To save Aussie rugby we must scrap the states

Busted fullback - indeed. The cynic in me is not at all enthused WR, with beaumont back at the helm, will do what is necessary to make rugby a level playing field. Sadly, fairness never resides at the top of society's agenda, or sport.

You wouldn't wish further centralisation of power on your worst enemy.

Centralisation & theoretical efficiencies look great in a Powerpoint presentation, however when dealing with the mix of volunteers & paid admin structures you effectively will lose much of the local goodwill/freely provided resources. This is the crux of pretty much all sports which have both an Amateur & Professional arm. Funds will be stripped out by the central body & when things go belly up the States will have nothing left to show for it. E.g. the WA Refs Assoc thankfully were independent of the State/National body & managed to insulate themselves from the mess imparted by RA over the Force etc. Central bodies by nature build their own 'kingdoms' until any efficiencies are long gone. Many of the tasks performed pro bono are 'professionalised' &/or given the name 'Academy' with various wannabees seeking to now earn a living doing what was done for free....everyone well meaning under the guise of improving the game/standards etc. The volunteers then feel jilted & withdraw, leaving a gaping hole when the reality of delivering all & sundry sets in. The Central body then increase rego fees etc to compensate & ask the local bodies to come 'cap in hand' for support. Usually a 5 yr cycle before everyone wakes up & resets again... Absolute power corrupts, power corrupts absolutely.

My sister got sick and tired of two parents and four brothers monopolising the winter dinner conversation with rugby talk. One summer, she borrowed Dad's Law book, admittedly it was thinner in those days, and spent her time learning the game from there, after having watched said brothers for years. Next winter, with none of us knowing of her studies, she absolutely owned the conversation and was able to watch the game with greater understanding and appreciation. Sadly the Law Book is somewhat thicker now after Law adjustments, interpretations and everything else that's in there, but it might help. https://australia.rugby/participate/referee/laws or https://laws.worldrugby.org/?language=EN

I take your point sheek. My terminology was a bit off. I meant when the game is being played again, all over the world and that it was the EPL and FFR making the demands of their clubs, not WR. However, if WR is helping to bail out some organisations with financial loans, they may have a bit more sway than in the past. But will Beaumont and co (the NH boys particularly) have the bottle to see it through?

Busted Fullback, There is talk of this, but so far it hasn't happened. I mean, if the French & English clubs have to go offshore to source best talent, & they have the money to pay, WR appears to be in no position, either legally, or with any intent, to stop them.

Haven't the Europeans, or at least the French, started to reduce the number of foreign players per club already? Even prior to Covid? I dare say those overseas contracts are going to be fewer and farther between by the time the international game is up and running again.

Yeah, that idea has worked really well for North and South Korea for the last 65 years.

How do you learn to understand rugby as an adult? 45 year AFL supporter with a rugby wannabe 10 yo here. It seems like the most complicated sport in the world ... at least from trying to watch super rugby games plus watching the U 10s. What do you Roarers recommend.

Maybe. Say Randwick, SU and Eastwood are in a national club comp. I figure home games could be well attended. Interest from the other 9 SS clubs is probably muted. Some may attend to watch a favourite player who transferred so they can play at the next level. Most would probably be pissed off at their best players constantly leaving to go to these three clubs. For that reason alone their interest at NRC might be zero before you start. Everyone at those clubs may not be happy either. Players are blocked from getting in the NRC team by players constantly coming into the clubs and pushing other players down. The depth will probably mean they are pretty invincible at SS leading to a loss of interest there. Inevitably there will be a financial arms race and someone will go broke. Add in promotion and relegation, because you might not get the proposal across the line without it. There will be tidal waves of player movement which eventually undermines the club based tribalism. My frustration Jimmy is that no attempt has been made at SR or NRC level to bolt supporters on to the clubs. On what planet does the 'game day' and 'event' entertainment attract people to a rugby game or engender support for the team? Yet that is the strategy these 'business' leaders come up with. You could not make this stuff up.

No argument there Jimmy. The longer I think about it, the more important the NRC becomes. At least with one team per city club supporters do not have players in several teams. I think it has to be run during the regular club season which might motivate supporters a little more. Shortening everyone’s season to accommodate another competition for a handful is not a good start towards acceptance. Western Sydney, like government schools, is an important problem to solve. I don’t have an answer, but like a lot of other issues, I do not think there is enough commitment to making it a success. That is not necessarily a dig at SU, SRU, NSWRU or RA; I suspect we have not figured the problem and solution; resources and how they are committed is another issue beyond that.

No it is not that difficult. We have all been conned by this 'sport is a business' rubbish. We end up with objectives inconsistent with the sport, and third rate managers. For some reason being a sporting administrator becomes a pre-requisite, narrowing the pool even further. For some reason that quadrant of not knowing what you don't know becomes the dominant management behaviour. We over rate and over pay employees and then expect so little of them. Possibly because in our own minds it is "just a sport". The priorities are rugby first and players second. If after IF's first tweet in 2018 she fronted the media and said: 1 Rugby is the world's most inclusive sport and we welcome the LGBT community just as we would any other player and supporter 2 IF is one of the most humble and respectful players in the game* and I will be sitting down with him today/tomorrow to discuss the impact of his tweet with him. Then I assume she would have spoken to him and the problem would have been resolved one way or another, presumably at that time in a manner which would have been mutually acceptable. That would have been OK'd with the board and then announced. Future contracts would unliley to not cover off whatever was agreed. Instead we looked after the sponsors first and shoved IF out of the tent. Belatedly, presumably because of his importance to the game as a player and poster boy, we smuggled him back into the tent while nobody was looking. Clearly nothing was ever agreed with him, let alone documented. It took a 3 day hearing to untangle what RC, MC and IF said to each other, and I bet they did not even agree either. The whole chain of events is mind-boggling, yet people still think the process was competent. *I assume that he is, everyone seems to say so. Also I note that despite being one of the most reviled men on the planet I never heard of any situation where he had actually treated anyone with disrespect. A lot more than can be said of most of us.

But at least a national club Comp would be well supported, when Randwick play Brothers people would actually come and watch, does attendance mean nothing to Union administrators in this country??

But as an outsider the problem I have with the NRC is that it has absolutely no tribalism, they are constantly changing teams names, brands and identities leaving fans confused and even alienated. They talk about Western Sydney being a key area for growth and then cut a team, they talk about getting the NSW fans excited then they change the Sydney team last season, if they want things like that to work they need fans to buy in.

Well, certainly that element of the game. We've certainly seen to date that those running the professional sport have not done/are not capable of simultaneously managing the underlying structures. The flip side however is that those people that are may be no more capable of running the business of the professional sport. And even if they try and succeed, they are likely to fall into exactly the same behaviours and drop the ball on the structures.

That is why rugby people have to be running the game. There are at least hundreds of died in the wool rugby people far more qualified than many of those tasked with it to date. The key issue is transparency over what is to be done and showing why the selected CEO is qualified to carry out the plan. I have no idea whether RA ever had a plan. If there was, they certainly did not carry it out very well, or it was not a very good plan. We are paying big money to people who are not capable of managing RA (or some of the other state unions). They survive only because of factional support. As long as there is division; no plan, no transparency, no results, no worries.

Absolutely right! Everyone focuses on the SR, but that is just the fruit. The success of the whole is determined by the strength of the development process that produced those players. That is far and away the most important bit to get right and functioning, otherwise there won't be any profession game to worry about.

I think we should have a Australian domestic rugby competition similar to the NZ competition NSW had the Sydney Shute competition, Qld Premier competition and the ACT also have one. I’m sure Victoria, South Australia and WA would also have domestic competitions The NRC is combining the best players from each of the NSW and Qld competitions, fringe players from the Super teams as well as others who need game time and to impress for a contract So why not combine all these players as well as the u20’s Australian players from each year and play a National competition with maybe a two tier system with a promotion/relegation for say the bottom two or three teams in tier 1 and promotion for the top two or three teams in tier 2 Then that would hopefully increase the level and broaden the game It will also give the Australian Super teams a bigger pool of players to build their teams up from too

I do not know Jimmy. All I am hoping for is that RA genuinely seek to consult wide and deep to identify the most important issues and come up with a decent plan. I played back in the 80s and a tier below NSW/Qld was required then. If we are going to remain a Tier One rugby nation we have to have three quality SR sides playing in 2021 (and, I believe, growing to back to five quality SR sides by 2025). The NRC is the core competition. Getting it right should enhance club competitions in each state and drive a lift in coaching and playing across the country. It has been an after thought so that very few even care. If we are totally broke and decide that the best thing for rugby is shrinking to suit, then an NRC is what we will have anyway. It just becomes the 2nd tier below the Wallabies.

Thanks for the article. Overly central management is the reason many things are a mess in this world. Rugby in Australia is just another example. There is no way someone in Mosman will be able to know whats happening in Central Highlands Junior RU in Emerland and many like it. Getting RARA to allocate / manage their budgets will be a disaster The objective should be to strengthen then empower the states, esp Qld and NSW districts.