NRL stars could move to rugby for the Rio Olympics
By Mike Osborne, 8 Apr 2010 Mike Osborne is a Roar Rookie
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- 2016 Olympic Games, ARU, Greg Inglis, John ONeill, Johnathan Thurston, NRL, Rugby League, Rugby Union
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NRL stars like Greg Inglis and Johnathan Thurston may be tempted to swap codes in a bid to finish their illustrious careers with an Olympic medal in rugby sevens at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.
So says ARU chief executive John O’Neill who believes rugby is emerging from a trough in good shape ahead of the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand, after the abbreviated form of the game was accepted into the Olympic program.
O’Neill told a sports’ CEO lunch in Sydney that rugby sevens had the same potential for his code as Twenty20 had for cricket in creating a new market and new opportunities.
“Will we see the likes of Johnathan Thurston and Greg Inglis playing rugby for Australia and trying to win an Olympic gold medal at Rio in 2016?” he questioned.
His NRL counterpart David Gallop said such a prospect was “very distant on the radar” but did not rule it out.
“It’s a very nice thing for rugby to be accepted into the Olympics and if we were ever offered the opportunity to join the Olympic Games we’d probably say yes,” he said.
Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland said the advent of Twenty20 had changed the landscape for his sport by broadening the talent base.
“The challenge is to find the right mix of T20 fixtures (with Tests and One Day Internationals) and that demand could be answered by expanding the Big Bash (to include city or regional based teams),” he told the 500 guests at the Sydney Tattersalls Club.
Sutherland also said he wanted to find a clear window to allow Australian team players to participate in the state-based Big Bash currently played over the Christmas and New Year period.
One point on which all the sporting CEOs agreed was getting a strong foothold in the massive western Sydney region.
While the NRL has a head start with teams based in Parramatta, Penrith and Canterbury, the AFL has plans for Team GWS to play in 2012, Football Federation Australia plans to launch the Sydney Rovers in 2011, and the ARU is trying to rejuvenate its Parramatta-based club.
FFA boss Ben Buckley said it would be an extremely competitive environment and all codes would have to be at their best.
“Success will ultimately be decided by who has got the seven-year-olds playing their game,” Gallop said.
Buckley also said he was confident the FFA and Australia had done a good job in building a reputation with the sport’s global governing body FIFA as a credible soccer World Cup host for 2018 or 2022.
O’Neill, a former FFA CEO, said he thought Australia would win the 2022 World Cup, but compensation would need to be paid to the other codes if they were to give up venues for the World Cup.
“FIFA makes politics look like kindergarten and the 2018 World Cup will have to go back to Europe for financial reasons,” he said.
“I think they’ll win in 2022 but the other codes can’t be disadvantaged and serious money will have to change hands.
“For example the net gate proceeds from a Bledisloe Cup game at (Sydney’s) ANZ stadium is worth about $4 million before you consider TV rights.”
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April 8th 2010 @ 7:48am
Dave said | April 8th 2010 @ 7:48am | Report comment
Good on them . PNG would probably do the same as their best athletes are playing league.
April 8th 2010 @ 8:16am
Crosscoder said | April 8th 2010 @ 8:16am | Report comment
I saw the CEO luncheon replay on Fox,very interesting.JON’s comment has some validity,although it makes him appear a little stupid,when he made the comment in the past,they(ARU) would not be chasing rl stars.He appeared to be having a little shot at Gallop.At the end of their rl careers? Why not! Milk the machine for whatever you can.
Wonder what aspiring 7s ru bred players thought of that comment.
The moderator did elicit a rather clumsy response from JON(not mentioned here),when asked what he thought of Lote Tuqiri’s return to the NRL.He mumbled something being caught off guard”oh he is in the NRL now,and is probably enjoying himself.”
Moderator “he certainly is” then at JON’s comment “shortest response we have ever had”.The audience in laughter.
Back to the theme.It is patently obvious that WS is going to be a hive of development acticvity by all codes over the next few years.
As Buckley stated that area is huge when it comes to participation rates in soccer(ok football).I believe a second A league team will do OK.
I still believe that GWS will take away support from the Swans ,partiicularly from those fans in the nth west of Sydney.
I was also interested to hear Gallop publicly again state Central Coast(iincluding Nth Sydney) and Perth were back in the pipeline once the new Tv contracts are in situ,plus other areas in SEQ and CQ that were chasing a spot.He again reiterated they are expecting a decent increase in contract monies.He reaffirmed the game’s committment to grow the grassroots.
I agree(and that comingfrom me) with JON that ru has picked itself up this year after last year,and having the intnl programme increased plus the OP 7s is a huge boost.I give credit when credit is due.
Still not getting S15 on FTA and as a consequence an even bigger contract, is some drawback.
Cricket really doesn’t have to worry about footy competition.Their CEO has it a lot easier than the other guys IMO.
There was a general theme by the non soccer CEOs,that there must be compensation for those codes, affected by the WC whether 2018 or 2022.There of course will be new stadiia in place,for the use of all rectangular codes,but that doesn’t pay for the tea and bikkies during the 8 week layoff in a Wc year.
The question i pose.Why hasn’t A.D appeared on behalf of the AFL 2 years running?
April 8th 2010 @ 8:23am
Justin said | April 8th 2010 @ 8:23am | Report comment
I think JONs comment was pretty tongue in cheek. Mention 2 of the biggest players in the game to give a few people the sh!ts. With a live audience it worked beautifully.
April 8th 2010 @ 8:31am
Crosscoder said | April 8th 2010 @ 8:31am | Report comment
Justin agree.
But by the same token, he then got his return serve, when asked about Lote and he muffed it.Sweet to see and that also worked beautifully.
April 8th 2010 @ 8:06pm
MarkH said | April 8th 2010 @ 8:06pm | Report comment
But the Tahs are playing better without him. RL players havent worked.
April 8th 2010 @ 8:55am
Siva Samoa said | April 8th 2010 @ 8:55am | Report comment
We don’t breed sevens players in Australia. Everyone wants the big money contract in super 15, Wallabies or play professional in Europe or Japan. Sevens is only an option and sometimes its given to them and some end up spending most of their rugby carrer there
April 8th 2010 @ 9:11am
Big Al said | April 8th 2010 @ 9:11am | Report comment
Can’t understand why O’Neill would want league players playing union – league players are absolutely useless at union!! It’s been proven time and time again. The only real successes have been Tuqiri and Thorn, but Thorn grew up in NZ playing Union and Tuqiri comes from a Union background being Fijian and all that. Even more so at sevens will leaguies be useless – you can’t just stand up and put the ball under your legs after you’re tackled! Furthermore, the three man scrum in one Sevens game has more power than all the scrums in the NRL 2010 season combined! And as for Gallop saying that league would take up an offer to join the Olympics – surely that’s tongue and cheek.
April 8th 2010 @ 3:57pm
The Link said | April 8th 2010 @ 3:57pm | Report comment
yeah Jason Robinson was pretty ordinary in Rugby I agree
April 8th 2010 @ 4:29pm
Ken said | April 8th 2010 @ 4:29pm | Report comment
Both Thorn and Tuqiri moved to Australia as little kids, any Union background they had in their birthplaces would be minimal in the extreme. Is it that hard to admit they might just be good enough to play both games at a high level? There’s plenty in the pile you term useless that played many games at the highest level too so that might be a harsh term.
I think League, Union and 7′s (and touch for that matter!) all require different skills regardless. Some players would be amazing at all of them, some might excel just at one. Do you think that the 7′s team is going to be made up solely of Wallabies? I’m not suggesting that they’ll allow League players (neither the ARU nor the ARL would allow that I imagine) but I would expect the makeup of the team will be a core of dedicated 7′s players with a couple of appropriate big names sprinkled in. It will not be a simple case of picking the 7 best players from the Wallabies because the game is too different.
April 8th 2010 @ 4:46pm
Dave said | April 8th 2010 @ 4:46pm | Report comment
Lote Tuqiri’s father and uncles were former Fijian rugby internationals who played club rugby in Brisbane while Lote also had a couple of season in rugby as a junior playing on saturday and league on sundays. He also played and coach the Brisbane Fijian rugby team in the Brisbane Pacific Islands rugby championship while contracted to the Broncos.
April 8th 2010 @ 8:44pm
Shahsan said | April 8th 2010 @ 8:44pm | Report comment
I don’t think they’re great successes in union either. Wouldnt place either of them among the all-time top 10 in their positions in their own countries. They are good but in no way great rugby union players.
And Lote was pretty lousy at 7s, as evidenced by his play in Adelaide and at the Commonwealth Games about 8 years ago.
April 8th 2010 @ 9:17am
Ken said | April 8th 2010 @ 9:17am | Report comment
Yep, he was just stirring – he also knows it’s the best way to a headline ‘Union chases Inglis for Olympics’ etc. I think 7′s in the Olympics is good news for Union (and possibly good for League too) but there’s no way it’s going to lead to a flood of NRL players switching to 7′s for a chance of making an olympic team every 4 years.
April 8th 2010 @ 9:23am
M1tch said | April 8th 2010 @ 9:23am | Report comment
Oh no Thurston will be 33 when this happens..please someone stop it hahaha
April 8th 2010 @ 9:44am
King of the Gorganites said | April 8th 2010 @ 9:44am | Report comment
I also watched it on Fox (though not all of it). It was very intresting. I didnt know they even did things like that. a few points:
1. Where was Demitriou – was he to busy on his Death Star taking over the world (or at least westenr sydney)?
2. i thought JON comment was unncessary. though as a roarer above said, it is good to create publicity. but do we really need that kind of publicity. the current australian sevens squad has shown that the best sevens players are those that build into. it takes time and a good squad to be competive. you can not just drop big names into it and expect to win olympic gold. what about more headlines about the positive results? whilst the olmypics is huge for rugby, lets not be silly about and make stupid comments like JON did.
3. totally agree that compensation is deserved for the football coades if australia wins the hosting right for the football WC. but it effects AFL alot more then it does RU or RL.
4. JON exppressed concern about Argentina guaranteeing there best players for the expenda 4 nations. i have heard the same concerns from NZ. worrying as i havent heard of many argies signing with S15 sides. Argentina is the 4N is a must, but will prove diffciult. glad the IRB is compensationg SANZAR.
5. the battle for western sydney will be a cracker.
KoGs
April 8th 2010 @ 9:59am
kovana said | April 8th 2010 @ 9:59am | Report comment
Fella was trolling.. Lol
But i dont see NRL stars flooding over to union for a chance at olympics..
BUT i do see the younger guys in league fringes maybe trying to take up the offer for olympic gold.. but. who knows..