Broadcast options for Australian Rugby

[Derpus]

I'm getting the distinct feeling that Raelene Castle might end up being the best CEO Rugby Australia has had in recent memory.

Let's hope so at least. A lot hinges on what happens in the next few years.

Shes not popular though, and will be booted at the first sign of weakness.

As for Optus - to me it seems a no brainer if they are serious about a sports streaming service.

 

[Rugbynutter39]

The burning question: Should I run a poll on which Sydney Premier Club I don't give a flying fuck about in this competition? Or just pick one at random with the aid of a dartboard?

Ah well, at least we'll have gotten rid of that bullshit NRC that delivered us nothing and cost us everything. Now we can get back to three levels of rugby delivering us nothing but maybe at least shore up the finances.

What am I talking about? Next 5 RWC are ours for the taking now that Club Rugby returns to its rightful place! Yer thanks Poido.

Once the player flow inevitably speeds up toward the clubs in "Division 1" of the NCC, we can put a bullet through everything west of Broadway, except The Castle Hill Woods.

Can I ask - as I did on the front page article - where do the other 6 teams worth of players go from the Sydney Clubs suddenly shorn of their excess baggage? Can they come play for the Renegades?

Bring it on!

This whole NCC I am struggling to see how funded given travelling and associated costs makes it hard to see viable - ambition great but whether executable or realistic is another poignant question!

 

[Adam84]

Shes not popular though, and will be booted at the first sign of weakness.

As for Optus - to me it seems a no brainer if they are serious about a sports streaming service.

She’s not popular because she has challenged the status quo, for years Rugby has been clamouring for someone with the balls to enact actual change

 

[Rebel man]

A big problem with the rugby TV rights is the timing. Both the the NRL and AFL rights expire a year later so all the FTA networks will be desperately saving cash for them. Last time both 7 and 9 made serious bids to try and secure both and if day the AFL goes back to 9 and 9 keep the NRL both 7 and 10 would seriously consider rugby but with the timing of all the deals all networks will be reluctant to commit to rugby as they all have their eye on a bigger fish. That’s the problem with the SANZAAR set up we lose control over when we sell our rights

Also to further that with the current landscape there is every chance Optus poaches one of the AFL or NRL from Fox and if they do they makes Fox more desperate to keep the rugby in turn pushing the price up.

 

[flat_eric]

Interesting idea. Something I’ve pondered myself actually. North vs South is a big thing in Brisbane, and I think would lend itself to natural tribalism, plus of course you get to still back your club boys. As you touch on though you couldn’t lose that QLD Country connection. It’s something they’ve done quite well, and people would rightly be filthy if that element is dropped.

This was more or less the approach behind the Ballymore Tornadoes of the short lived ARC:

”Queensland's two teams in the ARC were aligned with existing clubs and regions. The Tornadoes were aligned with six Queensland Premier Rugby clubs north of the Brisbane River – Brothers, GPS, Norths/QUT, Sunshine Coast, University and Wests.”

 

[Dan54]

This was more or less the approach behind the Ballymore Tornadoes of the short lived ARC:

”Queensland's two teams in the ARC were aligned with existing clubs and regions. The Tornadoes were aligned with six Queensland Premier Rugby clubs north of the Brisbane River – Brothers, GPS, Norths/QUT, Sunshine Coast, University and Wests.”

What I always think the NRC misses out on a bit Sully, and I understand the reasons ie;country players etc, but had always hoped for a North/South of the river divide so I could really feel one team was mine!

 

[Rebels3]

Anything in a future NRC or NCC needs to not be fake. If it’s going to be the NRC it needs to be the Super Rugby clubs (minus their wallabies due to the time of season). If there is going to be a NCC then the WA, Vic team needs to be an existing entity not some made up nonsense.

I’d be looking at

13 Super Rugby games (round robin)
Then 5 NRC games (4 Super Rugby teams + Force + Drua)
Then a 6 NCC games (Div 1 - 3 x NSW, 3 x QLD, 1 x ACT; Div 2 - 3 x NSW, 3 x QLD, 1 x WA; Div 3 - 2 x NSW, 2 x Vic, 1 x ACT, 1 x WA, 1 x QLD)

That would be 18 guaranteed pro games to develop our players plus 6 semi pro games to develop our next tier down with a genuine national feel to it. Not having every SS or QLD Prem team making the NCC would also add some extra value to their competition as mid table teams would be fighting to qualify for the competition. The 3 division 7 teams NCC would also mean a more realistic amount of fixtures and clubs only needed to fund 3 away fixtures and not 5 as was rumored the other day.

 

[barbarian]

The issue with the NRC is the confusion it adds to the calendar. I'm a fan of the development opportunities, but I can't help thinking we may as well go back to the old 'Ricoh Cup' model instead (Super teams minus international players).

Which means we have the Super Rugby and a club season (National or otherwise), followed by an international season with the Ricoh Cup.

The benefit of that is continuity. People have three teams - club, Super, Wallabies. And at least two of those three will be playing from February-November.
.

 

[wamberal]

We will never, ever, create a viable and lasting national competition. We have tried. But what we have always lacked is the advantage that both the AFL and NRL had. They built their national competitions on very strong domestic competitions, in Melbourne and Sydney respectively.


So in an important sense they had the best of both worlds. A nucleus of a very successful and popular club competition , on which they could expand selectively into the rest of the nation.


We have tried to create something new from virtually nothing. Green fields.


What we have to do is to build from our strengths, such as they are, and ensure that we retain the popularity and support that club rugby in Sydney and Brisbane (for all its faults, and notwithstanding the naysayers) brings to the table.



I wonder what Henry Kissinger is doing these days?

 

[Rebels3]

We will never, ever, create a viable and lasting national competition. We have tried. But what we have always lacked is the advantage that both the AFL and NRL had. They built their national competitions on very strong domestic competitions, in Melbourne and Sydney respectively.


So in an important sense they had the best of both worlds. A nucleus of a very successful and popular club competition , on which they could expand selectively into the rest of the nation.


We have tried to create something new from virtually nothing. Green fields.


What we have to do is to build from our strengths, such as they are, and ensure that we retain the popularity and support that club rugby in Sydney and Brisbane (for all its faults, and notwithstanding the naysayers) brings to the table.



I wonder what Henry Kissinger is doing these days?

The problem is who eventually takes the blows that a national comp would provide. Both NRL and AFL has had a lot of collateral damage over the years. The entire Brisbane League competition suffered massively from the NRL rise, Newtown, Glebe, North Sydney, mergers like Balmain and Wests etc. have all been served up and spat out with RL pushing for national presence, country rugby league is now a joke compared to what it once was. The VFL is a shadow of its former self and there is a lot of angst towards the AFL.

Are people prepared to have their clubs potentially be apart of the collateral damage for the greater good of the game? History shows it will happen if they want to potentially be something more than what they are.

 

[hoggy]

The problem is who eventually takes the blows that a national comp would provide. Both NRL and AFL has had a lot of collateral damage over the years. The entire Brisbane League competition suffered massively from the NRL rise, Newtown, Glebe, North Sydney, mergers like Balmain and Wests etc. have all been served up and spat out with RL pushing for national presence, country rugby league is now a joke compared to what it once was. The VFL is a shadow of its former self and there is a lot of angst towards the AFL.

Are people prepared to have their clubs potentially be apart of the collateral damage for the greater good of the game? History shows it will happen if they want to potentially be something more than what they are.

Sorry but I would argue that there is little angst against the AFL, the VFL is suburban footy. The issue with rugby is a national comp doesn't fix Super rugby. A national comp should start with the 5 professional teams we already have, then hopefully aim for private investment and end up at maybe 8 teams, we could start with 6.

But it won't happen and we'll end up with the usual cluster fuck.

 

[Finsbury Girl]

The game is basically broke, we can expect a significant drop in television revenue and yet somehow we'll find the money to fund a national club competition. OK Raelene.

Let's hope that the smart club committees don't risk their club's finances on this folly and can effectively push the risk back onto the bankrupt ARU.

 

[RebelYell]

The NRC has produced many Wallabies already, and from a developmental perspective it is ticking every box - just not commercially, tribalism etc.

Putting aside for a second that I don't want Aus to stay in Super Rugby in its' current guise and for the sake of this argument assuming that status quo remains, I'd love to see the NRC replaced by something as simple as 4 x Australian Super Rugby teams, Western Force & Drua. 10 rounds (home and away) and SF, Final. Build brands for the exisitng Super Rugby teams, include matches in membership packages (even if you take most games to regional/club grounds), sell greater exposure to same sponsors etc, ask exisiting ACs to step up as Head Coaches. Simplest is often the best.

 

[Ignoto]

A big problem with the rugby TV rights is the timing. Both the the NRL and AFL rights expire a year later so all the FTA networks will be desperately saving cash for them.

Well, if you look at the next decade, RA has the British and Irish Lions in 2025 and then possibly Australia hosting the 2027 RWC. Those two events should be quite appealing to broadcasters here.

 

[Rebel man]

Well, if you look at the next decade, RA has the British and Irish Lions in 2025 and then possibly Australia hosting the 2027 RWC. Those two events should be quite appealing to broadcasters here.

No question on that front, I obviously love the game and see great value in it. Just think from a business stand point we could capitalise more if our rights went on sale after the AFL and NRL.

As hypothetically say 7 or 9 gets their wish and grabs the rights for both comps and Optus gets one away from Fox, all of a sudden rugby becomes a priority. If how the rights are for the other code stay the same a network like 10 doesn’t have one eye on potentially getting the AFL or NRL

 

[Rebel man]

The game is basically broke, we can expect a significant drop in television revenue and yet somehow we'll find the money to fund a national club competition. OK Raelene.

Let's hope that the smart club committees don't risk their club's finances on this folly and can effectively push the risk back onto the bankrupt ARU.

Yeah I don’t know how the hell it would work I support the idea of a working towards a professional club competition in Aus but I don’t see in practice how it can work. Both Sydney and Brisbane have strong comps and then the standard falls away after that. Also those comps won’t want clubs leaving for a NCC and I can’t see how it can run alongside the standard club comps especially when the aim is for div 1 to become professional

 

[Jimmy_Crouch]

Ah well, at least we'll have gotten rid of that bullshit NRC that delivered us nothing and cost us everything. Now we can get back to three levels of rugby delivering us nothing but maybe at least shore up the finances.

NRC is fully funded by Foxtel. It is completely cost neutral for RA and is probably the second best thing Pulver did in his reign.

The first being the identification of 7s as a driver for womens rugby, supporting them in becoming professional at equal pay with the men and culminating in an Olympic gold medal.

 

[Finsbury Girl]

I love the NRC. It's the Sydney mafia that don't

 

[Micheal]

NRC is fully funded by Foxtel. It is completely cost neutral for RA and is probably the second best thing Pulver did in his reign.

The first being the identification of 7s as a driver for womens rugby, supporting them in becoming professional at equal pay with the men and culminating in an Olympic gold medal.

He had his faults, but he also did a lot of nitty-gritty stuff on the business side of things that were necessary after the champagne and caviar of the JON years.

As an 18 year old -- in his first year -- I interned at the ARU.

On my second day he called a company wide meeting, announced 25 odd redundancies, and announced a pay cut of 5% for all staff in the company, including players (as negotiated with RUPA). He didn't look happy doing it, and it must be a massively tough job to do so.

The company had gotten fat and slow, and he tidied that up massively.

He also made other structural changes, but people don't remember that.

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

He had his faults, but he also did a lot of nitty-gritty stuff on the business side of things that were necessary after the champagne and caviar of the JON years.

As an 18 year old -- in his first year -- I interned at the ARU.

On my second day he called a company wide meeting, announced 25 odd redundancies, and announced a pay cut of 5% for all staff in the company, including players (as negotiated with RUPA). He didn't look happy doing it, and it must be a massively tough job to do so.

The company had gotten fat and slow, and he tidied that up massively.

He also made other structural changes, but people don't remember that.

I certainly give him credit for cutting as much of the fat as he allowed to at the time as well as getting the NRC up and running. Expanding the footprint of 7s and for at least trying to get the Junior Gold Cup to be a road reaching and inclusive structure. It is a pity his legacy will be forever tainted by the Force saga.

Certainly better than O'Neil. As is, in my opinion, Castle. You seem to portray Pulver as a fairly solid operator from your experiences which seems to be something that many that have had dealings with Castle have echoed about her.