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Australian Rugby / RA

Dismal Pillock

Michael Lynagh (62)
The new management of the site has decided that they would like to limit the forums to rugby only topics
wrongthread_zpskubjw7ow_(1).GIF
 

Dismal Pillock

Michael Lynagh (62)
Vale the All ______ XVs :(
I think they're still in Rugby Discussion

 

Tomikin

David Codey (61)
What you say is 100% correct Joe. There is no question that if our Super rugby teams were up there and competing for the title, and the Wallabies were in the top two or three in the world, there would be way more interest, more sponsorship, better media deals, more kids playing junior rugby etc and we would be well and truly back on track.
The problem is, how do you do that? And by the tone of, arguably, a majority of posters on here, they have declared that too hard and therefore want to abandon the idea.
My concern is that if we do go purely domestic, we may build a bit more tribal loyalty, but by consistently playing at a lower level the Wallabies will become less competitive, not more, and followers of the game will be reduced to a handful of rusted on die-hards, like me and most other posters on here.
Why not both a domestic comp where we have an Australian winner and final and a cross over championship and shield where we play new Zealand Japan clubs.

Like no one has ever said domestic only... only suggested a different format to what we currently have and 4 champions Australian Champ , NZ champ .. champ champ and shield champ.

We have actual results from running this way and it sure as fuck was better then we have now. How many people gave a fuck about the final in Australia..

What's so hard to understand here ?
 
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stillmissit

Peter Johnson (47)
The Tahs are the definition of basket case right now. You’d avoid them like the plague
OR - if you are a young guy with some talent you might think 'I can make it in the Tahs' whereas it would be harder in Brumbies/Reds.
It should only take a year or two to turn things around but you need the right people in place at the top. They and rugby in Australia have a huge issue with injuries and I am not hearing it is in the top 5 things RA are focussed on.
 

Rebel man

John Thornett (49)
OR - if you are a young guy with some talent you might think 'I can make it in the Tahs' whereas it would be harder in Brumbies/Reds.
It should only take a year or two to turn things around but you need the right people in place at the top. They and rugby in Australia have a huge issue with injuries and I am not hearing it is in the top 5 things RA are focussed on.
That’s not how it works and we both know that.
 

JRugby2

Bob Loudon (25)
Why not both a domestic comp where we have an Australian winner and final and a cross over championship and shield where we play new Zealand Japan clubs.
Right now, from my perspective we lack 2 key things:

Money, and opportunity for players.

We've just reduced the opportunity for players to play professional rugby in Australia by 20%. So the suggestion of an All Australian competition like you are suggesting here may fix that problem. For this to be a serious competition - we need at least 10 teams so we can have 5 games a week. This is incredibly important from both a fan engagement POV and broadcast revenue POV. Yes - in COVID we had the 5 super teams playing week in week out for 10 weeks; this is not sustainable financially and it won't sustain the interest of the public when the Reds play the Force once a month for the 5th year in a row... So if we had a 10 team comp, I could see it working, but the biggest issue here is; Money. How would we fund a 10 team comp when the only a single team in Australia turns a profit, and the code itself is running on fumes and can't meet it's own funding agreements for the existing 5 teams?

We have no cash. And its plain and simple to see. We've just lost a team - and instead of each team getting 20% better, we're likely going to see only minor improvements at best. No team in Aus has either the money and/or salary cap space to incorporate the Rebels players stuck in purgatory, and RA doesn't have the savings to help fund the retention of these players either. So as we are currently seeing they're just deciding to leave to sure up their futures (or players in the existing teams are leaving - Will Harrison, Shed Hanigan perfect examples here). More competition for spots is all well and good when if the competition is worth it or if there are no other options - but players don't have to compete for jerseys in Australia when there are better paying and playing opportunities O/S. If the financial opportunity was strong enough in Australia we may retain these guys taking the risk of competing for spots - but riding the pine in Australia is not as lucrative as div2 in France or Japan.

I don't know how we solve these issues but ultimately it's kind of irrelevant what competition structure we choose if we can't. Bring on the lions and RWC.
 
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stillmissit

Peter Johnson (47)
That’s not how it works and we both know that.
I assume you are talking about how a young guy determines if something is an opportunity or not?
Any young guy who thinks I will go to the Brumbies as they are the most successful club and I will oust the 3 guys in front of me because I'm that good. He may be that guy, but it is odds-on that he won't be when he joins and other confident players aren't going to just disappear when competition for their position turns up.
The money is the other factor and given an opportunity to make a lot of money before he has played for the Wallabies is what Harrison has done from the Tahs and good on him. I am talking about opportunities to make a good living and maybe play for your country. In that case, the money down the track is greater than what Harrison will make.
 

hoggy

Nev Cottrell (35)
Why not both a domestic comp where we have an Australian winner and final and a cross over championship and shield where we play new Zealand Japan clubs.

Like no one has ever said domestic only... only suggested a different format to what we currently have and 4 champions Australian Champ , NZ champ .. champ champ and shield champ.

We have actual results from running this way and it sure as fuck was better then we have now. How many people gave a fuck about the final in Australia..

What's so hard to understand here ?
My biggest gripe as well, because the minute the word domestic is added into the conversation you are immediately accused of turning the game here into some sort of North Korean Utopia.
 

half

Dick Tooth (41)
Super Rugby in its current form is not working if part of its objectives is to develop and spread the word to the broader community.

RA, have a windfall year next year and ratings and subscriptions should increase for national teams.

Given the media deal ends next year it will be a good time to lift ratings and subs.

The questions should be how to use next year as a springboard to create something better than Super Rugby.

The planning should be taking place now with lots of ideas being discussed. It seems our overlords are a tad scared to open the debate
 

whitefalcon

Ron Walden (29)
There were some interesting points raised on this week's between two posts on Stan.

Some out of the box, but some good, simple changes ie limiting the number of foreign players in the super squads including injury cover call ups.
 

Adam84

Rod McCall (65)
debt > lions windfall

the lions tour will only bring RA back to status quo of been debt free, it wont give them a warchest to invest into the game.
 

dru

David Wilson (68)
We have no cash.

From my POV this is largely costs associated with Super, both current more so historically, and what I am going to term mis-management. We are told that income is largely due to the Wallabies, so nothing changes there. Nor with the 12 year Lions and a home RWC.

Super should fund itself which does mean seeking better income, better broadcast revenue, better marketing. It also would be assisted by more content. Presuming a domestic arrangement with 10 teams: Twice the teams twice the content, increase in income if not double. Huge impact to avoid losing Victoria arguably the heart of Australian sporting nation.

Super costs are interesting. In Qld having the QRU double the teams I doubt would double the cost. Especially with centralised academy and development. I suspect, after what we saw with the NRC implementation, teams increase would need to happen through QRU.

NSW has different issues that impact any domestic planning. There I'd imagine the Waratahs dissolving across SRU clubs able to show an interest and ability. Again with a centralised academy and development system. It could easily start with three teams.

Presuming we get Melbourne back that gives 8 teams. 10 would be better but things can certainly start at 8. Set up would be interesting as actions would be needed to balance the talent and that is going to be problematic, particularly at the Brumbies. it isn't beyond the wit of man though.

Follow the domestic season with a TT champions league style arrangement. My personal thoughts here is to pull the domestic teams into some form of representative teams with SOO in mind. If the kiwis think we need 2, fine, if they think it should be 4 fine. I would have the core of the Wallabies coaching team take control of those teams with an essence of implementing largely whatever strategy, game plan, specific players that the Wallaby HC wants to see in place. So it becomes a selection for the Wallaby squad as well a TT. I suspect this would bring more interest than clubs crossing the Tasman does at the moment.

If that is too much then fine, just make it the the top ranked teams from the domestic comp.

Ideally I'd focus the players not in the Wallaby squad back into the clubs after this and look to some form of inter club comp being woven in.

Overall the quality of the domestic comp will go backwards. At leat initially. Over time though you would look to build it. In the mean time the TT picks up the quality prior to the internationals.

For the life of me, this could have been established, or something similar over the last 10 years without our financials being substantially different and I'd argue with the Wallabies having dropped no lower.


[As an aside, I am posting this remotely via Elon Musk's Skynet (or whatever it is called). Gee the world is changing fast.]
 
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LeCheese

Greg Davis (50)
There were some interesting points raised on this week's between two posts on Stan.

Some out of the box, but some good, simple changes ie limiting the number of foreign players in the super squads including injury cover call ups.
Isn't it already limited to 3?
 

stillmissit

Peter Johnson (47)
It seems our overlords are a tad scared to open the debate
With very good reason. Change brings risk and although a keyboard warrior is 100% committed to the change, it ain't them on the sharp end of this stick. Navigating an organisation with shrinking funds into a bright future ain't for the faint hearted nor is it something that is obvious to everyone ie a domestic competition, if it was and viable with all parties it would have been done.
The last attempt at a domestic competition was an unmitigated failure (apart from covid when anything brought a crowd.
Contrary to every keyboard warrior on all sites stating a domestic comp was exactly what they and Rugby needed, very few of them got off their arse and left their keyboards to pay to watch what they all agreed they wanted.
P.S. I still have my Western Sydney Rams cap....
 
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LeCheese

Greg Davis (50)
Yeah it should, at least until we can not lose dozens of players overseas every season
There's something to be said for bringing in a couple of experienced internationals to contribute to squad development, impart wisdom, add diversity, do a bit of marketing, etc. It's worked pretty well for the Reds this season and in seasons past.
 
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