Australian Rugby / RA

[Viking]

From about 1999-2004 rugby was becoming bigger than league, and definitely getting better attendance… then it all went to shit… I blame Johnny Wilkinson lol … but seriously we dropped the ball massively

I feel as soon as Gregan-Larkham retired the rugby IQ from Australian players dropped significantly. We stopped being skillful smart rugby players and just started being athletes with no thinking abilities.

 

[Sir Arthur Higgins]

I don’t think a domestic comp is the answer. Quality will be poor and interest in rugby isn’t that high.
I think SRP (Super Rugby Pacific) is fine but needs some adjustments.
Pasifika is struggling for relevance but maybe can improve. Is Auckland the best location? I’d say maybe not (western Sydney?)
Melbourne is admittedly giving pathways to lots of Victorian players so hard to cut them. Are the force doing the same? Genuinely don’t know but don’t see many force players in wallabies anyways.
Players need more games. Make the season longer. Create rivalries.

 

[HooperPocockSmith]

I just watched a clip of Rob Kearney and Matt Williams from the Irish coverage of the game this morning. Kearney remarked on how poor coaching is in Australia. I'd love to know what we can do to rectify this. Clearly, he is commenting on coaching at the professional level. Was it just a bad bunch at the Force, or is it far more entrenched than we think? I'm always amazed at how seemingly mediocre players here in Aus go to Europe and flourish. Likewise, someone like Kearney, with a very decorated career, can spend time here and see inadequacies. Why aren't we taking this criticism on board?

 

[Viking]

I don’t think a domestic comp is the answer. Quality will be poor and interest in rugby isn’t that high.
I think SRP (Super Rugby Pacific) (Super Rugby Pacific) is fine but needs some adjustments.
Pasifika is struggling for relevance but maybe can improve. Is Auckland the best location? I’d say maybe not (western Sydney?)
Melbourne is admittedly giving pathways to lots of Victorian players so hard to cut them. Are the force doing the same? Genuinely don’t know but don’t see many force players in wallabies anyways.
Players need more games. Make the season longer. Create rivalries.

The Super Rugby AU final between the Brumbies and Reds was pretty epic. Having two Aussie teams in a final brought a lot of interest, even if it was in a dialed down comp.

Sometimes poorer quality is actually better to watch. There's more running rugby and tries scored at club level then Test level. So it might be a blessing in disguise.

Did anyone not enjoy watching the Matilda's play? Compared to the Men's skill level the women's game is a huge step down. But it was competitive and enjoyable to watch.

I really don't see any other option. If the game was growing then a domestic comp would be inevitable.

The NRL has 14 teams and we can't even get enough talent to fill 5 - that's complete BS in my view. The talent is absolutely there, it's just not playing in the sport we want.

 

[cyclopath]

I posted this 2 years ago:



I don't know where the basis for the 'we'll still be shit' argument comes from.

Australia definitely needs a national comp - no doubt. But I don't know who else at the top of world rugby plays solely in a domestic competition.

In. A. Nutshell.
I don't advocate shrinking our existing Super Rugby teams as a solution, and banging away with the current Super Rugby model in the same form. But while a proper national pro comp (at a lower level to what Super Rugby is now) might be good to boost interest in rugby in Oz, it won't deliver the volume of quality players we need to see the Wallabies at the pointy end.
Why?
Good players will be able to get more money overseas. They'll go, as plenty have now.
Coaches - we don't seem to be producing (and moreover, keeping) enough high level coaches.
Our opposition - if we really believe we can or should be a top 5 team in the world, we cannot start several levels below what they do and expect to keep up with them.
If we go with a national pro comp, which is fine, I think we still need some sort of cross-over comps / series or whatever with NZ teams to keep the bar high.
But I don't have any answers.
The sport I love is fucked (here) and I'm kind of over it.

 

[Bullrush]

The Super Rugby AU final between the Brumbies and Reds was pretty epic. Having two Aussie teams in a final brought a lot of interest, even if it was in a dialed down comp.

Sometimes poorer quality is actually better to watch. There's more running rugby and tries scored at club level then Test level. So it might be a blessing in disguise.

Did anyone not enjoy watching the Matilda's play? Compared to the Men's skill level the women's game is a huge step down. But it was competitive and enjoyable to watch.

I really don't see any other option. If the game was growing then a domestic comp would be inevitable.

The NRL has 14 teams and we can't even get enough talent to fill 5 - that's complete BS in my view. The talent is absolutely there, it's just not playing in the sport we want.

I was thinking about the Matilda's in an earlier post. A lot of people wouldn't have cared before the Women's World Cup but winning brings interest. The hope of winning brings interest.

The reason fans don't tune in to Super Rugby is that they already know what the result will be whenever their team plays. Somehow, Australia needs to be competitive again.

As much as it would hurt, the Wallabies need to win the Bledisloe. I know a lot has to happen before that but Australia Rugby needs wins.

 

[cyclopath]

I was thinking about the Matilda's in an earlier post. A lot of people wouldn't have cared before the Women's World Cup but winning brings interest. The hope of winning brings interest.

The reason fans don't tune in to Super Rugby is that they already know what the result will be whenever their team plays. Somehow, Australia needs to be competitive again.

As much as it would hurt, the Wallabies need to win the Bledisloe. I know a lot has to happen before that but Australia Rugby needs wins.

Unless NZ are forced to not play at Eden Park, and we go to a 3 match series each year, I really cannot see that EVER happening again.

 

[drewprint]

The sport I love is fucked (here) and I'm kind of over it.

This is genuinely super sad and how I’m feeling too. Years of trying to keep mates and people involved - ‘hang in there folks, we’re coming good!’ - but more and more I can’t see it happening. Look at the huge disagreement with ways forward. This sounds pretty fatalistic but I’m struggling to see where we can go to from here, it’s feeling a bit like a death spiral.

 

[Pfitzy]

The sport I love is fucked (here) and I'm kind of over it.

I've landed in a spot where I've realised that no help for my club is coming from the higher ups. Either directly via funding or indirectly via success.

Honestly, when you tell people you run a rugby club their emotional response lands anywhere from derision to pity. It's a lot of effort to put in when you can't see any lights on the horizon.

Probably too late to pull up stumps for 2024 as planning is in place. But 2025 is looking ominous...

 

[cyclopath]

This is genuinely super sad and how I’m feeling too. Years of trying to keep mates and people involved - ‘hang in there folks, we’re coming good!’ - but more and more I can’t see it happening. Look at the huge disagreement with ways forward. This sounds pretty fatalistic but I’m struggling to see where we can go to from here, it’s feeling a bit like a death spiral.

I have a large group of mates who were all pretty much contemporaries from school days and thereabouts, many of whom played rugby at very high level then, and many for years in Club Rugby. We have a big WhatsApp group, and >90% of any sport discussion on it revolves around rugby league. They hardly watch or discuss rugby anymore. If the sport cannot keep people like that, it is heading for life support.
I do realise the irony that people like that demographic have maybe not been the best at developing the game properly in this country in recent years...

 

[Dismal Pillock]

The sport I love is fucked (here) and I'm kind of over it.

I propose the Rugby sections of the GAGR forum be shut down and just leave the "Everything Else" section open.

Like a formerly well-to-do family who live in an enormous stately home but have now fallen on hard times and can no longer afford the building upkeep, they find themselves huddling in the 1 room that they can still afford to keep heated.

 

[dru]

The sport I love is fucked (here) and I'm kind of over it.

My interest at continuing following if Super is product is dead. Dead, cremated and buried if there is a return to shrink to greatness.

My interest returns to quizical if an actual domestic comp is offered.

 

[Braveheart81]

I propose the Rugby sections of the GAGR forum be shut down and just leave the "Everything Else" section open.

Like a formerly well-to-do family who live in an enormous stately home but have now fallen on hard times and can no longer afford the building upkeep and find themselves huddling in the 1 room that they can still afford to keep heated.

We're going to re-open the Politics forum and let people speculate wildly about sporting scholarships in the schoolboys rugby forum.

 

[cyclopath]

I propose the Rugby sections of the GAGR forum be shut down and just leave the "Everything Else" section open.

Like a formerly well-to-do family who live in an enormous stately home but have now fallen on hard times and can no longer afford the building upkeep and find themselves huddling in the 1 room that they can still afford to keep heated.

What the forum really needs is a Gunston injection, and another Richie McCaw photo-essay.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

^ so bread & circuses but without the carbs or gluten...

 

[HooperPocockSmith]

I think this would be an easier grieving process if rugby were on a demise across the globe. Instead, I have to watch fans from other countries sharing so much fun and enjoyment.

 

[Goosestep]

In. A. Nutshell.
I don't advocate shrinking our existing Super Rugby teams as a solution, and banging away with the current Super Rugby model in the same form. But while a proper national pro comp (at a lower level to what Super Rugby is now) might be good to boost interest in rugby in Oz, it won't deliver the volume of quality players we need to see the Wallabies at the pointy end.
Why?
Good players will be able to get more money overseas. They'll go, as plenty have now.
Coaches - we don't seem to be producing (and moreover, keeping) enough high level coaches.
Our opposition - if we really believe we can or should be a top 5 team in the world, we cannot start several levels below what they do and expect to keep up with them.
If we go with a national pro comp, which is fine, I think we still need some sort of cross-over comps / series or whatever with NZ teams to keep the bar high.
But I don't have any answers.
The sport I love is fucked (here) and I'm kind of over it.

I have a large group of mates who were all pretty much contemporaries from school days and thereabouts, many of whom played rugby at very high level then, and many for years in Club Rugby. We have a big WhatsApp group, and >90% of any sport discussion on it revolves around rugby league. They hardly watch or discuss rugby anymore. If the sport cannot keep people like that, it is heading for life support.
I do realise the irony that people like that demographic have maybe not been the best at developing the game properly in this country in recent years...

Maybe we just capitulate with the NRL and let the kangeroos cosplay as the wallabies every four years . .. They can’t do any worse

 

[KOB1987]

The sport I love is fucked (here) and I'm kind of over it.

I'm feeling the same right now, and have a similar group as yours of old school friends (a punters club) in a Whats App group. They all bet on horses and NRL games when it's their round, I bet on horses and a rugby game and get laughed off the park. There are a few heavy hitters in the group who have been declaring the code dead for several years.

However, I can't give up. As I mentioned in the match thread the one positive is that I can now watch good teams play good rugby without the anxiety for the rest of the world cup. I'll take a break from here and the sport in for the summer but keep an eye on the goings on at RA. It can be fixed, I don't know the answer, but it needs a lot of money, the right people and has to happen now. I'll give it the 4 years till we host the RWC in 2027, but if it can't be fixed in that time I'd say I'm out.

 

[John S]

^ so bread & circuses but without the carbs or gluten...

This kind of circus? Looks like anything goes in the race to win

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

In. A. Nutshell.
I don't advocate shrinking our existing Super Rugby teams as a solution, and banging away with the current Super Rugby model in the same form. But while a proper national pro comp (at a lower level to what Super Rugby is now) might be good to boost interest in rugby in Oz, it won't deliver the volume of quality players we need to see the Wallabies at the pointy end.
Why?
Good players will be able to get more money overseas. They'll go, as plenty have now.
Coaches - we don't seem to be producing (and moreover, keeping) enough high level coaches.
Our opposition - if we really believe we can or should be a top 5 team in the world, we cannot start several levels below what they do and expect to keep up with them.
If we go with a national pro comp, which is fine, I think we still need some sort of cross-over comps / series or whatever with NZ teams to keep the bar high.
But I don't have any answers.
The sport I love is fucked (here) and I'm kind of over it.

Feeling very much the same at the moment.