Where to for Super Rugby?

[RebelYell]

The rugby club of my old school, Melbourne Grammar.

Is there any way to buy tickets mate?

 

[Mr Doug]

My suggestion has the advantage that in the event they are no good a nickname requires a change of only one letter.

Some might say it works both ways, IS: e.g. The Shite Shield!!!

 

[Quick Hands]

After decades of defending every move of the ARU and QRU, Wayne Smith has certainly changed his tune in the past few weeks.

It was often said of Australian rugby that it was the most professional in the world during the amateur days. Now, unfortunately, the opposite applies: it has become the most amateurish of games in the professional era. Why? Because the ARU turned its back on what once made it great — devotion to the grassroots and a reliance on dedicated volunteers, in order to chase “excellence” at the very top.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/spo...y/news-story/a56bb1158c91db9370f1701345d42b99

 

[Inside Shoulder]

After decades of defending every move of the ARU and QRU, Wayne Smith has certainly changed his tune in the past few weeks.

It was often said of Australian rugby that it was the most professional in the world during the amateur days. Now, unfortunately, the opposite applies: it has become the most amateurish of games in the professional era. Why? Because the ARU turned its back on what once made it great — devotion to the grassroots and a reliance on dedicated volunteers, in order to chase “excellence” at the very top.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/spo...y/news-story/a56bb1158c91db9370f1701345d42b99

Bloody hell - it can't have been said that often.
1984 and 1991 would be about the extent of it
Edit: as the article suggests

 

[kiap]

After decades of defending every move of the ARU

Not accurate. Wayne Smith in 2011 …

​

With the exception of Flowers' 1000 days, the ARU has been O'Neill's fiefdom since the dawn of professional rugby back in 1995.​

​

Promising as the future might appear to be, at present Deans' figures are the worst of any Wallabies coach since rugby went professional, 24 wins from 43 Tests.​

​

So what KPIs did the ARU board employ in re-engaging O'Neill?​

​

Under him the union now has record debt, the lowest Wallabies win ratio of the professional era, a market share that has fallen from 22 per cent in 2001 to 13.7 per cent today, no sponsor for Super Rugby and stakeholders so terrified of head office and its "adversarial management style" as one state official euphemistically put it, that no one dares speak against him.​

​

Australian rugby, you've done it again!​

 

[Mr Doug]

You had me until the last paragraph.
I would say that World Rugby are doing a pretty good job - consciously or otherwise. The sport is growing in popularity every where but here.

"Every where but here" doesn't have Aussie Rules, IS.
I've never been involved in Gold Coast junior Rugby, as our Son started in the colts. I would say that currently most local clubs would only have one team per age-group, multiplied by 8 clubs, (someone here may know a more accurate number). Our Grandson plays Aussie Rules on the Gold Coast, and in his age division, (under 9), there are 24 teams, with two clubs having 4 teams, another two have 3 teams and most others have 2 teams!
As a matter of interest, I just went through the junior draws to see how many teams played in other age divisions: Under-10 (28); under-11 (19); under-12 (21); under-14 (22); under-16 (17). The girls comp: under-11 (6); under-13 (8); under-15 (6); under-17 (5). The girls haven't been going for long, so will probably increase in numbers.

I spoke to a Mother doing canteen duties at one of the opposition clubs recently. She had a Kiwi accent, so I said: "going by your accent, I would have thought you would be involved in junior Rugby".
She replied: "No way, I don't want my Son gitting tickled"!!

 

[Quick Hands]

"Every where but here" doesn't have Aussie Rules, IS.

Nor does everywhere but here have the ARU or the NSWRU or the QRU.

One could argue that the AFL have filled a void left by rugby. Sure they would have expanded to an extent, but we'd be in a much better position had we embarked on a bottom up strategy since the professional era began rather than the failed top down approach.

 

[Inside Shoulder]

I spoke to a Mother doing canteen duties at one of the opposition clubs recently. She had a Kiwi accent, so I said: "going by your accent, I would have thought you would be involved in junior Rugby".
She replied: "No way, I don't want my Son gitting tickled"!!

I hope you told her about the serious injuries that occur in AFL. Its a game played in 360 degrees ours is pretty much 180 degrees the opportunities are there for as much as they are in rugby.
You should have pointed out to her that (a) she was in Oz and (b) Queensland so tackling in rugby is optional

 

[half]

HHHMMMmm slightly scared to post this. What the hell, as most of you know my wife is a very keen soccer person.

Given out woes I kinda decided to leave Super Rugby and look at local park teams. I still need a degree of high level sport and in the interest of getting fed soccer has seen me arrive.

Confession out of the way, we spoke a little way back about MC on Offsiders almost siding with the ARU and making excuses. I commented that the soccer coach puts his two cents in when he wants to have a go at FFA. He is pushing FFA to expand.

Here is a typical example today the wife just showed me. Just consider the difference when people in positions of power have the confidence to speak their mind. One part just tore my mind apart when I think about going to 4 teams so I bolded it, underlined it.

For GGR consideration .

Socceroos boss Ange Postecoglou, believes that if he was playing football today he would never have made it as a professional.

While the A-League is a fully professional competition with bigger crowds, more money and with greater participation numbers than ever before, the opportunities for aspiring young footballers at the elite level are limited.



During Postecoglou’s playing and coaching era the National Soccer League regularly had 14-16 teams, but since the A-League’s inception the number of teams competing has rarely risen above 10 (it was 11 in 2010/11).

And the Socceroos boss says it’s time for the top tier of Australian football to catch up to the ever-expanding number of grass roots participants.


Speaking exclusively to FourFourTwo Postecoglou said: “The undeniable fact is, that we’ve got more kids playing the game than we have ever had, and the reality of it is we have less opportunities than we’ve ever had.


Reflecting on his own playing career, Postecoglou believes that if he was coming up in today’s climate, he would have missed out on making it as a professional footballer.


“Even though the NSL was semi-professional when I grew up in Melbourne as a 17-year-old there was literally four or five teams that I could’ve played for,” he said.


“If I had any sort of talent I would’ve got an opportunity somewhere.


“Today in Melbourne you are growing up with only two clubs to play for and potentially four or five new contracts every year for young players. I would not have broken through.


“That’s something that becomes really important when you are talking about where the next talented players are going to come from. If we are closing the door on kids before they even get an opportunity then we are minimising the chance of producing the next world class player."


Out of the 199 Aussies who are currently playing overseas, 82 are aged 21 and under and Postecoglou feels young Australian footballers shouldn’t be forced to play abroad because of a lack of clubs at home.


“If we’ve got kids that are coming through and they are talented, we don’t want all of them leaving for overseas because they can’t get an opportunity here,” he said.


“If we had more professional clubs then hopefully it would mean more talent coming through.


“That is why I talk about (A-League) expansion. There are obviously a lot of other issues that come into play but if we are getting more numbers playing the game more than ever then we have got to provide more opportunities.
“If you are growing up in Adelaide, Brisbane or Perth and you’ve only got one team to play for I don’t think that’s enough.

 

[Quick Hands]

^^^There's only one major sport that I know of which is talking about shrinking itself.

But as we are always told, rugby in Australia is uniquely unique and none of the norms which apply to other sports in Australia or rugby in other countries could possibly apply here.

 

[wamberal]

This is a circular argument. Super Rugby is not ours. We are in a partnership (by whatever name or legality). Therefore we cannot stamp our little feet and demand that we maintain five teams. That is up to the partnership.


If having 4 teams instead of 5 is the only way forward for the partnership then, guess what, we either swallow it or quit. If we quit, where do we go?


Super Rugby is enormously important to the game. But unfortunately Super Rugby is not getting the viewership, sponsorship, attendances, etc that we need.


It is not the game talking about shrinking itself, our market has been shrinking, so we and our partners are reacting to the market.



Horse before cart, old chap.

 

[Gnostic]

This is a circular argument. Super Rugby is not ours. We are in a partnership (by whatever name or legality). Therefore we cannot stamp our little feet and demand that we maintain five teams. That is up to the partnership.





If having 4 teams instead of 5 is the only way forward for the partnership then, guess what, we either swallow it or quit. If we quit, where do we go?





Super Rugby is enormously important to the game. But unfortunately Super Rugby is not getting the viewership, sponsorship, attendances, etc that we need.





It is not the game talking about shrinking itself, our market has been shrinking, so we and our partners are reacting to the market.







Horse before cart, old chap.

The first sentence is cancelled by the second sentence.

New Coke was going to be "enormously important" for that brand but it didn't sell and the consumer hated it. Where is it now?

And no it isn't about the Laws of the game.

 

[Quick Hands]

This is a circular argument. Super Rugby is not ours. We are in a partnership (by whatever name or legality). Therefore we cannot stamp our little feet and demand that we maintain five teams. That is up to the partnership.


If having 4 teams instead of 5 is the only way forward for the partnership then, guess what, we either swallow it or quit. If we quit, where do we go?


Super Rugby is enormously important to the game. But unfortunately Super Rugby is not getting the viewership, sponsorship, attendances, etc that we need.


It is not the game talking about shrinking itself, our market has been shrinking, so we and our partners are reacting to the market.



Horse before cart, old chap.

Well, we're certainly in a partnership, but it's one where each of the partners holds a veto power. Whilst veto powers should be used rarely, they should certainly be used where appropriate.

Super rugby viewership, sponsorship and attendances have been in steady decline over a number of years (and show no signs of plateauing). TV viewers and sponsorship go hand in hand, and the fact is that super rugby is a very unattractive proposition for TV and sponsors. TV wants games in the same time slots every week, which just isn't possible in the multi-nation, multi-time zone super rugby schedule. The inability of SANZAAR to provide this markedly reduces its value. The situation is worse for sponsors - who in their right mind will want to tip millions of dollars to get your name on a jersey when the jersey disappears for 3 or 4 weeks into the wee small hours of the morning in South Africa?

The market is/has delivered its verdict on super rugby - it's a concept which was good while it lasted, but it is now going the way of three speed manual column shift gears, standard petrol and white wall tyres. Continuing to throw money into it is madness from any perspective.

No one, least of all the ARU, has provided a scintilla of evidence to show how having 4 teams will be any more profitable than having 5. Yes, we'll maintain our current share of broadcast money until the current agreement ends, but most of that will be taken up with the cost of winding up a franchise. NZ have made it fairly clear that the next broadcast agreement will take into account the number of teams provided to the competition.

I struggle to see how staying in something which is loss making (and shows no signs of turning this around) can be good for the game.

 

[MarkJ]

New Coke was going to be "enormously important" for that brand but it didn't sell and the consumer hated it. Where is it now?

If you believe the conspiracy theorists New Coke was just a distraction which allowed Coke to switch from cane sugar to high fructose corn syrup in 'classic' Coke without people noticing

 

[No4918]

If you believe the conspiracy theorists New Coke was just a distraction which allowed Coke to switch from cane sugar to high fructose corn syrup in 'classic' Coke without people noticing

What's with stevia coke? Is that the one you are talking about?

Coke has a new line about 10 times a year. The brand doesn't care that they fail. It's all about the boost in sales for a a little while until people decide it's actually just as bad as all the others and stop drinking the brand again.

 

[The Honey Badger]

What's with stevia coke? Is that the one you are talking about?

Coke has a new line about 10 times a year. The brand doesn't care that they fail. It's all about the boost in sales for a a little while until people decide it's actually just as bad as all the others and stop drinking the brand again.

They cared about the failure of "Mother" mk 1

That was God awful stuff.

Sent from my F3115 using Tapatalk

 

[MarkJ]

What's with stevia coke? Is that the one you are talking about?

Nah, back in the 80's Coke changed their recipe in the US and there was a massive backlash so they had to change back to the original recipe

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Coke

 

[Inside Shoulder]

good to see everyone's moved on from super rugby - art imitating life?

 

[D-Box]

Just heard on ABC radio that the Force will be in court for a directions hearing this week

Sent from my HTC_0PJA10 using Tapatalk

 

[Quick Hands]

Mercifully for us all, super rugby is now in its mid-season break. I suppose that it would be too much to expect that they make the break a permanent one?

Looking forward to watching some Lions matches.