Rugby Australia isn't worth the effort

Sheek I'm an Army officer - I have very little faith in the head shed and even less in our political leadership!!!!! 8-)

Campbell Watts. I would ignore the Kiwi expat at my own peril mate! I have often stated that the main reason Union continues to survive in this country is due to the huge numbers of NZ'ers arriving here by the'boat load' every week. The Kiwi is ubiquitous throughout this country so their influence is no revelation. The Saffa influence in Perth is big, certainly big enlough to rate as a criteria when the ARU were justifying going West in the first place. Gary They beat themselves i.e. Qld, NSW and the ACT. The generic franchise i.e. 'The Force', may have beaten the remaining Ozzie provinces however this does not change the likelhood that Vic would have been producing a side with way more local content than WA, had they had been given the green light instead. Please name those three local lads for my benefit, ta.

Well said Gary! Don't think Republican has ANY idea about WA to be honest. To bleat on about the SA influence and ignore the obvious Kiwi fan base just shows his ignorance to the goings-on over here. Corporate sponsorship has not been a problem at all for the Force and once the team move to a rectanglular pitch this season the crowds will be back in force.

WA won, the Force are established and competitive. Remember they beat all three other Australian Teams last season. Get over it. I don't think you have any idea of how well Rugby is doing here in WA unless you have been here. The playing population has exploded. Most clubs do not have a recruitment problem, the most common problem is too many players. Professionally, there are already 3 home grown players n the Force squad and many more very very good players, both Senior and Junior knocking on the door. We in WA want Victoria a team because there is nothing better than beating Victoria at anything. Look forward not back

Captain Nemo, I don't believe in blind faith, except in cases of immediate family, & that may require objectivity also. The wonderful diggers of every war have blind faith in their military & political leaders to look after them, yet who continue to let them down - an absolute constant in a ever-changing world. In sport, faith is two-ways. Right now the Wallabies aren't putting in, & therefore don't deserve our faith. Nor does the system of Australian rugby.

we need some blinde faith in the Wallabies just as these kids have unbridled faith in their beloved All Blacks. This is the nicest thing I have seen on the net in ages. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NM8IbtO6vMQ

Republican, you do know Brumbies Rugby and ACTRU are one and the same, right??

Vic has better grassroots and did back then; Corporately as good if not better; Closer to NZ and the established Eastern provices; Potentially huge market; Rectangular pitch from the get go; Sport capital of the country. WA got across the line on the back of its Saffa expat factor. It has conducted its third party affairs extremely dubiously. It advantages Saffa Union in a big way. - which is o.k in itself but it is isolated from the East where Union is traditionally placed. As stated earlier it was never going to be an option in relocating the Brumby's to WA. The momentum for that Vic and ARU coup waned once JON set sail for the roond ball game but he is back now with avengeance so those ACT Union devoteees had better watch their backs!

Personally I don't think the VRU was ready to run a professional outfit 4 years ago. Just look at the bill they ran up running the Rebels in the ARC. Even now from what I can gather guys like Gary Gray won't be running the show. Ring ins of the likes of Harold Mitchell, Ken Maloney and now it appears Geoff Lord will sit on the board to keep their investment in check. Which isn't a bad thing. All three have extensive expertise and contacts. I doubt they would have been able to draw these blokes in back in 05.

Oh, and I thought Victoria should have gotten the nod ahead of WA 4 years ago ....

Melbourne has just started fielding a U-19s (?) side in the NRL or NSW comp, which was almost all Vic players and I think won the comp. They are also stopping using other clubs as feeder clubs in the Qld or NSW State Cups (Brsibane Norths and ???), and will be fielding their own Storm side in the NSW Cup from next year I believe. The Storm are slowly growing. it is the type of junior growth that in 5 years or so should see a number of WA juniors start playing for the Force. As such, the Rebels will probably take 10 years to be close to a home grown side at the earliest.

AC Western Australia was the right choice then and still is now. I supported the ARU's decision. one of the few good decisions' they have made this decade.Republican is just trying to put the boot in. He has no real idea of the 'why' RugbyWA was given the nod. The Force may not have made the finals thus far but you have to look at how much benefit their presence has had at ground level. More player's, more clubs, more fan's. Rugby is carving out its place in WA. And is beginning to develop higher quality juniors that will one day make the step up to the Force.

Here here AC! There are a few rugby organisations around Australia that could learn a thing or two off RugbyWA!!!

Republican, On what grounds was it a better choice than Perth?

Uncle Mareko. I think you are indulging in a bit of hyperbole when you suggest that Union was in a position to make any serious impact on Australian Footy in Melbourne. I do however appreciate your frustartion over the governing bodies ulteria motives in respect of Vic and agree that Melbourne was a better choice than Perth. The ARU thought they could have their cake and eat it too in banking on a re location of the Brumby's to Melbourne back then becuase to move the Brumby's to Perth was not at all feasible. The ACT Brumby's and ACTRU have been one of the driving forces behind Victorias growth and the VRU continue to covet their Super team. If Vic do sabotage this latest Super bid they will very quickly move towards having the Brumby's re located to Melbourne which O'Neil the banker will wholeheartedly endorse. The ARU's expediency of Vic pales in coparison but I take it you as a Victorian Union man, will turn a blind eye to this if it does indeed transpire. I am also interested to understand how Union in Vic will make any more of an impact than League has - not. The Storm are a fantastic League outfit and yet Melbourne have not increased their patronage of them after a decades presence in that city. I would also be keen to know how many local Vics are playing in the 'Melbourne Storm' if any, because I sense that the G.R of the game in Vic is vertially non existent.

Uncle Mareko Rugby Australia or Grassroots Rugby Australia is more than worth the effort. It is a positive step in the right direction. The ARU is too caught up in the professional game. RA/GRA would be entirely focused on the levels below. I suggest you take the glass half full perspective. Rugby is where it is because of the lack of investment in grassroots.

Uncle Mareko, Deep in the fugue of wasting work time on looking into this, discussing it with other Roarers, researching how it might actually succeed, and wondering whether I was wasting my (usually charged at an hourly rate per 6 minutes to clients) time, I have had a revelation. You are right. I am wasting my time!!!! All because the ARU chose to give the 4th Aussie S14 franchise to Perth not Melbourne. 4 years ago. it's all down hill now, we're all stuffed. Will the last person out please turn off the lights. I am sorry, but I am reminded of a Gary Larson cartoon which shows the glass half full analysis of personalities. They are: 1. Glass half full. 2. Glass half empty. 3. Half full, no, half empty. No half full, no .... 4. Hey, I ordered a cheeseburger. You are number 4. Anything in life worth anything needs to be worked for. if the rugby tragics of this country need to band together and put in, even if the little Dutch boy sticking his finger in the dyke vainly style, then it's worth doing. As Mark Twain said, you'll always regret what you didn't do, not what you did. If rugby in this country needs help, lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way.

Uncle Mareko, How do you think the people of Perth would have felt if they didn't get the S14 team? Perth has more senior players, more juniors and more clubs than Melbourne. RugbyWA is better organised than the VRU, and had strong community support. Did Victorians come out in great numbers to publicly rally for their chance of getting the 4th Oz team? If they did, I didn't hear anything about it. You probably all figured you were just entitled to it. Good on the ARU for giving it to RugbyWA. Most sensible move at the time for a number of reasons.

Uncle, your reasons for disillusion are exactly why Rugby Australia is needed. The ARU hasn't been messages the likes of yours since the 2003 RWC...

Uncle Mareko It's unclear whether your main beef is that Melbourne didn't get the 4th license, or that the Wallabies have lost a few games in a row. The latter is very easily rectifiable, even in the short term. But regarding the first, while many do argue that it was a lost opportunity not awarding Victoria the 4th license, on many levels, the Force has been a great success in another AFL stronghold. Also, regarding the frittering away of resources, I don't know the exact details, but the ARC was extremely expensive to set up and run - the bean counters would have worked out very quickly that it was going to bleed rugby dry if it went for just one more year. It's not too hard to understand why, you say it yourself in this article - the super teams have the best players and are playing in a high standard comp (perhaps the best club comp in the World). Very, very difficult to set up another comp underneath that. These things have to be weighed up - I don't believe the conclusions are as straightforward as many make out, and often appear swayed by a string of poor Wallaby performances (which in fact are not unprecedented).