Wallabies 2024

[Slim 293]

It sounds like Nucifora was only going to be here short term anyways, with the Scottish gig being on the cards for a while...

 

[Wilson]

Nucifora would be ideal if we could get the states to vote themselves out of existence, and then Nucifora could roll out his centralised model.

Even then, the centralised model Nucifora put into place in Ireland doesn't suit Australian conditions. There are some similarities but, population dynamics, competition in the sporting market, asset base and even tax law are all different enough here to require a pretty different, custom solution, not just a copy of the Irish model.

There's also the less spoken about part of Nucifora's record with Ireland where he absolutely gutted the Women's program. That's not something we can afford to do here, and where the scene is in Australia right now it's likely something we need to be focusing on, rather than stepping back from.

 

[dru]

Even then, the centralised model Nucifora put into place in Ireland doesn't suit Australian conditions. There are some similarities but, population dynamics, competition in the sporting market, asset base and even tax law are all different enough here to require a pretty different, custom solution, not just a copy of the Irish model.

There's also the less spoken about part of Nucifora's record with Ireland where he absolutely gutted the Women's program. That's not something we can afford to do here, and where the scene is in Australia right now it's likely something we need to be focusing on, rather than stepping back from.

Doesn't make me happy, but this is the reality of the situation.

 

[Strewthcobber]

Sure there are differences, but the starting point is the same - Full control with pro teams reporting up to RA, not the current state where the RA board reports to the Super Rugby teams.

 

[JRugby2]

Even then, the centralised model Nucifora put into place in Ireland doesn't suit Australian conditions. There are some similarities but, population dynamics, competition in the sporting market, asset base and even tax law are all different enough here to require a pretty different, custom solution, not just a copy of the Irish model.

There's also the less spoken about part of Nucifora's record with Ireland where he absolutely gutted the Women's program. That's not something we can afford to do here, and where the scene is in Australia right now it's likely something we need to be focusing on, rather than stepping back from.

Our competitive sporting landscape is kind of similar to Ireland

The GAA has finished top of the list as Ireland’s most popular sport, according to research found by the Teneo Sport and Sponsorship Index 2022.
https://www.sportsjoe.ie/world-of-sport/gaa-most-popular-sport-ireland-278638
Gaelic Games hits the number one spot for the fifth year in a row, with soccer nicking top place back in 2017.
https://www.sportsjoe.ie/world-of-sport/gaa-most-popular-sport-ireland-278638
Soccer sits comfortably in second place, and rugby takes the third

Rugby is obviously not 3rd in Aus but like Ireland its not close to 1 either. And there are about 1/4 the amount of people in Ireland (including Northern Ireland) than Australia suggesting we should have a bigger crop to choose from, theoretically (even taking into account the lower relative popularity).

What doesn't help us is having an mutli-Ireland-sized geographic gap between each of our capital cities, but thats probably a bit further down the list of issues in Australian Rugby.

 

[Wilson]

Our competitive sporting landscape is kind of similar to Ireland



Rugby is obviously not 3rd in Aus but like Ireland its not close to 1 either. And there are about 1/4 the amount of people in Ireland (including Northern Ireland) than Australia suggesting we should have a bigger crop to choose from, theoretically (even taking into account the lower relative popularity).

What doesn't help us is having an mutli-Ireland-sized geographic gap between each of our capital cities, but thats probably a bit further down the list of issues in Australian Rugby.

There are similarities, but the crucial difference is Ireland only have one professional competitor for talent in soccer, and it's not that close in terms of the athletes they are looking for. As popular as GAA is it's not going to dump money into pathways and talent acquisition in contest with Rugby in the way that AFL and NRL in particular do here. That's a much bigger challenge here, but there are also opportunities it presents in terms of multi-skilled athletes and cross-pollination of ideas at a high performance level that we already don't take enough advantage of.

At the end of the day it's the combination of all those factors I listed (and geography/geopolitical circumstances which I missed) that make it so significantly different. Any one of them on their own probably wouldn't shift the needle much, which might be part of the reason Scotland have chased Nucifora so hard - their circumstances are much closer to Ireland's than ours.