Why does the so-called ‘rugby establishment’ of Sydney and Brisbane have this sense of entitlement that automatically relegates the Brumbies, Rebels and Force to the group that should lose one of its members?
The Brumbies have won more Super Rugby titles, and made more finals, than the Waratahs, and unearthed more talent than all the other franchises.
Rugby has been played in this country for over 150 years, yet we don’t have a proper state-based competition. Why not?
The Sydney competition has been around since the 1890s, yet all they have managed to do with western Sydney is allow Penrith and Parramatta just to survive, and got rid of that fine club Drummoyne some years ago.
Rugby league, Australian football and soccer have established footholds in Sydney’s west, so our game is a long way down the pecking order.
NSWRFU once administered all of NSW rugby, but they dropped the ball, so ACT Rugby stepped in and took over the area known as Southern Inland (for the record, 39 local council regions) and does a pretty good job of it. I don’t know what happens north of Sydney, but one can only imagine.
Queensland Rugby has that same sense of entitlement, yet what have they done to promote the game in the northern parts of the state?
A Broncos vs Cowboys game produces a capacity crowd at Suncorp, of close to 50,000, figures the Reds can only envy.
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For all those people who want to point the finger at the Brumbies’ finances, just remember what their grassroots commitment is.
In Canberra, at the junior level, and I believe that the same is true of the Southern Inland region, there is no schools competition, as such. The private schools enter teams into the Canberra club competition, so you have the mighty Marist College, the powerful St Eddies, Radford, Canberra Grammar and Daramalan all playing on Saturdays in the club comp, with Vikings, Royals, Gungahlin, Yass, Jindabyne, Cooma, Broulee, Wests, Uni Norths, ADFA, and Goulburn all playing in the same competition in various divisional levels.
All of that is played on Saturdays, then rugby league has an open run at Sundays and, of course, many kids play both codes. The rugby league setup in the region is strong and very well organised.
At the senior level, there are few professionals playing at club level, as the Brumbies and the Brumby Runners play very few games, so most of the guys playing in the premier comp are not on professional contracts. Those guys go elsewhere.
Canberra embraces the Brumbies and the Raiders, so why would you take the Brumbies out of Canberra and hand the whole thing over to the Raiders on a golden platter?
You could well ask the same question of the Waratahs and the Reds: why would you give the NRL such a gift? Why not just hand an AFL stronghold back to the AFL?
Why do we need a team in Victoria? How many hearts and minds have been won over, how much of an inroad has been made into the AFL heartland?
Perth is different – apart from being a stopping-off point for South African teams coming inbound and other teams going outbound, it does show more promise.
If one team has to go, Melbourne is no a no-brainer.
Finally, why should the magnificent Brumbies even be considered in the same breath as the Rebels and the Force? And if the Brumbies are in the firing line, why aren’t the Waratahs and Reds considered for elimination too?
Peni Latu
Guest
(ARU must stand up for Australia's best interest) and MUST not Eliminate one team. Sure the CEO is an intelligent and forward thinking person. He knows the adverse affect and consequences of being "WEAK" leader (surrender, no direction, lose courage, confidence and will etc) 1. Most up and coming talents will go rugby league, AFL,, crickets and other sports 2. Mass exodus of players to overseas clubs with flow in effect to impact Wallabies 3. Lacking of exposure and experience at top even the best competition outside test level will weaken WB 4. Turning away from few remaining rugby supporters & followers is no brainer 5. A restrain on Australia rugby development, growth and expansion in a tight and already competitive environment dominated by Rugby League, AFL, soccer etc [Your killing it] 6. This is not how you compete, develop and guarantee improvement of rating, performances and commercial side of rugby in Australia. 7. How can we beat the AB or competitive in the international level? with less experience, less exposure, less players at this level. 8. I bet you the bottom Australian team can beat the Japanese Sunwolves any day and possibly any top super-rugby team provided all these referee so called errors of judgement and bad refereeing etc that usually changed / determined the results. And likewise players errors to minimal. All 5 teams have up and coming young players and they need the experience to grow, learn and become better players. 9. NRC is only about 3-4 years now BUT NZ & South Africa has been running their national/domestic competition for decades. Majority of NZ players had gained experience over time in the local competition stages unlike our players. Shame that we are willing to throw this all away
Peni Latu
Guest
Nothing is perceive fair in this environment due to excuses, circumstances and commercial side of the game. The best option forward if one team is not included or removed is; LET ALL FIVE AUSTRALIAN TEAMS WORK FOR IT. AND ELIMINATE THE BOTTOM TEAM THIS YEAR IN TERMS OF LOCATION WHERE UNDER THE CIRCUMSTANCE FOR EXAMPLE IF THE WARATAHS OR REDS IS THE BOTTOM TEAM THEN ONE OF THE REMAINING 4 TEAMS CAN BE RELOCATED TO NEITHER RESPECTIVELY AND CONTINUE WITH ITS IDENTITY OR WHATEVER SUIT ITS PURPOSE. WHY GIVE NSW & QUEENSLANDS THIS BIAS AND NONE SENSE REMEDY AND GUARANTEE. GIVE EVERYONE A CHANCE WITH EQUAL OPPORTUNITY AND LET THE BEST TOP 4 TEAMS STAND
PM
Guest
Regardless of which team gets the chop, my belief is that the Super Rugby Chiefs have treated the players with the utmost contempt. Leaving these lads hanging is bullshit and shows that they are only a number really and expendable at any time. A number of talented youngsters will leave Australia this year, of that I am sure. How can these fella's be asked to trust in the ARU.
Republican
Guest
..........the point is the ACT continue to produce homegrown quality players and while this seems to be less than say it was a decade back, it remains competitive with all other states. I also believe that the 2 or 3 dedicated Rugby school nurseries in Canberra, who continue to play a major role in producing quality GR for the code, will shift their focus and culture away from Rugby, if the Brumbies are expunged.
Republican
Guest
....yep, I understand TWAS. It is a tight market to be sure but I maintain the profile of the code i.e. Union here is greater than what it is in Melbourne, not to say it wont grow in Vic. The Canberra market is anything but stagnant, as the city is growing together with the region and contrary to popular belief, people do come here for the long haul and actually like the place. I see all these commercial markets at saturation point as is while I also reckon it is way too easy to be dismissive of Canberra and indeed scape goat them on a commercial criteria that may never come to fruition in respect of your preferred larger markets. The criteria to grow cannot be exclusively dictated by $'s if you also hope to foster real growth and a culture of tribalism, loyalty and passion for the code. By the way, the surrounding region does raise the potential commercial catchment to between 600 - 700K I believe. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and opinion TWAS.
Kevin Malone
Guest
7?
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Yes, they don't retain all their own produced players. Just like WA and Victoria don't. In fact players from each are on the Brumbies roster. Hell the Crusaders have 2 Victorian produced players even.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
The other thing you have to consider is that if you want to talk about history, rugby history dates further back in Melbourne than much of the Shute Shield even. The Dewar Shield was founded in 1909, whilst the John I Dent Cup was only founded in 1973, with the earliest Canberra team in it dating back to 1938. Weary Dunlop had represented the Wallabies out of Melbourne University in 1932 before any of the current ACT Premier Clubs even existed. Not sure how you conclude that from a grassroots perspective Melbourne under performs compared to the capital. Unless you ignore the facts that the Rebels U20s have been more successful than the Brumbies 20s and more U20s Aus Reps are starting to come out of Victoria than ACT.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Sorry it's 3.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Sorry it's 2. I forgot the Lions. If you include the Suns and Titans than you include the population of the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast. South East Queensland is 3.4M people. There are 5 winter sporting franchises. I don't count the Roar as they don't compete with them for fans due to different seasons. So that's 680k people per team in SEQ.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
No they aren't. Brisbane. 2.4M people, 3 winter teams - 800k per team. Sydney - 5M people, 12 winter teams - 416k per team. Melbourne - 4.7M people - 11 winter teams - 427k per team. Perth - 2.2M - 3 winter teams - 733k per team. Canberra - 400k people - 2 winter teams - 200k per team. I haven't included the surrounding area of Canberra, for the same reasons I haven't included all of SEQ, or the regions surrounding Sydney and Melbourne. But ultimately Canberra has the tightest commercial market. Doesn't mean they cannot be viable though. I'd merely be asking them how they intend to reach a higher market absorption in order to be sustainable.
Republican
Guest
Raa You will find the local ACT GR is spread across all Australian Super entities I believe. They dont seem to hold onto their own as well as they did in their halcyon days. That said, I sense a decrease in GR Union talent in Canberra that is consistent with the rest of the county, due in the main to a steady move away from the code by young people, their parents and schools, towards other codes i.e. Soccer and Australian Footy.
Republican
Guest
.........this towns too small for both of us? That said I believe markets in the larger markets i.e. Brisbane, Melbourne et el are even more saturated and as such - commercially vulnerable.
Republican
Guest
.......more power to you piru.
Republican
Guest
........re per cap, it may be if Melbourne ain't gonna capture anything like that. If 21 years of production isnt deemed healthy in terms of Canberra's contribution to the national cause, then applying the same rule to the Rebs, what have they managed since their inception, taking into account their 'potential' market of 4 plus mill? Like the Storm, blind Freddy can see that from a grass roots perspective, Melbourne continues to underperform compared with the nations capital. The Storm and Rebels are both founded on a commercial illusion, which quite frankly I am philosophically opposed to and believe that this is whats eating away at sport from the inside out.
piru
Roar Rookie
It's very relevant when someone incorrectly asserts they haven't been assisted as a part of their argument Also the Reds and Waratahs are the only teams with exception of the Rebals that the ARU have not had to put money into sic
piru
Roar Rookie
You'll get no argument from me on that Republican That said I'll fight to the death for my side
Republican
Guest
........or is it 2, 3 or 4 other teams re Brissy? Don''t you include the Lions, Suns (if you understand GC as a conurbation of Greater Brissy), Roar and of course Broncos?
Bakkies
Guest
Money which wasn't donated by the ARU. Seems to have stabilised now and they signed a new major sponsor. There is also overseas interest in the head coaching position. Johan Ackerman has had an offer from Gloucester and is considering, I wouldn't mind him in charge of the Brumbies.
Raa
Guest
The brumbies have had to pay big payout money to their CEO that the board tried to fire then after a court case were forced to pay him out. this was only last year. they have had their problems