Where to for Super Rugby?

[Omar Comin']

In terms of priority, I would see the NRC/Super rugby acting primarily as a feeder to the Wallabies, our premier rugby product. If the Wallabies are successful, it drives interest in the game, just like our other international sports. IMHO the pathway for elite rugby must have that in mind.

I see this as the all eggs in one basket strategy that hasn't worked for the past 15 years. International rugby is only going to become more competitive, not less in the future so why would pinning the hopes of the sport almost entirely on the Wallabies be a good idea?

The other international sports, soccer and cricket, have grown in recent years due to building domestic competitions that are basically independent of international competition. The primary point of the A League and the Big Bash is not to act as a feeder for the Socceroos or Australian cricket team. These sports can now thrive regardless of how well the national team is going.

 

[Quick Hands]

Please despatch the above to the ARU's 'Corporate Strategy' department.

It's yearning for knowledge, and is 'trying to learn from experience'.

It's evidently still at the 'scenario' stage of evolution.

 

[Dave Beat]

The other international sports, soccer and cricket, have grown in recent years due to building domestic competitions that are basically independent of international competition. The primary point of the A League and the Big Bash is not to act as a feeder for the Socceroos or Australian cricket team. These sports can now thrive regardless of how well the national team is going.

The SRU goal is to become the best club comp in the world - so that is along those lines as well.

I think we are in good hands to achieve that.

Great it is being taken to the country as well - country has unearthed some great talents over the years.

They also make it to FTA which is a big plus.

 

[Twoilms]

Page 250 and the thread was only started in March. Solid eff.

 

[mst]

And as an outsider, this kind of sums up the attitude that seems to prevail south of the border towards the game of rugby.


If it does, you deserve to fail, and you will fail. Rugby in Australia is not a business. It is, at heart, an amateur game, with a little bit of professional icing.


Amateurism is primarily about love of a game. You people do not seem to love the game. You seem to want to exploit it.

This is the exact reason why rugby is failing.

Netball, soccer, domestic cricket. Ice hockey. Basketball just to name a few have all learned the lessons and cut the sentimental ties and faced reality.

Rugby is right now - and it's hard for many to let go if the past amateur ways. But it's either oblivion or get with the times. Sports need money to stay alive so you need a professional component to generate revenue directly or indirectly. Lets see what we choose.

 

[Omar Comin']

The SRU goal is to become the best club comp in the world - so that is along those lines as well.

I think we are in good hands to achieve that.

Great it is being taken to the country as well - country has unearthed some great talents over the years.

They also make it to FTA which is a big plus.

Yeah that's the kind of ambition needed but I don't think it can be the best club comp in the world unless it's national.

It's too bad the SRU didn't have this ambition 25 years ago.

 

[Strewthcobber]

What is the current best club competition in the world?

Sent from my D5833 using Tapatalk

 

[Omar Comin']

What is the current best club competition in the world?

Well I would say the Top 14 followed by the English Premiership. But I'm guessing the SRU aren't referring to professional competitions?

 

[kiap]

Yeah that's the kind of ambition needed but I don't think it can be the best club comp in the world unless it's national.

It's too bad the SRU didn't have this ambition 25 years ago.

Yup.

The English Premiership is, near enough, the best national comp in the world. This was them 20 seasons ago …

Start now with Reds, Brums, Rebs, Force and Tahs … and we're ahead of their top 5 then … and we add another 1 to 3 teams.

Build and control our own destiny

 

[Inside Shoulder]

The SRU goal is to become the best club comp in the world - so that is along those lines as well.

I think we are in good hands to achieve that.

Great it is being taken to the country as well - country has unearthed some great talents over the years.

They also make it to FTA which is a big plus.

I know everyone gets the shits when it is said but there is simply no doubt that the SRU has done more for rugby in this country in the last 20 years than the ARU. It must be something of mystery how it survives and attracts sponsors - when the rebels can't, and thats not a criticism of them.
I know nothing of club rugby in Brisbane but I suspect its the same.
In short the clubs do a better job part time than the ARU do full time and for squillions

 

[Brumby Runner]

I was pondering on the 'inconvenient' timing of it all when the Tweets came through last night.

Re the 'coaching summit'. Does anyone seriously think the ARU could organise such a thing??

Think they could, but expect it to be scheduled over a three day weekend when all of the Super Rugby sides are playing - mostly overseas too if it can be arranged that way.

 

[wamberal]

This is the exact reason why rugby is failing.

Netball, soccer, domestic cricket. Ice hockey. Basketball just to name a few have all learned the lessons and cut the sentimental ties and faced reality.

Rugby is right now - and it's hard for many to let go if the past amateur ways. But it's either oblivion or get with the times. Sports need money to stay alive so you need a professional component to generate revenue directly or indirectly. Lets see what we choose.

Can you be a little more specific? I did not say that we do not need a professional component, did I?


The point I was making is that right now, and for the forseeable future, the very existence of the game depends totally on the volunteers and others who love the game. That is what I was referring to when I talked about amateurism.


If these idiots in Melbourne think that the game of rugby owes them anything, they are deluded.


Yes, it would be wonderful if we had a big new source of revenue. But where will it come from?


And in the meantime, while we wait for an answer, the amateurs will keep the grassroots going, just as they always have. Those of us who love the game will eat shite and put up with the slings and arrows that go with the territory of being a minor game in this country for the forseeable future.


A domestic competition that saves us is a pipe dream. The NRL and AFL competitions both originated from city competitions, Sydney and Melbourne respectively. Because of those origins, with many decades of tradition, their expanded competitions retained the tribal element that some talk of. A significant number of their teams are part of folklore.



None of our domestic clubs are. Okay, maybe Randwick, that's about it.


The A-League is based on a sport which does have a lot of grassroots popularity, and the ethnic rivalries that gave its domestic contests a bit of spice have been kind of retained, albeit changed a lot.


To sum up, for a professional domestic rugby competition to go anywhere, it would have to be based on 10 or 12 most traditional and recognisable clubs. The others, their players and their supporters, would presumably just fade away into the sunset.


It might be viable as a stand-alone entity, but it is mind-boggling to think that it would generate much excess revenue. And, by the way, the chosen clubs would still rely heavily on volunteers at all levels, amateurism in action.

 

[kiap]

the SRU has done more for rugby in this country in the last 20 years than the ARU.

The ARU tipped in multi-millions to those comps under the "Premier Rugby" scheme, Shute and QPR.

We heard about it when? … when the cash tapered off.

The standard of rugby is just not good enough to be third tier, though.

But, yes, the Shute Shield could be made into the right standard, with the requisite backing, sponsorships, national audiences and crowds :

Step 1: Cut 9 teams
Step 2: Add teams from the other 4 pro rugby states
Step 3: ???
Step 4: PROFIT

 

[Inside Shoulder]

However much they are criticised they got off their arses and teed up FTA coverage when the ARU refused to continue paying for it and they front up every year with sponsors - god knows how they do it.
It should be easier to run the ARU than it is to run the SRU - yet the ARU consistently make it look like rocket surgery

 

[Brumby Runner]

Could be better if it was on FTA, but that's another argument for another thread.

John, based on the previous 3 or 4 years of the NRC, and the deal to get 7two to cover the SS, which bloody FTA would be willing to touch the broadcasting of the NRC with a 40 ft pole, let alone put substantial amounts of money into the ARU's coffers for the privilege? I am so sick of posters here suggesting that FTA is the panacea for the ARU's ills when they've not stumped up any support at all for games below the Wallabies' matches almost in living memory.

 

[kiap]

However much they are criticised they got off their arses and teed up FTA coverage when the ARU refused to continue paying for it and they front up every year with sponsors

Agreed. I do credit that.

 

[I like to watch]

....Yada yada yada


If these idiots in Melbourne think that the game of rugby owes them anything, they are deluded.

Fact check
St. Leonards is on the north shore of Sydney, nowhere near Melbourne.....

 

[The Honey Badger]

Page 250 and the thread was only started in March. Solid eff.

Did I miss anything in the last hundred?

 

[Quick Hands]

Please despatch the above to the ARU's 'Corporate Strategy' department.

It's yearning for knowledge, and is 'trying to learn from experience'.

It's evidently still at the 'scenario' stage of evolution.

The only thing that they've masterd there is the use of the 5 standard excuses to explain each and every failing.

 

[RedsHappy]

The only thing that they've masterd there is the use of the 5 standard excuses to explain each and every failing.

I think Sir Humphrey would be most impressed with the one Foxtel comms have designed especially for our Super Rugby coaches:

'Dew on the pitch tonight has really contributed to all the handling errors we've seen'.