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The NSW Country versus Melbourne game on Saturday saw a good-sized crowd create a great atmosphere on a beautiful spring afternoon in Orange. They were rewarded with a decent game, even if the result didn’t quite go their way.
During the afternoon, I was lucky enough to corner a very busy Eagles General Manager, former Wallabies and Balmain Tigers winger James Grant.
This provided a nice opportunity to follow up a few things covered in my interview with him in July.
Brett McKay: It’s been two months since we spoke prior to the competition commencing – how have you found moving from concept to operational NRC franchise?
James Grant: Look, it’s been a challenge and it continues to be a challenge. There are a lot of things which, in hindsight, will change. I guess, at the end of the NRC, we’ll all get together and have a talk about it. There’s a lot of things we [the franchises] can change and make it better.
From our point of view, we’ve done pretty well. The team’s done well, and we’ve got a good structure with the team. Going from town to town has its challenges, because you’re trying to recruit new volunteers every place we go to, so that’s difficult.
But this game in Orange in particular, the volunteers have been fantastic and there’s no shortage of them. All the clubs have got on board, and we’ve got another one coming up in Dubbo and I expect the same sort of thing. From that side of things, it’s been good.
Putting the team together has had its challenges too, because we’ve got people coming from everywhere, but Darren Coleman and his staff have done a great job.
What about on the promotions front – what have the Eagles done locally?
We have Sam Ryan, who works as our media guy, and he’s been doing a great job. We’ve gone to every media outlet here [in Orange] and we’ve had promotions running on the FM stations, advertising running on the local TV stations, and there’s been articles throughout the paper for the last two weeks.
We’ve done giveaways and we’ve tried to engage with all the school kids. We’ve managed to get the Super Rugby trophy up here for a tour and some schools visits, and so we’ve really tried to get everyone going.
We’ve done what we can with promotions, and the food and wine festival here [which I can personally attest was excellent!] and people outside rugby are getting involved, which is something we really wanted.
And then the obvious follow-up – what about from a competition level? How have you found the promotional support from above?
It’s easy to be critical, really easy to be critical, because I think more definitely needs to be done to support this competition.
The competition is well regarded by most people who watch it. But if you don’t have pay-TV, you can’t watch it, so there’s a problem.
Some of the other promotional stuff… and I understand there’s a cost to everything, but if we want the competition successful, we’ve got to make some priorities and make it successful, and from my point of view, I think we’ve got to build from here upwards and we’ve got to put some resources into that.
Do you feel like there have been promotional costs that you’ve had to wear that perhaps should have been spent at the competition level?
We have incurred quite a number of costs, but in saying that, everyone has to pull their weight and we understand that. But I think at the top level, we can do a bit more. We’re happy to keeping doing what we do, but I just think we need to get a bit more support.
And without being too critical, I don’t know exactly what that [support] is, but it’s worth us [the NRC franchises] all getting together and saying, ‘this is what we need, and this is how we need to do it’.
It easy to criticise, and looking at it I’d say, ‘there hasn’t been enough done’. And then someone says, ‘what do you want them to do?’ And you go, ‘well, I don’t even know.’
So this is where everyone needs to get together, and get a plan and say, ‘we need to focus harder on that area, and we need to focus harder here’.
More needs to get done, but what it is we need to sit down and work out.
Have you been happy with your crowds so far?
They’ve been a bit disappointing. Coogee [Round 1 v Greater Sydney] was disappointing, but the weather didn’t help.
We went to Lismore [Round 4 v Brisbane City], and the local council were fantastic with us. Didn’t quite get the support from the local rugby community that we wanted, and that was disappointing but there was a lot going on that weekend [the local grand final was on in Lismore the day before], or everyone tells me there was a lot going on; I think they’re just excuses.
If you want the games to continue to go there, then go and support them. If you don’t support them, then there’s no point bringing them.
The support from local governments?
It’s been very good. Lismore was very good, very well organised.
Orange has been terrific, and they were on board straight away, and we’ll go to Dubbo in a few weeks and all indications have been they’ll be just as supportive. They’re very keen to get rugby up there – they won the [Central West] grand final this year over Orange, so they’re very keen.
[Orange Emus are coached by former Roar Expert columnist Andrew Logan, who was still smarting when I caught up with him on Saturday.]
When we last spoke, you said you were working on potential host venues for next season – has that list grown now as a result of these games, or have you had to make a few calls yourself?
No, no, that list continues to be there, but you need to make a real value judgement on whether it’s an enthusiastic minority of people who want the game [in a potential regional host city], or whether that’s what the general community wants.
Next year when we look at venues we want to go to, it’s got to be the local council, the local rugby community, and then the local community outside that. If there’s good support from there, it’s make it easier to do.
What about NSW Country Rugby Union – is that collaboration still ongoing, and are they still happy to have a NSW Country presence in the NRC?
Yes it is. And I honestly believe we need to build a stronger bond with the Cockatoos. Their President, Barry Ruddy, is helping us out here today, and we have a good relationship with them, but there’s a lot of double handling in this competition; we do things, and they do things, and if we did them together we could cut some costs. And that’s right across the board in the competition, too [between the franchises and the ARU].
We need to look at that, and I’d like to see the Country bond strengthened.
And what about on the field? The consistency of the Eagles has probably taken the competition by surprise, I’d suggest.
I think the good thing you can say about our guys is that they’re playing to their ability. They’ve jelled well as a team, surprisingly quickly as a team, so you’ve probably got to dip the hat to the coaching team there because they’re very well organised.
I’m certainly happy with our results. Today [was] a big test against Melbourne, and they’re clearly the front-runner in the competition, so we had a chance to see where we’re at.
I think we’ve gone above a lot of people’s expectations.
The NRC as a concept – do you think it has a future both on the calendar and for Australian rugby?
Oh, 100 per cent it’s got a future. Whether financially the organisations [franchises and the ARU] can sustain that is the question. There is a big cost to doing all this and maybe some streamlining or doing some things a bit differently is required.
But I think it’s vital that [the NRC] continues. You talk to all the players and they love playing in it. We’ve got three or four [country-based] guys in our side who are exposed to another level, and sometimes they get caught out and they go, ‘wow’ – but that’s what it’s about, it’s giving people a chance at a higher level.