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Streamlining is the key to Australian rugby's salvation

21st May, 2018
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Working towards something as a team is rewarding, but sometimes you need to do your own thing, says Beau Robinson. (Photo by Steve Christo - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)
Roar Pro
21st May, 2018
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3028 Reads

When it comes to the state of rugby in Australia, those in charge at the top are failing woefully. We are justified in our criticisms of the ‘system and its monkeys’ but is there a solution?

It is easy to throw rocks from the sidelines, it’s much harder to fix the problem.

So where do you start? I suggest having a look across the ditch and seeing what’s going on there. As much as it pains me to say, they are doing something very right over there. Central contracting. One singular aim across the entire country.

One singular approach to the game across the entire country. Total abandonment of parochialism and the ‘me’ attitude. Total transparency in intellectual property and no hesitation to share it between one another. The list goes on.

The system and its monkeys have a bonanza of how to run a rugby organisation in the next room but what we’ve heard is: “we do not want to copy them”. There is that parochialism and insular ignorance again.

Guess what Ireland have done? Guess what Scotland have done? Guess what the English are doing? I guess, by that reasoning, if the Kiwis invented a cure for cancer tomorrow we just say “we don’t want to copy them” and go about trying to find our own cure while people keep dying.

Why not scrap and streamline the entire system in Australia? It is the only way, because the current one isn’t working. And suggestions of amendments to the system is political language for ‘we don’t want to change because the ride on the gravy train is too good… for us, the establishment’.

Instead we hear the same political talk over and over – be patient, it will all work, the game plan will work, the new coaching panel will work, the new meeting between the coaches will work, the players aren’t up to it but will be soon, Rod Kafer’s appointment will fix all, Mick Byrne’s appointment will fix all et cetera.

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Streamline it all
Streamline the entire bloody lot of it. Every young kid from the age of about five should know exactly what pathway they have to follow to play for the Wallabies. And not some convoluted, fairy-tale pathway that looks pretty on a printed piece of propaganda paper – a real bloody pathway that is dead simple and absolutely straight.

Ned Hanigan Wallabies

(AAP Image/Dave Hunt)

Expand the NRC: three Teams in Brisbane, four in Sydney, two in Canberra, two in Melbourne, two in Perth. Set up and establish a proper provincial competition the same as they have in every other country.

Give everyone a shot at showing what they have. Focus on rugby inside the country first before you worry about the results against foreign teams. The solution starts inside the country. If you have to take some pain in the short term, so be it.

Divide the Premier Rugby Clubs in each of the five main cities between the NRC teams so that they feed solely into their respective NRC teams. The local suburban clubs who fall into the geographic area of the Premier rugby clubs joins them in eventually feeding into that NRC team.

Country rugby zones and interstate teams (Tasmania, South Australia and Northern Territory) are allocated to one of these groups and also feed solely into their respective NRC team.

Isi Naisarani runs the ball

(Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)

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As an example, a young bloke from Coonabarabran in NSW wants to play for the Wallabies. He makes his local country zone team, which is Western Plains.

Western Plains, along with the Central West zone, have been allocated to the Western Sydney NRC club, which comprises the Parramatta, Gordon and Penrith Shute Shield Teams (I know Penrith have been cut).

The young bloke then plays selection trial games against the suburban representative teams, which comprises players from the local suburban teams within the catchment area for Parramatta, Gordon and Penrith.

Scouts from Parramatta, Gordon and Penrith attend these selection matches and identify young players. An offer is made to the young bloke from Coonabarabran to come play for Parramatta and young bloke starts playing Shute Shield rugby.

Western Sydney NRC club scouts look at the Shute Shield games that Parramatta, Gordon and Penrith play and notice said young bloke who gets selected for the NRC team. Waratahs scouts watch Sydney based NRC teams and select young bloke into the training squad and so it goes on.

Streamline everything, your local bush or suburban club should know exactly which Premier Rugby teams and NRC team they are aligned to. Young players should know exactly how to get to the top if they want to have a crack.

Queensland Country NRC Grand FInal

(Photo by Brett Hemmings/Getty Images)

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The flow works both ways, young talent (players, administrators and coaches) flows up and money and intellectual property flows down. Everyone on this stream has to work both ways otherwise they all suffer.

The NRC team has a vested interest in the pathway clubs allocated to them otherwise they will suffer the consequences. And the Waratahs have to look after their Sydney based NRC teams otherwise they will suffer.

Put the focus back on local clubs, premier clubs and your provincial competition. Start a national contracting system once players reach the premier club level. Stop avoiding the real issue and trying to patchwork the problems with the Super Rugby teams because all you are going to get is patch jobs and a further decline on the real cause of the problem – a total neglect of the local and premier clubs and a strong provincial competition.

It can’t be done they will shout. The Premier clubs will not have it. What about the Shute Shield competition? And so that parochialism and insular ignorance will go on.

They will refuse to recognise that a proper (not a thrown together NRC competition that no fan can identify with) and strong Australian provincial competition is the centre of the cure because of the me attitude.

Stuff the Shute Shield and stuff the rest of the premier club competitions across the five main cities. Your competitions will go on and you will still develop Wallabies and Super Rugby players, and they will still play for you. In fact, your pathways will become stronger and you will attract more fans and viewers because they will actually identify (even those form the bush or different suburbs).

With this streamlined, centralised system we can maybe even dream of Rugby AU contracts being given to youngsters so they can play for the premier clubs or even a dedicated Rugby Channel on Fox Sports that will pay for and televise every game from the Wallabies to the John I Dent Cup.

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If you can’t imagine this, or just don’t want to, have a look across the ditch and see what they did and how they’re currently going compared to us.

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