The betrayal of Victorian Rugby
Roar Pro By Wally James, 30 Aug 2009 Wally James is a Roar Pro
- Tagged:
- ARU, John ONeill, Rugby Union, Super 15, Victorian Rugby, vru
I really do hope that the rumours about the VRU being excluded from the Melbourne Super 15 franchise are untrue. If they are, then a number of points should be made.
Firstly, the franchise said to be given the green light is Sydney based. When, oh when, will the ARU learn that Rugby exists outside NSW? The VRU has its own history, culture and ethos. Let that prosper as, for example, the WARU has through the Force.
Secondly, why on earth is there to be private funding from a group in Victoria which funds soccer?The conflict of interest seems to go without saying but clearly needs to be said. Soccer and Rugby are competing in the same sporting market. To have the same corporate interests in both has the potential to benefit neither. It can only benefit the entity which invests in both sports.
Thirdly, let’s keep private enterprise out of Rugby altogether. Look at the trouble England has as a consequence of owners of clubs. An owners primary concern is to make money. Rugby clubs exist for the benefit of Rugby solely. Rugby Unions, run with the appropriate balance of purpose, can do both. An owner or joint venture won’t.
Fourthly, it should always be remembered that the person pushing all of this is O’Neill. He tolerates no gainsaying of his aims for the sport. But who was it that left Rugby (pushed or otherwise) and went to Soccer? The very man who professes such love for Rugby. He spent a number of years orchestrating Rugby’s competitor. I trust him to make money for himself, or whoever is paying him, but not to keep the ethos of Rugby alive.
Why should we trust him now when it seems he is set to cut adrift the grassroots of the game in Victoria? The simple answer is, we shouldn’t.
Recommend this story.
- Explore:
- ARU, John ONeill, Rugby Union, Super 15, Victorian Rugby, vru
August 30th 2009 @ 9:21am
sheek said | August 30th 2009 @ 9:21am | Report comment
Wally,
At any other time I would be screaming from the rafters in support of the Victorian team. But you know what, I have known deep inside for some time, but believed that smart people would come to the rescue, but alas that hasn’t happened, Australian rugby is in free-fall decline.
Australian rugby is dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb. From the ARU administration to the various unions, to the Wallabies, right down to the fans.
Getting the 5th license will be a poisoned chalice, irrespective of whether it’s Victoria (Aus) or Eastern Province (SA). Rugby union in Australia is a game blinded by its own collective stupidity, & on a downward spiral to insignificance.
Now, how about the Dons-Hawks game, or Brissie-Swans, weren’t they just crackers???!!!
August 30th 2009 @ 9:27am
QC said | August 30th 2009 @ 9:27am | Report comment
I agree with you whole heartedly,
Australia do not deserve a fifth team last night just made this even clearer.
But hey what do the fans know we just pay to see this rubbish?
August 30th 2009 @ 9:29am
Pippinu said | August 30th 2009 @ 9:29am | Report comment
Settle down Sheek – it ain’t that bad (yet) – and any time the Boks beat us by actually scoring more tries has a tendency to make everything look a little bleaker than it really is.
And yeh, they were good games.
August 30th 2009 @ 10:06am
sheek said | August 30th 2009 @ 10:06am | Report comment
Oh Pip,
Give me a break….. It’s not the loss, & the 4th in a row, I might add. It’s the manner of the defeat. I try to look beneath the surface, & what I see is deeply disturbing.
And the way this license tender has been handled is also disturbing.
August 30th 2009 @ 1:57pm
Bonza said | August 30th 2009 @ 1:57pm | Report comment
Hear,Hear got to keep looking deeper for the real problems. Most of what we seem to discuss are only really the symptoms.
August 30th 2009 @ 9:49am
hammer said | August 30th 2009 @ 9:49am | Report comment
I agree super rugby is losing it’s attraction – 10,000 went to the manawatu v taranaki game yesterday – kiwis are reconnecting with their provincal championship
Australia are backing the wrong horse
August 30th 2009 @ 2:41pm
Pippinu said | August 30th 2009 @ 2:41pm | Report comment
There are actually two (or even three) different discussions going on, they might be all connected, but I’m not 100% sure of that.
There’s this business about the 5th Australian license (if indeed it ends up being a 5th Australian license). To be honest, any time a license like that is handed out, it’s a great leap into the unknown by the sporting body involved. Generally speaking, they don’t want to make a selection that will fold within a couple of years, I think we can all accept that much – and once the choice is made, there is nothing more left but to run with it and for the sporting body involved to assist it get going in any way it can.
Good or bad choice? The historians can ponder that one in thirty years time.
There’s another discussion about the value of super rugby full stop. I can’t speak for SA/NZ, but there’s little doubt in my mind that it must be the best club structure for rugby in Australia.
Why do I say that? Because setting up professional sporting clubs from scratch in the Australian market is tough. The NRL/AFL has had 80% of the available market sewn up for over 100 years. A tiny little bit of marketing doesn’t overturn that in hurry.
So – have a look at the four super Australian rugby clubs – sure, it’s a tough comp and they have often struggled on the field – but everything off the field to date has been pretty good. All four regularly get crowds of between 18,000 and 28,000 – does anyone honestly think that some rugby clubs set up from scratch are going to replicate that?
Of course not – Australia has no choice but to make super rugby work, to stick with, to make all five clubs strong.
Then there is the subject of developing the Wallabies.
With five Australian clubs playing in one of the very best club rugby comps in the world – why shouldn’t that be an ideal environment for developing Wallabies? C’mon – it’s silly to argue otherwise – super rugby of itself is not the problem (for Australia).
As a general rule – the best place to develop National Team standard players is by them playing in good clubs in the very best club competitions. Some might quibble about the “good clubs” bit of the equation, but surely not about the other part of hte equation.
September 3rd 2009 @ 2:36pm
dougo12 said | September 3rd 2009 @ 2:36pm | Report comment
I was skiing in victoria at the time of the bledisloe cup game in sydney and unfortunatly i did not have access to pay tv. I went to every pub and bar in the town to try and catch the game but not one of these outlets had the game on or had even known it was on. So much for their boast of being the sporting capitol of australia and being australias nomination for our next team in the super 15. Even channel 7 did not show it. Not only will the Victorians have to import players for their team but they will need to bring in supporters to cheer them on.
September 3rd 2009 @ 2:46pm
Pippinu said | September 3rd 2009 @ 2:46pm | Report comment
Is Mt Buller meant to be the sporting capital of Australia?
August 30th 2009 @ 9:26am
Pippinu said | August 30th 2009 @ 9:26am | Report comment
I can’t honestly say I know the ins and outs of this whole matter, or whether this consortium willl be successful or not, but I can say that Lord is a generic sporting administrator/entrepreneur. I think he actually had an aussie rules background before taking over the Victory. So one thing we can definitely say about him is that he understands the sporting market in Melbourne (which counts for a lot more than knowing the difference between a loose head and a block head).
I think it is true at the same time that there is the possibility of a conflict between funding the two different sports, but it must be remembered that they will share the same stadium, and play in substantially different seasons, so there’s plenty of room for some synergy between the two enterprises.
August 30th 2009 @ 2:01pm
Bonza said | August 30th 2009 @ 2:01pm | Report comment
Lord will be part of the solution regardless as he can bring operational and stadium efficiencies. The real question is who is actually going to be running this outfit? The Vics, Private Equity or simply the ARU in disguise.
August 30th 2009 @ 3:22pm
sheek said | August 30th 2009 @ 3:22pm | Report comment
Bonza,
Is that the Good Lord………?
August 30th 2009 @ 3:29pm
Brett McKay said | August 30th 2009 @ 3:29pm | Report comment
Bonza, yours is the key question here. When I first heard of this so-called snubbing of the VRU in favour of a Sydney-based consortium, I thought “oh no, here we go again..” It was just so typical of how the ARU seem to have that uncanny knack of buggering up the seemingly unbuggerable.
But with the benefit of time, I’m somewhat back-tracking a little. If there is Sydney money involved in setting up the Victorian bid, why does that really matter?? If the Victorian bid (and it has to be Melbourne-based, even if some money is from interstate) get the nod from SANZAR, and manage to get a reasonable side on the park, what’s to say the “Melbourne money” won’t follow?? I don’t think it’s that unreasonable to suggest that there may well be plenty of corporates in Melbourne who will get involved on a small scale initially, and suddenly find themselves as the major jersey sponsor after a few seasons.
For my mind it’s not how it comes about, but that it works well with all the necessary stakeholders in Melbourne if/when it gets the nod.
August 30th 2009 @ 5:10pm
Todd Day said | August 30th 2009 @ 5:10pm | Report comment
As an Australian it is embarrassing to hear people bag our national side. If this young group of men win the next RWC I hope you all remember your words and don’t simply go for the “i always knew they would”. We have no national structure a 5th team will help us to get on an even playing field with the sanzar partners. Brett i totally agree with your thoughts as I have said before the VRU must continue to run grass roots rugby in Vic with S15 support. O’Neill helped turn Australian rugby around last time, he orchestrated our running of the RWC in 2003. Then pushed away from rugby by petty politics and produced the A League, he is the best man for the job. What have you lot of whingers done in terms of helping Australian sport?
August 30th 2009 @ 5:25pm
fred said | August 30th 2009 @ 5:25pm | Report comment
brett,with respect how it comes about underpins the success of this 5th team imo,;
DAY agrees with you and he sings in the choir so its a no brainer;foundation is king
August 30th 2009 @ 5:47pm
Brett McKay said | August 30th 2009 @ 5:47pm | Report comment
Fred, that is true, for sure, but I guess I mean that what really matters is that it becomes a truly Victorian team for Victorian rugby fans. Not a Sydney team based in Melbourne…
August 30th 2009 @ 6:56pm
Bay35Pablo said | August 30th 2009 @ 6:56pm | Report comment
I am starting to find I am falling into the manic-depressive cycle that goes with being an Australian rugby fan (apparently).
It was much the same when I saw the VicSuper15 bid had got the gig over the VRU. However, the fact remains as long as it is successful who cares. Yes the separation of the S15 side from the VRU means you are separating the main money earner from the grass roots. But this may not be an issue.
Consider:
1. The VRU seems to be just as much a hotbed of political backstabbing as the NSWRU. Do you really want that holdng back the S15 team?
2. The NSWRU has been looking at hiving off the Tahs into a separate organisation for a while now, with a different board, preferably independent so t can be run more like a business.
3. A S15 is not a money making enterprise. It gets a annual grant every year, most of which is to go to player wages (under aRUPA agreement), and they try to get as much as they can from gate takings, sponsorships, etc to fund the rest of the operation. It sucks up all the income it can get. It doesn’t feed much back into the grass roots, except by osmosis (players doing development clinics, etc). At the end of the day the VRU and ARU have to fund that.
I think because Aussie rugby fans have been doing it tough for so long, we tend to enjoy the highs so much more, and get very depressed at the earliest sign of problems.
August 31st 2009 @ 2:12am
Eebs said | August 31st 2009 @ 2:12am | Report comment
Yes the VRU is a mess and that is exactly why they are not heading up the bid but being left in charge of managing club rugby. This apparent “snubbing” however, has led them to dump a great deal of vitriol over the whole process.
The story about the VicSuper15 bid being a Sydney thing is way off target. Geoff Lord is involved because he knows a good business opportunity when it arises. And yes, Kevin Maloney is based in Sydney, but the main impetus to get the VicSuper15 bid off the ground came from ex VRU board members who resigned after being thoroughly unimpressed by the VRU’s approach to the bid. They all have very strong links to community rugby in Melbourne and are committed to helping it grow.
As for the team becoming a truly Victorian one, I don’t think that will be a problem. The players who were based in Melbourne with the Rebels loved their experience down here. And to code jump, the guys who play for the Storm are all pretty rapt with what Melbourne has to offer and with how the fans have embraced them. Check out the “Graveyards” record.
And please Wally, why private enterprise? Because the sport is professional and played out on a world stage. And John O’Neill, love him or hate him, has had everything he’s worked with turn to gold.
August 31st 2009 @ 7:35pm
AndyS said | August 31st 2009 @ 7:35pm | Report comment
So which is it – a Super team is “not a money making enterprise”, or “Geoff Lord is involved because he knows a good business opportunity when it arises”. It can’t be both….
August 31st 2009 @ 11:55am
Todd Day said | August 31st 2009 @ 11:55am | Report comment
Regardless of who’s where, for the betterment of Australian and Victorian rugby please put aside your personal ambitions and get behind a Victorian S15 team!
If we do not we will lose the chance of a lifetime and it’ll never come back again. The VRU must see this as the most important thing to acheive surely. The fact the VS15 bid team are making no public discussion on this shows how professional they are by not getting involved publically in this spat. I implore the VRU to do the same, deal with it at the table of all three groups and the ARU. At the end of the day we need a S15 team here to help union grow in Victoria and Australia. The VRU will be a major part of that regardless. It’s time everyone got on board.