Rugby league is in a sorry state and nothing illustrates that more than the crowd figures we've been seeing this season.

Take last weekend for example.

There were 10,112 fans watching the Cronulla Sharks play Newcastle and 9335 turned up to see reigning premiers Melbourne take on St George Illawarra at home.

If you got those types of crowds for a decent AFL game there would be a Royal Commission.

One problem is that all these games are on television, which is great for the NRL’s coffers but does little to get people to the games.

The fans are telling us they’d rather sit at home and watch it on Foxtel than fork out to see it live, and that’s something that the league needs to address.

The atmosphere at most ANZ Stadium games is close to non-existent, so why is the NRL still playing so many games there?

The ground holds 83,000 yet most games get about 15,000.

It’s not good enough for officials to simply throw their hands up and say it’s all tied to contracts; if it’s hurting the game, do something about it.

It could be two ordinary teams but when they’re playing in a packed house you can almost guarantee they’ll put on an entertaining show.

The real problem area is Sydney.

You can’t keep on getting 10,000 fans to games in a city with a couple of million people living there.

You’ve got sports-mad people in Adelaide, Darwin and Perth who would love to embrace an NRL club, so why not look at relocating some clubs there?

The Adelaide Rams got 27,000 to their first home in the Super League in 1997, yet were allowed to die at the end of the next year.

Most NRL clubs would love that type of crowd.

The AFL has shown how successful a relocation can be with
Fitzroy’s merger with Brisbane.

Many Fitzroy fans were upset but it was for the greater good of the game, and many have now
returned to follow the Lions.

The sight of empty grandstands is a blight on the game, but it’s just a symptom of a deeper malaise that is hurting the game that I love.

Officials have sat on their hands for too long as Australian rules, soccer and rugby union have expanded, and it’s a terrible shame.

The game should be growing, and we should get greats of the game to use their profiles in places such as the Pacific Islands.

We’ve always known there is talent over there. Now is the time to make an effort to develop it there.

The same goes for all the World Cup countries that we bring in every few years then forget about until we need to find top-up teams for this "big" tournament.

This year we’re celebrating the league’s centenary.

The way it’s going, it may not last another 100.

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