It’s time for the launch of Rugby Australia

 
Andrew Logan Columnist

By , 30 Sep 2009 Andrew Logan is a Roar Expert

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AAP Image/Tracey Nearmy - Managing Director and CEO of Australian Rugby John O'NeillIf there’s one thing which characterizes Australian rugby at the moment, it’s frustration. Just about everyone you speak to is frustrated and angry, frustrated and worried, or just frustrated and sad.

After fourteen years of professionalism, rugby lovers outside the professional sphere are feeling their game slip away from them.

Where once they felt a part of the fabric of rugby, they now feel like fringe dwellers. Where once they owned a stake in the game, they are now alienated and dispossessed, watching helplessly as the ARU ignores their pleas for a seat at the table.

And, where once the supporters felt empowered to have an opinion, they now feel that their hopes and dreams for rugby are being swatted away like so many flies at a picnic.

Although the frustration and alienation is in many ways characterized by the Wallabies poor performances, it is in no way limited to them.

All levels of the game outside of the elite struggle for assistance to develop and grow rugby, and they certainly cry out for any sort of true representation. If you’re not involved at national or provincial level (and even the provinces are now starting to find themselves marginalized), you have no voice.

Examples are everywhere.

Avenues for burgeoning players have been systematically dismantled in the last few years, with the Australian Rugby Championship, the Australia A program, and the Australian Rugby Shield all being simply abolished.

The ARC may have cost a lot, but assurances from the ARU that it would be replaced by another model, have evaporated into the ether.

There is no national competition, and no prospect of having one in the near future. Many supporters who accepted, and even argued for, the ARC’s demise now feel that they may have been led up the garden path, given that nothing has arisen to replace it.

The Melbourne Super 15 bid has been marred by controversy and in-fighting, and although it is difficult to unravel the claim and counter-claim, the point really is that the ARU has systematically denied the VRU the opportunity to enjoy the same privileges that the other state unions enjoy – that is, management of the Super Rugby franchise in their state.

The governing body is actively attempting to sideline the state union from administration of the Super Rugby franchise in Victoria, which means that however you slice and dice it, they are cutting the link from the people at the grassroots, to rugby at the elite level.

Super Rugby in Victoria will no longer be owned by the constituents, but by a private consortium handpicked by the ARU, and no amount of token-seats-on-the-board will change that for Victorians.

At national level, development and participation numbers are another vast source of “lies, damn lies and statistics”, but the evidence that counts (ie the experience of parents and their kids) is damning.

Simply put, the vast majority of kids don’t get anything from rugby, whereas they get plenty from other codes, particularly AFL. Even on the north shore of Sydney, which should be the rugby stronghold of all strongholds, the number of kids kicking a red Sherrin around is frightening.

A mate of mine in Orange, NSW (who is incidentally a rugby league fan), recently bemoaned his lack of success at getting his boys interested in league, because the AFL is regularly visiting their school, running programs and giving them equipment.

The boys want my mate to bring them to Sydney to watch the Swans.

As for rugby, it is so far off their radar that they hardly even know it exists.

Club and country rugby no longer has any tangible link with players at the peak of the game. NSW and QLD Country, South Australia and Western Australia no longer play touring teams.

Super Rugby, unlike the NRL, is never able to be taken to the bush because with only 7 home games a year, the gate is all important.

There is no such thing as a country-based Wallaby any more, and there is not a club anywhere outside Sydney, Canberra or Brisbane metro with a current or recent former Wallaby playing on a regular season basis.

The two biggest forays into country NSW by representative players in the last 12 months, were driven not by the ARU, but by RUPA who organized a visit of several ex-Wallabies to Orange last year, and the Silver Foxes (a volunteer group of former Wallabies and others playing rugby for charity).

Where am I going with all this?

The point is that after 14 years of professionalism, the ARU, which was once a custodian and servant of rugby in a federal system where the States ‘own’ the game, has forgotten its role.

Instead of listening to its constituents and fostering the growth of the game, it has adopted an angry father-knows-best approach, fobbing off the true owners of the sport with a patronizing “you wouldn’t understand”, or worse, “you don’t need to know”.

It has become the master it aspires to be, rather than the servant that it was intended and constitutionally positioned to be.

So what is the answer for those outside of the elite?

For many, the time is ripe for rebellion.

If the ARU won’t, or can’t, fix the problems at grassroots levels, then it may just be time for the constituents to form their own body and fix some of the issues themselves – issues such as rugby development and opportunities for players outside the existing Super franchises.

After all, if you have a leaky tap and your landlord won’t do anything about it, you get down to the hardware store and fix it yourself.

What could such an alternative body look like?

Well, hypothetically speaking, let’s call it Rugby Australia. Membership of Rugby Australia would be open to any individual with an interest in rugby, in return for a yearly membership fee. Membership would entitle rugby players and followers to vote on issues facing grassroots rugby, as well as a range of benefits, such as discounts on tickets and rugby-related products and services.

Rugby Australia would be governed by a board of directors at both state and national levels on 2 year terms.

These directors would be financial members, and would be voted for by other financial members every 2 years via a secure website.

Anyone with an interest in rugby could run for a position in on the Rugby Australia board at state or national level, and constituents would decide who was best placed to represent them.

The same secure website would enable constituents to vote on a range of issues raised by Rugby Australia, and would assist directors in making decisions about the way Rugby Australia distributed funds and assistance to clubs and individuals, as well as strategic initiatives such as rugby development programs.

The Rugby Australia charter would be simple – support for rugby at the grassroots, for the benefit of all players and supporters. It would be a development and support body, owned by the constituents and acting as a servant to the rugby community nationally.

Priorities would be to:
• Acknowledge and encourage ownership of the game by players and supporters
• Lobby the ARU and IRB on rugby issues nationally and globally
• Promote rugby as a participation sport at all levels
• Develop rugby skills at school, junior and club level
• Develop rugby coaches and referees at school, junior and club level
• Develop and support amateur representative opportunities for players at school, junior and club level
• Develop and support touring and overseas playing opportunities for players at school, junior and club level

Rugby Australia would not necessarily act in competition with the ARU, but rather simply be an overdue acknowledgement that the ARU and RUPA are now primarily concerned with the professional levels of the game, and that there is a need for another body to fill the void left by the ARU to drive development at the grassroots levels of rugby.

Rugby Australia could mobilize the passion for foundation levels of rugby in Australia by accrediting volunteer development officers; training referees and touch judges; acting as an agent for inbound tours from clubs and non-professional representative teams; raising money to make funding grants to schools and promising players for touring and development; and stage structured tournaments at amateur representative level, inviting professional scouts to view promising players.

The state bodies of Rugby Australia could eventually send their own teams to interstate tournaments, and maybe one day, run their own national tournament.

Funding would come from yearly subscriptions; events and match gates and corporate sponsorship.

Is it possible?

Of course the logistics wouldn’t be easy, but the amount of passion seeking an outlet in Australian rugby lately might just translate into something special, particularly if the numbers could be quantified and specific reports and referendum type votes submitted to the relevant bodies.

Player and supporter power could well form a formidable entity with the sheer weight of numbers on its side.

If nothing else, Rugby Australia would be an uncomfortable reminder to the ARU that what rugby followers in Australia want most, is a loyal servant – not an arrogant master.

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