Where to for Super Rugby?

[FiveStarStu]

 

[joeyjohnz]

Don't worry guys... it's just more Wayne Smith dribble with nothing further in the article to back up the claim.

Considering Wayne's dribble has been %100 correct and predicted the culling of an Aussie Super franchise as early as September last year....

I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and let him keep his sources anonymous for as long as we remain in the loop.

 

[KOB1987]

Considering Wayne's dribble has been %100 correct and predicted the culling of an Aussie Super franchise as early as September last year..

I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and let him keep his sources anonymous for as long as we remain in the loop.

However:

Fox Sports Rugby Retweeted

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Christy Doran‏Verified account @ChristypDoran
3h3 hours ago

​

More​

Those questioning whether Australia should be forced to cut two and not RSA shouldn't forget which conference doesn't play NZ #SuperRugby
0 replies1 retweet3 likes

 

[oztimmay]

However:

Fox Sports Rugby Retweeted

Christy Doran‏Verified account @ChristypDoran
3h3 hours ago

​

More​

Those questioning whether Australia should be forced to cut two and not RSA shouldn't forget which conference doesn't play NZ #SuperRugby
0 replies1 retweet3 likes

And typically, like the Aussie teams, they are well beaten. Sometimes, flogged.

 

[Slim 293]

Considering Wayne's dribble has been %100 correct and predicted the culling of an Aussie Super franchise as early as September last year..

I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and let him keep his sources anonymous for as long as we remain in the loop.

Nah, Wayne Smith has been publishing all kinds of rubbish during this saga, almost Growden-esque........ and he was hardly alone in predicting the culling of a team.

 

[joeyjohnz]

Nah, Wayne Smith has been publishing all kinds of rubbish during this saga, almost Growden-esque.... and he was hardly alone in predicting the culling of a team.

Greg Growden earned his reputation after two decades of dribble.

It's entirely unfair on dribble to be associated with Wayne Smith

 

[James Pettifer]

I can't imagine what this is like for the players.

They wouldn't know whether they will have a job next year or if they do in what city. For those who are more on the fringes, they would be very aware that the international transfer window is coming to a close.

I hope that they are all getting the support that they need.

 

[QLDHeeler1990]

My life is more complex now (kids) and if the Rebels go, I don't know whether I could be bothered following rugby in future and I suspect many others in Melbourne would do the same.

I have kids and I live half-way around the world now, yet I still watch (and play) Rugby weekly (and often twice-a-week). My point is, if you love the game you will find a way to enjoy it. It is a disgrace that we have to axe a franchise, but don't give up on the sport because of it.

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

If RSA and NZ try to make us pull two teams then I would advocate pulling out of Super rugby now, not in three years when the deal is renegotiated.

 

[FiveStarStu]

I have kids and I live half-way around the world now, yet I still watch (and play) Rugby weekly (and often twice-a-week). My point is, if you love the game you will find a way to enjoy it. It is a disgrace that we have to axe a franchise, but don't give up on the sport because of it.

I love rugby but I won't support a code that doesn't support me or my community, let alone treat it with the reckless abandon and disgraceful incompetence that the ARU has.

This decision burns bridges and it's about time everyone comes to terms with that.

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

I love rugby but I won't support a code that doesn't support me or my community, let alone treat it with the reckless abandon and disgraceful incompetence that the ARU has.

This decision burns bridges and it's about time everyone comes to terms with that.

Exactly how I feel. Why would I get behind an organisation that has chosen to exclude me?

 

[kiap]

If RSA and NZ try to make us pull two teams then I would advocate pulling out of Super rugby now, not in three years when the deal is renegotiated.

Might not be possible without Australia losing even more dollars. But, yeah, I reckon the end of Super Rugby, as we knew it, is coming soon.

South African issues will only add to the downward Super spiral. Could be a blessing in disguise.

 

[blues recovery]

Ok so I must have too much time on my hands and have some sort of persecution complex but I was asked by a good friend today what would I be trying to achieve now if I was at the ARU in relation to digging out of this shit fight
Unfortunately due to their absolute incompetence I think its impossible to make this 5 team structure now work especially given what the ARU have let the quality of our teams become and SANZAAR the 18 team comp.
So the starting premise is we are contractually obligated to maintain Super Rugby so we now need to give it its best opportunity to survive and maybe even return to somewhere near its position of only a few years ago
So at the risk of raising the ire of just about every supporter group ( what's left of any of them ), here goes . Oh and I know none of this easy and has lots of legal/logistical/political challenges but good management across every industry manage these sorts of challenges on a daily basis

1 Merge the Brumbies and Rebels . I don't care what you call the team or out of which city you base the administration and training facilities. You base this on what makes the best economic and Rugby program sense . If a deal can be pulled together involving the current Rebels ownership structure great but not essential. If it does you make sure the deal is water tight to ensure continued funding
You split the home games 50/ 50 between Canberra and Melbourne and in the weeks of the home games completely intergrate into the local Rugby community . Structured properly this should be a strong team and if the local integration is carried out effectively the local support will be at least at current levels and probably a shit load better if the team is playing quality Rugby .
The VRU and ACTRU continue to run their local programs and with the assistance of the professional team run development programs that provide a direct pathway into the Southern Brumbies (eg).
There are plenty of other examples in professional sport in our country of teams that make this work (Hawthorn / Launceston , Kangaroos/Hobart, St George /Illawarra.) And in NZ Rugby teams that traditionally want to belt each other to death at provincial level (Otago /Southland ) all get behind the Highlanders whenever they come to their town .
2. The ARU (on the basis it can become an efficient operation ???) centrally controls the admin functions of the Super Rugby teams that make economic and operational sense to do so ( Don't recreate the wheel , look at what NZ does and adapt to our conditions if necessary)
3. With the money saved from only distributing income to 4 rather than 5 teams as well as from the savings from the rationalisation of admins make it a high priority to get our players back from overseas and keeping who we already have in the country . Obviously there will still be players who for lifestyle and maybe tail end of career financial reasons choose to play OS but if priortised evenly across positions this would be a very effective step in improving quality .Get rid of Giteaus law and pay our players highly at Wallaby level based on both on field and financial performance of the Wallabies
4. Put in metrics to ensure as much as possible equalisation of the playing strength across the Super Rugby teams . This can be done quite simply two ways . Set a Salary Cap that is inclusive of the Top Up payments made to the Wallaby players . Whilst that component of the players salary is paid by the ARU counting it towards a clubs cap will ensure a more even spread of talent
Then for players who have not played at pro level before introduce a draft system along the lines of AFL.

Clearly there is a lot more detail required behind these initiatives and I could melt my keyboard trying to explore every machination, but I think broadly these initiatives give us at least a fighting chance of getting back on our feet

Now of course all of the narrow minded , short sighted fools who have helped get us into this hole ( think Roger Davis ) will shoot this down in flames but if we don't take a broader we are all in this together approach and try to make at least our 4 teams as strong as possible and get the overall product back to a quality that people want to watch both live and on TV and sponsors to want to invest in we may as well just give up the ghost now
After all of this nonsense if there is not a reason and stimulus for radical change there never will be

 

[wamberal]

Good to see a Rebels supporter in favour of the most obvious and least painful action.


When it comes to getting rid of one franchise, there is no good option, but this one is the least worst.


I have seen the game go through some very low periods, this is not as low as it can go. But let us hope that it is low enough to encourage, or force, all stakeholders to think as a collective. We have our backs against the wall, the wall is not going away - but unless we work together, and all accept some sacrifices, we are fugued bachwards (as an old mucker of mine used to put it). He lost an arm in WW2, but still claimed to be able to deflower a maiden in the front seat of his little Fiat.

 

[Twoilms]

Might not be possible without Australia losing even more dollars. But, yeah, I reckon the end of Super Rugby, as we knew it, is coming soon.

South African issues will only add to the downward Super spiral. Could be a blessing in disguise.

I just can't see how it will be a 'blessing in disguise' though i would hardly contend with your assertion Super Rugby is coming to an end.

It's overwhelmingly bad for Australian rugby. We will never be able to create a local competition that generates enough revenue to keep players in Australia. Anything we create will be third rate to begin with and second rate at absolute best.

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

Ok so I must have too much time on my hands and have some sort of persecution complex but I was asked by a good friend today what would I be trying to achieve now if I was at the ARU in relation to digging out of this shit fight
Unfortunately due to their absolute incompetence I think its impossible to make this 5 team structure now work especially given what the ARU have let the quality of our teams become and SANZAAR the 18 team comp.
So the starting premise is we are contractually obligated to maintain Super Rugby so we now need to give it its best opportunity to survive and maybe even return to somewhere near its position of only a few years ago
So at the risk of raising the ire of just about every supporter group ( what's left of any of them ), here goes . Oh and I know none of this easy and has lots of legal/logistical/political challenges but good management across every industry manage these sorts of challenges on a daily basis

1 Merge the Brumbies and Rebels . I don't care what you call the team or out of which city you base the administration and training facilities. You base this on what makes the best economic and Rugby program sense . If a deal can be pulled together involving the current Rebels ownership structure great but not essential. If it does you make sure the deal is water tight to ensure continued funding
You split the home games 50/ 50 between Canberra and Melbourne and in the weeks of the home games completely intergrate into the local Rugby community . Structured properly this should be a strong team and if the local integration is carried out effectively the local support will be at least at current levels and probably a shit load better if the team is playing quality Rugby .
The VRU and ACTRU continue to run their local programs and with the assistance of the professional team run development programs that provide a direct pathway into the Southern Brumbies (eg).
There are plenty of other examples in professional sport in our country of teams that make this work (Hawthorn / Launceston , Kangaroos/Hobart, St George /Illawarra.) And in NZ Rugby teams that traditionally want to belt each other to death at provincial level (Otago /Southland ) all get behind the Highlanders whenever they come to their town .
2. The ARU (on the basis it can become an efficient operation ???) centrally controls the admin functions of the Super Rugby teams that make economic and operational sense to do so ( Don't recreate the wheel , look at what NZ does and adapt to our conditions if necessary)
3. With the money saved from only distributing income to 4 rather than 5 teams as well as from the savings from the rationalisation of admins make it a high priority to get our players back from overseas and keeping who we already have in the country . Obviously there will still be players who for lifestyle and maybe tail end of career financial reasons choose to play OS but if priortised evenly across positions this would be a very effective step in improving quality .Get rid of Giteaus law and pay our players highly at Wallaby level based on both on field and financial performance of the Wallabies
4. Put in metrics to ensure as much as possible equalisation of the playing strength across the Super Rugby teams . This can be done quite simply two ways . Set a Salary Cap that is inclusive of the Top Up payments made to the Wallaby players . Whilst that component of the players salary is paid by the ARU counting it towards a clubs cap will ensure a more even spread of talent
Then for players who have not played at pro level before introduce a draft system along the lines of AFL.

Clearly there is a lot more detail required behind these initiatives and I could melt my keyboard trying to explore every machination, but I think broadly these initiatives give us at least a fighting chance of getting back on our feet

Now of course all of the narrow minded , short sighted fools who have helped get us into this hole ( think Roger Davis ) will shoot this down in flames but if we don't take a broader we are all in this together approach and try to make at least our 4 teams as strong as possible and get the overall product back to a quality that people want to watch both live and on TV and sponsors to want to invest in we may as well just give up the ghost now
After all of this nonsense if there is not a reason and stimulus for radical change there never will be

If or more likely when we go to 4 I'd be all for the centralisation of the administrative side of the pro game. The business simply isn't expansive enough to merit separation at that level.

From their I would take all monies saved and invest heavily in promoting the NRC alongsode looking to better resource it. This would also include extending its overall window.

Doing this would 1) provide us with a viable alternative to Super Rugby if developed intelligently (big if) and 2) provide a greater level of development for players leading further up the chain than is already occuring.

 

[Sauron]

The salary cap question is critical IMO - regardless of what happens in the future. I think that the easiest way to implement the necessary changes is fairly straight forward. 1 cap for Super rugby, and then each team is assigned a supplementary cap equivalent to 25% (or 20%) of the total Wallaby top-up pool.

So you might get 4mil to spend on your super squad, but can have no more than an additional 2mil in wallaby top-ups (or whatever the figure is). Not sure what to do about 3rd-party deals, I'm pretty sure that there's no real point in trying to police them, and I think that they should be encouraged.

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

Force or Rebels?

Don't worry guys... it's just more Wayne Smith dribble with nothing further in the article to back up the claim.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/spo...p/news-story/461a55bdc8d9bf759964bee0da409a02

Oh hell no. If this were to occur then we should absolutely walk from Super Rugby. I would rather see us head down the Soccer route than gut the game further than this already has in this country.

 

[FiveStarStu]

Good to see a Rebels supporter in favour of the most obvious and least painful action.

I think most of us know this is the least worst option, a Rebels/Brumbies merger based out of Melbourne (due to Imperium's contracts).

Unfortunately due to the ARU's bungling, it now can't happen. They've pumped up the Brumbies too much to ensure any backtracking would be met with even more lawsuits.

 

[blues recovery]

If or more likely when we go to 4 I'd be all for the centralisation of the administrative side of the pro game. The business simply isn't expansive enough to merit separation at that level.

From their I would take all monies saved and invest heavily in promoting the NRC alongsode looking to better resource it. This would also include extending its overall window.

Doing this would 1) provide us with a viable alternative to Super Rugby if developed intelligently (big if) and 2) provide a greater level of development for players leading further up the chain than is already occuring.

I think this has absolute merit it's just a matter of how to cut the overall financial benefit created by rationalisation. I still maintain that keeping the likes of Sean Mac , Gill , Genia , Jones , To'omua , Alo Emile ,Skelton etc should be one of the ARUs highest priorities