Rugby in Australia has had a very painful 2017 and it’s still far from over. From the debacle with the Western Force, a board that has all but fallen apart and a CEO on the way out, the ARU is losing faithful fans across the country.
But it’s not just the fans that are moving on to other sports.
We saw earlier in the week the story of 21-year-old Rabbitohs young gun Angus Crichton who is plying his trade in the NRL now despite coming up through the ranks of the Waratahs in Super Rugby throughout his entire junior career.
Despite not having played rugby league, he was forced to field an offer from Rabbitohs coach Michael Maguire to join Souths after he was told he wouldn’t be playing first grade rugby for the Tahs for a pretty ridiculous five years because of his age.
Despite being a two-time Australian Schoolboy player, he was forced out of rugby by rugby itself.
Crichton is far from being alone and one of many cases of the ARU and rugby in this country losing the young talent they need to thrive in one of the most vast sporting markets in the world, as they compete with a host of other sports for participation and high-profile athletes.
Case in point, Brooklyn Hardaker.
Hardaker is just 17 years old but he has the ARU and NRL wagging their tails like excited puppies.
The man is a footy machine and a star of the future regardless of what sport he ends up in, but that’s the problem.
For a struggling ARU, for a struggling Super Rugby side, for a struggling rugby system, it shouldn’t be a question of what sport he may end up in because as soon as that doubt creeps in for a young player looking to break into top flight sport, they already have a foot out the door.
Coming up through the private school system at Waverly, Hardaker has been a first XV shoe-in for the school for years now, progressing up the ladder into the Combined Associated Schools first XV and playing state level for the NSW first XV as well.
The man can play rugby.
Yet, he’s also played SG Ball for the Roosters within their youth development system.
It’s a great opportunity for Brooklyn that any young kid is likely to take, but it’s worrisome for rugby as a sport in Australia that the opportunity was even an option for someone with so much potential.
Those are the players, the moments and the key battles that the ARU need to be winning to keep their chances of winning any kind of code war alive in a sport-hungry Australian landscape.
The systems that are in place for grassroots rugby, and more importantly, youth development is quite clearly flawed.
In regards to the aforementioned Crichton case, the Rabbitohs own boss Shane Richardson revealed that this wasn’t a rare opportunity for rugby league to jump on.
“We spent a bit of time looking at Angus before he signed,” said Richardson.
“We’ve signed a lot of other rugby kids as well.
“He’s been a revelation for us, and a lot of other (rugby) kids could be too.”
That’s frightening in itself for rugby clubs and administration, that it comes across as so ridiculously easy for NRL clubs to pick off young rugby stars and take them from the sport for good.
Another example is Rooster and soon to be Newcastle Knight Connor Watson who, at just 21, has been a major player for the Sydney club since last year and signed onto the Knights for big money thanks to his seamless transition to the league code.
Watson came through the private school rugby system, playing for Knox Grammar and into the early stages of rep rugby, but was snatched up far too easily by the Roosters and thrown into the National Youth Competition where he was given the chance to play top level rugby league nearly instantly.
The ARU has a serious problem on it’s hands, but it comes down to every representative level as well.
Super Rugby clubs are letting players slip through their fingers, club rugby sides are losing players to the NRL’s youth development systems as well.
Rugby union in Australia is struggling and the sport is losing participation numbers at the lowest level and that, of course, means that it’s affecting rugby at every level of the game.
Rugby needs to kill this trend in it’s tracks or the sport will continue to fall down a slippery slope.
Every sport relies on youth and grassroots participation to survive, they rely on that same youth continuing through the correctly managed system’s and creating a competitive and legitimate top flight competition.
That competition drives revenue which goes back into the base grassroots level.
It’s a basic cycle that is somehow being rudely interrupted by administrators and their lack of financial and organisational management.
Brooklyn Hardaker could play for the Kangaroos one day, he could play State of Origin one day, he could become an NRL legend. The limits of potential for any young prodigy is endless but that is being lost on the ARU and rugby in this country apparently.
Hardaker could be a future Waratah or Brumby, he could be a Wallaby in the World Cup, we don’t know.
(AAP Image/Dean Lewins)
The issue with these two sides of the coin is that the NRL is much more likely at this point in time to find out whether or not he’ll be a Kangaroo and if he’ll be realising that potential in their sport over another.
Rugby Australia is too tentative with their up and coming talent and it’s costing them dearly.
They leave the door wide open for young talent to walk through into their rival codes and they’re paying the price over and over every year.
More and more players are disenfranchised with the system when they reach crunch time in deciding a destination for their career.
Mike Huber
Roar Pro
CT Not even close....nice try though.
Charlie Turner
Guest
Cricket?
Mike Huber
Roar Pro
Pickett "In Aus , most kids played league and union growing up.Unless you were from that shiiiittewhole called Melbourne." Geography, Demographics and Traveling are not your forte Pickett . Kids in Perth , Adelaide , Hobart , Darwin did not grow up playing League or Union . Give you one guess the dominant sport in those cities ? Another clue , it has the highest attendances, biggest TV deals and turns over more money than League and Union combined ?
Matt Dustby
Guest
Connor Watson played league his whole life
Matt Dustby
Guest
This is true, the author makes a serious error with Crichton He played league all his life for young cherrypickers He only played union when a senior at boarding school
Matt Dustby
Guest
Most of them
Matt Dustby
Guest
Wing and Kennedy were both junior league players
Matt Dustby
Guest
No, Wally Lewis played league since age 5 and his dad was a league player
Damo
Guest
Hold on many of these so called Rugby Union juniors were League players first and foremost and poached by GPS schools and forced to play Rugby Union at those schools without being allowed to play Rugby League.
Pickett
Guest
To say these young blokes were poached by League is disengenuous. Connor Watson had a background in League before going to Knox Grammar. I thought I read somewhere that Crichton also played league as a kid Same with Sticky, Wally, Mark Ella etc It's not the NRL poaching young kids, the private GPS and CAS schools have been poaching from SG Ball and Harold Matthews comps recently. In my day, they just made them repeat Year 12, but now the GPS arms race has lead to cashed up private schools poaching from junior league. In Aus, most kids play played league and union growing up. Unless you were from that shiiiittewhole called Melbourne.
MacKenzie
Guest
Cheery pick and cherry pick least one is misunderstood!!!!
MacKenzie
Guest
League has been knocking rugby talent off for so long that it is operation normal. Perhaps the upside is that the league teams can pay for young talent and develop the players to their full potential, allowing the ARU or super franchises to cheery pick big names to the 15 man code when they want. The problem is that all body shapes and sizes are needed for union so the suitable talent pool from the rival code is not that large. How many forwards would successfully come over for the front row and the second row where bulk and height are prime requisites? Perhaps we should be looking at the AFL although neither Folau or Hunt are great kickers. Still there are tall men there who could be attracted to rugby. It may remain that rugby remains in the woods as the minor code in terms of participants in this country. Rugby is growing globally but until the grassroots are nurtured here, league will be the dominant code. It is interesting that league is virtually ignored in the UK and of course the AFL has no presence overseas so union will remain the dominant rugby code globally. Funny sad how the rugby codes here treat each other with contempt and disdain.
Jibba Jabba
Roar Guru
And the aru a la clyne scoffed at $50 mil.
Rob9
Guest
I don't think it's so much a 9 Sydney NRL teams vs 1 Sydney SR team as it is a 15 professional Australian league teams vs 5 (soon to be 4) professional Australian rugby teams. There's only one of each code in Brisbane yet the same circumstances of rugby being behind the 8 ball in attracting junior talent still very much apply there. As well as it being a numbers game in terms of opportunities (15 teams vs 5/4 teams), the reality is Super Rugby is tucked away on pay TV (closing itself off to two thirds of the viewing public), played across wide ranging time zones in places that the average punter knows very little about. This doesn't make it an easy competition to engage with and this is the tier responsible for capturing hearts and minds- something a code HAS to take seriously and get right in order to drive young talent towards its ranks.
Rob9
Guest
I don't think it's so much a 9 Sydney NRL teams vs 1 Sydney SR team as it is a 15 professional Australian league teams vs 5 (soon to be 4) professional Australian rugby teams. There's only one of each code in Brisbane yet the same circumstances of rugby being behind the 8 ball in attracting junior talent still very much apply there. As well as it being a numbers game in terms of opportunities (15 teams vs 5/4 teams), the reality is Super Rugby is tucked away on pay TV (closing itself off to two thirds of the viewing public), played across wide ranging time zones in places that the average punter knows very little about. This doesn't make it an easy competition to engage with and this is the tier responsible for capturing hearts and minds- something a code HAS to take seriously and get right in order to drive young talent towards its ranks.
Rick Page
Guest
I’m really not that happy with the AB performance last week. Whilst they played with pace and intensity for the first 50, most of the points they scored came down to extremely poor aussie defence. Given WB s were rusty and didn’t have the intense Lions build up of the AB’s and they’ve weeded out Kerevi and Rona plus they’ll be angry after last week, that looseness wont be happening again. That last 30 minutes from the AB’s was really poor though and continues a pattern where they don’t front for 80 and havn’t been finishing well and that’s a worry to me, as to why that’s happening, something isn’t right there. They should not be so loose after the intensity of the Lions. Even though Read was pulling them into a huddle after each aussie try, nothing changed, just gave away 28 unanswered points, that’s unacceptable sloppy bad for any AB team of any era and suggests possible weakness to me. Sure they were way ahead on score and will be up to improve on accuracy this week but heard that before, too many times now. They’ve lost their rock in Franks plus Crockett and Faumuina, so scraping the barrel of inexperience in the front row means no dominance there imo, quite possibly a win to WB’s, so that platform is compromised. Plus bench, Sopoanga just a steady hand, Perenara cruising and not injecting, ALB steady eddie reliable and smart but no change up, Scott Barrett skilful but Fifita might be more imposing, not getting the impact they had couple of years back. Eventually McKenzie will cover flyhalf and fullback from bench like Beauden used to, SBW playing really strongly but I’d rather have him coming off the bench for the impact, bench is an important specialist position these days, so it’s a 23 selection rather than more minutes on park for starters equals more important, either way it’s a test cap. Aussie attack was powerful and direct, so I don’t think their confidence is knocked that much, they know what needs improving and a lot of D is attitude. They don’t need to be dumb aggressive like in second Bled like last year but line speed, focus on accuracy and trust their line and try and stay accurate on task rather than distraction and niggle . On a hard dry track in Dunedin and until the AB’s start playing an honest 80 minutes, I think WB’s stand a chance, given their attack and they won’t defend like that again and the AB’s still have to prove they can actually keep their standard for 80 and not be patchy and inconsistent like they been have too often lately. Consistency not necessarily meaning dominance for 80 but not meaning lapsing into unforced error and unstructured loss of form for long periods, they are falling down by their own standards regardless of a win or loss plus what fans are entitled to expect of AB’s given what we know they are capable of.
Mat
Guest
I can't see any immediate remedy to this problem. The number 1 issue is money. The ARU hasn't got any whilst the NRL has 9.4 million per team plus lower grade sides and development monies to throw away. The number 2 issue is teams - particularly in Sydney. There are 9 NRL teams in Sydney vying for the talent. Rugby has one. That's 9 different pathways v 1. It's no surprise Rugby can't compete.
Rob9
Guest
On a side note, it's a bit cringeworthy this boy being referred to as a 'man' in the article. He's a 17 year old kid, clearly with a lot of talent but with a heck of a long way to go before we see the finished 'product' (ok that language is a bit cringeworthy too). As well as the issues I mentioned in a previous post, another problem that transcends all football codes in this country is these young kids being hyped up from a young age to the point that they truly believe they breathed the air in the Steeden, Gilbert or Sherrin they play with and then not being able to take that step up to the next level. For teenage athletes, there's still a lot of boxes to be checked and cards to fall before we can start to label them as the 'real deal'. How many of these 1st XV and teenage league superstars have gone on to make not much more than a whimper as professional athletes. A heap of the responsibility of this lies with the pressure we put on these kids from a young age. Codes clammering over themselves to lock down school age talent is good for no body, especially and most importantly the teenage talent themselves. I'm all for creating the pathway from school into professional sport but a more balanced approach from all codes is required. For every Kurtley Beale or Kaylan Ponga, there's another 20 kids oozing talent as schoolboys who fail to kick on at that next level.
The Sheriff
Guest
The list is endless. Craig Wing, Ben Kennedy.........Rugby has been sucking it up for over a hundred years. There have been a few gains from League but they were not all what was hoped.
BeastieBoy
Guest
It should not be a case of us and them but Rugby makes it that way, not League. The better boys in general want to play both because they can. They play in the Junior Friday night Rugby comp, then Rugby for their school on Saturday and League on Sunday. Then at the end of Junior school we make them choose between League on a Sunday or Union on a Sunday for a club where their family have to cough up a few hundred bucks to pay the ARU tax on kids playing. So guess what? They choose League and the Junior Rugby Club Teams fall away. Move the adolescent comp to a Wednesday night, remove the ARU tax on kids and they will keep playing Rugby for their club.