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There have been some complaints about a lack of information regarding the National Rugby Championship (NRC) from the ARU and the teams involved as the start of the competition bears closer.
To some extent, the purported drought of information has been alleviated on The Roar by the excellent reporting of Brett McKay among others.
So it was with some interest on a Thursday afternoon that I had a look around to see which teams were pulling ahead in the race to build media platforms that look to be successful in achieving one of the tournament’s objectives. That is, getting the game back to its grass roots.
Part of my objective in this article is to help familiarise readers with some of the places online that they might go to get more information on each of the NRC teams as the information becomes known.
While I won’t be going into too much detail with regards to any particular team, I hope that readers here will get a feel for their adopted team and how far along the club is in setting the foundations for its success.
Obviously I am not infallible, so if there is anything that I have missed please let me know in the comments below!
NSW Country Eagles
The NSW Country Eagles will not be unprepared when August rolls around. They have a modest Facebook page established back in April with links to YouTube interviews with coach Darren Coleman, General Manager James Grant, and President Dave Carter.
They have also launched a website that looks impressive but is still incomplete with club memberships, ticketing, merchandise and (obviously) player profiles to be added later.
Greater Sydney Rams
The Rams have laid the platform for their internet presence, and if their Facebook page is anything to go by, they will be one of the better teams at engaging with their fans.
With more than 60 posts since their page became active in February, it is little wonder that it has attracted nearly 900 followers as of my writing here. At present this makes it the most popular of the three Sydney teams’ Facebook pages.
A website appears to still be under construction, so hopefully we will hear more about that in the not too distant future.
North Harbour Rays
The Rays have a decent Facebook presence with a page containing interviews with coach Geoff Townsend, assistant coach Damien Cummins, Chairman Gary Flowers, and player Matt Lucas.
With nearly 750 followers, their 40-odd posts since establishment in May will not have fallen on deaf ears.
No sign of a standalone website, though.
Sydney Stars
The Sydney Stars seem to have laid the foundations, but I feel they need to do more to start engaging their fans.
Although their Facebook page has a following of over six-hundred supporters, there have been less than ten posts with no interviews with players or staff posted yet.
They do have a website up, but like NSW Country, many features are yet to be made available.
Melbourne Rising
Melbourne Rising’s Facebook page is doing surprisingly well considering it has not been regularly updated since it was established back in June. With about as many posts as the Stars, I feel the club could probably be doing a bit more to engage with its fan-base – particularly when you compare it to the Rams’ page.
Still, you don’t get 1,300 followers without doing something right, and while they are still piggybacking off the Rebels’ website elsewhere, I reckon things are okay down south.
Perth Spirit
Perth Spirit are in a similar position to the Melbourne club, but I congratulate the West Australians on racking up more than 1,700 followers to their Facebook page to be the most popular of the NRC clubs on Facebook.
Again, they are dawdling behind a bit on material posted to their page, but given that their page was established only a few days ago, I think the pace at which they have gathered a following has been extraordinary.
Like the Rising, the Spirit are relying on their’s state’s Super Rugby franchise page to provide information elsewhere.
University of Canberra Vikings
The University of Canberra Vikings have a Facebook page with just a few posts and a decent following of 1,100 supporters. They have already released a picture of their kit design, but precious little other information is available at present.
Like the Melbourne and Perth teams, there is a little information on the Brumbies site, but the Vikings have no standalone website at present.
Brisbane City and Queensland Country
You may have noticed that I have not addressed the two Queensland teams’ pages. Try as I might, I simply could not find them – either on Facebook or elsewhere.
There is a little bit of information on the Reds site, but that was all I could find.
Editor’s note: Brisbane City has a Twitter handle @BrisCity_NRC, while Queensland Country’s is @QldCountry_NRC. You can get all the information available on these teams here. They are also disseminating a lot of NRC information through the Reds Facebook and Twitter page.
So what do you think Roarers? Are things moving ahead as you’d hoped that they’d would?
The Reds have been in touch since the publication of this article, and have given us the following the response:
Queensland Rugby Union, through the St.George Queensland Reds Facebook page, has the biggest social presence of any Super Rugby team in Australia. Both Brisbane City and Queensland Country will be managed by Queensland Rugby to enhance rugby’s elite pathways and rather than splitting its Facebook support group of over 133,000, Queensland Rugby’s strategy is to encourage its existing fan base to engage in conversation around both Queensland NRC teams on the existing Queensland Rugby Facebook page. The two teams have their own Twitter accounts, which will allow them to distribute their own messages around games and players, but Queensland Rugby will also drive information to its existing 38,000-plus followers on Twitter. The Reds Instagram account has also attracted more than 11,000 followers and Queensland Rugby will also drive NRC content related to the two Queensland teams through that platform. On www.RedsRugby.com.au there is a prominent and dedicated NRC section which provides information around fixtures for the Brisbane City and Queensland Country (and the rest of the competition) as well as answers to ‘Frequently Asked Questions’. More information will be added to this micro-site as it becomes available and when squads are formally announced on August 1.
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.