It appears someone is listening, or at least seeing the smoke and wanting to put out the fire. An article was published by the Rugby Australia media department on Thursday that pointed to a need to make the NRC seem like a more viable pathway to Super rugby.
Apparently there has been “some criticism over a lack of opportunity for older players from the provincial competition to win a Super Rugby chance with Waratahs spots often locked up before the tournament begins.”
The Waratahs football manager Tim Rapp commented that “I don’t think the NRC is a finished product yet and for us we’ve got to continuously look at ways to improve the quality of football that’s coming through to it”.
Rapp added “We’ve got to look at different ways which we can give that guy an opportunity and he’s got to see it as an opportunity to potentially play Super Rugby in time,” referring to players seeing the NRC as a pathway to Super Rugby.
Well Tim I’m here to help. So, I chatted with some of my ex-teammates. Club players, NRC players, Super players. I asked them what would give them incentive to play NRC.
Adam Korczyk of Brisbane City takes on the Sydney Rays defence. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
Sidenote, were you aware that Super Rugby players are not meant to be remunerated for their time in the NRC? The tournament is included as part of their Super franchise contract.
Why should they? You might say. Well just like club players, Super players need an incentive. If I’m a Super player and I play well in the NRC, will it be forgotten by the time pre-season is over? Will the Wallabies actually notice? Or will I be playing simply because I have to? It’s hard to say.
Take notice of the quantity of Super players opting out of the NRC to go to Japan or England on a short-term contract. The numbers are rapidly rising. Pay attention to how many Super players are out injured during the NRC period. It’s not a conspiracy theory, it’s reality.
So, what can we do to actually fix these issues? Easy. Scrap the NRC. As conceded by the Waratahs, it isn’t providing an actual pathway for players to Super rugby and the players aren’t being paid enough to make it worth their time. Inject some money back into the heavily followed club rugby. No more complaints from anyone.
Well unfortunately they can’t. The ARU needs a third tier to secure a decent portion of the broadcast deal from SANZAAR. I hesitate to say that this was the reason for creating the NRC. The NRC will survive until at least 2020, so we need to fix.
Short of terminating the NRC, the system needs an overhaul. I have suggested that reverting back to a professional academy structure may increase the depth of talent across NSW rugby, with younger players being slotted in these systems rather than occupying a contract that should be with a more senior player.
By creating a prospect of gaining a contract from clubland, second-tier players will be more likely remain in the Shute Shield. But this only partially fixes our incentive issues, and we can’t reasonably expect a system overhaul overnight. In foreseeing the ARU/NSW rugby crying poor, I will refrain from suggesting a base pay increase for all NRC players to $10,000 (despite the fact that this would go a long way to solving the depth crisis).
Now, in a scenario completely void of opportunity, even the smallest carrot can provide an incentive. In 2015, an all-star side comprised entirely of uncontracted players was selected at the end of the NRC to tour New Zealand under the Australian Barbarians banner.
For a New-South-Welshman staring down the barrel of eight or nine thrashings in a row, something as simple as this tour selection may be the difference between playing and not playing.
I recall great excitement amongst the club players that the tour was taking place, and I can tell you that it provided incentive. Do it again, right now. Pick a Barbarians to play a Televised game against the Wallabies, select a side of uncontracted players to tour, invite 10 players from across the NRC to join the Wallabies for pre-spring tour preparation. The standards of incentive are so low that anything helps.
Quade Cooper of Brisbane City (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
In an ideal world I would love to see a majority of the EPS contracts and one or two full contracts remain available at each franchise until the end of the NRC. When I say available, all the franchises have to do is not sign anyone to these contracts until the NRC is over. Make it known that there are spots up for grabs.
Watch the players you have an eye on play in the tournament, they might struggle, they might excel. Paint a picture that you’re watching. It would be amazing to have a few contracts up for grabs, but if you can’t deliver this, then the allusion of opportunity will suffice.
The fact that the Tahs put the aforementioned media release out on Thursday and didn’t mention any contractual vacancies suggests that unfortunately the 2019 roster is all but tied up….
For the Super rugby lads who haven’t managed to get a hold of some Japanese yen or English Pound, there needs to be a real chance that consistent NRC performances will lead to a gold jersey.
I suppose you could allocate three spots on the end of year tour that are reserved for uncapped NRC breakout talent. Would this cheapen the jersey? Possibly, but it’s hard to find answers here. Although I said I would steer clear of financial solutions, it may be worth considering NRC specific KPIs included in the Super rugby contracts. Encourage playing minutes and playing well.
Joe Powell for the Canberra Vikings. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
Put simply, if you pay the players something reasonable then most of your issues will disappear. Given that the Wallabies get match payments of $10,000 and upwards per test, you would think that $2000 for an entire NRC campaign seems slightly inequitable. But alas, the ARU’s miraculous trickle up, steal from the poor and give to the rich flow of revenue will not likely change anytime soon.
In place of increased payments, workshop some incentives for both the club and super players in the NRC. They are so sorely needed. I’ve suggested a few possibilities, I am sure there are more out there.
This is one man’s opinion. Feel free to have your own.
Drew
Guest
Financials aside. The point of the NRC should be to build depth in Australian rugby. All this talk about going back to club rugby is flawed. With the overlap of club rugby finals during the international season will just end up the non-wallaby playing super rugby players gravitating to the teams that are assured of a finals spot so they can be playing and available if someone gets injured or loses form in the national team. Why would someone affiliate themselves with Parramatta, etc, when you won’t play a game? You just end up with a situation like the Shute Shield gf where Uni replaced Waratahs with other Waratahs. This done nothing to build depth in Australian rugby. Obviously the financials need fixing to make it enticing for players to play, good form needs to be rewarded. But a valid third tier is needed to get rugby here back on track. You just need to look at all the “nobodies” performing at such a high standard in the NPC to understand why the All Blacks are so dominant.
DaveR
Guest
TWAS, St Kevins is probably the best story over recent years, all the way back to Tamati Horua. But its the other Melbourne schools that are dropping off from where they have been. Scotch, Trinity, Melbourne, Xavier, Brighton etc are all seeing much lower continuations into club rugby. Its a shame to see a 100kg prop or a pair of handy 6'6" locks at year 12 level not end up at the clubs. The pathway here is mainly broken.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
In fact by my count in my grade alone I reckon I played with the following ex schools players: Xavier - 2 Trinity - 2 Grammar - 2 St Pats - 2 St Kevs- 2 Marcellin - 1 So that’s about 10 of the regular 20 or so guys that turned out just in my grade. Our colts were chock full of Grammar, Scotch and Trinity Boys also. Wouldn’t surprise me if we had 50 ex Vic schools players at our club. If anything I think this number is higher than when I first moved to Melbourne. That said there are some clubs like Moorabbin, Footscray and Endeavour Hills that would be pretty light on here.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
You say that Dave but I’m pretty sure St Kevin’s won in 2013 and i think I played with 2 of them (as in I think they played in 2013) this year at my club, with Jordan Uelese and Sione Tuipulotu being 2 others that played that season.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Well it’s good for the Rugby public in Adelaide, Geelong and Ballarat...
piru
Roar Rookie
Trying to spare a thought for you guys.. seriously! It's a good point though, some of the vision of these NRC games is not very professional, the ground the Force and Bris City played on in round 1 didn't even look like it had been mowed.
DaveR
Guest
Bakkies, the problem in Victoria is a little different. Melbourne and most of the large regional towns have strong schoolboy rugby teams, often with some impressive young forwards. The Irish ancestry has a lot to do with it. But the progression into the club competitions is failing, and way below what it was even 10 years ago. I know of a Melbourne schools team that won the competition 5+ years ago, and not one player is playing club rugby today.
DaveR
Guest
EFF you say "NRC is woirking well everywhere outside of NSW" but spare a thought for Victoria which has a thriving club competition and whose SR team hosts most of the ex-Force players. Not one 2018 NRC game for the Melbourne Rising is in Melbourne. The 3 home games are at Adelaide, Geelong and Ballarat. How does that work? Ok, maybe its for the players and not for the rugby public.
sheek
Guest
Cliff, Yeah the moderation really gets to me. I can suffer the barbs of other contributors but getting moderated really gets under my skin. It seems to me these moderators have no concept of context. Context, context, context. When I eventually leave this blog site it will be the moderators in 'room 101' who will be the final straw. I think they are completely lacking in practical, common sense.
mmm
Guest
Some interesting stats after 4 rounds in the NRC. Especially the Missed tackle stats and Try assist stats. http://www.rugby.com.au/competitions/nrc
Joe King
Guest
AndyS, your comments on the NRC each time, make me think you have got a pretty clear idea of how you think the finished product should look, and perhaps some stepping stones towards it. I for one, would really love to read an article from you on this topic, even if it's just a sketch. I think it would prove helpful, and you never know who might end up reading it! Cheers.
Boomeranga
Guest
I understand the SR players have largely moved on but where are the non-contracted / never contracted local players? The Spirit were good at giving those blokes exposure. I can't imagine all the talented local amateurs up and left.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
And has NZ got those structures right, or is it just that their domestic competition isn't as well advanced?
AndyS
Guest
And I guess a lot comes back to that. My feeling is that the 'base' of rugby in Australia is broken at the moment and anything you put on it will fail. Everyone is deriding SR, but even Sheek acknowledges that it actually works well for the one country that has got the underlying structures right. So does the problem lies with SR, or Australia's poor structures? For all we know, SR properly underpinned may well be exactly the model that would work best, but the unwillingness to address the root problem prevents it being seen. We have no way of telling, as we've never seen what a proper integrated broad-based development structure looks like. IMO we should be addressing that first, then seeing where we are. Otherwise we might do a lot of damage to something that at least works to some extent, even if not well. Possibly terminal damage.
Cliff Bishkek
Roar Rookie
Bakkies - just sent a comment but it went to moderation. I have no idea why? This moderation issue on words is becoming really, really, crazy. Like PC on a Rugby Forum and I had no words in it to cause concern. Yesterday my comment to you and Sheek both got taken for moderation but then printed!! Oh for the foregone years when you could tell some one to go away!! LMAO Cheers
Cliff Bishkek
Roar Rookie
Sorry Sheek - understand. No problems. Cheers. Your point was made but as I said I am not 100% in agreement with it. The Crushers did have management and financial problems but yes the Broncos and Murdoch did push the barriers.
Cliff Bishkek
Roar Rookie
Bakkies, sorry for a late reply but I am some 4 hours behind Aus here in Bishkek. Yes Bakkies, Rugby League is the dominant football in the country in Queensland. But even so, by looking over young RL players, there are possibilities of finding good players at a young age who could easily transition. It is easy to transition at a young age. The concern is - the costs and the time. But I have always felt that the major Rugby Clubs have never bothered to do scouting as seriously as the Rugby League Clubs. The Downs (Toowoomba) had a very good competition (Toowoomba, Dalby and out to Goondiwindi and then later added Warwick and some others) for which I played when at Uni in the late 60's early 70's. Some good young talent from that went on to play for Queensland. The North Coast and Central Qld also had good competitions as there was always a Qld. Country Selection. Maybe these Clubs no longer exist. The Downs comp is still going strong. Cheers
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Was that the case last season as well though Piru? Because the decline in player numbers goes back to before any cull was announced.
piru
Roar Rookie
You realise WA rugby was hit extremely hard by the decision to cut the Force from SR and many of our top players are now in other states, or other countries right?
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
A lot of commenting from people who don't care any more... I guess I can't relate to any of you because I never started watching rugby because I "cared". I watched because I was entertained. I don't need to "care" to watch a 3rd grade game an be entertained.