The ARU is flogging a dead horse by taking Tests to Melbourne

It’s time for a rant, Roarers. I haven’t done this for a while, as I do like to pick my targets.

So, on Saturday we sat through a game of rugby that was indeed a great game of rugby. The Poms gave it to us, and we deserved everything that we got.

More of the wash-up from Wallabies vs England
» Pulver not happy with AAMI Park surface
» Nine talking points
» Match report: England clinch the series
» DIY player ratings
» Roar Forum – what changes should the Wallabies make?
» WATCH: Highlights from the match

That’s not what this rant is about. The teams were the best that they could be, the referee did an OK job and the pitch was not so good.

At times, you felt that Mr Joubert might have to opt for uncontested scrums, given the state of the pitch. That would truly be a low point in Australian rugby, and there have been a few in recent times, often to do with scrums.

For ‌instance, I am struggling to understand why such a simple thing as the way that Dan Cole got his bind on his hooker was not adjudged to be a cardinal sin. That is the whole foundation of how he got to go inwards and pull his opposing loosehead down, with relative ease, but that is not the subject of this rant. Since nobody else is excited about it, and I am not a scrum expert, I will leave it alone.

I have the vain hope that someone with scrum intelligence “gets it”.

Just across the road, at the G, the Western Bulldogs were playing Geelong. It doesn’t really matter, because they would probably get 100,000 people at the G for a cat fight. I don’t think that rugby – let alone Test rugby – was not the only game in town. How does the ARU compete with that and why would they bother?

I mean, if you took that game to San Francisco and played it on the same night that the 49’ers were playing, what sort of crowd would you expect?

I truly believe that playing games in Melbourne is akin to flogging a dead horse and, given that we are number four on the pecking order of football codes in Australia and with scarce resources, what are we playing at?

So, let’s look at some facts here.

The venue
The ARU has been fighting a losing battle for years to establish rugby in the AFL heartland – it’s not working and it never will, so why do we bother?

They called it a sell-out and they got a crowd of 29,000. What are the demographics? How many of that 29K actually can say that they caught a tram home, tonight? I’m guessing a lot of that crowd were from out of town?

We have a rugby franchise in Melbourne – why doesn’t the ARU just work with them to slowly and, by osmosis, establish a rugby presence in Melbourne? The Sydney and Brisbane clubs can trace their heritage back to the 1890s and early 1900s, and I am sure that the other states can do so, in a similar way, give or take a few years, so why would anyone think that there can be a presence there, almost overnight?

The AFL has worked hard since day dot to establish itself and ain’t going to give that up without a fight. They are way better organised than the ARU is, right now, and for a very long time to come.

Putting aside NSW and Queensland, there are rugby heartlands, just sitting there, crying out for some recognition.

But one in particular cries out from the rooftops and it’s called Canberra.

Facts
Totally loyal followers of rugby
Totally well informed followers
A supportive government
A supportive press
Hardy souls who will come out in the cold for their team
A stadium that is not that hard to get to and fairly hospitable once you get there (and if Canberra got more support, then the government would build a bigger and better one almost right in the city)
A whole city that will embrace a tour such as this, and put on special events around it;
A fantastic place to visit;
Only three hours down the road from Sydney, and seven hours driving time from Melbourne;
1 1/2 hours flying time from Brisbane and Melbourne and much less from Sydney.

Why doesn’t the ARU and rugby people in general, accept the fact that, in trying to be a mainstream sport in Victoria and Western Australia, we are flogging a totally (major rigor mortis) long-dead Nag?

We should put the precious and hard-won dollars into the heartland.

We could play Test matches in Canberra, Townsville, Newcastle, Central Coast, Wollongong or the Gold Coast.

The pitch
They literally needed to repair it after every scrum. I saw an article on The Roar this week that canvassed the possibility of it being bad, so this comes as no surprise and is well known – at least to everyone other than the ARU, but let’s assume that someone at the ARU reads newspapers and The Roar.

How long have the Rebels been playing at AAMI Stadium?

How long has the ARU known about this diabolical state of affairs? When will there be a major injury arising out of it? Is there a duty of care issue here?

Does anyone care?

This would not happen at any of the grounds that I mentioned above.

I don’t know what other Roarers think, but I think that it is high time that we gave up this stupid notion that we can make inroads into Melbourne. I do think that the Rebels and everything about Victorian rugby should be encouraged, but that it should happen, organically and systematically.

We need to channel the ARU’s scant resources to where they are drastically (a term I don’t use flippantly) needed and can be wisely deployed.

We have to grow rugby from the ground up – that means the grassroots – and before we look over the fence into the AFL’s or NRL’s paddock, why don’t we just accept and realise that our grass is just as green and that we just need to grow it a little more vigorously?

Our paddock is our paddock. We can’t influence what happens in the neighbour’s paddocks and we shouldn’t bother.

‘Nuff said. Your thoughts?