Australian Rugby / RA

[Sir Arthur Higgins]

You’ve been preaching MLR for about a week now.

I watch a bit of it and it’s fairly shit. A good grade player can go over there and be a marquee player. I get the concept you are talking about in regards to it’s set up but they are almost playing with free money. It’s a stab in the dark at trying to make something go from non existent to slightly valuable in the worlds biggest sporting market. They are looking at taking private equity deals currently which I think was the goal from the start.

The teams have a 500k salary cap per side with the average wage being 40k. Marquees can earn more but it’s going to stop at 100k.

It has no real affiliation with US or Canadian Rugby which needs to be fixed for any real affect nationally even though Rugby is completely dead in Canada. Some teams are full of Aussies like Chicago and others like Houston full of South Africans

We would have massive issues if we had 2 teams kicked out and 2 moved within the first 5 years.

If we were to ever look at a smaller scale sport that is doing well in Australia it’s the NBL. They work with limited resources in and international sports.

Rugby isn’t dead in Canada.
Walked past my local club the other day and there were three senior grades practicing, u-19s and u-16s boys and girls.
We have major issues at the rugby Canada level and no gap between club and Canada
(MLR is a joke. We don’t have a team in Vancouver…bc is the dominant rugby market)
We have fallen very far from the old days though. 2008-2023 has been an atrocious 15 years. Losing crowley was a big loss but we are a great testament to the fact that it isn’t just grass routes - you lose that next step up to hone talent and skills and the gap between club and international is just way too far

 

[The Ghost of Raelene]

Dead is probably harsh but a team that once made a QF now not even in the final qualification tournament for the WC.

 

[PhilClinton]

Rugby in Australia has to get its head around this mindset. The arms race for talent doesn't take place at 18, it takes place from 10-16. And I don't think our administrators understand this fully, preferring to leave it to the big private schools.

I am sure they understand, the problem being it's now a proper uphill battle to acquire that talent and partially it's because the traditional avenues aren't giving rugby the same level of exposure.

Top tier private boys schools aka rugby schools in the past have taken the best crop in that teenage generation from the state schools and brought them into the fold to become rugby players on scholarships.

I don't have any figures, but I'd love to know how many scholarships have been given to students for rugby at GPS schools in the last 5 years vs how many were being dished out 20 years ago.

 

[Sir Arthur Higgins]

Does this go here?
is there a worse rugby journalist in aus than Peter fitzimmons?

 

[noscrumnolife]

Does this go here?
is there a worse rugby journalist in aus than Peter fitzimmons?

Barely even a journalist. Just a man spouting nonsense in a silly bandana. Him and his wife are the most up their arse couple in Australia, can't stand them.

 

[The Ghost of Raelene]

Does this go here?
is there a worse rugby journalist in aus than Peter fitzimmons?

Attention seeking clown.

Don’t think either side of society value his delusional views on how the world should be.

 

[Goosestep]

I am sure they understand, the problem being it's now a proper uphill battle to acquire that talent and partially it's because the traditional avenues aren't giving rugby the same level of exposure.

Top tier private boys schools aka rugby schools in the past have taken the best crop in that teenage generation from the state schools and brought them into the fold to become rugby players on scholarships.

I don't have any figures, but I'd love to know how many scholarships have been given to students for rugby at GPS schools in the last 5 years vs how many were being dished out 20 years ago.

99% of those kids weren’t playing rugby at state schools to start with ..

they were recruited from club rugby or league .

 

[Ignoto]

Does this go here?
is there a worse rugby journalist in aus than Peter fitzimmons?

Jamie Pandaram and Danny Wilder are up there. Just click bait merchants.

 

[Goosestep]

Attention seeking clown.

Don’t think either side of society value his delusional views on how the world should be.

I heard him on podcast the other day, for someone who played for wallabies it’s worrying how little he knows about the game /laws of the game

 

[The Ghost of Raelene]

Jamie Pandaram and Danny Wilder are up there. Just click bait merchants.

Wielder is a creep. Has a hatred of Rugby for a bloke that went to a GPS school. He’ll throw anyone under the bus for a headline grab.

 

[Brumby Runner]

Attention seeking clown.

Don’t think either side of society value his delusional views on how the world should be.

He was the guide on a tour of Stadium Australia before it was opened that I was on. He was quite good with many anecdotes to keep the interest up.

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

Fitzy is one of the biggest condescending know it all wankers in Australian public life (so is his wife to be honest).

I used to read the Fitz files online but that long ago lost its lustre.

 

[Doritos Day]

Jamie Pandaram and Danny Wilder are up there. Just click bait merchants.

Panda and Julian Linden are essentially professional trolls for Newscorp, not journalists.

Christy Doran isn't a bad journo (although pretty much an R.A. mouthpiece) but he is an awful writer. So many spelling, grammar and syntax errors. If you're reading this - dude, stop using the same turns of phrase three times in a paragraph.

 

[Lindommer]

Does this go here? is there a worse rugby journalist in aus than Peter fitzimmons?

I agree he's shit. But, don't mind Peter FitzSimons.

 

[The Ghost of Raelene]

I think you can enjoy a history book he may have researched in depth and written but hate his stories on the game + his opinion pieces on society.

 

[half]

You’ve been preaching MLR for about a week now.

I watch a bit of it and it’s fairly shit.

++++++++++++++9999999

However how ??????? is it growing and expanding, and MLR is doing both.

Hint, this is a secret, so kept away from the RA board, but they have this system of running a private competition run by the clubs who are in turn owned by private people. its the same system in all other major USA sports.

And let’s not look at the A-League for any inspiration…

Super Rugby is not doing great, but at least it’s not the shit show that is the A-League.

True, quite true.

Almost scared to post as the great defender of the status que, quite happy with Super Rugby and its history and has no issues with the quality of our young players, and we all know Australian Rugby is at the forefront of marketing excellence, and has a young audience. Gosh and heavens above why copy those yanks they no nothing about sports development.

But for all their faults [and there are many], in the last two weeks investors have pumped 50 million into the dead carcass in buying one a new team in Auckland and a new buyer for Perth, with rumours a new Canberra based team will be announced soon.

Sure its a shit show mate, i won't argue that, but the system / structure has got them 50 F.......ing million dollars to waste and pee up the wall. With another 25 million expected soon.

Where are the new Super Rugby teams in Western Sydney, Newcastle, Tamworth where is our 50 million to waste.

 

[Tomikin]

++++++++++++++9999999

However how ??????? is it growing and expanding, and MLR is doing both.

Hint, this is a secret, so kept away from the Rugby Australia board, but they have this system of running a private competition run by the clubs who are in turn owned by private people. its the same system in all other major USA sports.



True, quite true.

Almost scared to post as the great defender of the status que, quite happy with Super Rugby and its history and has no issues with the quality of our young players, and we all know Australian Rugby is at the forefront of marketing excellence, and has a young audience. Gosh and heavens above why copy those yanks they no nothing about sports development.

But for all their faults [and there are many], in the last two weeks investors have pumped 50 million into the dead carcass in buying one a new team in Auckland and a new buyer for Perth, with rumours a new Canberra based team will be announced soon.

Sure its a shit show mate, i won't argue that, but the system / structure has got them 50 F.......ing million dollars to waste and pee up the wall. With another 25 million expected soon.

Where are the new Super Rugby teams in Western Sydney, Newcastle, Tamworth where is our 50 million to waste.

Why do you have to think we all want the status quo? I used to like your insight into the game, but recently its had a whole teaspoon of holier than thou about it. It detracts from your message, which a lot have agreed with or also had similar thoughts. Others have (rightly) pointed out that there are massive constraints in what is being proposed. Others disagree, which they can.

Anyway, I like the idea, but I don't know how we do it. If we had 50 million to piss up the wall, we would do it with great skill.

 

[Braveheart81]

6-5
scrum under the posts
scrum wheeled already
stay on, don't break, looking for the big hit

fairly definitively, it was these 3 actual points that cost us the game

What?

This is just a bizarre take.

 

[PhilClinton]

Christy Doran isn't a bad journo (although pretty much an R.A. mouthpiece) but he is an awful writer. So many spelling, grammar and syntax errors. If you're reading this - dude, stop using the same turns of phrase three times in a paragraph.

Are those really his fault if they make it to print?

 

[hoggy]

Where are the new Super Rugby teams in Western Sydney, Newcastle, Tamworth where is our 50 million to waste.

I think this is the main issue facing Rugby Union in this country, not sure whether the MLR is exactly the answer.

But where does expansion of the game here come from when your only option is Wallaby victories.
I remember the irony of the Rebels owner handing back the license " Gifting back to the Victorian Rugby" after just a couple seasons, when it was clearly obvious the structural limitations the franchise was operating under.

This is something the administration here who operate with a clear conflict of interest, have simply never dealt with.

Until we deal with that its just a merry go round, albeit while on a boat that is slowly sinking.