Australian Rugby / RA

[Dctarget]

Apparently Schmidt will decide in the next few weeks whether to carry on coaching for Australia through till '27. Surely we can secure him. NZ is really as far away from most Aussie cities are to each other. Offer him as much time at home with his family as possible, it'll be sweet.

 

[Mr Pilfer]

Apparently Schmidt will decide in the next few weeks whether to carry on coaching for Australia through till '27. Surely we can secure him. NZ is really as far away from most Aussie cities are to each other. Offer him as much time at home with his family as possible, it'll be sweet.

Yep we need to throw the kitchen sink at him based on current form. It would be a huge kick in the guts to only have him until the Lions with the progress he has shown

 

[Wilson]

I hope they're exploring options around transition periods or ways to keep Schmidt involved even if he decides he can't stay on as head coach. Ideally he'll carry through to the world cup, but realistically it's somewhat outside of RA's control if he does. Les Kiss, Larkham and Mckellar are the names being thrown around as potential successors (alongside Cheika) and they would all be first time international coaches who'd benefit from some sort of transition period supported by Schmidt as an assistant/advisor/DoR.

If it is a return to Cheika it's probably not as important, but I'm really not convinced we have the robust structures in place around the game for that to work.

 

[Tomthumb]

I hope they keep him but the quotes sound as if he’s out after the Lions tour

 

[JRugby2]

I hope they're exploring options around transition periods or ways to keep Schmidt involved even if he decides he can't stay on as head coach. Ideally he'll carry through to the world cup, but realistically it's somewhat outside of RA's control if he does. Les Kiss, Larkham and Mckellar are the names being thrown around as potential successors (alongside Cheika) and they would all be first time international coaches who'd benefit from some sort of transition period supported by Schmidt as an assistant/advisor/DoR.

If it is a return to Cheika it's probably not as important, but I'm really not convinced we have the robust structures in place around the game for that to work.

Completely agree - can't remember who pointed it out or where (might have been Eddie Jones god forbid...) but we haven't had a smooth transition of power between head coaches since Eddie and Rod McQueen in 2002. Probably not the golden goose we needed all this time but surely having this would have helped.

 

[Rob42]

I hope they keep him but the quotes sound as if he’s out after the Lions tour

It does sound like that, but he was also definitely retiring after Ireland, and after the last World Cup. So I'm saying there's a chance.

 

[drewprint]

I know it’s not about money but Joe send me your bank details and I will deadset chip in a few hundred of my own hard earned dollars to keep you around.

 

[fatprop]

We win two games and all of a sudden the whole player group is traumatised because contracts haven't been sorted out for 2026, ffs, lets see how much value they still have after the next two games

 

[Sir Arthur Higgins]

When do we think they have offers in for media rights? i'd like to think more than $30M a year is pretty easy considering how far below that is other codes...but....

 

[JRugby2]

When do we think they have offers in for media rights? i'd like to think more than $30M a year is pretty easy considering how far below that is other codes...but....

Months away per the roar on monday (last paragraph)

https://www.theroar.com.au/2024/11/20/the-wallabies-are-flying-but-an-ra-contracting-freeze-risks-undoing-resurgence-and-it-could-cost-millions/

 

[stoff]

When do we think they have offers in for media rights? i'd like to think more than $30M a year is pretty easy considering how far below that is other codes...but....

I don't think easy. Commentary I have heard (Craig Hutchinson who knows a bit about sports media rights) is that the AFL had the perfect conditions for their deal. Strong competition, etc. The market now has less competition, and with Fox apparently up for sale, this has further depressed the market.

What the big deals have is content. 24+ weeks, lots of teams, national footprints (at least for AFL and cricket), uncertainty of outcome, huge local followings. There is big competition for these which means there is less for other sports. RA are essentially selling around seven tests that are in prime time, another five or so that are in the middle of the night, and super rugby which gets terrible ratings. They don't have the world cup rights to bundle so that actually reduces the amount of product they have over four years. We've also been pretty dire for a long time which has seen people switch off.

The main hope is getting another platform interested enough to push the price up, but the outcome could be worse in terms of visibility than what we have now. There is also the restriction that most of the prime-time games need to be on free to air, which means even a streaming partner would need to do a deal with one of the tv networks.

 

[stillmissit]

Guys my ability to remember who plays tight or loose forced me to ask a question on RP and the writer kindly sent me a list,
Here it is if any of you struggle as I do:

Loosehead props: Bell, Slipper, Kailea, Hoopert, Hodgman, Schoupp, Lambert, Gibbon, Fa'agase, Pearce, Kaihea

Tighthead props: Tupou, Ala'alatoa, Nonggorr, Tauakipulu, Van Nek, de Lutiis,

 

[Adam84]

Also, by those players in consideration for Wallabies/Super Rugby matchday

THP: Harry Johnson-Holmes, Sifa Amone,
LHP: Tom Robertson(can also play THP), Matt Gibbon, George Blake, Tom Lambert, Harry Vella,

As you can see.... we're pretty dam light-on for quality THP's across the country

Edit: Emerging THPS coming through: Tevita Alatini, Brad Amituana, Daniel Botha, Trevor King

 

[Dctarget]

I think we'll see Van Nek and de Lutiis in the squad next year.

 

[dru]

^^^
Literally a 2:1 ratio of LHP to THP. Thanks Adam and SMI, really explains things in the front row.

 

[Tomthumb]

^^^
Literally a 2:1 ratio of LHP to THP. Thanks Adam and SMI, really explains things in the front row.

Not surprising, Tight head is overall a harder position to master

 

[Adam84]

You can see why de Lutis was taken for Australia A despite not having played Super Rugby, we're 2 injuries away from disaster in the scrum

 

[Tomthumb]

They should really look at developing Blake Schoupp as a tight head. He has the perfect build for it and doesn't have the prior bad coaching so will be able to learn from a clean slate

 

[Wilson]

You can see why de Lutis was taken for Australia A despite not having played Super Rugby, we're 2 injuries away from disaster in the scrum

Yeah, it's a bit dire with the current injury list, though I imagine there might be a few emergency options explored first - calling up foreign based players (like Pone Fa'amausili, Sam Talakai and maybe Ollie Hoskins), Slipper/Robertson jumping across (Nasser could too in a pinch, though that's decidedly less likely than De Lutiis at this point), or even trying to cap Moses Alo-Emile.

Would depend a bit on the timing and nature of those injuries to determine if De Lutiis was a better option than any of those.

 

[stillmissit]

Also, by those players in consideration for Wallabies/Super Rugby matchday

THP: Harry Johnson-Holmes, Sifa Amone,
LHP: Tom Robertson(can also play THP), Matt Gibbon, George Blake, Tom Lambert, Harry Vella,

As you can see.... we're pretty dam light-on for quality THP's across the country

Edit: Emerging THPS coming through: Tevita Alatini, Brad Amituana, Daniel Botha, Trevor King

I think HJH (Harry Johnson-Holmes) can do both sides Adam. Not keen on seeing him in the Wallabies but a good enough Super Rugby player and if things get that dire - well you do what you have to do.