Australia is desperately crying out for a provincial rugby competition. Wayne Smith pointed out in yesterday’s Australian newspaper that some of the Wallabies haven’t had a game since late August.
As many of the club teams were knocked out of the finals race, they need to fine tune their performance in club rugby.
Let’s bring back the ARC, I say, let’s bring back the ARC the rugby crowd say.
Let’s not bring back the ARC the ARU administration says.
It’s easy enough, it gives many people opportunities, not just the players, but the referees, and the coaches as well. Same teams, similar stadiums, just cut the costs.
Here are some ways.
1. Flights in and out same day, no need to fund for hotels.
2. No TMO’s – the Air NZ Cup has done it. Saves money for camera angles, saves money setting up the TMO box, and you don’t even have to appoint a TMO. That’s a saving of $20,000 at least.
3. Local high-grade referees – Use the local referees. For example, WA can use Julian Pritchard for a lot of their games, Sydney have a whole array of referees to choose from, as do Brisbane.
4. Don’t use stadiums too big. Keep them small with the potential for genuine atmosphere. Don’t use Suncorp, use Ballymore. Don’t use the Sydney Football Stadium, use Concord Oval.
5. Let’s not pay the ABC this time! One owned by Channel 10 is crying out for true local sport.
6. No excessive match payments. Pay them a little but let the players who only truly want to play. They have a opportunity to play for their local state teams.
The ARC is truly a gateway for players to turn into bigger players and earn more money, and more chances of playing for the Wallabies.
It may clash with Premier Rugby in Brisbane and First Grade rugby in QLD, but look towards the positive side, it gives the First Grade players a bigger opportunity to play in Premier Grade, the up-and-coming players will be able to play, and get a kickstart on their careers.
The second tier referees in the state unions will be able to referee at the Premier rugby games, while the first tier referees are refereeing these games, and assistant refereeing them.
I’m not calling for this competition in 2011 or later.
I’m calling for it in 2010.
It’s doable, and it really needs to be done. These Australian rugby players are calling for more on field action. The fans are calling.
Listen to our calls and we will give you our faith.
mr claypole
Guest
How big do you think this 'tribal support' you're talking about is? 500? 1,000? Even the GF only attracted a couple of thousand. That's because nobody outside the friends and relatives of those playing really cares - the talent is simply spread too thinly across all the teams for the show to be of high enough quality. better idea is to keep to what they had in terms of teams - but cut costs. I think JO's salary could lose a zero or two for starters.... And not pitch it as 3rd tier Rugby. Pitch it as a bona fide national comp (as the A-league does). No-one wants to see 3rd tier (but by that definition the English Premier League football is only 2nd-tier). It was marketed to fail from the outset. My opinion anyhow
albatross
Roar Pro
Why do they have to have "nick names" given to them anyway? Can;t such names be allowed to grow organically?.
Go_the_Wannabe's
Guest
Sheek, Read Spiro's latest column. Even he has worked out some sort of national club championship is the go. 4 Sydney sides, 3 Brisbane, 1 from Canberra etc etc..... Perhaps not such a silly suggestion after all? (I would have thought Spiro would have given me some credit at least - oh well, such is the life of a guru). Suck it up, buddy!
Bay35Pablo
Roar Guru
James, exactly. The S15 will run from February to August. It will end on the first weekend of August. The Kiwis and Saafers demanded the CC and NZC remain intact, which is why. They will not budge on this. This ensures a window in which we can stage a similar comp.
jeznez
Guest
Agree its tricky, not just the comp structure to decide who to promote but also the disparity in strength. In football if a weak team comes up against a strong team they might be embarrassed but in rugby people can get hurt. Just ruminating on the idea as it would mean you could keep existing clubs where you already have them. Plus the last round of the Sydney Premiership with a few cricket scores on display is suggesting that within that comp there are the haves and have nots who ought to be split so the strong teams get better footy but without destroying hope for those who aren't in the top tier yet.
Harry Wombat
Guest
Good idea, and why not kill the juniors comp at the same time. Its hard enough now trying to convince a junior to want to play for a Parramatta / Penrith / Souths team as it is. Having promotions / relegations will only make players gravitate towards them even more so.
Working Class Rugger
Guest
Jameswm I don't particularly hate Easts. But there is a rivalry. But more like a sibling rivalry. I agree with your sentiment. Both Clubs can run independent squads during the Clubs seasons. In fact I'd be happy to see all the clubs compete in the Shute Shield. How I see ant potential ARC teams as joint ventures. I also agree with the one team to a certain area model. Make it clear that only one team will be playing out of the eastern Suburbs. This will likely assist in the establishemtn of this particular and other ventures.
Go_the_Wannabe's
Guest
Growden says Super 15 will go from March to August with TN after that in 2010....(TN actually runs from 10 July to 11 Sept - try using Google, Greg.....)......but I digress......so what's wrong with a Heineken style club championship after that? (or during TN for that matter......I bet the CC would get more viewers than TN!). So forget the silly formats, someone has to come up with a decent selection criteria for an Ozzie CC. Knockout would seem the go......no time for a round robin. The Shute Shield was more intereting than the TN for Pete's sake........and I live in Perth!!!! So it can be done......CC can get that tribal blood flowing (go the students!). Why not include all Sydney and Brisbane 1st grade clubs, plus the premiers from Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Darwin? How about a real national comp and also generate some interests in the outposts???? Remember, none of us is as dumb as all of us......so have a red hot go and send us your thoughts on how to run a CC between Oct and Dec. There's no such thing as a dumb idea.........just dumb people. Together we can change the world.
Hammer
Guest
"As NZ are rugby mad, and their current competition doesn’t really provide the interstate rivalry like inter-country would hold." - that statemant has to be the biggest load of trash I'e read on this site - the NPC most certainly does provide inter-provincal rivalry unmatched in Australia ... this year has shown that there is an interest shift away from S14 back to the NPC ... take a look at the S14 the games most keenly watched by kiwis are those derby games involving the kiwi teams and then secondly I'd wager are those involving the top SA sides ... kiwis don't won't more dull games against poor Australian teams - especially at the expense of their own traditional provincal unions - the NZRFU are aware of what will happen if they put forward such a proposal that's why it's never been mentioned on that side of the Tasman
Jameswm
Guest
Sheek and WCR You call me an Easts man and as someone who coaches juniors there and whose son ball boys for first grade, I am. But I grew up supporting Randwick as a huge Ella fan - I used to live in Waverley and go to a mate's place in Randwick and sneak through the sack-cloth into the ground, to watch the 1st grade and the Ellas. So I don't get the bitter rivalry thing - I don't hate Randwick. And the teams wouldn't be merging - they would remain independent for club rugby and only merge for the ARC. I also think it would only work if the clubs decided they wanted to merge - you can't force it on them. Call for expressions of interest, and Easts and Randwick should realise only one Eastern Sydney team will make it, so they'd stand a better chance if they merged. A quick comment on timing - the simple answer is it should be when the NPC and Currie Cup are on. The S14 players who aren't playing tests would play, plus the squad players not in the match day 22 and the top players returning from injury. If the S15 went for 22 weeks - now that is a different issue. It would be the death of the CC and NPC I reckon, as the top 120 players in each country would rarely be available. Ditto in Australia and I don't see that you could get an ARC equivalent up and running if S15 goes from March to October, with a 7-8 week gap in June-July for the international season.
Brett McKay
Guest
TommyM, welcome aboard!! I've posted my model on Sheek's article today too - I've decided mass marketing's the best approach!! I like your thoughts on running the "National Championship" on games played both during and after the Super comp. Two phases to a worthwhile comp then, and effectively played over four full rounds...
Bay35Pablo
Roar Guru
From Grumbly Growden today: http://www.rugbyheaven.com.au/news/news/melbourne-only-logical-choice/2009/10/20/1255891816800.html "It would also end this ridiculous folly being pushed by the lunatic fringe for the return of the Australian Rugby Championship. Will someone tell this misguided faction that from 2011 the expanded Super season will go from March to August, with the Tri Nations to follow. When do they want to play it? Christmas Day?" So "anyone who disagrees with GFG" = "lunatic fringe"? Lock up the world Greg. The Currie Cup and NZC are apparently set up and run by lunatics, given they play to October/November? Deans and the provincial coaches agree a next tier along the lines of the CC and NZC is required. They're lunatic fringe too.
Pippinu
Roar Guru
P & R is always an interesting option. It's made difficult with the format your suggesting because it's not occuring with a 2nd division, rather there would be three state based comps (maybe more) directly underneath. Of course you could end up wiht a four way round robin, which would be an interesting event in its own right (bottom team and the premiers of Qld, NSW and the ACT). However, over time, you might end up with an unbalanced comp (too many from the ACT, or too few from Qld, etc), so there are a lot of complications with that sort of idea.
jeznez
Guest
I say bring back promotion and relegation - take the best performed clubs from Sydney, Brisbane and Canberra to form a new competition. Rearrange the suburban competitions to fit in with the left overs and have a promotion relegation system such that the next tier down fight to replace the lowest placed sides. Plenty to work out in how the promotion teams would work and how we fold in Melbourne and Perth but keep existing clubs and put them in a tougher contest with relegation to keep them honest and give the other clubs hope of coming up. Certainly Penrith getting smashed most weekends and Randwick v Uni for every Sydney club final is not helping.
TommyM
Guest
11 would be a lot better wouldn't it!
Pippinu
Roar Guru
reds interesting point - I'm not advocating this because I know there are other considerations like preparing players to become Wallabies - but in the NFL (which has massive attendances), they don't play all that many games per season - certainly far fewer than the NRL and AFL.
reds fan
Guest
Pippinu, i think this shows how loyal the base is, and how little quality rugby there is to see. i know every season i'll get 7 reds games max. so i go to every one of them. 7 aint many.
reds fan
Guest
The A-league teams were all founded by owners putting forward capital and business cases. The ARC were teams with no underlying support structures. hell they weren't even clubs. just some blokes in made up jerseys paid on hand outs from the ARU. that aint tribalism either.
reds fan
Guest
I think its definitely an option. and sounds economical.
Pippinu
Roar Guru
chief you're right - but it's something to build on - you don't just throw it out. Sheek mentions the A-League clubs above - they started with 8 clubs - 6 new Australian ones - all one city/town clubs - in other words - there is a definite economic advantage to limiting the number of teams per city - this is why both the AFL and NRL have been trying to reduce the number of clubs in Melbourne and Sydney for decades!!