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Where to for the next ARU CEO?

ARU chief executive John O'Neill (right) speaks with Wallabies coach Robbie Deans following a press conference at the team hotel (AAP Image/Dave Hunt)
Roar Guru
15th October, 2012
16

It is hoped that the new Australian Rugby Union CEO doesn’t come from a banking background, where everything is viewed as a cost centre and the focus is almost solely on how overheads can be reduced.

Where the strategy is based around user pays, where kids and coaches have to pay for every activity. A focus that does not consider promoting the game to the uninitiated but one that seeks to relentlessly cash in on the faithful.

There are times when it is required to spend money to make money, and now is the time.

It is time to build the rugby infrastructure in Australia with a bottom up strategy that invests in the grassroots and builds from there (rather than this top Super Rugby development nonsense that has gone nowhere – even the Waratahs are using the ITM Cup to develop their players).

Australia now has five franchises, and it would be easy to expand the five from the current 1st XV and add a 2nd XV, say a under-23 side for games within Australia.

The teams could travel together, stay together and share the same venues. This would double the product for viewers both live and TV.

This would also deliver a pool of around 60 players per franchise and bolster Australia’s depth of players. Player utilisation would need to change from running paid training sessions to grassroot school engagement.

Each region in Australia could have a dedicated current Super Rugby player/players, where the player works with locals to promote the game in primary and high schools. In time that player’s name becomes a household name in that region.

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In NSW there are some eight country zones and some 12 Shute Shield clubs, providing a total of 20 major rugby organisations, all with a substantial junior investment (with the exception of Sydney Uni).

The 60 NSW players could be divided amongst the 20 and each organisation could have a senior player, a mid-range player and a under-23 to help promote rugby in that area. Kids want to see their stars; it is time the stars went out and met them!

Australian rugby may have a fifth franchise but the game underneath has been spinning its wheels.

It is going nowhere, quickly. In the past five years the game at junior and senior levels has, at best, marked time.

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