wamberal99
Jim Clark (26)
And without adequate sources of income, so is rugby as a professional sport in Australia.
Australian Rugby / RA
- Thread starter Dave Beat
- Start date
hoggy
Nev Cottrell (35)
Then why would you persist with Super Rugby, which is bankrupting the game in this country
stillmissit
Peter Johnson (47)
Super Rugby should have evolved to support its follower base, instead it seems to have gone down a rabbit hole of self-focus. They should've dealt with referees slowing the game down, reducing TV review time, cutting out the boring scrum resets, caterpillar mauls and pedantic control of the breakdown. As a stand-alone pro rugby spectacle, you must admit they did little to make it eyeball-friendly.
WorkingClassRugger
Michael Lynagh (62)
That assumes they ever looked at it as any more than an extended trial system for the national team. Which they clearly didn't.
hoggy
Nev Cottrell (35)
It should also have evolved as a competition, but by design it has never Been able to adjust or meet market conditions, which is partly why it is getting its preverbal ass kicked by the NRL & AFL.
Just one glaring example out of a 100, NSW only having one entity in the biggest market in Australia trying to compete with two other codes that offer games every weekend and tribal support to match.
Rugby Unions approach here is f------g insane and the main reason why it is disappearing down a massive big black hole.
Who made the statement?
The_Brown_Hornet
John Eales (66)
Yeah, hence my comment about pathways. I think we are starting to get there with linking the junior rep sides to the Super franchises, but there is more than can be done.
stillmissit
Peter Johnson (47)
Hoggy, I was reffing in Sydney and involved in club rugby at the time when NSW were looking at a second Super Rugby team in Western Sydney. After a couple of years of investing in a good guy who did school development and player ID they threw the towel in. They also spent some money on support for Penrith and I think Parramatta. It became obvious that there was limited interest in the West for RU. I have written before about some of the issues with club rugby in the West of Sydney.
ForceFan
Peter Fenwicke (45)
The purists need to realise that professional rugby is in the entertainment business - it's not a case of simply supporting the code.
It's what the move towards Global Rapid Rugby was all about and why it's focus was on making each game a family friendly outing with 2.5 hours of entertainment.
To attract attendees and viewers it has to be an event worth watching. The interpretations/changes covered above were all part of GRR.
ForceFan
Peter Fenwicke (45)
When GRR tried to support a team in Sydney's West the move was not sanctioned by either Rugby NSW nor Sydney Rugby as they had their own plans. GRR had sponsors lined up and support from a SS Club which was interested in growing the game.
We have to move on from these dog-in-a-manger attitudes and grow the game.
The crowds attending the WF WSR games in 2018 are telling.
After the return to Super Rugby/SRP (Super Rugby Pacific) the crowds fell away.
Covid-19 was a bitch - this was >5 years ago and 2 years before Covid struck.
The writing was on the wall and seemingly ignored by RAu.
Australian teams/RAu simply stopped making attendance figures available to outlets such as Austadiums.
The start of World Series Rugby.
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stillmissit
Peter Johnson (47)
FFan, I never followed GRR it must have been after my time. Is there a decent write up on it?
half
Dick Tooth (41)
Interesting, the list of the Australia's top 50 Athletics, and no rugby player gets a mention and no rugby references, hockey, swimming, boxing, rowing and heaps of sports obviously cricket, AFL, NRL, and many many other sports how far have we fallen that we don't even get an after through
Have our female athletes ever been so dominant as in 2023, when swimmers and football heroes took on the world and proved yet against how Australia consistently punches above its weight?
Mind you, Aussie women have been dominant in the pool since the days of Dawn Fraser in the 1950s, although to have three of the calibre of Kaylee McKeown, Mollie O’Callaghan and Ariarne Titmus at the same time is an abundance of riches.
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hoggy
Nev Cottrell (35)
A 2nd NSW team doesn't have to be in Western Sydney, the whole point of a 2nd team is to maximize your market & support, to create tribalism a game in your biggest market place every weekend, another team to help create more media.
We need to grow the game in Australia & reach a bigger market and the best way to do that is through a domestic competition, Aussies understand and support that structure, which in turn helps all the other layers.
You want to support the grassroots, the best way to do that is support a domestic competition.
Wilson
Phil Kearns (64)
That is one journalist's list, not the list. Aside from the fact that it's just one man's opinion, I'd argue there should multiple women's 7s players on any list of Australia's top 50 female athletes.
half
Dick Tooth (41)
Expected your comment or similar, and the likes. Follows a pattern of denial. Lets ignore the message/ pattern, find were it can be attacked.
Its OK to point things out but only in a certain way.
Consider, our position around the late 90's early 2000. Second highest average crowds only the AFL averaged more, biggest media deal per game in Australia, talented and strong junior competitions, a still well respected and known club competitions. Massive positive media coverage.
We have been in free fall for a couple of decades, yet the defence of pointing out negative articles is met with, """But what about"""" .
To me and don't take this the wrong way, you sound like one of those folk who are arguing, just wait for the BL tour and RWC , we will rise from the ashes, you just wait and see.
I for one, thing its important that we don't even make a list, but alas the list is not important enough because its written by a journalist, and therefore to be totally ignored and considered worthless unless it had lots of rugby people in it.
Slim 293
Stirling Mortlock (74)
Oh my god, not… the list?!
If only I had a subscription to that partisan piece of rubbish so I could see who did and did not make… that list!
noscrumnolife
Bill Watson (15)
For once I agree with half. Yeah sure it's just one journo, I reckon the vast majority of journos also wouldn't include a rugby player if they did their list. Obviously on GAGR we are going to champion rugby players. The whataboutism is pretty pointless and emblematic of the head in the sand mentality that pervades the sport.
The relevant conclusion about the absence of women's 7s players isn't that the list is pointless, its that our governing body does an absolutely fucking woeful job of marketing their most successful team and players.
Wilson
Phil Kearns (64)
No one is denying or ignoring the problems the game is facing, or the lack of investment in the women's game, including marketing. What I'm saying is the opinions of one journalist here are largely irrelevant, maybe a symptom of the disease at most.
This list, written by a different journo, could've easily included Caslick, the Levi sisters and maybe a couple of 15s players like Ash Masters and Eva Karpani. Would you have then thought the women's game was in rude health having filled a tenth of the places?
I can't speak for you or hope to understand the way your mind works but I know I wouldn't have. It's clearly a mixed bag with 7s doing phenomenally well but out of mind outside Olympic years and 15s punching above it's weight but crying out for more - more funding more publicity, more of just about everything.
These sorts of articles are a poor trailing indicator of the performance and health of the game at best. The goal certainly shouldn't be to get players on them, that's just a potential by product of any actual progress and success we can achieve, and will likely come well after the fact.
To come in doomsaying over the particular opinions of some guy is boring, useless and very on form for you.
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Dan54
David Wilson (68)
Because any alternative may well bankrupt the game a f***en sight quicker? I quite sure in all the administration of RA and all the states (including clubs) if there was a better alternative it would be explored.
Although they (like all boards) make mistakes in general, I cannot believe that every board in Australia rugby know less about what is best for game than us . It is something I say here in NZ too (where you have same kind of comments etc).