The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.
Actually, this is a very famous calendar that was done for charity with proceeds going to the National Breast Cancer Foundation of Australia. It is very well researched with adequate credible references and external links. The calendar has very high esthetic value on its own and is done very tastefully. Mainstraem media praised all the rugby players involved for their utter courage and candidness. It's mere appearance would spread awareness in a very relevant way to breast cancer. Here are some more links as to significance of the calendar and how widespread it actually became because of the notoriety of the players involved. The players volunteering were way past the 40 and the public had a say in picking the players in a campaign that lasted many months. References as to relevance are abound. Just a few here... "Naked Rugby League Calender for breast cancer! Australian Rugby players are game" http://www.adpunch.org/entry/naked-rugby-league-calender-for-breast-cancer-australian-rugby-players-are-game/ The mainstream media echoed support. For example the Australian "Daily Telegraph": In an article "League's naked truth" on this page: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/entertainment/sydney-confidential/leagues-naked-truth/story-e6frewz0-1111112276558 It also created controversy and avid healthy discussions in the media. As a reflection, for example this report in CancerBlog: "Naked Rugby players breast cancer and ill-gotten gains" http://www.thecancerblog.com/2006/09/27/naked-rugby-players-breast-cancer-and-ill-gotten-gains/ By the way, the promotional aspect of the piece is brought as a reason for deletion by the colleague Mattinbgn. The Wikipedia article created by me never ever intended it as a promotion. If you find the tone to be that "promotional" for Wikipedia standards, you can always re-edit rather than suggest deletion. Anyway this is a calendar that was published in October 2006 and was out of print by January February 2007. AS we are now nearing end of 2009, not many people will buy it. It is not commercially available in the markets anymore anyway. Only an avid fan would try to get an available copy or as a collector's item probably because of its esthethic value. So the article is hardly a promotional piece, but as a public record of a significant earlier event. Anyway, it's for other colleagues to express their views on that aspect of the "tone" used. I sincerely hope the article stays though. Because of such brave and significant public initiatives, I have become to hold the Australian rugby players in very high esteem indeed and follow some of their news even in remote Canada simply because of their bravery werldwayd (talk) 04:52, 1 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Further to the above, and to respond to the concerns about non-notability of the Naked Rugby League calendar raised by a colleague, I have developed the Wikipedia article even further to address his concerns. In fact I have now added a whole new section entitled "Reactions" that shows that the said "Naked Rugby League" calendar created huge reaction and controversy at the time involving the NRL and the Breast Cancer Foundation (whose cause the calendar was supporting) and the reactions of the most targetted of the players taking part, to my mind the very courageous Nick Youngquest. To vouch for the significance of the calendar, I have also included now additional 5 new references from publications discussing its impact. These were not around when the deletion of the article was proposed by a colleague editor. The new references include the Australian "Daily Telegraph", "Adelaide Now", news.com.au, "Sydney Morning Herald" and the "New Zealand Herald" increasing citations to 7 separate media outlets. It took a good two three hours of my time, but, after all, it is for a good cause, that of keeping a relevant Wikipedia article that describes a worthwhile cause and serves, in its own way, to increase breast cancer awareness, albeit with some controversial player photos that dared to defy the norms werldwayd (talk) 07:51, 1 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.