Australian Rugby / RA

[Merrow]

don’t let him get to you

Eh, I’m not. I’d have to value someone’s opinion to let them get to me.

Unfortunately he’s just one of the reasons I don’t poke my head in here much anymore.

 

[shanky]

To be fair to the Brumbies, RA coming along and asking you if you’d like to hand over the keys to them must make one feel like Kerry Packer when asked why he didn’t pay more tax.

 

[Pfitzy]

To be fair to Rugby in Australia: none of the franchises is so big they can go it alone. Neither are any of the Unions.

All this dick measuring, along with Eddie, is white noise.

Get on with some reform that:

1) grows grassroots through better alignment juniors-schools-seniors
2) helps pro teams compete
3) gets our national sides on top of the podium

 

[Highlander35]

Where are the 11 Captains now?

 

[Members Section]

To be fair to Rugby in Australia: none of the franchises is so big they can go it alone. Neither are any of the Unions.

All this dick measuring, along with Eddie, is white noise.

Get on with some reform that:

1) grows grassroots through better alignment juniors-schools-seniors
2) helps pro teams compete
3) gets our national sides on top of the podium

You could always do more with grass roots, (side note even local afl club complain with what they get & its more than any other sport in the country) but our grass roots is actually doing half okay.

Our main problem is from school to professionalism, we need to nail that

 

[The Ghost of Raelene]

Where are the 11 Captains now?

Comfy corporate lunches are nice right now.

They'll all come out of the woodwork leading up to the Lions.

 

[HooperPocockSmith]

Regardless of whoever the next Coach, Chairman, President or CEO is - I hope I don't ever have to hear about the glory days of Coogee Oval and Randwick again.

 

[Pfitzy]

our grass roots is actually doing half okay.

Depends how you define it - in some cities we have one "grassroots" in clubland due to size and resources.

In Sydney we have multiple "grassroots" at senior level - Premier vs Suburban - and that's a problem in terms of how resourcing works.

Schools is another type of "grassroots" and isn't always aligned with how clubs - junior or senior - engage in participation and development.

Our main problem is from school to professionalism, we need to nail that

I think it makes sense to streamline how that works in the short term, as that is the current pathway.

That said, it is well overdue for reform.

 

[Derpus]

Pfitzy for RA chairman-CEO-coach-overlord. The movement has begun.

 

[The Ghost of Raelene]

Regardless of whoever the next Coach, Chairman, President or CEO is - I hope I don't ever have to hear about the glory days of Coogee Oval and Randwick again.

You don't want the Turinui Hoiles team to take us forward?

 

[HooperPocockSmith]

I'm not so sure 'grassroots' is doing that well in Sydney. Soccer and Aussie Rules have a greater presence in private schools than ever before. Many junior clubs have been forced into amalgamations due to lack of numbers. Subbies clubs that once had multiple senior grades are now only fielding one team. Some Premier clubs are unable to field all 4 grades. The whole 'our grassroots is fine' is a disingenuous take.

 

[HooperPocockSmith]

You don't want the Turinui Hoiles team to take us forward?

I'd be stoked if they stayed on that side of Carrington Rd.

All jokes aside, I know many didn't enjoy his take on the future of Super Rugby, but I actually don't mind Hoiles as a pundit on Stan.

 

[Wilson]

Local population dynamics, available support, and crowd sizes are always going to be a question. The flipside of that coin though - if Australian rugby is going to host any domestic strength within a professional competition, let alone a domestic professional comp - how the hell do you do that if an entrenched and successful Brumbies can't manage in ACT?

As a quick comparison on population numbers I get ACT 430,000; Newcastle 320,000; Sunshine Coast 320,000; Wollongong 300,000; Ipswich 240,000; Townsville 200,000; Darwin 130,000. There is Adelaide which everyone seems to think is a non-starter at 1.3m.

Leaving aside Adelaide, the ACT is pretty much as good as it gets once you have nailed Brisbane/Sydney and then Melbourne and Perth. We really need to make the ACT work for Australian rugby.

The only alternative is Shrink to Greatness 2.0 by pruning our greatest success. Awesome <sarcasm implied>

If we were to go down that path there's arguably a pretty good argument for loading the south-east corner of QLD with a team each in Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast and riding the Olympic gravy-train as much as possible from an infrastructure perspective. The idea of 3 'rivalry' teams playing that close (with hopefully improving road and public transport links) is something you could build around in a fresh competition. With a lot more capacity for traveling fans then the current super setup you're less bound by the local population alone.

I don't necessarily think a full domestic 10+ team competition is a path we should be going down as an alternative to the current super rugby setup, but if we did that's the sort of thing we'd need to be taking advantage of.

 

[Members Section]

I'm not so sure 'grassroots' is doing that well in Sydney. Soccer and Aussie Rules have a greater presence in private schools than ever before. Many junior clubs have been forced into amalgamations due to lack of numbers. Subbies clubs that once had multiple senior grades are now only fielding one team. Some Premier clubs are unable to field all 4 grades. The whole 'our grassroots is fine' is a disingenuous take.

Really? all we get down here is the reports that the afl is spending hand over fist to keep gws afloat & the actual player number are not growing

 

[Pfitzy]

Pfitzy for Rugby Australia chairman-CEO-coach-overlord. The movement has begun.

"Begun"? I have been pushing this for years... I need better PR, clearly.

 

[HooperPocockSmith]

Really? all we get down here is the reports that the afl is spending hand over fist to keep gws afloat & the actual player number are not growing

I don't have any numbers to support my claim, just anecdotal evidence that suggests some of the big private schools are building up their playing numbers all at the expense of rugby. They might not be making any inroads vs league but they are eating away at rugby's heartland.

 

[Pfitzy]

The whole 'our grassroots is fine' is a disingenuous take.

And generally a view held by some whose backyard is just dandy, therefore everything else in the game is good.

Hoiles

*ahem*

 

[The Ghost of Raelene]

Aussie Rules has definitely increased it's presence and teams. Even running rep sides now from the GPS, CAS etc

Soccer not so much from what I've seen. Demographics of areas have changed which has resulted in more Soccer teams over a push from the national body.

 

[Pfitzy]

Soccer not so much from what I've seen. Demographics of areas have changed which has resulted in more Soccer teams over a push from the national body.

Soccer's junior numbers have always been crazy good. It drops off fairly quickly once team sizes increase. You could say that soccer players won't generally play rugby, as we have full contact vs partial contact, but I've seen a few good converts running around in Subbies.

 

[Pfitzy]

I go back to Paul Cully's article about the whole "competition from league" being a distraction. He's right, and I'll stick my hand up and say that I've been one to use that stick occasionally.

The players we need won't ever go to league: props, hookers, locks. We have to value them, though.

I think where we fall down is in two areas of development:

1) Skills, because our base isn't big enough to raise the bar. Can only change that via participation uplift.

2) Coaching, which on the back of a small base, can't grow and place pressure on to perform.

A better spend of the Sua'ali'i money would be in development officers IMHO. We don't have enough of them, either. Get them in schools to start 7s rugby programs at U12 level and plan for the long term.

Chuck a couple of hundred $K at making better systems to help put players and clubs in contact as well.