South Sydney lead NRL membership race

There are only seven weeks until the NRL season returns. Three weeks until the Auckland Nines kicks off. While the back end of the pre-season begins to heat up, the membership race between each club is heating. And with only a matter of weeks, before a ball is kicked, there’s a clear leader.

South Sydney yesterday announced that they had reached a massive milestone of 25,000 members – fifty days before Round One kicks off. While many fans protested the signing of Robbie Farah, his arrival has seemed to do no damage on the club’s membership campaign. With a goal set for 35,000 members for the 2017 season, there’s no reason the Rabbitohs can’t achieve that goal by season’s end.

Their nearest competitors, the Brisbane Broncos, sit over five thousand members behind with a tally of 19,420. Despite a week two exit of the finals last season, Brisbane’s roster looks strong yet again despite the loss of club legend and captain Corey Parker. The Broncos tally is expected to climb north of 25,000 this season, especially due to the fact that they’re the only club in Brisbane.

Parramatta, Melbourne, Canterbury and St George Illawarra all follow, each sitting between just over 15,000 and 11,000 members. Despite not being a rugby league dominated city, Melbourne has surprised many by tallying nearly 15,000 members already. Coming off another grand final under Craig Bellamy as well as Billy Slater’s imminent return, Storm fans have no reason not to sign up with the smell of success around the corner.

There’s quite a logjam of teams sitting between the 10,000 and 11,000 mark, with a few surprises in there. The Sydney Roosters tally of 10,458 can only be considered disappointing, despite coming off a very poor season on and off the season for the club. Being a foundation club, Roosters fan’s will be frustrated more so by the fact that fellow foundation club and rivals South Sydney more than double their tally.

Cronulla is another club with a surprisingly low member count with 10,064. The Sharks, months after claiming their maiden premiership, sit only 1,000 members more than one-win Newcastle ahead of the 2017 season. Newcastle is one of only four clubs yet to hit the 10,000 member milestone ahead of the coming season, with the Manly Sea Eagles, Gold Coast Titans and Penrith Panthers sitting in the bottom four. The Gold Coast Titans sit last with just over 7,500 members, a feat that the Titans will hope to rise soon in coming months after a year of strong recruitment, including Jarryd Hayne, Konrad Hurrell and Kevin Proctor.

NRL Club Membership Tally

*Membership tally was taken as of January 11, 2017