The CEOs part two: How your team will win you back in 2018

The 2018 Super Rugby season presents a new opportunity to start afresh for the four Australian clubs, and more importantly, to win back fans that have gone missing in the last few years.

If you have even just the remotest connection to Australian rugby, you’ll know that 2017 wasn’t a great year. But you can’t have a recovery unless you’ve had the rough ride before it, and for the game in this country, the recovery needs to start right now.

And it starts with reconnecting with lost supporters and lovers of the game.

How are the four Australian sides going to do that? Well, they’ll tell you themselves.

I’ve spoken to all four CEOs over the last week and put the same two very obvious questions to them. After starting with the Brumbies and Melbourne Rebels yesterday, today it’s the NSW Waratahs and Queensland Reds to complete the series.

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NSW Waratahs – Andrew Hore

How will your organisation reconnect with frustrated fans after last season?
Yeah, it was very rough. If I’m honest with you, Brett, I think we recognised this last year, too. You might have noticed last summer (2016-17) we did a lot more in the community, and that will continue through this year.

I think a big thing is being present and being part of that rugby fabric. Now, 18 months ago, the two halves of the company (NSW Rugby and the Waratahs) came back together, so giving them a feeling and an understanding of what being reconnected looks like – and that has to be them (NSW Rugby) supporting us (the Waratahs), and us supporting them.

That’s a big job, but what we did in the community last year with the junior club blitzes, going to country centres like Mudgee; that kind of thing will all continue. But on top of that, we had an internal and an external review last year to monitor that what we were seeing internally was true, and now we’ve got to make those changes and deliver on the pitch as well.

(AAP Image/Craig Golding)

Delivering on the pitch is one thing, but if we can show that we want to be in our community, and that we want to be involved in our community, and that 86 per cent of our squad come from that community, then they will have a greater feeling of ownership of our team.

It just shows you; the Waratahs have been putting $1.6 million into community rugby, but it’s like the wealthy dad that just doesn’t spend time with his kids. ‘Give him twenty bucks to go and get a pie and a drink and run around on the street’, when really all people want is to feel engaged with you and that we’re all in this together.

So for us, that feeling of engagement is really important, along with getting success, so that we can continue to derive initiatives that are more focused around the volunteer, so that we can continue to develop our community coaches. So that we feel like we’re all in this together.

There was a number of reasons why we moved out of Moore Park (to the University of NSW at Daceyville); I’m not going to hide, because people say, ‘oh, you did it because of this’; well no, we actually did it for four or five variables.

Moore Park was a great venue and the people were brilliant. But, what you see now is that we’re right on our training field, people can come and go because the car parking is easy. You’re halfway through the day, the seniors have finished, and then the elite youth guys come in, the women’s team comes in.

We can actually invite school groups to come in and watch us train. We’re already planning a community event for this month. So straight away, we’ve got this ability to open our doors and people can come in. I don’t think we had that at Moore Park; it was just more difficult. And that’s not anyone’s fault, it was just where we were situated.

If you get to see the plans for the facility moving forward, it’s all very much geared around that community initiative, because that community involvement also gives my players a stronger feeling of identity in what they are playing for and what they stand for.

To me, the greatest rugby places had that strong sense of connection, and we saw that in the late ’90s or early 2000s, when playing for New South Wales, or playing for Queensland, playing for Canterbury… you were representing the best of your rugby community. And somewhere along the line we lost that a bit, but we can get that back.

(AAP Image/David Moir)

We’re looking into ways of potentially reconfiguring our NRC teams, that would come in under the Waratahs banner, and have that progression. NSW used to do some wonderful things – north of the bridge vs south of the bridge games for example; all of that history, those rivalries are what people love.

So some of those potential initiatives will make playing for our NRC sides a reward for playing well through the Shute Shield. To me, it sounds like the NRC was almost introduced as a stick to beat club rugby with, as opposed to what it actually is – a ten-week high performance block to see who can cut it at the next level and who can’t.

Now if we simplify it, and don’t use it as a political tool and take the heat out of that, that’s important. There’s even an argument that we bring back the old Sydney jersey and the Country jersey; those kinds of things. There’s a lot to work through, but I think that feeling of ownership from that level below that the NRC teams are representative teams that can then be selected into another representative is the only way we can get it stitched into the fabric of the game.

There’s still discussion around what is the right number of teams, and what is the best way forward. But there’s a lot of variables there too, because a lot of really good rugby people took those entities on in the best interests of the game, and there’s sensitivities there. We’ve got to make sure that all those people who were and are still involved are seeing a reward and getting something out of this.

What will be the biggest differences fans will notice this season on and off the field?
The key thing off the field is a continuation of that realignment and coordinating the two businesses into one. You’ll also see some superficial but still really important things like the two websites coming together.

(AAP Image/Richard Wainwright)

The branding is also part of that; we’ve started that with everybody now aligning under the Waratah – with the appropriate body underneath that, be it Suburban, Referees, Women’s, etc. That’s a continuation of those operating variables that make us one again.

On the field, we had some very clear points that we needed to resolve around developing leadership, which I think Australian rugby as a whole lack.

Our standards around our physical conditioning were also an issue.

Elements of our play – which were pretty obvious; set piece, defence, and so on – it was pleasing to see in our trial (against the Highlanders in Queenstown) that certain elements of our set piece had improved.

We’ve got 14 new faces in the squad, and we’ve also got Simon Cron there as well (as a new assistant coach). I know Daryl [Gibson] and the whole organisation have done a lot of work on leading ourselves; that takes time, and sometimes when hardship comes people can revert to type, but there’s definitely been a hell of a lot of work done on identifying issues and trying to address those.

We’ve got a new promotions company on board to run our match-day – there were a lot of complaints last year from fans and members around things like the music, and so on.

And we’ll continue to advocate for a new stadium, which gives our fans and members a better experience. There’s a whole lot of work in an around that space.

And this new facility, too (at UNSW). It’s not going to be just all about the Waratahs at a new facility in this one area, we’ve actually got a plan to work with the state government on these five new regional facilities they’re looking to develop; we want to be actively part of that, and actually decentralise NSW somewhat to put hubs around the city, so there’s a lot of work going on in that infrastructure space, too.

On top of that, we’ve sent out all the documentations for a new governance structure, and we’re excited by that, and hopeful that it can be ticked off at the AGM so that we can move forward and reconfigure the way we run the game in New South Wales.

Queensland Reds – Richard Barker

How will your organisation reconnect with frustrated fans after last season?
First and foremost, off the back end of the NRC success last year (with Queensland Country) where two of our coaches are now responsible for the Reds in both Brad [Thorn] and Paul Carozza have been working hard with a core group of young players which we see as the future of Queensland rugby, and we know our actions have a lot to determine how we are received and engaged with the rugby community.

Knowing Brad, you know that it is all about success for him, it’s all about winning. Let’s talk a little about the professional side of our organisation, which is the Reds. At the heart of any profession is winning, but the winning is the outcome of so many other important steps and KPIs that need to be done and I can tell you this team has set about its preseason well and truly with a work rate and ethic that for me is different to what I have seen previously.

Now, all preseasons are all pretty good, so we’re not going to get carried away by that, but we’re not saying a lot and I know a lot of media thought Brad had gone to ground, but knowing Brad it’s about what he is; the persona that he sends. His mantra last year at the back end of the NRC was the hard road and we have to work hard to get the results.

(AAP Image/Dan Peled)

Work hard for each other, work hard with each other, with respect, and with humility as forefront pillars for that.

I mean even the little things – if I want to speak to the team, I have to do push ups and gut crunches as part of the presentation when you speak to the work group, because they have to see us doing that to a little degree. And that is what we have to do around the place to change it.

And there is no doubt there is a change of direction in making that appointment, but it is a good group of young people.

The best way to sum it up is to say that if you see a game with the Reds this year and you’re at Suncorp Stadium, when you walk away you’ll know you have seen a group of young men having a red-hot crack, and playing for the full eighty minutes for each other.

I think that will be the quickest way to reengage with our fans and I think there will be a lot of people out there that will go, ‘Shit, I have to get back to Suncorp to watch this’.

So that is at the heart of it all, and we are very conscience of being visible and ensuring we have responsibility for our stakeholder groups, our sub unions and our clubs, and we are doing that subtly and without too many words; it’s all about what we can do around our actions.

Don’t get me wrong, we could have done without the other distractions (the Quade Cooper and Karmichael Hunt situations) but let me say that has probably galvanised the group and made us stronger, and more determined. But in among all of that, there have been a lot of positives.

We have had a lot of people coming to see training, watch training, they’re hearing things that are happening, and the feeling is there is something building at the Ballymore – but we don’t want to say too much about it; we are here to set up a bit of a legacy and make our program one that players want to be part of. There is a cultural change happening, it’s values–based and standards and discipline.

(AAP Image/Dave Hunt)

What will be the biggest differences fans will notice this season on and off the field?
The off-field stuff is the cultural change that is being built. From the structure view, it is very clear with a head of professional rugby and the roles.

We have done a lot of work in redefining that structural piece, so it is very clear. I won’t go too much into structures and procedures, but you’ve got to have that framework around you if you want to actually see that change off the field.

We had an influx of new strength and conditioning people. Cameron Lillicrap our physio was doing really good stuff in our rehab area keeping our players fit. We have a healthy group and we are seeing that in their KPIs that they’re measuring. There is some strong improvement in those areas.

So, a lot of stuff off the field and that’s our cultural piece but that is developing and growing at the moment. The mantra is work hard.

We’ve got lots of flexible offerings out there around memberships; three-game, four-game options. Lots of different options and flexibility around the economics of it.

There have been decisions made in the past that have perhaps confused the fans a little bit, but I think we are working towards the market, understanding the market, working closely with members and we have some more things planned around that during the year – things like school offerings and the like.

We’re just really keen to get the season and the games underway and see how we go.