than continue to keep the game's profile high.
"We are probably the PR tool," Warriors chief executive Wayne Scurrah said.
"We are there to encourage kids to stay in the game and play the game in the first place and put them in front of their heroes. But physically trying to help the administration is not our job."
