The Awful Truth About The ARU's Financial Position

[Dave Beat]

Local zone organisations?
It's a committee of part time volunteers,who are there representing their village club, to primarily organise a competition for their Clubs teams,and the rep teams for 15's & 16's
What are your expectations of the zone?

As per your explanation, just that usually volunteers doing what they have done for years and years. IMO a work in progress ARU instructs, STATE-RU Supports, NRC Delivers.
So SJRU & SRU disappear.

 

[Braveheart81]

The big problem Australian Rugby has is that we are still trying to transition from being an amateur game to being a professional game.

In my view, the professional side of things will survive and go reasonably well as long as Australia remains competitive. Rugby is growing internationally and with that, more money will enter the game particularly for TV rights. There are enough young players wanting to be professional footballers that they will fill the available positions and maintain a high standard.

People complain endlessly about the private schools, but in my view, they are still crucial to rugby in Australia because this is where a lot of the fans come from. They are one of the major areas where kids who aren't particularly good still play rugby beyond the age of about 13 or 14. It is important that rugby following parents get their kids into the sport and that their kids show continued interest. They are the future fans of the game.

There just aren't the resources to grow the game in areas where rugby isn't strong because as many people have pointed out, junior teams and junior unions are run entirely by volunteers. More often than not these will be parents of kids playing in the teams. NSWRU doesn't have the resources to grow competitions out of nothing because this requires lots of money and paid staff to achieve. We just don't have that.

 

[Dave Beat]

^^^^
The following is IMO only.
transition from being an amateur game to being a professional game.
Agree, and I think SRU, and SJRU are from the amatuer days and are taking up space.
Rugby is growing internationally and with that, more money will enter the game particularly for TV rights.
Agree, I think we should look outside the square, Japan pay huge $ for Southern Hemishere players, and our seasons do not conflict, and they are hosts for the 2019 RWC. POTENTIAL!!!
People complain endlessly about the private schools, but in my view, they are still crucial to rugby in Australia because this is where a lot of the fans come from.
Not sure that they are complaining about the private schools specifically, i think most post are saying they have their rugby sorted "but" would like to look at ways of leveraging off what they have achieved.
It is important that rugby following parents get their kids into the sport and that their kids show continued interest. They are the future fans of the game.
Yes that is so true, and IMO it should be the Shute Shield they are getting their kids to. At a game the kids are active, and having fun.
NSWRU doesn't have the resources to grow competitions out of nothing because this requires lots of money and paid staff to achieve.
This I will disagree on, the squad of 30 is it does not train 8 hour days like we work. There are 30 employees there who are the resources that can grow the game, okay there are travel commitments. But when does the Super Season finish, they could be visiting schools in school term 4 promoting the game and having fun on school sports days.
Not sure on this, but lets say each SS club can spare 5 players a week (5 x 12 = 60 players in total).

 

[wamberal]

Any involvement by Soup Players in school visits etc would have to be part of their contractual obligations. Either that, or it would have to be voluntary.

 

[Braveheart81]

Super Rugby players already do a lot of visits to schools and junior club training sessions, particularly the injured players.

 

[TOCC]

Yep, players already have a heavy load when it comes to schools, juniors, training camps on top of sponsorship and training obligations.. I'm not sure you could squeeze more out of them in that regard

 

[Dave Beat]

Super Rugby players already do a lot of visits to schools and junior club training sessions, particularly the injured players.

Well how is it arranged, as I haven't seen it.
I have not seen it pro actively put forward like the AFL did with Auskick. In one code it appears the governing body is being pro active, and in another code it appears not even reactive at the moment - just silence.

 

[Quick Hands]

A better fit for the ARU might be Malaysian - or pan am

Or maybe the Costa Corcordia? (With JON as Captain Schettino)

 

[Inside Shoulder]

A better fit for the ARU might be Malaysian - or pan am

Or maybe the Costa Corcordia? (With JON as Captain Schettino)

Nope - that's still visible above the water.
We need something thats been lost without trace

 

[wamberal]

The big problem Australian Rugby has is that we are still trying to transition from being an amateur game to being a professional game.

I totally disagree. We actually made the transition extremely well, mainly because of the existence of rugby loig on our borders. We were used to professionalism, we knew what it meant, we saw it on our television screens every weekend. We knew a lot of former playing colleagues who switched codes, we learnt from them. We accepted professionalism very easily, and adapted to it very well.

We won the 1999 RWC and got into the final in 2003, beat the Loins in 2001, lots of success (partly because of the lessons, and players, and coaches, that we brought across from our professional rivals) the game was actually very popular in those days, the Wallabies were Australia's team. This success, on and off the field, did not happen because we were slow to make the transition, unless you have some insights to share with us.

 

[Inside Shoulder]

NSWRU doesn't have the resources to grow competitions out of nothing because this requires lots of money and paid staff to achieve. We just don't have that.

We shall see how well the grass roots of SJRU, NSWJRU and NSWSRU go at building comps without ARU help.
My tip is they'll do an admirable job and won't levy any one $200 for the privilege of affiliation with the St Leonards GPS Old Boys Wine Society and Retirement Home

 

[Hugh Jarse]

Ignoring the BS with respect to the Grandfather clause rorts, the NSWJRU seem to do a reasonable job of herding the cats to put on a reasonably decent NSW State Championships each year, for way less than the $100k that the National U16 champs is rumoured to cost.

Same could be said for the organisation surrounding the Qld Junior State champs.

Now, the timing of the championships, where they fit on the unmarked, unpaved, unmapped goat track that is the Pathway To Gold, Selection of Rep Teams etc, is a different matter.

 

[Inside Shoulder]

Now, the timing of the championships, where they fit on the unmarked, unpaved, unmapped goat track that is the Pathway To Gold, Selection of Rep Teams etc, is a different matter.

Makes more sense than February/March

 

[Aussie D]

When I referred to zone I meant the local district board. Whether voluntary or not they were appointed to the board due to their experience. As I attempted to imply in my post I would like to see some leadership from said board in the absence of same from higher level boards, clubs should not be left to die a death of a thousand cuts as all it does is deplete the competition and lowering the amount of games for the players.

 

[Braveheart81]

Well how is it arranged, as I haven't seen it.
I have not seen it pro actively put forward like the AFL did with Auskick. In one code it appears the governing body is being pro active, and in another code it appears not even reactive at the moment - just silence.

It purely comes down to money. You're comparing one entity with huge amounts of money and employees to develop their game compared to ours which is running on fumes.

I totally disagree. We actually made the transition extremely well, mainly because of the existence of rugby loig on our borders. We were used to professionalism, we knew what it meant, we saw it on our television screens every weekend. We knew a lot of former playing colleagues who switched codes, we learnt from them. We accepted professionalism very easily, and adapted to it very well.

We won the 1999 RWC and got into the final in 2003, beat the Loins in 2001, lots of success (partly because of the lessons, and players, and coaches, that we brought across from our professional rivals) the game was actually very popular in those days, the Wallabies were Australia's team. This success, on and off the field, did not happen because we were slow to make the transition, unless you have some insights to share with us.

Both those things were relatively soon after professionalism started so I don't think they can be used to show that we transitioned extremely well.

The hangover is being experienced now because the transition between amateur (Shute Shield & Premier Rugby) and professional (Super 15) is too far away from test rugby and our amateur rugby is dying a slow death currently.

I think many contact sports struggle to keep huge numbers in the game once kids start getting bigger (under 15 and up). Outside of the private schools, most kids start dropping out if they aren't any good because the good kids are that much bigger, faster and stronger. We need to work out how to keep fan interest up in a world where the number of players are limited and many fans and potential fans might have stopped playing rugby fairly early in their childhood or not played at all.

 

[Dave Beat]

It purely comes down to money. You're comparing one entity with huge amounts of money and employees to develop their game compared to ours which is running on fumes.

My post was possibly miss read, i quoted someone else's who said Super Players already do allot. I questioned this and asked how, and when as I hadn't seen it locally, but I could be very wrong.

I was suggesting the professional players being paid should / could possibly look at promoting themselves, and the game in the public school system. In my eyes the players are paid handsomely, and by investing their time returns my follow.

 

[Braveheart81]

My post was possibly miss read, i quoted someone else's who said Super Players already do allot. I questioned this and asked how, and when as I hadn't seen it locally, but I could be very wrong.

I was suggesting the professional players being paid should / could possibly look at promoting themselves, and the game in the public school system. In my eyes the players are paid handsomely, and by investing their time returns my follow.

It was my post you quoted, hence my reply.

I have no idea how it is organised, but the players all do this. It is done more heavily in the pre season and carried on more by the injured players during the regular season but it definitely happens.

I'd be highly surprised if the rugby players did it any less than the AFL or NRL players.

Where rugby is behind is that we don't have many paid employees to run and promote things like Auskick and hand out stacks of free kit to kids.

 

[Badger]

Where rugby is behind is that we don't have many paid employees to run and promote things like Auskick and hand out stacks of free kit to kids.

Helps if you have a well resourced sponsor to help pay for it like NAB does for Auskick.

 

[Pfitzy]

But you're not going to get sponsors if you don't have exposure.

• You're not going to have exposure if you don't have a product.
• You're not going to have a product unless it is consumable.
• Its never going to be consumable while The Laws are so poorly structured.
• You're never going to get the purists to change The Laws.

So all you can do is hope your team is winning, because on the evidence shown, the players in the AFL and NRL can continue to be racist, sexist, shit-smearing bigots and the fans will still flock.

If a rugby team finds a way to successfully exploit the Laws, either the Laws or their interpretation is changed to minimise this effect (e.g. post Brumbieleague) or all the other teams catch up and you're back to square one.

 

[wamberal]

Sad but true, Pfitzy.