Club relocations – A guide for first timers
Roar Guru By Gruffalo, 31 Oct 2007 The Crowd is a Roar Guru
Gruffalo writes: Kangaroo fans – take heed of the NRL’s experience in dealing with the “relocation” of the North Sydney Bears rugby league team to the NSW Central Coast in the late 90′s. Far from successful, the Bears are now out of the top grade and the NRL has ensured that the road back is as difficult as possible. Below are some tips for Kangaroo fans on how to manage relocation.
1. When the AFL promises relocation, get it in writing, legally binding and expose this in the media constantly until the deal is done.
2. Ensure that no international media organisation is involved whose priority is not your future but the sale of PayTV products.
3. Ensure that your board promises (legally binding) that no critical decisions will be made (e.g. putting the club into administration) until all aspects have been fully disclosed to and discussed by members (and supporters) and the media at large.
Ensure that everything done in the decision is open, transparent and fully digested.
Finally – review all internal and external parties involved with your club and find out any vested interests that may affect the direction your club takes.
If you manage this, the outcome will, at the least, have clarity and be above board. Otherwise, you will be a Bear.
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November 20th 2007 @ 4:44am
spiro zavos said | November 20th 2007 @ 4:44am | Report comment
When I was researching one of my rugby books I came across a photo, in The Sydney Mail 1904, of a group of well-stomached gentlemen in waistcoats, suits and hats standing by a steam train. The group was from the NSWRU and they were on their way to the extremities of the world (in their minds) Penrith to see ab out setting up the rugby game there. 103 years later and this mission is still very much unaccomplished.
In the early part of the 2oth century the objection to setting up rugby in the western suburbs of Sydney was very much a class thing. There is no excuse now that egalitarianism is the dominating motif of Australian life, or should be. The western suburbs and the bush, as they are in cricket (also a snobbish game in the past) should be the powerhouses of NSW rugby. The talent and the determination to succeed are there.
November 20th 2007 @ 12:36pm
Cazza said | November 20th 2007 @ 12:36pm | Report comment
Oi Westy, don’t knock the Force mate. They were named in consultation with the WA rugby community! Go anywhere in WA and you’ll be confronted with the harsh FORCEs of nature there — drought, wind (Force logo doesn’t look familiar? It’s a cyclone!) or flood. What the hell does “Blues” mean anyway? The Blues in rugby, league and soccer are JOKEs on the field at the moment!
And just because NSWRU has its head up its proverbial, doesn’t mean that the game is stuffed everywhere else. NSWRU are notoriously inept with their Romanesque political intrigues!
November 20th 2007 @ 5:35pm
Al said | November 20th 2007 @ 5:35pm | Report comment
Westy
NSW have been known as the Waratahs since at least the 30′s champ. But you do make a good point about a national comp, maybe not 20 yrs ago but defo should’ve happened 10 yrs ago.
If only we could combine the domestic strength of RL in Aus with rugby’s international scene and take on the real enemy AFL and soccer
November 21st 2007 @ 3:14am
Gruffalo said | November 21st 2007 @ 3:14am | Report comment
Rugby league at club level has always suffered from the same cancer that rugby union now suffers at state and national level – too many self-interested egos taking the opportunity to line their pocketswithout contributing anything much worthwhile. The interests of the game and the sport, to these people, is secondary.
Rugby league was delivered unde the table to Rupert Murdoch by our politicians, club executives and game administrators. News Limited now own several clubs, attempted to destroy at least 2 others, and have ex-News employees at all levels of the game (Gallop, Noad etc). The focus of rugby league is in what’s best for News.
Rugby Union in Australia is now in a bitchfight amongst factions and egos – and when it comes to egos, who bigger than ABJ? But the game IS suffering internationally because it has become a technical wrestling match which is boring fans – despite protests from the private school, rugger traditionalist apologists.
It’s time the politicians and those with the Turnbull syndrome (i.e. got the money, give me power) backed off and left rugby to those who do not simply, abve all, want to advance their career. Anyone like that out there?
November 21st 2007 @ 11:32pm
westy said | November 21st 2007 @ 11:32pm | Report comment
tO Gruffalo You were the one who said ” It takes guts in management . Rugby Union has it. ” Rugby union has had very little guts in Australia. The breakaway in 1908 in Australia was never irreparable but unlike Australian cricket ,World Series Cricket and the Australian Cricket Board the then NSWRU blindly followed the British RFU edict of no negotiation which in Britain was clearly based on class issues , and which despite attempts to do so has never had as much resonance in Australia. If thats to long ago for you how about this Is the ARU going to cut the Melbourne TEAM ? IT takes balls to compete on a week to week basis in Melbourne against AFL. tHE AFL has guts and rugby league despite its mistakes has it in loads. IT took guts for the Arl aligned clubs to hold the line and nearly bankrupted Manly and did bankrupt Wests and Norths etc..Rugby League in Australia despite blood on the floor is if anything GUTSY resilient and willing to reinvent itself.. Rugby union in this country has never had this. In fact how many teams in tne ARC for 2008? Will the Central Coast what its name premiers be the new N orthern Sydney bears! or better still Sydney Uni cold be Sydney City. Is the the NSWRU and the Sydney clubs really considering dropping the Penrith club? Dear Dear Tell me when a rugby club team attracts an average club crowd of 15000 each week and 40000 to a semi final. in Melbourne. Do not tell me about show case tests Rugby League’s record crowd is a state of origin in Melbourne. I’m talking week in week out for over 26 or more games with at least around 16 other rep games and semi finals. Actually how many games does a Wallabies player play in a year ? not very many! I visited this article and another one on changing rugby rules out of interest in rugby but half the participants seem to spend their time gratuitously attacking rugby league. I can assure you we leagies are more interested in whether the interchange should be reduced from 12 to 10 or less. Concentrate on your game and have some confidence in it. Most Leagies watch the Wallabies not the club crap, and even the passion in the Super 14′s is questionable. Ewen Mckenzie said you must get bored going week in week out to Leichhardt oval. The passion and atmosphere of a packed Leichhardt may not be Cardiff arms park but its a damned good feeling to be there with your sons watching Wests Tigers play win or lose.
November 22nd 2007 @ 3:56am
Gruffalo said | November 22nd 2007 @ 3:56am | Report comment
Westy
“IT took guts for the Arl aligned clubs to hold the line and nearly bankrupted Manly and did bankrupt Wests and Norths”.
You can’t sustain an argument by rewriting history. Manly survived bankruptcy because Arko, as head of the ARL, did a sweet deal to save his own club. North Sydney contributed over $10 million into the joint venture after it was formed – they had money – but somehow it was contrived to put them into administration – coincidentally, just before decisions on clubs were to be made by the NRL/News Limited. If the head of the ARL was a Norths bloke in the 90′s, then Manly would be dead today.
Anyone who saw what happened, especially Norths people, think rugby league is a disgrace for how it was conducted in those times – and they still do.
November 22nd 2007 @ 10:27am
gatesy said | November 22nd 2007 @ 10:27am | Report comment
Westy and Spiro,
You’re right. The line I’ve been pushing (see my about re-sructuring Australian Rugby) is that we have to get a structure in place that works right across the country (including the outlying areas and the bush. It has to be the same organisation in every state and it has to be district based, just like the Cricket model. As I have said, no one can argue with the strength of Aussie cricket.
Others have made the point about Sydney Uni and its lack of junior development and depth. It seems so obvious to me that if they want to be a continuing part of the fabric of Rugby that they venture down that path.
The apex is the ARU. The next level is the State Unions – all with a structure that mirrors one another, reporting to the ARU, and the Premier Clubs under that. Virtually everyone else (Subbies, Schools, Women, Services etc) should then be feeding into that system. The Subbies will use the argument that most blokes play at that level because they only want to play social footy, and that is very valid, but why should it absolve that union from being a large part of the answer to the problem.
I have coached at a Premier club in Sydney where the lower grades were the social grades, and that did not prevent anyone in the higher grades from pursuing excellence. Far from it, as the pressure from below pushed everyone’s aspirations higher.
While we have the power of the Schools Union, there will always be fragmentation. While it is essential that we have strong schools acting as Rugby nurseries, a way must be found to bring them into line, with the mainstream of Rugby which should be Club and union based.
The states would run the ARC. The Super 14 is then basically the professional side-show, because it is less about development than about business, though nobody wants to see it changed, and it should feed from the ARC teams, and be the logical pathway to the Wallabies. The franchises need to be locked into working closely with the state unions, but not necessarily a part of them. (That last thought might need more development!)
However, the great thing is that we are getting a ground swell of interest and having this discussion.
BTW I read in today’s Telegraph that the Melbourne Rebels are in danger of being axed. That would seem ludicrous and is probably a press beat up, but it is symptomatic of the thinking in Australian Rugby. If you have a problem, it seems to me that instead of trying to find a quick fix, you assemble a group of good people with good minds and try and work around the problem.
The only bright light to that story is that maybe people will stop trotting out the old annual chestnut about moving the Brumbies to Melbourne, if it is really that hard to maintain a franchise there.
Gatesy