Omar Comin'
Chilla Wilson (44)
Given the player strike in Paris seems to have worked a treat, I wonder if players here and in South Africa will consider the same should the ARU and SARU agree to cutting teams half way through the season.
Just read what Bob Dwyer had to say on way forward. Most insightful commentary I have read on what is required and problems rugby faces in this country.entirely consistent: they don't know what they're doing so they don't know what he should be doing.
Given the player strike in Paris seems to have worked a treat, I wonder if players here and in South Africa will consider the same should the ARU and SARU agree to cutting teams half way through the season.
Half, as I alluded to in post #1188 little if anyting has been done by the highly paid professionals running the game in the past 15 years to address the junior decline. Guys like JON basked in the glories of success at the professional level while ignoring what was happening at the bottom. Super and Wallaby success actually blinded many to the true state of the game. It's only now when the storm has hit the professional game that we see the authorities showing concern. That they appear to not know what to do is hardly a surprise, as it doesn't accord with their world view of rugby, which they almost universally view throught the prism of elite private schools. The article paints an even gloomier picture of the future than the one that I've been posting about for years.
I note now that some are explaining this away as an effect of a general decline in competitive sports. We've even been told that the decline of the British Emprie is a factor. I'm not sure that these really explain the rugby decline. We certainly haven't engaged with the non-anglo demographic as well as other sports. Even accepting that these as factors, it is clear that rugby has fallen signficantly more than like sports.
Rugby 63% decline
League 27% decline
AFL 1% decline
Then let's look for a moment at the other sports with significant declines. Many of these sports appeal to an older demogrphic and following generations have simply not engaged with these sports in the same numbers:
Golf 24% decline
Snooker/biilliards 69% decline
Lawn bowls 25% decline
Ballroom dancing 44% decline
Other sports have seen real estate prices lead to their facilities being sold up for apartments:
Squash 67% decline
Ten pin bowling 62% decline
Tennis 35% decline
Finally there are the sports which have unique issues:
Softball 24% decline - too similar to baseball and baseball now caters for females. No co-incidence that baseball has had a 24% increase
Netball 24% decline has suffered from having two issues. The growth of women's soccer being the most significant - it's now the most popular female participation sport in the country. The other being that basketball is similar and arguably a more attractive game. Basketball and soccer increases are, I'd suggest mostly down to increased female participation.
Given the player strike in Paris seems to have worked a treat, I wonder if players here and in South Africa will consider the same should the ARU and SARU agree to cutting teams half way through the season.
Bob Dwyer summed it up well
The fact that the Paris clubs backed down so quickly makes me think there was never really an intention to merge them and that there was some ulterior motive (I don't know enough about the French game to know what it might be)
Given the player strike in Paris seems to have worked a treat, I wonder if players here and in South Africa will consider the same should the ARU and SARU agree to cutting teams half way through the season.
People are reading too much into these Roy Morgan numbers. When niche sports are included into these national surveys you get large swings up and down because a few survey results can make a big dufference.
Do people really think there are 120k people rowing competitively in Australia?
A strike would work really well here. It would fix all our problems. Back to amateur rugby next season for sure.
Would that make you happy?
Do people really think there are 120k people rowing competitively in Australia?
Well I don't think SANZAAR or the ARU could actually have any hope of cutting teams if the players collectively rose up against it.
And what won't make me happy is if 20% of the professional rugby opportunities in this country are lost, and thousands of fans abandoned.
I believe it's completely against Australian rugby's interests to lose a team and would support any measure to ensure there are at least 5 professional teams in this country. I'm of the view that it may be better for us to go off on our own if NZ are unwilling to create a genuine Trans-Tasman competition. Even if that means losing a bulk of our top players.
It is big but not 120k big and I believe the numbers on the rowing site are a bit rubberyI think there are that numbers - it is big in schools and masters
The survey is on participation in competitive sport.No, because the survey is about participation as opposed to competition.
Even if we discount rowing completely and those unamed sports which you refer to as "niche sports", the number for rugby as compared with what I would term like sports still makes for dismal viewing.
On those figures, I think we'd qualify as a niche sport.
The ARU have the power of veto - so if there is any reduction in teams then they are complicit in that reduction. They can't fob the blame off to the Kiwis or the Saffers.
This is I suspect the reason why they have said nothing - they have no idea how they are going to explain it and retain any credibility at all.
I'm of the view that it may be better for us to go off on our own if NZ are unwilling to create a genuine Trans-Tasman competition. Even if that means losing a bulk of our top players.