Social Media Response to Wallabies Squad

[Set piece magic]

I think the reason the letter needs to be looked at is because it attracted more than a thousand likes on facebook in a couple of hours before it was removed. If that many people like it it reflects a big discontent with the ARU and Deans

Regardless of whether you agree or not it shows there is a large discontent with the ARU in Qld.. which is alarming.

Interestingly all the people defending the ARU / attacking the piece are from NSW. I'm not saying the piece is right or wrong but to say there isn't an issue in the ARU at the moment is beyond sweeping stuff under the carpet

If you ignore the Quade example and look at say Mogg not being picked, I think it shows what I'm getting at. He's been electric, slips off tackles like Larkham and injury prone people ala Horne who can't get out of bed without tearing a hamstring have been picked ahead of him..

More on the social media front:

14k views on youtube in a few days

 

[Braveheart81]

Why should the average working rugby supporter have to pay those ludicrous prices to watch a test live at the ground?

I don't think the prices are ludicrous. They are well in line with other major events that happen much more frequently than a Lions tour.

In the guy's original post he questioned whether it was fair that a fan had to save 22 hours of wages to go to two Lions test matches?

I think the answer to that is yes. This is a one in twelve year event and the demand is very high. All the tests have effectively sold out. Dribs and drabs of tickets have been put on sale but the reality is that these grounds are going to be full at the prices charged.

The average working rugby supporter saved up to buy tickets to these matches. I don't think that is an outrageous thing to make people do. People might begrudge paying that much for one evening's entertainment but at the end of the day they still do it because they realise it is such a rare event and they want to be part of it.

If it weren't for injury there would have likely been 11 Tahs, 6 Brumbies and 5 Reds in the squad.

Does anyone think it is a coincidence that the majority of defenders of Deans and the ARU come from the supporters of a side that despite being lower on the table than both the reds and the brumbies have as much representation in the squad as them combined?

I think it is pretty irrelevant. Most people disagree with a few of the selections in the squad but only a few, regardless of where they are from. The majority of people move on though because at the end of the day the squad is good, the majority of the selections make sense and whinging about a couple of players in a squad of 25 achieves little.

I don't think the numbers from each team has ever been a consideration for selection and nor should it. Players should be judged on their merits. You don't try and pick a player from one team because their team is a couple of spots higher on the ladder than a player from another team that you consider a better player. It is never going to work like that.

The squad was picked now whilst the Tahs are clearly on an upward trajectory. If it had been picked 6 or 8 weeks ago I'm sure there would have been several less Waratahs in the team. It had been picked 6 or 8 weeks ago you'd have probably seen Mogg, Auelua, Smith, McCabe/Tapuai, Palmer, McMeniman and Cooper in the squad. You wouldn't have seen Fainga'a but you also wouldn't have seen Barnes, Horne, Kepu and Dennis.

Even the most angry people are only upset by Cooper missing out and a couple of borderline selections yet they are treating this situation as if it's the end of the world.

I think we've got the best squad we've had in the last few years and we'll put a strong side on the park. I'm excited for the tour to start and want to watch some rugby. I'll happily debate the merit of selections and tactics (or lack there of) until I'm blue in the face but I don't understand the point of getting so upset by one or two selections or non-selections.

 

[cyclopath]

If it weren't for injury there would have likely been 11 Tahs, 6 Brumbies and 5 Reds in the squad.

Does anyone think it is a coincidence that the majority of defenders of Deans and the ARU come from the supporters of a side that despite being lower on the table than both the reds and the brumbies have as much representation in the squad as them combined?

Not agreeing 100% with you, or anyone else, does not make someone a defender of the ARU or Deans. It just means they have a different opinion, to some degree. I was in favour of Cooper, for instance, but find some of the carry-on about doom and gloom hyperbolic.
That trivialises their opinion as much as any supposed labelling as "nutbag Qlders", or whatever crap was posted above. It aint all black and white, despite the posturing of a few to try and paint it so.

 

[terry j]

As PROUD person who has not yet ever looked at facebook (and just to finish my luddite credentials has also never owned a mobile phone-the mere thought of being able to be interrupted at any random time is enough to make me quiver) I find this whole phenomenon fascinating as an outsider.

To be completely honest I had thoughts of starting a thread along these lines after seeing so many get into a froth about 'recent issues' (I think that covers it and we are all on the same page).

So, let's use this letter as an example and see if I can get my point across.

I think we all forget just how recent this new found ability we have actually is. Hands up anyone here that can recall participating on the net with either forums or similar social media like facebook leading up to and during the last lions tour??

Anyone? Well, there might be a hand at the back of the hall that I can't see but from where i stand it looks like few have those hands in the air.

It bigs itself up by mere dint of participating in this new phenomenon. It gets bigged up by the mere fact that (to a large extent) 'poor' old deans is basically the FIRST coach to subjected to anything like this scrutiny and comment.

So, YES, this level of criticism and second guessing of coaching selections IS unprecedented, but in a very false way if you follow me. Because all too often *we* forget that this level of criticism can only be done now, by me and thee.

And that to mine is the weakness of taking social commentary as having a lot of worth, every man and his dog has an opinion, and now they are bloody well gonna express it as a god given right! And do it over and over as often as they bloody well want to! And, without casting aspersions here sadly my assessment of the general level of intelligence of the majority of people is not that high (a general observation, not really relating to 'specialist' points of view like this forum)

The level of intelligence of a mob??

We can all make up our individual minds on that.

So all in all a fascinating area, but the point about forgetting just how recent this stuff is can lead to false impressions perhaps.

 

[SammyP]

I am a member of this site that has had very little to say on this matter. I think that Nic White should have been in the squad and I think it's ludicrous that burgess is in contention given that he has not played in the country for years, look at the fuss over smith. At least he was playing with the brumbies. But as for the whole QC (Quade Cooper) thing I am not game to give an opinion for fear of being berated, labelled as a hater or even un-Australian. Social media has been alive with the topic and like some people here have stated, it is only the vocal ones who contribute. I too have spoken to those not on this site and they do not go along with the vocal majority. In recent years deans has done the best with a pretty poor group. Injuries etc have made it hard, he has had a difficult job made even harder by players egos (not just Cooper) and public pressure. Yes,
some of his decisions are questionable but I will support the wallabies in this and every tour, because they are the wallabies. I will not turn away from them because I think someone else should be coach or because a player I liked wasn't selected. I am proud to be an Australian. Those who don't feel the same way are welcome to support whichever country they wish.
There. That's my social media rant.

 

[boyo]

I wonder how many of the corporate crowd are "theatre-goers" who received their tickets as freebies from their company?
These people often have very little interest in the match and attend mainly for the networking opportunities, and the free drinks and food. Such people turn up for the opening of an envelope.
The ticket prices probably deter many, despite it being a rare event. No doubt, many people say "Fuck it, I will watch it on the TV".
So, in essence, how many attending are rugby-types?

 

[Inside Shoulder]

For 4-5 years?

It just seems to me that the selection policy over the last few years has been 'if in doubt pick a Tah'. All the 50/50 ones seem to go that way!

I'm no longer, to the extent I ever was, a defender of Deans.
If the individual Tahs played to their potentials. or even played as well as they for the Wobbs, when playing for the Tahs you'd have no grounds for complaint.

 

[Dumbledore]

Yeah, I am sure there are all a bunch of sooks that have no reason to whinge.

At some stage you need to come down off your high horse and ask yourself if this many people are losing faith in the ARU, maybe something really is wrong?

How many people are losing faith? Seriously, there's a minority of people who have thrown their collective toys out of the pram because of one selection.

There's a weird entitlement complex developing, where the ARU not only have a responsibility to win for us, they have a resonsibilty to do it in the way we want with the team we want. There are entirely legitimate reasons for every single one of the selections Deans has made - even if I don't agree with all of them. He had the team flying in 2010. I'm hoping he can do it again.

 

[Braveheart81]

I wonder how many of the corporate crowd are "theatre-goers" who received their tickets as freebies from their company?
These people often have very little interest in the match and attend mainly for the networking opportunities, and the free drinks and food. Such people turn up for the opening of an envelope.
The ticket prices probably deter many, despite it being a rare event. No doubt, many people say "Fuck it, I will watch it on the TV".
So, in essence, how many attending are rugby-types?

Does this number really change though? There are always plenty of corporate types at rugby tests. I don't see why it would be anymore this time around. These tickets are generally given out to sponsors etc.

The fact that tickets are more expensive and sold out very quickly would suggest to me that more rugby types are attending. People who aren't that interested are less likely to pay the high ticket prices if they're not really interested.

I'm no longer, to the extent I ever was, a defender of Deans.
If the individual Tahs played to their potentials. or even played as well as they for the Wobbs, when playing for the Tahs you'd have no grounds for complaint.

Maybe part of the Tahs problem in recent years has been that despite having so many Wallabies, their weakest positions have been halfback (since Burgess left) and fly half (until Foley has hit his straps this year). The other key position where we have a strong player but he has missed plenty of games through injury in recent years is TPN at hooker.

My thoughts would be that you get more mileage from star players in certain position than you do in others. Last year the Tahs had a dominant scrum and forward pack in general but their backline couldn't score any tries so the team lost most games. You potentially have a better Super Rugby team with less Wallabies overall but more Wallabies in certain positions.

 

[Richo]

If anyone is so OUTRAGED at the non-selection of Quade and other injustices that they'd like to give away their tickets in protest, send me a PM

 

[Scoey]

How many people are losing faith? Seriously, there's a minority of people who have thrown their collective toys out of the pram because of one selection.

A minority? Back that up with some figures.
You're quick to shut down anyone who claims that a majority of fans are angry or whatever on a lack of data but seem able to confidently claim it's a minority so I assume you have the figures to back that up?

 

[Richo]

Not agreeing 100% with you, or anyone else, does not make someone a defender of the ARU or Deans. It just means they have a different opinion, to some degree. I was in favour of Cooper, for instance, but find some of the carry-on about doom and gloom hyperbolic.
That trivialises their opinion as much as any supposed labelling as "nutbag Qlders", or whatever crap was posted above. It aint all black and white, despite the posturing of a few to try and paint it so.

Exactly. It's ludicrous: people are declaring the series lost and the selections an utter disaster because one player was not selected and then having a go at anyone who doesn't feel the same way.

Maybe I don't get it because I'm from NSW and thus am giddy with euphoria that 11 Tahs were selected. Actually, I don't give a crap how many Tahs were selected. If I'd been picking the first 25, there'd have been less (no Timani, no Dennis, maybe no Barnes). But I doubt the selectors even count how many players come from each province. Not to mention that this whole provincial bias nonsense makes even less sense when you remember that ROBBIE DEANS IS FROM FUCKING NEW ZEALAND.

 

[Braveheart81]

A minority? Back that up with some figures.
You're quick to shut down anyone who claims that a majority of fans are angry or whatever on a lack of data but seem able to confidently claim it's a minority so I assume you have the figures to back that up?

Well seeing as it has been pointed out that over 1,000 people liked the long ranty whinge the guy had on facebook and how significant this number is (leading to claims of the majority of people agreeing with the guy), let's put it in perspective by saying that the Qantas Wallabies facebook page is liked by around 190,000 people.

Whilst I agree that 1,000 people liking the post is significant, it is still very much a minority.

 

[Bullrush]

This reminds me of when Graham Henry got the AB job again over Deans back in 2007. If you had listened to talkback radio or read too many letters to the editor, on-line posts etc you would have thought that the whole country were RD lovers and felt cheated by Henry's re-appointment.

The truth was that there were a large number of fans who were quite happy with Henry's re-appointmnet and with RD not getting the gig.

Once you get what you want, there is sometimes little motivation to keep telling everyone about it. I dare say a lot of people see and may even agree with Dean's selections, especially QC (Quade Cooper), but just don't see any need to tell the whole world about it.

 

[Richo]

Maybe Gagger can pass the hat around and we can all chip in for Newspoll to ask a statistically significant proportion of rugby fans what they think of Quade's selection?

 

[en_force_er]

This reminds me of when Graham Henry got the AB job again over Deans back in 2007. If you had listened to talkback radio or read too many letters to the editor, on-line posts etc you would have thought that the whole country were RD lovers and felt cheated by Henry's re-appointment.

The truth was that there were a large number of fans who were quite happy with Henry's re-appointmnet and with RD not getting the gig.

Once you get what you want, there is sometimes little motivation to keep telling everyone about it. I dare say a lot of people see and may even agree with Dean's selections, especially QC (Quade Cooper), but just don't see any need to tell the whole world about it.

It's called the "vocal minority". It exists in most issues.

 

[Dumbledore]

A minority? Back that up with some figures.
You're quick to shut down anyone who claims that a majority of fans are angry or whatever on a lack of data but seem able to confidently claim it's a minority so I assume you have the figures to back that up?

Of course I don't. Can we please stop with the pseudoscience? I don't have any numbers, you don't have any numbers.

That we don't have thousands of outraged fans from New South Wales, the ACT, Victoria and Western Australia tells me that the 20-odd people on here who are WEALLY WEALLY unhappy and the maybe thousand-or so unhappy people on broader media outlets are probably the minority.

Seriously. Most of us wanted Quade selected. Most of us wanted Deans gone after the WC. But hey, that didn't happen and Quade might yet be selected. I'm going to get around the boys no matter who is selected. Until then I'm not going to spend my time making sure everyone knows just how unhappy I am with the ARU, it's just boring and has the only effect of bringing everyone else down.

 

[Scoey]

people are declaring the series lost and the selections an utter disaster because one player was not selected.

Are they?

Well seeing as it has been pointed out that over 1,000 people liked the long ranty whinge the guy had on facebook and how significant this number is (leading to claims of the majority of people agreeing with the guy), let's put it in perspective by saying that the Qantas Wallabies facebook page is liked by around 190,000 people.

Whilst I agree that 1,000 people liking the post is significant, it is still very much a minority.

I didn't 'like' that post and I would include myself in the group of fans that are disillusioned with the whole ARU setup at the moment. This is my point. There are people that are upset with a number of things going on with the ARU and the Wallabies that aren't posting on forums and Facebook pages. This doesn't mean they don't exist and that their grievances aren't justifiable. Yet when they do express their views they are told that they are just a minority and that everything is peachy with the Wallabies and to cheer up.
If you guys are all good with the way things are going then that's fantastic! Im happy for you, i really am! But don't be so ignorant to assume that is the way that everyone feels and don't berate people who don't share a similar view.

 

[Scoey]

Of course I don't. Can we please stop with the pseudoscience? I don't have any numbers, you don't have any numbers.

That we don't have thousands of outraged fans from New South Wales, the ACT, Victoria and Western Australia tells me that the 20-odd people on here who are WEALLY WEALLY unhappy and the maybe thousand-or so unhappy people on broader media outlets are probably the minority.

Seriously. Most of us wanted Quade selected. Most of us wanted Deans gone after the WC. But hey, that didn't happen and Quade might yet be selected. I'm going to get around the boys no matter who is selected. Until then I'm not going to spend my time making sure everyone knows just how unhappy I am with the ARU, it's just boring and has the only effect of bringing everyone else down.

1st para you agree that none of us have any numbers

2nd para you start again throwing numbers out there to back up your argument. Wow!

If this is boring and bringing you down, perhaps don't read it?

 

[Richo]

Are they?

Not you, but you can find posts like that in the 25 Man Squad thread, for example, and certainly all over the front page comments.