What is being done to grow local rugby?

After about 12 years of continuous foxtel we gave it away because its so crap.. The only thing I was prepared to pay for was the Super rugby and the Foxtel experience is just not justifable. So its gone. And there is no alternative. And so my only connection is Sky down the pub and the Roar etc... No wonder Rugby is such a low profile. No wonder there is no tribalism. If the average fan has to pay for the privilege then no wondwe at all! Where is the Friday night footy or the Saturday afternoon sportsday. Does Packer and Mudock not come from these very grammer schools that are the heartland. Why the conspiracy. Until this changes expect these days to be the best we can get. A few conferece teams with foreign born talent to stay in touch with the real rugby countries. I here the poaching season went quite well last year.

Very short sited. If you play Rugby you are more likely to watch Rugby. If you want more through the gates for S15 then you need to start with the kids in the parks.

I read somewhere that Easts Rugby Club in Brisbane have over 900 juniors plays.

The grass roots is the state schools, not the clubs. If the ARU wants to increase player numbers and popularity of Union then that's where it starts. AFL, NRL and soccer all do.

Surprised to see that union teams have junior sign on days. I thought their entire junior system was focussed on private schooling.

both ru and rl are growing in sydney rl is strong in the parra penrith wests and canturbury jrl with over 22,000 players whereas union is strong in the northern and eastern suburbs. rl is making a surprising comeback in the balmain jrl since 2005 they have had over 100 junior teams playing on sundays and the birth of the strathfield raiders and enflield reforming with 2011 expecting further growth. ru still relies too much on the private school system.

I guess it depends where you are. I heard a caller on a Sydney afternoon sports talkback show say he saw heaps of banners and posters etc for junior rugby clubs' rego days in the east and south of Sydney. He was concerned about the apparent lack of similar promotion from league clubs. That would probably be a surprise for many union supporters.

Ncart, The answer is bugger all. Infact the the QRU will cease funding (grants) to QLD premier clubs next year. I believe each club recieve $60-80k p.a. Most clubs use this to pay a General Manager. This person over seas, Ground Managment, sponsorship, recruitment, Insurance etc etc etc. In some cases like Brothers, Zane Hilton is both a GM and Head Coach. Unfortunaley most clubs will make this position redundant. Why will the QRU do this, 1. They are broke and looking to cut costs. 2. Clubs provide little return for investment. Most of the Reds players are developed by the GPS and to a lesser degree the AIC school competiitions. The best are picked up by the Reds, other S15 Clubs and the NRL. The Former 2 become free quasi development comps for the Reds. (I know not all will return) Most Players in the Club Comp are amateur and not in proffesional training programs. Its a simple equation and comercial reality. So despite the efforts of the likes Gavin Head at Sunny Bank, Zane Hilton at Brothers, Rod Torkington of GPS the QRU will not offer any further support and club rugby will be worse off!

I am personally not involved with Sunnybank in Brisbane but I have close ties to some that do so I have some knowledge on their efforts. I know this year Sunnybank sent out emails with information packs to anyone either previously registered with Sunnybank. Similarly I think they got a list of people in the area from the QRU/ARU who are members or have had contact with either of those organisations in the past couple of years, and emailed or letter dropped them. My understanding is that this is also what was done for the Sunnybank affiliate, the Browns Plains Dragons. Sunnybank helped set up this satellite club to cater to a previously untouched rugby community. The junior sign-on was, from what I can gather, a success with around 500 juniors signing on. Most importantly for Sunnybank they are now seeing some of the young members of the Chinese and Indian communities joining up, which as far as I am concerned is a huge success. Further to this I know Sunnybank has for the past couple of years been running a school boy sevens carnival for local schools (mostly public) on one weekend later in the year, with a school girls sevens carnival the following weekend. I think last year they had to turn schools down from entering such was the interest. On the back of the success of the school girls sevens, they have set up a Monday night women’s sevens comp. This was borne out of the girls themselves asking when they could next get out and play and rather than let this opportunity slip by Sunnybank have tried to grasp it. Again I have not had definite information, but it sounds as though the Monday night sevens comp has attracted a good number of participants though not as many have expressed an interest in joining up for women’s XVs. As for publicity, this week the Dragon’s Premier side had a feature article in the local newspaper (the Souther Star I believe). The focus of this story was of their new #1 fan, Liam Little. Liam is 4 years old and has the extremely rare IPEX syndrome. I can’t do his story justice here so I suggest anyone interested have a look at the article (http://southern-star.whereilive.com.au/news/story/striving-for-a-normal-life/). Not sure of any further advertising, but certainly the club has built a strong position in the local community. I suppose Sunnybank is in the fortunate situation where they can afford to go above and beyond the reach of most rugby clubs, but their desire to expand rugby outside of their base and to engage the community is to be applauded.

I am surprised that there is a problem down in Brisbane. I shifted up to the Darling Downs 17 years ago to live near Warwick. Just a couple of weeks ago we did all the things that our "poster" suggested we put articles in the local paper and in the free paper, we went to the schools and used the newsletters there we pamphlet dropped and then we had our sign up day with a good roll up. We didn't get any Wallabies to attend or any Reds players but we did have our seniors players there to meet and greet the kids. I have been doing this procedure for 40 + years and its a simple formula that works. Warwick is a red hot league town Junior league in Warwick will have teams like under 11s with 28 to 30 kids signed up but they can only field 11 kids on the park at any one time. Thats how obsessed they are with League. But we are making headway since we started 2 + years ago in Juniors with 50+ kids now playing rugby. We did get some assistance from the QRU they let us play our under 10s at half time during the W V SA test at Suncorp Stadium. But we don't get many visits from the Reds team as such to Warwick. I think the QRU rates Toowoomba as the country. Thats like saying Canberra is the country to Sydney. But overall the QRU have supported us as well as to be expected. I would still like to see more done for those outside the cities as one should always take a look at where the Wallabies were born and there is a high % that have come from the country. League has always recognised this and regularly have the stars out and about in the small country towns holding seminars and meeting and greeting kids. League also have talents scouts in country areas on the lookout for future stars. Union rely on their private school situation far too much and that will be to their folly in years to come. So in essence the formula that our poster has espoused is still the best way to attract young rugby players. However I agree there should be more emphasis from the QRU on junior and senior club rugby than there is. More assistance would be much appreciated. Perhaps when the Reds are successful and they start to make some $s some of it may filter down to grass roots level. LOL.

Rugby has a hard time getting media coverage in Australia. In Sydney The Daily Telegraph is a league paper and its sports coverage is almost pure league. The Herald once did have a good coverage, but these days its coverage is a mere shadow of what it was. The coverage from the Herald these days on Union thezse days is largely lazy and cynical. Part of this is probably due to the gradual decline in the quality of that paper. Its writers are self indulgent gossipers who see themselves as Australia's defence against Murdoch. The coverage of rugby by TV stations is minimal - these days the stations only really cover the sports to which they hold rights. Though FOXTEL does cover it comprehensively - though people do have issues with their commentators. Though admittedly I am not sure whether the ARU, NSWRU etc have a media unit. If they do they are not doing a good job.