IMG's decision to publish their grading criteria has provided fresh insight into how clubs will be judged and perhaps more importantly, how they might score. While it is impossible to completely work out the grades of clubs, there are certain sections where the information is publicly available.
One of the five pillars behind the grading system is fandom, which assesses things such as attendances, viewership and digital performance. As part of the final metric, clubs are judged on the number of social media followers they have across big platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok.
One club excel in this department and, as it stands, is the only club that will score full marks. That club is Leeds Rhinos. To score maximum points, a club must have over 500,000 followers, likes and subscribers across the five platforms and the Rhinos are currently the only club to surpass that figure.
In fact, the Rhinos have the biggest following on four of the platforms, only bettered on TikTok. With over 200,000 Twitter followers and 186,000 likes on Facebook, the Rhinos' overall total is around 522,000 at the time of publication. It leaves them way out in front of their nearest rivals, Wigan Warriors, who collectively have around 313,000.
Read more: Every rugby league club's on-field performance score after IMG's criteria reveal
Unfortunately for the Rhinos, this area of the criteria is only worth a total of 0.2 points and for clubs who are between 100,000 and 500,000, they receive 0.15 points. It means the Rhinos are only getting a 0.05-point advantage on most of their rivals, with seven other Super League clubs coming into that category. Nevertheless, it's a small victory for the Rhinos and their digital team.
