ARU Annual Report 2012 & Participation Growth

[Jets]

The ARU have released their annual report for last year.

You can read it here
http://activemagazine.smedia.com.au/activemagazine/arudemo2012/

They have been gloating about the participation figure and how well the game is going. Gagger and Scott briefly touched on it during this weeks podslam.

Below are some of the figures that are proof of what a great state the game is in. The figures are broken down into more detail on pages 54-57 of the report.

Delegates were also briefed on the 2012 participation figures, which for the first time in the game’s history broke the 300,000 player mark.

There were 323,115 players throughout Australia in 2012, an increase of 61,678 (23.6%) on 2011 numbers, 55% on 2010 playing numbers and 68% growth when compared to 2009.

The strength of the game in New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, Western Australia and the ACT continued to thrive with Junior and Senior numbers recording growth across the five regions.

It was the third consecutive year NSW and Victorian Junior numbers had increased and the fourth year in a row Senior playing numbers had increased in Victoria. Junior numbers also increased in Queensland.

After entering its first official four year Olympic cycle, Rugby Sevens enjoyed a huge boost to playing numbers in 2012.

A total of 39,003 people were engaged with Sevens in 2012, with the game’s popularity growing in Queensland, NSW, South Australia, the ACT, Victoria and Western Australia.

Other key areas of participation included:

•NSW Juniors up 3.3% to 21,135 (Record)
•NSW Seniors up 3.8% to 19,550 (Record)
•NSW overall playing numbers up 12.4% to 114,350 (Record)
•QLD Juniors up 9.2% to 16,593 (Record)
•QLD overall playing numbers up 49.8% to 113,932 (Record)
•Victorian Juniors up 11.7% to 1,969 (Record)
•Victorian Overall playing numbers up 70.8% to 17,994 (Record)
•ACT Seniors up 3.1% to 3,048 (Record)
•ACT Juniors up 5.3% to 4,495
•ACT overall playing numbers up 11.2% to 27,399 (Record)
•Western Australia Seniors up 10.4% to 3,614 (Record)
•Western Australia Juniors up 12.9% to 4,183 (Record)
•National Rugby Sevens playing numbers up 150.4% to 39,003 (Record)
•Irregular Schools playing numbers up 50.3% to 166,913 (Record)

I am going to focus on 1 section of the participation figures that I find very interesting that being "Schools (2)"
Schools (2) is the figure for irregular school players. These are players that could play in one off gala days or carnivals. They have no long term interest in the game but have"participated" in rugby. From my understanding come and try events at schools are included in this figure too.
It is great that students are being exposed to rugby in some form but many of these students will have no interest in the game and are unlikely to continue to play after their participation is over.

In the figures for each state the Schools (2) figure is

QLD 65,286 or 57.3% of total participation
NSW 54,995 or 48%
ACT 18,685 or 68%
WA 8,819 or 45%
VIC 11,983 or 66.5%
NT 473 or 22%
TAS 174 or 19.5%
SA 6,498 or 70.2%

Nationally the Schools figure is 166,913 or 51.6% of total rugby participation.

Now is it just me or are these figures being used to over inflate the state of the game?

If you take out the Schools (2) figure the participation numbers total 156,202. This figure has grown 111.8% from 5 years ago. Does anyone else think that our game is actually shrinking when you compare it to the population growth of the country?

Breakdown of figures other than Schools (2)


2007 2012 5 year growth
Senior 36,370 41,225 13.3%
Junior 44,854 50,412 12.3%
Schools (1) 42,261 45,681 8%
Women 1,640 1,307 -20%
Golden Oldies 14,500 17,577 21%
Total 139,625 156,202 11.8%

 

[TOCC]

In the last part of your post, I think the figure you are looking for is 11.8% growth, not 111.8%

 

[Jets]

Changed it. The formatting didn't really work. If I had time I would have made a nice infographic.

 

[TOCC]

As for people playing in carnivals/mini tournaments having no interest in the game, I'd strongly disagree with that comment..

I've been involved in a number of tournaments(adult age) where people with league/Aussie Rules or soccer backgrounds have played, and I've found a quite a number of those develop a subsequent interest in the game following that.. Not always at super rugby level, but defiantly developed an interest Wallaby level. It's generally the Aussie rules followers that are willing to convert/adopt a second code I've found.

I do agree that some of these are used to inflate overall figures, it's done by all codes throughout Australia and it helps to attract further govt funding/sponsorship... The AFL have long been guilty of this...

 

[Hugh Jarse]

Mark Twain wrote "Figures often beguile me, particularly when I have the arranging of them myself; in which case the remark attributed to Disraeli would often apply with justice and force: 'There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics' "

That is an interesting approach to the numbers Jets, and probably very close to the truth.

In addition to the possible guiding of the lily about the numbers of irregulars, I have maintained that there is a large element of double accounting between Schools and Juniors. Down here in Olde Sydney Towne, many of the Juniors (particularly in the Sunday competition) play rugby for both Club and School.

School players are not registered in the ARU database. I presume that the individual Schools just tell the NSW Schools RU the numbers of kids in their rugby programme, and this gets added to the annual census as Schools players.

Juniors figures are probably summarised from ARU Database figures, or Buddha figures. I'm pretty sure that there is not a filter applied to these figures to subtract out the kids who are playing for a School team. The Interns at NSWRU would be overloaded trying to reconcile these accurately, and would never get to the end of the problem.

My assertion is that the NSW Juniors and Schools figures are significantly overstated due to double accounting. I think this double accounting of Schools and Juniors is occurring in other jurisdictions as well.

Rugby is not the only sport doing this, and there have been some recent newspaper articles (slightly more believable than Wikipedia but not much) about how the AFL has been significantly inaccurate in their participation figures in various submissions.

Like the drugs in sport argument, it looks like they are all doing it.

IMHO there has been little genuine growth or expansion in junior rugby in Sydney over the past 5 years, and in some geographic areas and age groups the game has declined to what should be troubling levels. Meanwhile Nero et al at Moore Park and St Leonards have enjoyed reading the wonderfully spun numbers being placed before them by sycophantic interns and WIIFM wannabes whilst they sip on their perfectly cellared Shiraz in their respective boardrooms.

 

[Jets]

As for people playing in carnivals/mini tournaments having no interest in the game, I'd strongly disagree with that comment..

I've been involved in a number of tournaments(adult age) where people with league/Aussie Rules or soccer backgrounds have played, and I've found a quite a number of those develop a subsequent interest in the game following that.. Not always at super rugby level, but defiantly developed an interest Wallaby level. It's generally the Aussie rules followers that are willing to convert/adopt a second code I've found.

The majority though? I said many had no interest.
I am not saying these events shouldn't be run, just that they do not give a realistic indication of the total participation.

 

[Scott Allen]

Great work Jets - these numbers need pulling apart like this.

As I mentioned on the podcast this week, I'm also dubious about 39,000 sevens players. How many of those are double counted - how many actually play for a club or a school in 15's and so have already been counted? I'd say it would be the vast majority.

I believe that we need to question these figures, not to be negative, but to really understand where the game is so that if we have only had 11.8% growth in five years, we acknowledge that those numbers are terrible and we find ways to address that. If there is double counting of sevens players, the participation numbers may actually have slipped backwards over the last five years.

I think the "try rugby" programs are definitely one of the ways to increase further participation but surely we should be measuring participation in "regular competitions" separately to participation in "exposure to rugby" programs.

 

[Jets]

Quite a few of the participants are double counted. Unless the schools register their players with MRA then it will be difficult to work out the number of players who are counted as school and club players.

I haven't added the 7's figure at the end as they acknowledge that school 7's players are in the schools figure. But the 39,000 sound like a lot and set some alarm bells ringing when I read it too.

I'm not trying to be negative towards the ARU I just want real figures to determine how rugby is travelling.

It worries me that there are only 1,307 women's players in the country. We are the current World Champions Sevens team and have such a small pool to pick from. If we a serious about winning Olympic gold we need to invest in the women's game. We should have a Women's Development team trying to grow the game.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

Jets, it is a worry that one of the finalists at the National Woman's 7's came from another code - Touch.

It may have been an inspired decision to add Touch to the rugby family for the national champs to show that it is not just a game for hairy oafs. Maybe Women's Rugby sevens needs to touch up Touch for growth.

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

Participation figures should always be taken with a grain of salt. They're mostly a concoction of numbers to fluff the ego's of administrators. I suspect these numbers will be used to justify the percentage of AOC funding the ARU will be chasing. From reading some time ago, the Olympic funding structure works at roughly X dollars per every participant. Makes sense for the overall inflated nature.

 

[Jets]

I think they have changed the Olympic funding to directly relate to results. Swimming have just had their funding cut while sailing has had a big boost based on London 2012.

 

[Scott Allen]

The ARU have announced today that they've received increased funding for sevens. Here is an extract from the press release.

"Australian Rugby Union has welcomed the Australian Sports Commission’s decision to increase Rugby’s funding in 2013/14.​

​

Under the first round of funding of the ASC’s Australia’s Winning Edge 2012-2022 high performance game plan, Rugby Sevens has received a 91% increase to its yearly funding to $1.04m. ​

​

As part of the Commonwealth Government’s $120m investment in Australian sporting organisations, ARU will also receive a one-off payment of $500,000 to assist in establishing a training facility at the AIS."​

​

"The additional one-off $500,000 investment by the ASC for the establishment of a National training facility will be used to assist Australia’s men’s and women’s Rugby Sevens sides utilise the full potential of the AIS facilities in Canberra.​

​

The 91% increase in High Performance funding will be invested in the continuing support of ARU’s Rugby Sevens Program."​

 

[Quick Hands]

All sports fudge participation numbers. In the case of AFL and NRL it's a case of trying to prove who's the best. In the case of rugby it seems to be a case of self-delusion.

The essential problem is that the figures record "participants" rather than the level of participation. By that I mean that a boy who plays 14 rounds for his local village team counts as 1 player and a boy who plays 1 match in a local schools gala day is also counted as one player. As many people have said, it's great that the ARU and State unions are running these gala days, but the figures are meaningless unless accompanied by figures showing how many actually took the next step of playing in a full time competition.

A point for ARU types who seem to be gloating over these figures;

In the past 30 years the population of Sydney has more than doubled, but the number of junior clubs have seriously declined. From what I have been able to find on the internet, there are 3 junior clubs in the whole of the Penrith JRU area and 5 in the Parramatta JRU area - so half of Sydney has 8 junior rugby clubs and how many junior league clubs???

As a point of comparison, Manly JRU have 5 clubs as do Warringah JRU. On the peninsula junior rugby and junior league are almost at parity. In Sydney's west it's David and Goliath stuff.

I can only speak from my own experience here, but here goes:

In the early 70s there were 8 village clubs in the Manly area alone. In the 10s-14s age groups Manly, Warrringah, Norths and Hornsby ran a combined competition of 2 or 3 divisions. Gordon had enough clubs to run their own competition. In 15s the Gordon clubs joined with the others to run a Northern Zone competition. I assume that the same process occurred in many parts of Sydney. Now from 10s onwards, the competition is Sydney wide as many areas don't have enough clubs to run their own viable competition.

I can list at least the following clubs which no longer exist:
Manly Vikings, North Balgowlah, Balgowlah, Cambridge Bay, Artarmon, Willoughby, Asquith and there are probably others. We also had regular pre-season fixtures against Merrylands and Northmead, who apparently no longer exist either.

The local CHS Zone ran a Wednesday afternoon competition which included the following schools:
North Sydney, Crows Nest, Balgowlah, Manly, Forest, Davidson, Killarney Heights and Mosman. Originally it was 2 open teams and 2 teams per age group, but later settled at 13s, 15s and opens. This competition no longer exists and not one of the above schools is entered in this year's Waratah Shield.

I don't really have a problem with the ARU showing the 'irregular schools' participants in their figures, but they are seriously deluding themselves if they equate these participants with those who participate in organised season long competitions.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

Is someone not telling the occupants of Moore Park and St Leonards HQ's the reality of the participation numbers for fear of being shot as the bearer of the bad news?

The current rugby Spectator base for Merch, game tickets, foxtel subscriptions and more importantly converted kids is based on the participant numbers that Quick Hands has outlined above.

Given that there is now effectively no CHS or CCC competition, and Juniors numbers are down in many areas from the 70's/80's, the potential supporter base for rugby in 2030 is not looking all that crash hot.

Forget about some momentary increase in popularity when we win Bill for a record 3rd time, Olympic Gold in 7's or a once in 12 year phenomena occurs like a B&I Lions tour, or a Bledisloe Cup Series victory, there are some long term strategic issues that the Rugby Mandarins need to be addressing right now, if not 20 years ago.

A piss-ant handout from Government Olympic funding, or space at the AIS isn't going to achieve much to address the fundamental decline in rugby participation.

Heads need to be pulled out of backsides, and some genuine graft done at the grass roots levels. If it means that the ARU board need to man a barbeque in the car park at the B&I Lions games, or outside Bunnings and run chook raffles in the local RSL clubs to fund the game, then f^&*king well do it and do it now.

That is precisely what many of us long suffering tragics do for the love of our game, and for our kids enjoyment, and for rugby's future. How can these nincompoops call themselves rugby tragics if they are not prepared to do (or are not currently doing) exactly that.

We got our love and affection for the game and its culture because we were part of that great pyramid base that Quick Hands has discussed above.

HTF do they think the game is going to survive in the future without regular recruits into the Battalions of adult volunteers from within the ranks of the Armies of previous players. Under someone's watch at ARU, the Armies have dwindled away to some isolated Battalions, and on that ANZAC theme it is probably time to end the rant.

 

[RedsHappy]

Surely one of the most staggering facts buried in the 2012 ARU AR (page 25 of the financial Notes) is as follows:

---> JO'N presides over 2 recent years of large ARU losses, a failed RWC campaign, gradual ARU revenue shrinkage, a Wallabies' gate attendances level falling and a very mediocre w-l%, spends large chunks of 2012 with another project altogether (Echo Ent), resigns (allegedly) voluntarily in October 2012 (so only part-year salary due and no severance etc), and lo and behold these are his total 2011 and 2012 total cash remuneration levels:

2011: $942,500 2012: $2,186,000 .......and of this latter total figure fully $895,000 is listed as 'Incentives'. JON's 2012 base salary of $1,291,844 was a more than $500,000 increase over his 2011 base salary.

This says it all to me: The ARU board does not oversight Australian rugby competently, adequately, efficiently, fairly, or with due care for all its constituent stakeholders and the wider rugby community. Over $2m paid to JON on the above basis for 2012 with a huge Incentives payment is, objectively, scandalous, there is no other word.

And, just btw, how could JON (who was also paid large $ sums by Echo in 2012) in good conscience take that level of 2012 cash from the ARU given its very large level of $ losses in 2012? Says much that he did.

(Finally, ponder this: The base annual salary of the new BHP CEO running near Australia's largest company with large $Bns in profits and cash flow is $1,700,000. The ARU is a c. a $100m revenue company making material losses. If we extrapolate JON's CEO 2012 salary for 10 months as above to 12 months it's very close to that of BHP's current CEO.)

 

[Gnostic]

Surely one of the most staggering facts buried in the 2012 ARU AR (page 25 of the financial Notes) is as follows:

---> JO'N presides over 2 recent years of large ARU losses, a failed RWC campaign, gradual ARU revenue shrinkage, a Wallabies' gate attendances level falling and a very mediocre w-l%, spends large chunks of 2012 with another project altogether (Echo Ent), resigns (allegedly) voluntarily in October 2012 (so only part-year salary due and no severance etc), and lo and behold these are his total 2011 and 2012 total cash remuneration levels:

2011: $942,500 2012: $2,186,000 ...and of this latter total figure fully $895,000 is listed as 'Incentives'. JON's 2012 base salary of $1,291,844 was a more than $500,000 increase over his 2011 base salary.

This says it all to me: The ARU board does not oversight Australian rugby competently, adequately, efficiently, fairly, or with due care for all its constituent stakeholders and the wider rugby community. Over $2m paid to JON on the above basis for 2012 with a huge Incentives payment is, objectively, scandalous, there is no other word.

And, just btw, how could JON (who was also paid large $ sums by Echo in 2012) in good conscience take that level of 2012 cash from the ARU given its very large level of $ losses in 2012? Says much that he did.

(Finally, ponder this: The base annual salary of the new BHP CEO running near Australia's largest company with large $Bns in profits and cash flow is $1,700,000. The ARU is a c. a $100m revenue company making material losses. If we extrapolate JON's CEO 2012 salary for 10 months as above to 12 months it's very close to that of BHP's current CEO.)

JON obviously hasn't forgotten the lessons he learnt running a bank. With this performance he could have starred for RBS et al during the GFC. Truly shocking to see such figures when the company is running such losses and a contracting customer base, with many remaining rusted on Fans (customers) questioning the running of the game and asking very critical questions regarding transparency and ethical conduct of the board and CEO.

 

[Crashy]

When reading participation numbers - I only look at registered junior, seniors and schools 1. ( sorry ladies). I have heard anecdotally that some well funded girls private schools such as PLC on the North shore of Sydney now offer rugby sevens as a sport. As we have seen, there has been a massive push into women's sevens ( women's 15s funding has dried up) and hopefully this should increase the supporter base.
One small ray of light is that Allambie rugby club on Sydney's northern beaches has reformed after many years with 100 players this year.
Has sydney junior club rugby really shrunken so much and how was it so big when the game was amateur, they had no money and the mungos were picking the eyes out of our senior ranks?

 

[I like to watch]

---> JO'N presides over 2 recent years of large ARU losses, a failed RWC campaign, gradual ARU revenue shrinkage, a Wallabies' gate attendances level falling and a very mediocre w-l%, spends large chunks of 2012 with another project altogether (Echo Ent), resigns (allegedly) voluntarily in October 2012 (so only part-year salary due and no severance etc), and lo and behold these are his total 2011 and 2012 total cash remuneration levels:

2011: $942,500 2012: $2,186,000 ...and of this latter total figure fully $895,000 is listed as 'Incentives'. JON's 2012 base salary of $1,291,844 was a more than $500,000 increase over his 2011 base salary.

This says it all to me: The ARU board does not oversight Australian rugby competently, adequately, efficiently, fairly, or with due care for all its constituent stakeholders and the wider rugby community. Over $2m paid to JON on the above basis for 2012 with a huge Incentives payment is, objectively, scandalous, there is no other word.

And, just btw, how could JON (who was also paid large $ sums by Echo in 2012) in good conscience take that level of 2012 cash from the ARU given its very large level of $ losses in 2012? Says much that he did.

(Finally, ponder this: The base annual salary of the new BHP CEO running near Australia's largest company with large $Bns in profits and cash flow is $1,700,000. The ARU is a c. a $100m revenue company making material losses. If we extrapolate JON's CEO 2012 salary for 10 months as above to 12 months it's very close to that of BHP's current CEO.)

It reflects very poorly on the board that they agreed to KPI's/milestones that would allow JON to earn this amount.
given he was in the job for years prior,how can he justify a LOSS as being such a good result,he should be paid extra or a bonus above and beyond his salary.
In any business if the ROA is below Bank interest, senior management would be very disappointed if they were dealing with me.

 

[RedsHappy]

In all of these massive 2012 payments to JO'N (for manifestly poor performance), I am recoiling when I think back to my suspicions when, very oddly, in April 2011 the ARU board awarded JO'N and R Deans pre RWC simultaneous 2 year contract extensions. Why did they need to be simultaneous, this was never made clear. The record now shows that within 6 months of his 2011 extension, JO'N was actively considering other senior sports-related roles (in that case, CEO of Manchester City). The whole CEO extension deal was thus revealed as essentially a 1-way street in terms of loyalty and obligation, which is appalling enough in terms of good governance and executive ethics.

With JO'N's 2012 new base salary being an over 60+% increase on 2011's and with him now receiving huge additional 2012 'incentive' payments for no normal commercially justifiable factual reasons, I shudder to think what RD's 2011 'extension' contract must contain.

Which may well clarify The Pulveriser's inexplicable public insistence in confirming the ARU's intention to run Deans' contract right until the end of 2013 irrespective of Wallaby results achieved in 2013. The cost of actually early terminating our longest standing Wallaby coach may be astronomic, which if so would be totally wrong at the outset, but the ARU's exceptional generosity (at the great expense of the code in totality) to its last CEO may contain the clues as to its competence and commercial capability in handling all of its highly paid personnel.

 

[Crashy]

How can JON love the game of rugby knowing he is ripping $2 fucking million dollars out of the game when some parents, clubs and schools dont have a cent to their name? I'm glad Pulver has millions in the bank coz if he cares he wont be stripping the equivalent of 15 development officers from the game...