waiopehu oldboy
George Smith (75)
Jamie Joseph has reportedly signed up to coach Shizuoka (formerly Yamaha) so not available for any of the Super Rugby vacancies.
Don't care about the writeup or the writer.Don't know how accurate this writeup is, but being P Cully who knows.
Don't know how accurate this writeup is, but being P Cully who knows. He is suggesting McLennan not wanting to let go of strings is one reason they can't get an inderpendant board for Super? I know there is almost no chance of a draft in super anyway, he just doesn't stack up, but would love to see the board underway.
Stuff
www.stuff.co.nz
Totally agree. We'll just see kids sign contracts at an earlier age to go overseas or drive them to League for at least one contract. Soccer the worlds most global game don't have a draft... I wouldn't mind seeing the national selection policies relaxed in the future to be within Super Rugby and still qualify for the Wallabies or All Blacks.Drafts only work in sports where players effectively or actually have nowhere else to go which clearly isn't the case in rugby. If anyone's dumb enough to try it & it survives the inevitable legal challenges watch players head off overseas to a Club of their choice rather than enter the draft lottery & potentially end up at a Club where they have no interest in being.
WRT the independent board NZR should put up a candidate & call McLennan's bluff i.e. make him state the reason(s) why that person is unsuitable & nominate someone else who he (& hopefully at least most of his Board) thinks would be.
This is one of the issues I have with Cully’s writing. He’s very NZ centric which is fine because it’s his main audience, however no mention of who the NZR are wanting to lead the independent board. Perhaps Hamish is hesitant because he feels it might not truly be independent because they are prepared to nominate someone as a block because it’s in their interests to do so, which again is fine as I’m sure Aus would and probably will look to do the same. We don’t want another Bart Campbell (TEG) situation where at least the optics were shocking where it looked like Aus teams almost benefited 0 from the first iteration of Super Round and all the kiwi teams were financially compensated and none of the Aus teams were, in a supposed private and independent deal. Then it comes out the company that managed it is linked to the NZR board, has links to SilverLake etc.Don't know how accurate this writeup is, but being P Cully who knows. He is suggesting McLennan not wanting to let go of strings is one reason they can't get an inderpendant board for Super? I know there is almost no chance of a draft in super anyway, he just doesn't stack up, but would love to see the board underway.
Stuff
www.stuff.co.nz
16 NRL teams there and smaller crowds than a Collingwood, Richmond, Essendon, Carlton, West Coast or Adelaide home game. Nothing to be that envious offHard not to be envious of what Magic Round offers for the NRL in terms of fan experience. The whole area was already busy last night.
Went for a walk through the precinct this morning en route to work and it’s very well setup. They even have a bubble at the Caxton that Fletch and Hindy will broadcast from all weekend.
The field conditions at Suncorp will play a big part as to whether the weekend is a roaring success gameplay wise, but in terms of fan experience, the NRL have it right.
Imitation is the biggest form of flattery isn’t it? Maybe Super Rugby should just bite the bullet and run one at Suncorp as well and see what happens, the current setup isn’t the answer. You could argue the NRL actually stole the concept from us, considering the 10s tournament.
The games are fun to be at with such a mix of fans but the fun of the whole thing came from the buzz around the city. Getting breakfast and seeing fans everywhere, going from breakfast straight to a bar full of fans then you slowly make your way into the ground watch some footy then walk straight out bar into the bars and everybody is on the same page.16 NRL teams there and smaller crowds than a Collingwood, Richmond, Essendon, Carlton, West Coast or Adelaide home game. Nothing to be that envious off
Yeah, it's mini world cup vibes in Brisbane each year it's on. NRL have really nailed it on magic round, it should be what we're aiming for with super round.The games are fun to be at with such a mix of fans but the fun of the whole thing came from the buzz around the city. Getting breakfast and seeing fans everywhere, going from breakfast straight to a bar full of fans then you slowly make your way into the ground watch some footy then walk straight out bar into the bars and everybody is on the same page.
Unfortunately the issue with Super Round isn’t the locals attending, it’s the willingness of fans outside the locals to travel. You’d get slightly better attendance in Brisbane but Super Rugby lacks engagement with fans that nobody from Sydney, Perth, Canberra, Melbourne or NZ would travel for it. Therefore I think you’d just end up with the current group of rusted on fans to attend, the PI community would be engaged, and a small buff up of numbers for the days certain kiwi teams play. I like the idea of super round, however think you’d end up with an average of 15k per days instead of Melbournes 10k, little coverage and the vast majority of locals completely unaware that anything is happening.Hard not to be envious of what Magic Round offers for the NRL in terms of fan experience. The whole area was already busy last night.
Went for a walk through the precinct this morning en route to work and it’s very well setup. They even have a bubble at the Caxton that Fletch and Hindy will broadcast from all weekend.
The field conditions at Suncorp will play a big part as to whether the weekend is a roaring success gameplay wise, but in terms of fan experience, the NRL have it right.
Imitation is the biggest form of flattery isn’t it? Maybe Super Rugby should just bite the bullet and run one at Suncorp as well and see what happens, the current setup isn’t the answer. You could argue the NRL actually stole the concept from us, considering the 10s tournament.
Agree,Unfortunately the issue with Super Round isn’t the locals attending, it’s the willingness of fans outside the locals to travel. You’d get slightly better attendance in Brisbane but Super Rugby lacks engagement with fans that nobody from Sydney, Perth, Canberra, Melbourne or NZ would travel for it. Therefore I think you’d just end up with the current group of rusted on fans to attend, the PI community would be engaged, and a small buff up of numbers for the days certain kiwi teams play. I like the idea of super round, however think you’d end up with an average of 15k per days instead of Melbournes 10k, little coverage and the vast majority of locals completely unaware that anything is happening.
I know it’s not quite the same but do we all remember the Brisbane 10s?
My group of rugby mates used to do this every year when one of us was working down in singleton - spend a day in the hunter valley and then drive down to Sydney for Reds v Tahs, it was an excellent way to spend a weekend. We've been talking about doing something similar for super round, but timing hasn't worked out for us yet.^^^Agree,
It's the worst thing about Super rugby, no travelling support. I'll happily go to Sydney for a boys weekend and watch the Rebels, but we organize everything ourselves. The only time I have seen Rebels do a travel package it was aimed at Corporates and not the regular fans.
Most away games you expect to barely see another Rebels fan in the stadium. I'm sure the other teams feel the same.
And this isn't a one off. This happens every single weekend. Though I do think it's not indicative of the actual odds. Why are Reds such firm favourites and Rebels and Drua are more favoured than their 3%.this is the root of the issue, lack of competitiveness in the competition. It’s fucken boring when the results are pre-determined.
AFL & NRL gain traction because the teams are all much more competitive the super rugby, thanks to equalisation measures in those tournaments that NZ Rugby and Rugby Australia will never agree on.
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