The Final Rugby-Tier – If we come, they will build it

Q: What do The Australian Provincial Championship, The Ricoh National Championship, the Australian Rugby Championship and the Australian Rugby Shield have in common?
A: they are all failed attempts at building the fabled “Third Tier” of rugby in Australia.

You don’t have to spend long reading through our forum to find a mention of the ARC. Aussie posters constantly bemoan the lack of a Third Tier within Australian rugby. They speak lustfully of a true blue equivalent to the Currie Cup from South Africa or the Kiwi’s National Provincial Competition. The more learned commentators from around the world speak of Australia’s lack of depth, especially since the Aussie super rugby contingent was increase to 5 teams last year.

For those that don’t remember, the Australian Rugby Championship, or ARC, was the highest profile attempt at a third tier. It was introduced to much fanfare, and a considerable under current of resentment, in 2007. It had plenty going for it with the whole country represented, it was played under the ELVs and featured a great brand of rugby. It gave plenty of young’ens exposure to a higher level of rugby to club, as RugbyReg discovered when he looked back for this post a couple of years ago. It seems it would have worked to build the depth that seems to be missing.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0x3PT3XMTe4[/youtube]

One thing it also did, was haemorrhage money. The championship was shown on the ABC, who secured the rights to show two matches a week and finals when they accepted a fee from (yes, FROM) the ARU to cover the matches. Any governing body that needs to pay in order to have a national club competition is always going to be up against it. There was also the lack of “Club” behind the clubs. The 8 franchises, they are best called, were actually amalgamations of existing clubs. Most clubs were against the ARC in it’s eventual format, claiming it could harm club and grass roots rugby, and of course destroy the identity some had spent over a hundred years building.

So, for a plethora of reasons it was a massive success and failure, all at once. However after just the single season, the ARC was scrapped. The competition had lost $4.7 million loss in it’s first year, which was $2 million more than budgeted, plus forecasts were for $3.3 million more to be lost in the next season. Citing strong leadership needing to make tough calls, the ARU scraped the competition. Encouragingly, at the time, they also said that many of the objectives for player development had been achieved and the ARU were still committed to improving pathways for players and coaches and expanding the game nationally. they acknowledged that the format of ARC was flawed, while there was still a key strategy for an affordable, high-quality rugby competition.

So, with that being a key strategy, what has been done since?

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Yep, that’s about it.

So, if the might of the ARU has been able to achieve zip, what could we possibly do? The answer is surprisingly simple. Go and watch some club rugby. Now, I will admit that this isn’t just my idea, but I have just tried to put a catchy hook to it. The ARU is actually doing the unthinkable and following this same logic path.

For one, the funding models for the clubs have been changed. No longer does each club get an amount of money to spend on what they see fit, instead they need to submit a plan to show what plans they will implement and what the costs and benefits of the plans are. This means the have nots will have the ability to get more if they can show they are building something that will add considerable value to their coaching or facilities or…

The other great initiative, in QLD Premier Rugby at least, is that the ARU have Verusco (the same mob who do the Wallaby stats) contracted to code the games for the Premier clubs. This will serve to level the playing fields somewhat, allowing all the clubs that don’t have Scott Allen coaching access to the same level of analysis as those that do.

This is just a couple of things, cost effective things, that show they are trying to make this tier the final ruck-tier, the only thing left is for you to come.

If you come, they will build it.

Will you be at a club game this weekend?

Round One – Queensland Premier Rugby – Saturday 28 April
Match, Location and Time
Easts v Brothers, Bottomley Park 3:15pm
Norths v GPS, Hugh Courtney Oval 3:00pm
Gold Coast v Sunshine Coast, Albert Park 3:00pm
Wests v University, Sylvan Road 3:00pm
Souths v Sunnybank, Chipsy Wood Oval 3:00pm

Round Three – Shute Sheild – Saturday 20 April
Match, Location and Time
Warringah v Eastwood, Pittwater Rugby Park 3:00pm
Penrith v Parramatta, Nepean Rugby Park 3:00pm
Northern Suburbs v West Harbour, North Sydney Oval 3:00pm
Southern Districts v Manly, Forshaw Rugby Park 3:00pm
Sydney University v Randwick, University Oval No. 1 3:00pm
Eastern Suburbs v Gordon, Woollahra Oval 3:00pm