Between the UK, a couple of divisions of France, USA, Japan and NRL I reckon 120 odd could go pretty quick
NRL set to attack.
https://www.couriermail.com.au/spor...y/news-story/8558a0286c5c4e3421d7d98411e7461c
Between the UK, a couple of divisions of France, USA, Japan and NRL I reckon 120 odd could go pretty quick
Paywalled.
Added to the accessibility argument is the ageing of the died on rugby tragic. Arthritic knees and the promise of a roaring fire and a good meal with a decent red makes TV viewing a better proposition the braving the cold and time spent travelling.Totally agree, but I also think accessibility to a large range of sports and affordability of good quality HD televisions have made it less appealing to the casual sports fan to head to a game, which in turn made it harder for us to find someone to come along to a game they weren't planning on going to anyway.
Why go the Reds v Sharks when you can head home and watch the game in HD, watch a recording of the 5.30 Kiwi game, the 2 NBA games you recorded during the day and choose between two NRL games.
I'm speaking from the view of a casual fan of course and this is getting off topic so I'll move on.
Added to the accessibility argument is the ageing of the died on rugby tragic. Arthritic knees and the promise of a roaring fire and a good meal with a decent red makes TV viewing a better proposition the braving the cold and time spent travelling.
Speaking on behalf of a friend of course.
Rugby League attacking. the same Rugby League whose Sydney professional clubs have 12mil loss last year. The same Rugby League thats just signed a new broadcast deal worth 30million less a year with a media partner those earnings have drop 25% each year for the last two. The same fox whose parent company NEWSC has just written down the value of Foxtel by 1.4 billion.
I wouldn't be signing any unproven RL players to long contracts if i was NRL
Leagues clubs will be hurting without the pokie income.
I thought the ‘Leagues Club’ and the NRL entity were seperated financially. Or is that just the case with the Broncos?
Yes they are separate entities but the leagues clubs fund football operations.
My broader question, which I don't know an answer to, is. Do we kill Super Rugby now and spend what little we have left in trying to build a competition that is sustainable or do we sit by and hope something comes along and saves us. Both options have huge but different risks.
Surely the answer obvious to most of us is yes build a sustainable competition, start immediately.
More to the point, ding this in the Covvid-19 interim does nothing to impact a potential return to Super, if that is how we were minded. But potentially some actions now with a return to Super in mind - could scuttle the future chance of an alternative.
It is not too hard to imagine a smaller program for representative football. A program perhaps not dissimilar to the old Pacific championship with a handful of games each season. Who would play in this competition? Now that's a tough one, perhaps the unions from the 1st division NPC? Depends on where pivot NZ takes from here. I suspect more emphasis on NPC in the short term. But NZ and Aus provincial unions have relationships going back many, many, decades. I'm sure they will find some common ground that works for both commercially and culturally. Most people appreciate that they are stronger together.
I can’t speak for the NZ components of this but I agree completely with the domestic aspects. Sounds like the Kiwis are happy to play with NZ Pesos anyway, so whatever happens happens.The mass exodus is highly unlikely.
Somehow the best 200 players in Australia will find a job elsewhere? And where exactly would that be?
I am discounting league, most likely they will have earmarked talent for their game via their own programs. Perhaps a few might go across that otherwise would not, however I am concentrating on blokes who actually want to play rugby.
It is most certainly not open slather anywhere in the word, rules around visa and qualification, restrictions on foreigners are in every major league in the world. Further consider that the state of the game financially is in dire straits everywhere at the moment and will likely be under considerable strain for the considerable future.
Outside of the top 20 or so players, the rest would be most likely looking at league 2 competitions. Even during the so called "boom years" spots there are not exactly growing on trees& wages are considerably less than first divisions/top leagues.
For example my London club is in the English division 2, London Scottish. The standard here is probably the best of all the European second divisions, perhaps France would be similar. The standard is comparable to first grade & wages are considerably less than in the first division.
Looking in the medium term, what is the value proposition? go overseas, probably to a 2nd division club in a small town playing for a modest wage playing in small venues, most of which are comparable to Sydney and Brisbane club in terms of facilities, I concede some are a lot better. If you strike it lucky perhaps you'll land in the south of France or Japan with considerably better weather than the UK or Ireland.
Or you can play locally with the prospect of higher honours, playing for your state or country. This still means something contrary to what many posters here say. Wages will still be modest however still likely to be enough for a young man to live comfortably. Lifestyle is another big factor. Money isn't everything.
We are lucky in that the game has mostly been strongly supported by business. I don't foresee this changing much any time soon, however we will have to get used to living with a much smaller financial pie.
It is not too hard to imagine a smaller program for representative football. A program perhaps not dissimilar to the old Pacific championship with a handful of games each season. Who would play in this competition? Now that's a tough one, perhaps the unions from the 1st division NPC? Depends on where pivot NZ takes from here. I suspect more emphasis on NPC in the short term. But NZ and Aus provincial unions have relationships going back many, many, decades. I'm sure they will find some common ground that works for both commercially and culturally. Most people appreciate that they are stronger together.
My issue is I would rather watch a comp where there are at least 6 to 8 sides I could relate to / engage with and have enough home games to watch - which is not super rugby as it is now - and even less so with say 3 oz teams involved. I ain’t a club guy but would rather watch a semi pro evenly balanced competition then the very unevenly balanced super rugby competition involving sides in unfriendly time zones and lots of non oz games I could not give a toss about. Most oz sports fans are the same.
I am just a tired and frustrated oz rugby person waiting for something better - and it ain’t the current super rugby crap that very few care for anymore. Twiggy camp want better solutions and so does RA so be great if egos and the past got put aside to look to a better future. I don’t buy this BS that neither need each other to create a better outcome for both camps, oz rugby and rugby in Asia Pacific. So stop with the BS, get to the table and take the opportunity for both parties to have a better outcome.
Truly believe you are too pessimistic with this observation BH. Since the nadir of 2017, both the Tahs and Brumbies have been competitive against any of the SA sides and both have had wins v NZ sides. This year, the Brumbies have looked to be the equal of any of the other Super sides; arguably only finishing behind the Sharks when things stopped because they'd played one less game. The Reds appear to be the team with most potential over the whole of the Super competition, the Rebels starting to look like they might realise their potential too, and despite their poor record, the Tahs were mostly competitive and could easily have finished stronger over the later part of the season had it continued after having their preseason interrupted by bush fire smoke earlier in the season.
I reckon there were very good signs for the Aus sides this year after being at least the equal of the SA sides last year. And, I am just as sure that the national side would have shown (and still will show), distinct improvement under the new and likely more effective coaching setup