Australian Rugby / RA

[Set piece magic]

Rugby Australia should always be run as a corporate org which profit goes back to the game, not some deranged clubs collective which has to caucus every five minutes to make a decision

 

[Set piece magic]

You are forgetting that they need Foxtel this year still. Currently they aren’t receiving a cent from them. When the season can get back up and running they will need some sort of relationship to recoup some of that money until years end. They are between a rock and a hard place.

Sorry if I'm spamming, but don't forget it was Foxtel who broke good faith by shit sheeting us in the first place despite still needing us. As a leader, imo you have to set the precedent that if people are going to go for you like that, you don't take it lying down​

 

[Dismal Pillock]

'root and branch review'

Some niche sub-genre vids have these bits as extras at the end.

 

[Rebels3]

Sorry if I'm spamming, but don't forget it was Foxtel who broke good faith by shit sheeting us in the first place despite still needing us. As a leader, imo you have to set the precedent that if people are going to go for you like that, you don't take it lying down​

The difference is that Rugby needs a broadcaster (whoever that is) more than a broadcaster needs rugby. Currently for them it’s they don’t get rugby as they have already agreed to go with another broadcaster or they shit on it so the value of it will decrease or no one wants to go near it, so have nothing the lose and everything to gain. If rugby does the opposite they lose competition in a tender process which will devalue the price of the deal to anyone that takes it up. If we sign a deal with Optus, I’m sure a lot of the underhanded tactics will be leaked out to media to get their own back.

 

[Set piece magic]

The difference is that Rugby needs a broadcaster (whoever that is) more than a broadcaster needs rugby. Currently for them it’s they don’t get rugby as they have already agreed to go with another broadcaster or they shit on it so the value of it will decrease or no one wants to go near it, so have nothing the lose and everything to gain. If rugby does the opposite they lose competition in a tender process which will devalue the price of the deal to anyone that takes it up. If we sign a deal with Optus, I’m sure a lot of the underhanded tactics will be leaked out to media to get their own back.

Again I don't agree that they don't need us. Foxtel has posted some astonishingly large losses in recent years, has a massively dwindling subscriber base and desperately wants to hold on to whatever content it has. To make matters worse, many rugby subscribers are baby boomers paying 100 bucks, not the 20 dollar customer acquisition strategy with Kayo. These people will punt Foxtel if Rugby goes.​

Foxtel also has a debt facility which expires later this year.

It's intemperate outbursts were a sign of desperation, not dominance

 

[Derpus]

Foxtel is toast - get what we can out of it this year and bin it.

Friends re-runs for $100 was never going to be a winning formula in a streaming landscape.

 

[Lorenzo]

Rugby Australia should always be run as a corporate org which profit goes back to the game, not some deranged clubs collective which has to caucus every five minutes to make a decision

I lold at 'profit'

 

[The Honey Badger]

Unfortunately it’s not even complaining about your wife to your MIL.

I was never a fan of the Castle appointment.
but, if these guys think she is so poor that it requires her immediate dismissal, surely they would have a dozen examples of her incompetence that they could have listed in their letter.


the problem is the Board is responsible to the Board,and no one else.


if these guys want a revolution, I’ve got a pitchfork at the ready.
but before I could possibly support these guys, they need to at least identify what is wrong,and how they will address it.

its all a bit animal farm to me.
they say they are different, but I’m having trouble identifying how.

Great Post ILTW,

It would seem the 11 captains are a puppet move by Fox/News.

I think I know why there is no detail about how the Magnificent 11 are going to fix all the problems (excepting for a bit of waffle about more for Clubs and grass roots). I am expecting if their coup is successful then their first order of business will be to Open Exclusive negotiations with FOX and quickly assign media rights to them. There will be no further talk about FTA.

Resumption of Normal Transmission. Job done

 

[barbarian]

For all I deride them, the captains have a unique voice and insight that they are currently wasting with this rubbish.

Let's look at the club issue. Clubs are the heart of our game, and what in many ways makes it great. Clearly there is a growing disconnect between the club game and the professional game and numbers are falling.

These guys should have a few ideas how to solve that and I'd genuinely love to hear them. Too often what I do hear is grumblings about the professional game that are never going away - too many rep commitments and training sessions, too much focus on high performance, too little time to spend at club training etc etc etc.

The genie is not going back in the bottle on many of these things. So how do we grow our clubs, and get that connection back again? It can't be about money, because money has never really had much to do with it. It's Mabo, it's the vibe, it's sinking beers on the hill on a Saturday afternoon.

I don't really know the point of this post, but it's the complete lack of any ideas on this from people like Farr-Jones that bugs the shit out of me.

 

[The Honey Badger]

It really gets me that the chorus of ex Captains and the rest of them baying for Blood because of years of Bad management. And they are calling for change.

Yet the current management are actually trying to instill some change. But it seems these are the changes that they dont like, hence the urgency to try and derail the current management before a Media rights deal is signed.

 

[Tex]

Led by former captain and CEO aspirant Phil Kearns.

Yesterday I read Dan Leo's open letter detailing actual abuses of law and position and felt proud to be a rugby person. Then this shit comes up in a naked power play from Kearns and his boosters. That the captains have kept silent through years/decades of passive governance only to meerkat their heads above the parapet now doesn't do their credibility much good.

 

[Quick Hands]

Are you suggesting that an organisation with revenues of $120m can be run in the same way as a small community club?

The size of the entity is the driving factor behind how RA has to be run.

No, and I don't know how you keep coming to this conclusion. What I am suggesting is that the method of board appointments to large companies like BHP etc where a nominations committee vet board replacements may well be appropriate in that setting where the board's duty is profit for the company and the shareholders is not automatically transferable to the sporting world where there are other imperatives at play such as nurturing the grass roots. In the sporting context the grass roots need to be engaged with the professional arm of the game, otherwise it collapses. This is what we are seeing in Australia - sections of the community part of the sport have disengaged from the professional part. As a result we have super rugby attendances a quarter of what they were 15-20 years ago, Bledisloe Tests which used to sell out Homebush in a week kicking off with 20,000 empty seats and RA heading for administration.

 

[Quick Hands]

C

Now as a result of their inaction the Kearns cabal has gained ground and convinced some politically naive former Wallabies captains that a coup is the right way to go.

The administration has the right policy in mind (an open rights contest), but no idea how to play the hand politically, this has at the very least made the perception they are weak and allowed the Kearns operation to go wild.

Is Phil Kearns really such a Machiavellian political genius that he can manipulate so many well educated people and some how take control of RA?

What has he to gain from all this? It's not like running a sport is either a long term career or a particularly lucrative one.

 

[Quick Hands]

Rugby Australia should always be run as a corporate org which profit goes back to the game, not some deranged clubs collective which has to caucus every five minutes to make a decision

But it's not making a profit as a corporate org.

 

[The Honey Badger]

Is Phil Kearns really such a Machiavellian political genius that he can manipulate so many well educated people and some how take control of RA?

What has he to gain from all this? It's not like running a sport is either a long term career or a particularly lucrative one.

Well it might be lucrative if you remain on Rupert's payroll.

 

[kiap]

So how do we grow our clubs, and get that connection back again? It can't be about money, because money has never really had much to do with it.

Pfft. Have you asked them?

It's about money.

It might not only be about money. But it's about money.

 

[shanky]

So RUPA give us “root and branch transformation” and the next day the Kearns Kafer Krew give us the 11 captains of yore in the COVID coup?? And you think these things aren’t related??

Perhaps we're talking at cross-purposes. My comment was related to your suggestion that Harrison was taking direction from 'Kafer crew', rather than from his own obligations and duty as part of RUPA.

 

[Dismal Pillock]

haha, Gregan's thinking "well, our Bumbreeze player power stunt worked so maybe ex-player power will too." Bit of a dickhead move as a player and obviously now a total deep lumbar puncture of a commentator. Still, his "4 more years boys" sledge is absolutely alltime. Just a pity it was Byron on the end of it. "4 more what why?"

 

[Quick Hands]

Great Post ILTW,

It would seem the 11 captains are a puppet move by Fox/News.

I think I know why there is no detail about how the Magnificent 11 are going to fix all the problems (excepting for a bit of waffle about more for Clubs and grass roots). I am expecting if their coup is successful then their first order of business will be to Open Exclusive negotiations with FOX and quickly assign media rights to them. There will be no further talk about FTA.

Resumption of Normal Transmission. Job done

You do realise that AFL and NRL are each on both Fox and FTA? It's not mutually exclusive, it's just that it means that the codes receive less from Fox than they would for exclusive rights but they receive money from the FTA networks additional to what Fox pay. Rugby only gets on FTA if one of the networks want to pay for it and that will mean that RA will also receive less from their pay TV partner.

It's just business, none of these broadcasters televise sports out of any particular loyalty or love of one sport or another. They pay money for broadcast rights because they think they can make money out of either subscriptions (pay TV) or advertising (FTA). The main reason rugby isn't on FTA more than for tests is because the networks don't think it will make them enough money to justify the cost.

 

[Quick Hands]

Well it might be lucrative if you remain on Rupert's payroll.

Wow, the tin foil hat shop must have done a roaring trade in the past 24 hours if this thread is any indication.

I have no idea of Kearns' financial arrangements, but I don't think a three hour stint at one super game a week for 18 weeks, plus an hour or two on the Fox rugby show a week is his major source of income. I could be wrong, but I think he has a real job and commentary is a sideline.