Wallabies and Aussie cricketers hit with brutal reality in new fan survey
An alarming new survey has shown just how much work both the Wallabies and Aussie Test team must do to win fans over.
A new study into Australia's most popular national sporting teams has underlined just how much ground the Wallabies need to make up, while suggesting our male cricketers are still fighting to win over fans in the Pat Cummins era. True North Research (TNR) measured the emotional connection (EC) between fans and the top 18 national teams from Australia and New Zealand to gauge respect, enjoyment, trust, pride and bond with a particular team.
These emotions, according to TNR, help drive attendances, memberships, TV audiences, pay TV subscriptions, social media following, merchandise sales, advocacy and sponsor impact. TNR says it studies concentrate on emotion "because sport is emotion".
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Not surprisingly, the world-famous New Zealand All Blacks came out on top in the 2023 survey as the most popular national team across the two countries. New Zealand's netball side, the Black Ferns, were second on the list followed by the Australian women's cricket side and then the Socceroos.
Australia's women's 7s rugby team (7th), the Matildas (8th), and our men's T20 (9th) all made it into the top half of the ratings. Our Test cricketers (10th) clearly still have some work to do to get sceptical fans onboard, although a successful Ashes campaign will no doubt see them climb the ratings.
But it's Australia's national rugby side that has the biggest fight in convincing fans to embrace them again. The Wallabies sit 17th on the EC table after years of poor results on the international stage combined with a general lethargy about the code in this country.
Eddie Jones facing difficult road to Wallabies resurrection
Coach Eddie Jones has been brought back primarily to lift the Wallabies into a genuine force at this year's World Cup and beyond. But his spruiking qualities are almost as important for a sport desperately in need of some positive PR.
"There's a great opportunity here. You can feel there's a certain amount of goodwill about wanting the team wanting to do well and we've got to make sure we capitalise on that," Jones said at the start of his second coming as Wallabies coach. "It's a great period coming up for Australian rugby beginning with the World Cup in 2023, so we've got to get the foot to the pedal and get on with it."
True North Research's founder Georgie Maynard said of the Wallabies: "There is so much work to do here to understand the drivers of emotional connection to the team and how to raise engagement." Winning the World Cup – as impossible as that sounds - would be a great start.
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