Waratah Fan Forum

[rugbysmartarse]

rugby club will be doing a live cross, just FYI

 

[Rob42]

Apparently Iain Payten from the Telegraph will be tweeting live from the forum. At least until they lock the doors and shut down all links to the outside world, in order to enter the NSWRU alternative reality.

 

[HodgoBerro]

If anyones interested I'll be tweeting live from the forum

Follow the hashtag #tahsforum or alternatively follow @barnesys_army

 

[daz]

.
I was thinking of asking whether any of us, as fans, had the right to ask a question, given that none of us have played at that level? Would that be too obtuse?
.

Cyclo, you ask that and I'll put $50 into the G&GR account.

Witnesses and/or audio would be nice!

 

[cyclopath]

Cyclo, you ask that and I'll put $50 into the G&GR account.

Witnesses and/or audio would be nice!

Daz, would have loved to. Man-flu has taken me out however, and I am not going to be there. I was actually interested to see how it played out too.
#1 Tah and HodgoBerro - over to you guys to keep us informed.

 

[daz]

Ah, that's a shame Cyclo. Hope you get better soon.

But my offer still stands to anyone. This is the question that defines the gap between fans and club. It needs to be asked. Sarcastic tone would be good too.

 

[Bruwheresmycar]

Watching the rugby club now. They seem to be implying that the fans are demanding more "attacking rugby". Why? Don't people like watching normal rugby? Surely these people should watch 7s if they want to see a try fest.

I'd rather see two teams go 100% at each other in a real sporting contest, playing a very tactical game and doing everything they can to win, (even if that means a whole game of kicking) than some "due-to-popular-demand" running rugby sham.

Other than that nonsense, the demands seemed reasonable. Most rugby bodies in this country need a kick in the arse when it comes to marketing the game at it's grassroots. Also giving fans better access to the team.

 

[HodgoBerro]

Ok it became very heated during the Q&A session.
Most of the questions posed were about the style of rugby played.

I did pluck up the courage to pose a question (blame Drew Mitchell for encouraging me) about ticket prices and atmosphere.

The questions will be looked at seriously.

 

[#1 Tah]

Well tonight I was reminded why my username is #1 Tah... at this point I think it should be "The Last Tah" or "The Only Tah"

Some fair points were raised by the crowd, it started off fine and dandy, but eventually the tension rose and people started to bag the team and I really felt sorry for the guys sitting up front... Saying that though, they spoke very well.

Highlight of the night was seeing Lauren say "agree" instead of clicking it...

All in all, issues were raised and debated, but nothing new that we havent seen on this forum. What was very encouraging was to hear about the 10, 3, 1 KPI strategy.... we will hit 10k members and 10 mil in revenue, we will play finals footy 3 years in a row, and be the #1 team in the Super Rugby competition, with the #1 fan behind us

 

[HodgoBerro]

When was that?!

I would like to say that I agree on your rebuttal about the culture at the club.

 

[RedsHappy]

Well tonight I was reminded why my username is #1 Tah... at this point I think it should be "The Last Tah" or "The Only Tah"......All in all, issues were raised and debated, but nothing new that we havent seen on this forum. What was very encouraging was to hear about the 10, 3, 1 KPI strategy.... we will hit 10k members and 10 mil in revenue, we will play finals footy 3 years in a row, and be the #1 team in the Super Rugby competition, with the #1 fan behind us

With all due respect to the Tahs' business leaders, they cannot in all seriousness consider 10k members an exciting aspirational target if in 6 months of trying the Reds have hit 15,200 members in a city half the size of Sydney? How many members do the Tahs have today?

 

[HodgoBerro]

Fox Sports article up - http://www.foxsports.com.au/rugby/s.../story-e6frf4qu-1226059236397?from=public_rss

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

I think it's commendable that the Tahs staged this kind of event, knowing full well that there are fans out there who'd be wanting to have a crack at them.

 

[Richo]

With all due respect to the Tahs' business leaders...

Fortunately that's not much.

 

[cyclopath]

With all due respect to the Tahs' business leaders, they cannot in all seriousness consider 10k members an exciting aspirational target if in 6 months of trying the Reds have hit 15,200 members in a city half the size of Sydney? How many members do the Tahs have today?

Well, you gotta start somewhere, I guess, and it does make it more likely that the KPI will be achieved.
If the Tahs were playing like the Reds, we'd be over 10K easily I reckon.
Just out of interest - with the Reds' memberships, how many are full-season, how many are 3 game etc...? Be interesting to see the breakdown, and may give a clue towards strategies for getting more members. Clearly the Reds are doing a few things right in that regard.

 

[Gnostic]

I was encouraged by the comment made regarding poor skills execution (on rugby club), as my view has always been that the volume of kicking doesnt matter if it is well executed. Just look at the mules they do not kick and they play a truly horrible game.

Then true to form Hickey is reported to continually raise stats in his and the team's defence. FFS doesnt he understand now that the stats he loves are meaningless when the fans want to see a tahs side play some decent RUGBY. I doubt if the message will truly penetrate with Hickey, he will just revert to his stats again.

Encouraged by the interview with the Tahs board member on Rugby club, I hope to see some of that leadership from the board down from here on in. I think they have finally realised that 1tah will not pay the bills, and no matter how derisive of the rest of us they may be Mr Burke, they desperately need us, if only for our coin.

 

[Redsfan]

Waugh insisted the Waratahs were endeavouring to play an exciting brand of rugby but were letting themselves down with poor execution.

"The frustration comes from fans when you train all week and then go out on Saturday night and not perform and not execute the skill you've been practising all week," he said.

"So that's the biggest thing for us moving forward and there'll certainly be times to run the ball and the game will open up when we do that.

"At the same time, it's a contest and you've always got a team up against you with 15 guys who are just as desperate to win as you are.

"That's the important part of this and the more people understand this, the better."

To me, this is old Philbo saying "I'm glad they got it all off their chest, but we'll probably keep doing the same thing but now we'll blame our opposition."

 

[RedsHappy]

Isn't the CEO going?

Gagger, upon checking the Waratahs 2010 Annual Report (as at December 31, 2010) I was interested to discover that, although Jason Allen (ex South Australian Motorsport Board) was appointed Waratahs CEO in the latter part of 2010, it would appear that we was not appointed to the actual Waratahs Board. If as CEO he's still not on that Board, it's most unusual that it's so. Here is the end 2010 Board:

The directors of the Company at any time during or since the end of the financial year are:
Edwin Zemancheff (Chairman) (appointed 17 December 2009) Arvid Petersen (appointed 17 December 2009) Sally Loane (appointed 10 March 2010) Russel Tate (appointed 10 March 2010) Alastair Baxter (appointed 10 March 2010) Ross Alan Grant (appointed 01 February 2011) Jim L’Estrange (resigned 30 September 2010)

 

[Gnostic]

To me, this is old Philbo saying "I'm glad they got it all off their chest, but we'll probably keep doing the same thing but now we'll blame our opposition."

Are there times when they arent desperate to win?

 

[Gnostic]

Gagger, upon checking the Waratahs 2010 Annual Report (as at December 31, 2010) I was interested to discover that, although Jason Allen (ex South Australian Motorsport Board) was appointed Waratahs CEO in the latter part of 2010, it would appear that we was not appointed to the actual Waratahs Board. If as CEO he's still not on that Board, it's most unusual that it's so. Here is the end 2010 Board:

interesting, i wonder what the overlap is with the board of the nswru. If it is a majority the structural separation is a sham.