NRC onwards and upwards

[kiap]

But as always you have to wonder whether it was willfully ignoring the need for investment or just plain old lack of funds.

It does makes me wonder who pays for this 25-team amateur comp and the inherent 2,000 km round trips.

But perhaps the amateur description is inaccurate and we're talking about team budgets similar to or exceeding that of Brisbane City/Vikings/Force, et al., in the NRC for these 25 teams.

I just don't know.

 

[Ignoto]

Personally, I don't know what we get out of a national club comp other than more content (of a pretty low level)

Me either. I'm trying to conceptualize how this will work. We want more professionalism for this club championship but many of the people pushing it aren't acknowledging the different types of blokes playing rugby across the clubs. For many, they will relish the opportunity to go professional, even if its a couple months a year. For others, they'll want to focus on their careers and can't take such long periods away from the office.

If you push the top 4 clubs from Sydney and Brisbane (along with the other cities), how many of the Premier Squad of say 30 can actually go 'professional' for that period? You may find that clubs are calling on subbies or third graders to help fill some positions.

So you need a blend of the current NRC and Club Championship to ensure the best talent can be playing at this level.

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

Me either. I'm trying to conceptualize how this will work. We want more professionalism for this club championship but many of the people pushing it aren't acknowledging the different types of blokes playing rugby across the clubs. For many, they will relish the opportunity to go professional, even if its a couple months a year. For others, they'll want to focus on their careers and can't take such long periods away from the office.

If you push the top 4 clubs from Sydney and Brisbane (along with the other cities), how many of the Premier Squad of say 30 can actually go 'professional' for that period? You may find that clubs are calling on subbies or third graders to help fill some positions.

So you need a blend of the current NRC and Club Championship to ensure the best talent can be playing at this level.

Or you just stick with the NRC.

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

It does makes me wonder who pays for this 25-team amateur comp and the inherent 2,000 km round trips.

But perhaps the amateur description is inaccurate and we're talking about team budgets similar to or exceeding that of Brisbane City/Vikings/Force, et al., in the NRC for these 25 teams.

I just don't know.

They don't either. I assume they think RA will.

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

Agreed, we as the rugby public nor the ARU have given it the love and attention it needs to see if it is worth persisting with

Although I wouldn’t be against going back to

Rams (Penrith, west Harbour, two blues and Eastwood)
Fleet (uni, wicks, southern and easts)
Rays (manly, norths, warringah and Gordon)

We need to get some sort of tribalism back involved, it’s not great for country who obviously lose out a bit but force rays to take games to northern nsw, rams to western nsw and fleet to southern nsw

I'd go Sydney, North Sydney and Country. What the NRC needs is real resourcing behind the promotion and marketing side of the equation. A bit of community engagement wouldn't hurt either. The Rams prior to becoming Eastwood by proxy were beginning to build some momentum in that regard.

 

[kiap]

They don't either. I assume they think RA will.

Perhaps Fox might chip in a million a year

 

[Rebels3]

This is what I think the NRC should evolve into. We have Super Rugby likely going back to a single round robin and GRR developing into itself. Would be an opportunity to have a proper professional national championship.

Reds
Rebels
Tahs
Force
Brumbies
Drua
Sydney (Shute Shield representative)
Brisbane (Prems representative)

*Reds and Tahs push their brands to the regional areas leaving Bris and Syd to have the capital city market and appeal to the club base)

Could easily have a great build up to an all Shute Shield team vs the Tahs, perfect opportunity for the non contracted players to stick it to the pros. Plus surely it doesn’t take a genius to identify that using the proper entity names instead of these silly names would draw more attention and credit to the comp. Also getting some success identified with one of the brands wouldn’t hurt anyone. Always hearing in SA games, so and so is current Currie Cup champs.

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

Reds
Rebels
Tahs
Force
Brumbies
Drua
Sydney (Shute Shield representative)
Brisbane (Prems representative)

*Reds and Tahs push their brands to the regional areas leaving Bris and Syd to have the capital city market and appeal to the club base)

Could easily have a great build up to an all Shute Shield team vs the Tahs, perfect opportunity for the non contracted players to stick it to the pros. Plus surely it doesn’t take a genius to identify that using the proper entity names instead of these silly names would draw more attention and credit to the comp. Also getting some success identified with one of the brands wouldn’t hurt anyone. Always hearing in SA games, so and so is current Currie Cup champs.

That would be a reasonable alternative.

 

[Rebels3]

Reds
Rebels
Tahs
Force
Brumbies
Drua
Sydney (Shute Shield representative)
Brisbane (Prems representative)

*Reds and Tahs push their brands to the regional areas leaving Bris and Syd to have the capital city market and appeal to the club base)

Could easily have a great build up to an all Shute Shield team vs the Tahs, perfect opportunity for the non contracted players to stick it to the pros. Plus surely it doesn’t take a genius to identify that using the proper entity names instead of these silly names would draw more attention and credit to the comp. Also getting some success identified with one of the brands wouldn’t hurt anyone. Always hearing in SA games, so and so is current Currie Cup champs.

Although not the same as inclusion in Super Rugby, it’d at least make our brothers in WA feel a little closer to the Australian rugby family than is currently happening. But perhaps Nedlands vs GPS on a wet Sunday afternoon played on a mud paddock infront of 50 people is more appealing.

 

[Sully]

This, pretty tired idea, does nothing for Australian rugby.

It doesn't help players make the leap from club rugby to test rugby because the level of play is no higher than club rugby.

It doesn't bring an audience that isn't already there.

It's huge and inflexible.

It's amateur. And I don't mean the players I mean the coaching and administration of the clubs involved.

The one horse cities would run amok. they'd be able to pull the best players from their competitions and meld them into a force to be reckoned with.

Not all players would be up for this. Many a very good players without it being their main focus and wouldn't want to mess their careers or families around for this competition. This would ultimately decrease the quality of the competition.

Our best bet is to stick with the competition we're already invested in. We just need to invest more in it.

 

[gel]

And take it seriously.

Stop marketing it as "third tier".

(And one of the teams that wins the Horan-Little shield needs to act like a prick and not put it up for just any game they play. Force the opposition to win it off you at home FFS. I can't recall any team doing that too often if at all)

 

[kiap]

And take it seriously.

Stop marketing it as "third tier".

Yup.

(And one of the teams that wins the Horan-Little shield needs to act like a prick and not put it up for just any game they play. Force the opposition to win it off you at home FFS. I can't recall any team doing that too often if at all)

Totally agree with having to beat the Shield holder at home. Make it a tougher and more worthy achievement to take it out.

It's not been the choice of the teams, tho, to offer it up for away games. The inherent genius within ARU/RA (well, one of 'em, anyway) set a rule so that it goes on the line - home or away - after two defences. That waters down the challenge and is just dumb.

 

[Joe King]

Reds
Rebels
Tahs
Force
Brumbies
Drua
Sydney (Shute Shield representative)
Brisbane (Prems representative)

*Reds and Tahs push their brands to the regional areas leaving Bris and Syd to have the capital city market and appeal to the club base)

Could easily have a great build up to an all Shute Shield team vs the Tahs, perfect opportunity for the non contracted players to stick it to the pros. Plus surely it doesn’t take a genius to identify that using the proper entity names instead of these silly names would draw more attention and credit to the comp. Also getting some success identified with one of the brands wouldn’t hurt anyone. Always hearing in SA games, so and so is current Currie Cup champs.

Great idea.

 

[VassMan]

I like that Perth Spirit changed to Western Force and I'd recommend Rising and Vikings do the same. I like the Country/City split that QLD and NSW have as I can't think of another way to have 2 teams each. Also the country and city teams have past histories.

 

[molman]

Our best bet is to stick with the competition we're already invested in. We just need to invest more in it.

Agreed. I think the format we've come to is about right now in terms of number of teams. The change to the NSW setup mirroring the QLD (City/Country) I think makes sense and its positive that NSW Rugby/Waratahs are taking more involvement. There seems more of an apparent pathway and cross pollination with couching etc occurring now which is good as much as some miss the flavour of the various other teams (Rams etc..)
.


It would also be great if Clubland could align with the start of the NRC to avoid those past issues of players finishing up with club finals and such, 2018 was a mess for NSW in that regard. Not sure what the schedule for 2020 is?



It's really money and marketing that the comp needs. Heck, look at AFLW for an example of launching a new comp.


Not to mention they need to bring the clubs along for the ride. Maybe they just need to get creative. Have the players club on their sleeve and ape what the Reds did in having a wear your club socks round. Or have free coaching clinics before the game for all the local rugby clubs so you have a ready made crowd. Get the families up there with activities beyond just the game. Play the social media angle more with the school kids and families... I don't know, I'm not a marketing guy, but anything would be better than the very little that seems to occur. So few people know the comp even exists, let alone how to watch it.



I can also the see pros and cons to the shifting home game location of some of the teams. I think it makes it hard to build up consistent fans at games when you’re maybe around for just one weekend and not the next. It's such a short comp that the home games are few enough as is. Teams like the Force and Vikings seem to do better with a more fixed home ground. On the flip-side it is nice to spread the games around for those regional centres.

 

[Show-n-go]

There’s too many Shute shield clubs to cater to with only 2 nsw teams though, we need to break it down and we NEED them onboard you’re not going to achieve that effectively as is. Why would clubs get around a comp they could very well only have 1-2 players involved in, what’s the bloody point?

Marketing wise I don’t know what angle you play with the current format, the city v country rivalry of yesteryear doesn’t really exist today. But as a southie I love beating those north shore pricks, play on that. Engage the tribalism of manly and warringah joining forces to combat the western Sydney scum etc

Nobody gives a shit about city v country, especially when the country team is half filled with guys who are from the city

 

[kiap]

the city v country rivalry of yesteryear doesn’t really exist today. But as a southie I love beating those north shore pricks … manly and warringah joining forces to combat the western Sydney scum etc

That's great in the context of Sydney, and it's why the Shute Shield exists. But, for a ''national" comp, most people elsewhere couldn't care less.

I say that as someone who lived in Sydney for almost two decades, still owns a house there (well, the bank does) and still regards it as the best city in Australia - altho maybe it's turned to shit since I left Haven't been back for a little while.

A joined-up North vs GWS vs Camperdown was tried, as we know. And, you're right, city vs country is largely bygone. But if you want to know where the true rivalry is now, it's Sydney versus the Rest (and the rest includes Sydney's west).

The unfortunate part of this rivalry is that only a fraction of it comes from on-field rugby.

Nobody gives a shit about city v country, especially when the country team is half filled with guys who are from the city

That is a fair point.

For me, a scattering of club players across 20 suburban teams (or even 8 or 6 of them) playing each other is not the solution - If, as Laurie Fisher said this past week, the missing piece in Australian rugby is a higher-standard of domestic professional competition.

BTW, I'm not against the top 6-8 clubs playing such fixtures to compete for a post-season Club Championship. It's just not a substitute for a proper national comp.

To get a professional level competition, start with the pro-level teams. Fine by me if the Shute and QPR stars compete as Sydney and Brisbane, respectively, as per Rebels3 suggestion above.

Don't like 'country' teams with city players? He's got Qld Reds instead of Qld Country and NSW Waratahs instead of NSW Country. Better all-year visibity of rugby's known teams and some games still played in the regions.

 

[Silverado]

There’s too many Shute shield clubs to cater to with only 2 nsw teams though, we need to break it down and we NEED them onboard you’re not going to achieve that effectively as is. Why would clubs get around a comp they could very well only have 1-2 players involved in, what’s the bloody point?

Marketing wise I don’t know what angle you play with the current format, the city v country rivalry of yesteryear doesn’t really exist today. But as a southie I love beating those north shore pricks, play on that. Engage the tribalism of manly and warringah joining forces to combat the western Sydney scum etc

Nobody gives a shit about city v country, especially when the country team is half filled with guys who are from the city

If you want to grow the game nationally, you need to have some sort of interest from the country of both NSW and QLD. Yes there are no players picked directly from country clubs, but that's only because they head to the big smoke if they're good enough. If you want to just have City teams, then don't call it a national championship. Also, if it's a straight top 6 with Shute Shield/QLD prem comp, do you think that those that don't make it or people from the country like me will give a Tinkers Cuss? You do realise that rugby in rural areas is declining alarmingly don't you?

 

[TSR]

I like the City v Country teams and support Qld Country as my first team in NRC specifically because they are Qld Country.

When they played in Gladstone, and in Rockhampton previous years, the crowd were definitely aligned with Country and the level to which the NRC gets promoted at all here is normally local marketing efforts plugging guys like Duncan Paia’aua & Jeremiah Lynch with local roots. These are then often picked up by main stream media - although, to be fair, that would still happen if they weren’t playing for Qld
Country.

 

[Silverado]

I like the City v Country teams and support Qld Country as my first team in NRC specifically because they are Qld Country.

When they played in Gladstone, and in Rockhampton previous years, the crowd were definitely aligned with Country and the level to which the NRC gets promoted at all here is normally local marketing efforts plugging guys like Duncan Paia’aua & Jeremiah Lynch with local roots. These are then often picked up by main stream media - although, to be fair, that would still happen if they weren’t playing for Qld
Country.

The same with NSW Country. The likes of Robertson, HJH (Harry Johnson-Holmes), Staniforth and Ned Hanigan are all country boys that now ply their trade in Sydney. The Eagles games are played in regional areas with coaching clinics included. There wasn't much tribalism when Sydney had the Northern Rays, Western Rams, Sydney Stars etc.