SRP (Super Rugby Pacific) 2023 General Chat

[Doritos Day]

Thought the Friday crowd was pretty good, I’d say it topped all 3 days of last year’s Super Round.

Today could be grim the matchups are pretty soft

Hopefully tomorrow is the best yet

 

[Dctarget]

I think getting all the NZers on Friday with the Rebels was smart.

 

[ForceFan]

What a tragic indictment on our great game that we can't even provide attendance figure to Austadiums.
RAu - you need to own the problem before you can start looking for solutions!

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

I think getting all the NZers on Friday with the Rebels was smart.

There did seem to be a heap of Cantab/ CruSadist & Otago/ Clan jerseys in the early game & I'm assuming a fair few Horrorcane ones in the late game.

Wifey's whanau contributing 11 Tribe fans to tonight's crowd. One is eight plus months pregnant so if things get exciting enough it could be an even dozen by full time

 

[Adam84]

At this point I'm struggling to buy into this Moana Pasifika concept and see them anything but a 6th New Zealand team. They're only playing one game in Samoa in 2023, and none in Tonga, despite receiving World Rugby funding to improve those pathways. NZ Rugby still holds positions on the Moana Pasifika board and whilst they featured heavy Tonga/Samoa test representation, they don't seem to have done anything to build those links.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

^ not sure if you were ever one of them but over the years there's been a heap of people on here demanding that NZ put out up to three additional teams so as to reduce the perceived talent imbalance between NZ & Aus. I can recall predicting that as soon as MP (Moana Pasifika) was created it would be spun as somehow increasing the imbalance...

 

[Adam84]

World Rugby didn't provide funding for that purpose though.

Season 1 the team could be forgiven since it was a hasty rush to put all the pieces together, but it's season two now and i kind of hoped/expected that we would see more games in the Oceania region as the Drua have done, and see better pathways with Samoa/Tonga(admittedly that may still come). As long as they continue to play in Auckland with a board made up of NZ based members and NZ Rugby appointed members, they're going to struggle for identity.

 

[dru]

^ not sure if you were ever one of them but over the years there's been a heap of people on here demanding that NZ put out up to three additional teams so as to reduce the perceived talent imbalance between NZ & Aus. I can recall predicting that as soon as MP (Moana Pasifika) (Moana Pasifika) was created it would be spun as somehow increasing the imbalance...

Not sure exactly what "imbalance" you are referring to, but I don't think it's what Adam was talking about.

 

[PhilClinton]

What’s the final wrap up on Super round?

Crowds seemed decent until Sunday from what I could tell. Was there good engagement and events around the stadium all weekend?

 

[Dctarget]

What’s the final wrap up on Super round?

Crowds seemed decent until Sunday from what I could tell. Was there good engagement and events around the stadium all weekend?

I only went on Friday night (and just the Rebels game at that). But the atmosphere was good. Not sure what the point of the round is, don't think I can stomach more than two live rugby games a weekend. My guess is no one travels for it, it just activates the various rugby diaspora in Melbourne who don't normally goes to Rebels games.

 

[The Ghost of Raelene]

I only went on Friday night (and just the Rebels game at that). But the atmosphere was good. Not sure what the point of the round is, don't think I can stomach more than two live rugby games a weekend. My guess is no one travels for it, it just activates the various rugby diaspora in Melbourne who don't normally goes to Rebels games.

No point in the event if nobody is going to travel. I know SBW said it's in NZ next year which is good I think. Should move every year so your city will only have it once a decade.

 

[Wallaby Man]

I think the biggest issue with the event isn’t Melbourne it’s the inability of fans from WA, QLD, ACT and NSW to want to travel to it. To me it was evident with the Sunday crowd. Once there was no kiwi, PI or Melb playing then nobody was there. One of the reasons the NRL round works is people travel from all over the place to attend.

 

[Dctarget]

I think the biggest issue with the event isn’t Melbourne it’s the inability of fans from WA, QLD, ACT and NSW to want to travel to it. To me it was evident with the Sunday crowd. Once there was no kiwi, PI or Melb playing then nobody was there. One of the reasons the NRL round works is people travel from all over the place to attend.

So it's the quality of entertainment. People will travel for the Aus Open/Grand Prix/AFL matches. Obviously not saying these are similar but how do we get Super Round to be more attractive?

 

[Wallaby Man]

So it's the quality of entertainment. People will travel for the Aus Open/Grand Prix/AFL matches. Obviously not saying these are similar but how do we get Super Round to be more attractive?

I’m not sure if it’s the entertainment. It’s an event for die hards, just like the NRL round is. Casuals aren’t interested in sitting all day watching matches, they’d rather do that for a single match. Where ever it is next year (and I hope they stick with it) it needs to be later in the season so it can build into it. Potentially condensing to 2 days might help as well. The sad truth is probably not enough people care about any of our teams to travel to watch them and there is a tipping point where the die hards that would just say why bother because i will be a minority there anyway.

Maybe the independent commission coming will help people become fans of the league instead of just their team, therefore prepared and captivated to watch all the games.

 

[HogansHeros]

If Moana Pasifika are still going to be based in Auckland, then it makes sense for it to be there, where there is a base of fans for 2 home teams. Play Blues 1 day and Moana the next

 

[Wilson]

So it's the quality of entertainment. People will travel for the Aus Open/Grand Prix/AFL matches. Obviously not saying these are similar but how do we get Super Round to be more attractive?

I think it's all still a question of marketing - there doesn't appear to be a hell of a lot of it outside of Melbourne. Even in rugby circles up here you're just hearing that it's on from a broadcast perspective, not that much about the event itself. I know Stan has a little bit during the week, but that's too late. It probably doesn't help having it so early in the season either, it's hard to generate buzz for it before the season itself has started. The trade off latter is all the local competition for eye balls with AFL, but if the goal is to bring people in from out of state that shouldn't matter as much.

Additionally there really should be more of a push for group tours for club supporters led by former players, like they run for the world cup - e.g. Reds tour with Horwill and Higgenbotham with events planned in and around Melbourne alongside the games. They're not going to bring in huge numbers, but once you have a base of committed groups it's much easier to run supporting events through out the weekend in addition to the rugby.

Basically this sort of thing, but at a smaller scale:

Page not found

As the Official Travel Partner for Rugby Australia, get the latest news from Wallabies Travel. Browse our tour packages and keep up to date with the Wallabies fixtures here!

wallabiestravel.com.au

 

[Dan54]

I pretty happy for it to remain in Aus, even as a kiwi resident, I not sure it would do any better having it at home, and genuinely think it does more for the game in Australia to have it there. And times become more of a problem with early games at home for Aus audiences

 

[RebelYell]

I was thinking that Super Round might work better across two locations on the same weekend:

EG - 3 Kiwi derbies in Auckland on a Saturday, 3 Aussie derbies in Brisbane/Sydney on a Sunday.

 

[Ignoto]

Why didn't they just push the magic round back a week and have it over the long weekend in Melbourne?

In any event, it's such a shit time of year for it for spectators. There's a massive difference sitting in the autumn sun in Queensland watching rugby than summer in Melbourne where it was scorching hot.

The fact that the broadcast stadium side appeared to have little or no-one in it suggests the general public in Melbourne isn't interested in either rugby or the event.

 

[Dctarget]

Why didn't they just push the magic round back a week and have it over the long weekend in Melbourne?

In any event, it's such a shit time of year for it for spectators. There's a massive difference sitting in the autumn sun in Queensland watching rugby than summer in Melbourne where it was scorching hot.

The fact that the broadcast stadium side appeared to have little or no-one in it suggests the general public in Melbourne isn't interested in either rugby or the event.

the event. Watch Melbourne sell out Bledisloes.