- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
The title of this article might be tad harsh, but it’s only a figure of speech. Once again the League and Union hybrid game – the Wallabies Vs Kangaroos – is on the agenda.
It has emerged that former Wallabies coach Bob Dwyer and Wallaby great Mark Ella are part of a consortium to organize a hybrid game of Union and League (known as “Hybrid 12”). The game would be labelled as the Kangaroos Vs the Wallabies.
Australia Vs Australia, right?
It was reported back in 2008 that the concept would be to support a charity. However, the most recent push is to appear as a united front against the big bad AFL.
Before I continue, yes I do support an AFL team (including a membership), so therefore I won’t be bashing Australian Rules and more importantly, Rugby League.
The intention of this article is to highlight the gross error in this hybrid game concept.
Let’s be honest here, why does Rugby Union need Rugby League, or vice versa? To ward off AFL?
For too many, there is some perceived threat about the AFL’s incursion into Greater Western Sydney (GWS) with its eighteenth franchise. It’s more or less sensationalist garbage from the Daily Telegraph, often labelled the mouth piece of Rugby League.
If anything, the AFL, NRL and ARU should be concerned about the twelve A-League franchise (Sydney Rovers) in the war for GWS, considering we are in the middle of a World Cup.
What is so wrong with each code’s existing products that some consortium feels the need to create some super product?
State of Origin, NRL, Super Rugby, Bledisloe Cup, Four Nations and a World Cup. These are just some of the the products that each code possess, and last time I checked, they weren’t in dire straits.
I don’t see how this consortium can’t see how this proposed super product devalues these existing products. More importantly, League and Union have been “at war” since 1908.
The AFL (and certain AFL journalists) would find this so called spectacle nothing short of humorous and pathetic.
As history dictates, though, the NRL and ARU will reject this nonsense concept and get down to enhancing their products and business.
As this consortium clearly forgets, football is multi-million dollar (even billion dollar) business. League is moving in the right direction with its Independent Commission, while Union is expanding Super Rugby (with the mighty Rebels), as well having its profile lifted with the inclusion of 7s Rugby at the Olympics.
As for the battle of GWS, hearts and minds won’t necessarily be won on match day, but with grassroots development.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.