Australian Rugby / RA

[sendit]

Isn't that why they recruited Moeroa

Difficult to be a hard running centre when you're in the stands isnt it!

 

[Kenny Powers]

Guys like Beale, Quade, Folau all had big cut through with the wider sporting public. They played exciting footy, had name and face recognition and yeah the occasional off-field headline.

Pity none of them were great tacklers.

Winning will bring better cut thru with the sporting public.

Memo to Rugby Australia: The key element of a winning at a team sport is the team comes ahead of the individual.

 

[kiap]

Id be furious if my employer cut my salary and then brought someone in on huge money. I'd definitely be looking for a new gig. It's insulting.

If it's third party money id be on the phone to every single player letting them know that.

Absolutely.

Still if the deal is done I hope this school kid actually makes it and isn't wrecked on the way through the public circus.

At least with the other pay cuts and player departures we can assume that "salary cap" need never be mentioned again.

 

[Quick Hands]

Not really a gap year, he’s still at school next year!

That's the problem I have with the whole thing. A couple of weeks back people were criticising Souths RL for signing such a young kid to a big money deal - which I agree with. And yet now we have many of the same people cheering at the thought of rugby signing him for maybe even more money.

I'd love the kid to be playing rugby, but as a sport surely we're better than this where we have a kid in Year 11 having his name dragged through the papers every day in some sort of obscene bidding war.

I'd love him to be playing rugby and sincerely hope that the kid has honest and trustworthy people around him providing advice.

Maybe both sports should be letting him complete the HSC so that he is best equipped for life after football.

I find the whole thing incredibly sad, maybe I'm just naive and a little old-fashioned.

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

Absolutely.

Still if the deal is done I hope this school kid actually makes it and isn't wrecked on the way through the public circus.

At least with the other pay cuts and player departures we can assume that "salary cap" need never be mentioned again.

Although probably not the most rock solid of sources but Peter Fitzsimmons mentioned briefly in a discussion that the money isn't coming out of the RA coffers.

 

[Wilson]

For what it's worth Horan has the RA offer significantly lower than league, as low as 1/3rd of it:

My understanding is that the offer from RA would be at least one third of the rugby league offer which tells me money is not everything and maybe Joseph values the opportunity to play in a Wallaby gold jersey and travel the world and play in a real World Cup rather than playing at Wollongong or Campbelltown week in week out.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sp...p/news-story/fdf0603420c5db457ca845caa135f09a

 

[kiap]

Fitzsimmons mentioned briefly in a discussion that the money isn't coming out of the RA coffers.

Fitzsimons isn't my go to source and who's paying is not relevant to my comment. But how much is being paid might be......

 

[Wilson]

Georgina also has it as less than League on offer:

Sources indicated RA's offer, said to be well below the $3 million reported on Tuesday and also less than the $1.7 million over three years on the table from the Rabbitohs, includes the prospect of playing professional rugby this year with the Waratahs and a shot at the 2021 Olympics playing sevens.

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/rugby-...a'ali'i-against-the-odds-20200722-p55egy.html

Edit: And Andrew Webster as well:

According to certain people at Souths, he's agreed to a three-year deal worth $3 million to join rugby union.

According to Rugby Australia, that figure is the stuff of fantasy. Highly placed sources suggested the figure is closer to "80 per cent short of that".

In other words, $200,000 a year, which is significantly less than the $500,000 per season on the table for him to sign with South Sydney.

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/th...between-league-and-union-20200722-p55ejh.html

 

[Braveheart81]

who's paying is not relevant to my comment.

This is a real catch 22 for RA.

The availability of additional money to contract players is great from the perspective that it could be used to sign a player they otherwise wouldn't get or pay part of a contract of a top player leaving more money for others.

The downside is that it creates a greater disparity between what some of the top players are paid versus others and has the potential to fuel discontent.

It would be hard for the other players to reconcile that the additional money simply isn't there for them nor is the money ever on offer just to be split among everyone.

 

[barbarian]

Yeah I think this is another tough spot which doesn't have an easy answer for RA.

I liked the idea of the 'fighting fund' to secure talented schoolboys. We lose so much talent to league that it made a lot of sense to try and sign a few top tier youngsters and lock them into our game. And it seems to be working so far, given the influx of young talent in SuperAU, a few of whom were secured with cash from that fund.

Now this Sua'ali'i kid seems to be the white whale, the one who has been on everyone's radar for at least two years. People who are good judges of talent rate him (I've only seen him in one Aus schoolboy game where he looked OK, but he was only in year 10 at the time).

So if you've got a fund for gun youngsters, and this bloke is a gun, then we'd be doing a disservice to the game not to at least table an offer.

But the media circus leaves me a bit uncomfortable, noting that it seems the leaks are coming from Souths rather than RA or the Sua'ali'i camp (he doesn't have an agent, which makes me like him a lot more). In an ideal world you'd leave him to finish school, but sadly that world doesn't exist anymore and I'm not sure we can afford to have the moral high ground here.

So we make a reasonable offer, tie a few pretty bows on it (eg Olympics) and see how it goes. Which again it seems like they have done, provided today's figures are correct and not the $3m being thrown around on Tuesday.

But anything approaching $500k will cause problems for RA, and fair enough too. Not to mention put undue pressure on the kid.

 

[Up the Guts]

Either way, I just hope they wrap it up soon. Must be strange going to school with your name plastered across the papers.

 

[Derpus]

Man, i don't even excel at my job after years practicing. Imagine being told you are going to be the best at your job before you've even played a single professional match, at 16 to boot and having to justify absurd money.

 

[KOB1987]

Man, i don't even excel at my job after years practicing. Imagine being told you are going to be the best at your job before you've even played a single professional match, at 16 to boot and having to justify absurd money.

by all accounts more recently its not absurd money

 

[Number 7]

I liked the idea of the 'fighting fund' to secure talented schoolboys. We lose so much talent to league that it made a lot of sense to try and sign a few top tier youngsters and lock them into our game. And it seems to be working so far, given the influx of young talent in SuperAU, a few of whom were secured with cash from that fund.

I think the fighting fund has been one of the most under-reported successful initiatives of RA. My understanding is that there has been over 30 kids who have received some form of grant from the foundation including Will Harris, Reesjan Pasitoa, Zane Nongorr, Apenisa Driti and Angus Bell. It was only set up in 2018 but seeing some of the youngsters coming through now we may see the benefits of it in the next 2-3 years.

 

[Bobby Sands]

Although probably not the most rock solid of sources but Peter Fitzsimmons mentioned briefly in a discussion that the money isn't coming out of the RA coffers.

It's from the "fighting fund" same way we secured Pasitoa.

Rugby's private money is fighting back.

 

[Bobby Sands]

Either way, I just hope they wrap it up soon. Must be strange going to school with your name plastered across the papers.

Given he is at Kings, I think it is probably received pretty well.

I was told an anecdote last year that a bloke was anointed school captain in year 11, but couldn't pay the fee's for year 12 - so they didn't re-admit him. I don't approve of this in any way, but Kings is a unique beast.

 

[Up the Guts]

Given he is at Kings, I think it is probably received pretty well.

I was told an anecdote last year that a bloke was anointed school captain in year 11, but couldn't pay the fee's for year 12 - so they didn't re-admit him. I don't approve of this in any way, but Kings is a unique beast.

Yep, I’m sure he’s treated as royalty by the boys. From what I’ve heard on GPS sidelines he’s a pretty humble kid, I just reckon it’d be good if he could have some normality before he gets tossed into the limelight for good.

 

[KOB1987]

Yep, I’m sure he’s treated as royalty by the boys. From what I’ve heard on GPS sidelines he’s a pretty humble kid, I just reckon it’d be good if he could have some normality before he gets tossed into the limelight for good.

my kid is in year 8 there and is all praise about him. he says 'Joe is my mate'. I've spoken to him - humble, polite, etc.

 

[Dctarget]

Looks like someone from RA has been reading this thread; I’ve been really enjoying the unified team list releases at 10am every Thursday. So much more interesting

 

[KOB1987]

Looks like someone from RA has been reading this thread; I’ve been really enjoying the unified team list releases at 10am every Thursday. So much more interesting

Absolutely. I think it should be Wednesday arvo though, is my only relatively minor feedback.