How Australian rugby can build its very own field of dreams

A Queensland country team should be based in Cairns as well as Toowoomba. This was an AFL town but the AFL sent us packing until the Suns played an occasional game here; unfortunately during the windy season so the games aren't worth much. The Taipans get bigger crowds; especially when Auckland visits. There is a large ex-pat community here of Kiwis, Samoans, Fijians and Japanese who would all support an FNQ team. We only get an occasional match of consequence here and we could raise the capital for a stadium if the "Looters and Polluters could include us in their "Sports Rorts". I am sure our mayor would get behind it and he is a bloody marvellous, and HONEST, organiser. Townsville is welcome to the NFL mob as we prefer a game where the players and fans can read and write.

The most important thing in any competition is it has to be competitive. Any team should have a shot at winning it. This is why Super Rugby TT will fail in Australia and continue to fail. A proper NRC with the talent distributed around could really bring the crowds and viewers. It doesn't have to be the best Rugby, just good enough to entertain while leaving the result in doubt.

"The voice tells him: “If you build it, they will come”." The quote is actually "If you build it HE will come"

Great idea - especially if it was on FTA TV. Also the Melbourne team should travel as well - maybe games in Bendigo & NE. Sadly I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for it to get real consideration from the RA power-brokers.

It's exactly the resistance to the idea of the NRC from the clubs that I'm talking about. The thing that really gets me is that they think the clubs are so good. Most of the play is pretty crap and if any of them went to NZ or SA to play teams at a similar level they'd get smashed by 40 points yet the muppets in the club seem to fall back on the glory days of amateur and think players can go directly from club to the Wallabies. Unfortunately professionalism has passed them by. I'm not so sure the power brokers don't still exist, there still seems to be a lot of people who seem to have more influence than their actual ability would suggest.

The logical setup would be to have clubs in the two major rugby union cities of Australia and only a few outside of that. So, an eastern Sydney team. A northern beaches one. Something in the west perhaps, but it is soccer, league and AFL nowadays. Might be too late. I would like to see union move into Wollongong seeing NRL left them for dead forcing that merger on them. Could they get a team representing country NSW in a regional town like in New England? Queensland, could look at a few in Brisbane and maybe a Toowomba and carve out a niche, rather than raking over the same old areas they have a dozen teams in already. Completely against race based teams. If you go down that track, then why not white's only sides? You cannot have it one way and not the other.

If we had accepted the invitation of two teams in a TT we would have had a financial share of that competition and a good chance of two competitive teams, and winning the competition. Somehow the teams cannot be geographically based so that they have wide support. Internally the NRC should be the main competition, run with the same status as SR AU and parallel with the normal rugby season. NRC teams must work in with the tier below to maximise the successful rugby impact as well as making it commercially viable.

Some clubs might resist a 2nd tier competition that does not include them. The NRC model defused that by basically only having one team per region. There is no such thing as NSW and Qld club power brokers, JON's constitutional changes killed that and McLennan only keeps it alive to further weaken any opposition to what he wants. RA controls the game because it controls most of the revenue, the professional competition, the Wallabies and employs the players. It starts a NRC/NPC and contracts the players. Obviously it is far better to work with the clubs to make it financially viable. As an aside RA should also enforce amateurism, to the extent it legally can, below NRC level.

Build it and they will come! I've been to the USA a couple of times and one thing that stands out is how many people are there - more than ten times the Australian population in roughly the same space. There are bizarre examples of businesses in remote places in the USA, but there is always a customer base not far away. In the USA it seems you CAN build it and they WILL come. I'd like to see the professional Rugby competition in Australia based on something like the NRC, or what you've called the NPC. It's a level above club Rugby like the NRL is a level above the old club competitions out of which it grew, and the AFL is a level above grassroots club comps. No one would play Rugby League or Aussie Rules if it wasn't for the grassroots competitions where people first play the games, then rise to professional level if they are good enough. People will still start playing Rugby through clubs and schools. That is community/grass roots level, not professional level, though Aussie Rules and League clubs have always paid senior or A grade players, sometimes quite handsomely. Family and friends go to grassroots matches, but the large TV audience and the crowds at the big stadiums follow the fully professional leagues. With Rugby Union we have a the advantage of a world scene. We could be sending higher level teams (e.g Wallabies, Australia A , and Super level teams) to international competitions - not just to NZ or SA. Personally I would like it if professional Rugby was played in specially designed stadiums which could also have Soccer and League played at them. I was interested that CSUB stadium on the Gold Coast is just about the right design, though I would raise the stands to about 2.7 metres above their current height, allowing facilities underneath, and better views of the far side of the field for those in the front rows. I would also want facilities for really comprehensive video coverage and broadcasts. If we built that, would there be enough people to come?

I agree with you 1997 Brumbies. The purpose of the NPC or NRC needs to be clear. I personally believe the NPC needs to be the focus. It's the competition which will grow the sport in Australia. It will provide the player pathways to become a Wallaby. I will provide a competition full of tribalism and rivalries. This is the competition which can compete with the NRL, AFL, and A League. Super Rugby doesn't need to be a long season. Reduce Australian teams numbers to 2, maybe 3. Run the competition over 2 months max. From that, the Wallaby squad can be selected. If RA introduces Australia A it is even easier. The SR teams will effectively make up the national squad which all train together. The Wallaby 23 is named for the up coming test, and the second 23 will be the Australian A team.

Thanks for the article, MJ. I’ve recently been thinking (from a Kiwi perspective) that we should also be embracing the potential/value of our own NPC far more than we do currently. On a completely unrealistic note, I would go even further, and think both countries would be better served promoting our own NPC/NRC to REPLACE Super Rugby. And then looking to co-ordinate a mini ‘Super Cup’ tournament at the end. :laughing:

I agree Muglair, Australia needs to reduce the number of Super Rugby teams. I believe this achieves 2 things; Australian teams will be more competitive against the NZ teams and it assist with cohesiveness amongst players once selected for the Wallabies; and it doesn't deplete the third tier (NPC) competitions quality and therefore allows it to grow the spectator numbers / supporter base.

This would be great in theory, but the problem for this tier has always been funding. Im not sure PE would be interested in funding a comp like this as its returns would be limited in the short term. Something along the lines you have put forward would definitely be ideal in the long term for Australian rugby but seems financially precarious. There's a few models Australia could go for and I think we will probably get whatever one is the cheapest to run, at least initially. There's the model outlined in this article (pretty much what the NRC was 7 teams with the possibility of expansion). There's a 10 team model where two teams effectively sit underneath each SR franchise (every capital city gets a team plus the two country teams). The model I think has the most merit is an 8 team comp which would be all 5 SR teams academy sides plus Fiji, Tonga and Samoa national academies. This would reduce new player costs right down as most players would already be contacted to their SR clubs apart a few club rugby stand outs. Travel costs would go up with trips to the Islands but might be able to secure world rugby funding for the PI teams. If not they could be based in Australia intially. I think spreading the talent out too thin would be an issue for this comp with more than 5 Aussie teams, especially if the noises from RA are correct and the Australian A team is going to be restarted effectively taking (in combination with the Wallabies) the top 50 odd players from any national comp. It depends on what you want the comp to be. A development comp for SR (the academies path) or a comp to one day replace SR as the pinnacle franchise comp in Australia. I'd argue that for now along with the Australian A team that the academy path would be the best for high performance but maybe not for spreading the game. In all though I agree there needs to be something in this space, I'd take anything at the moment.

I agree we need that tier but it requires a revamp of Super Rugby so we have a reduced number of teams at that level. We have to come up with a concept that can get bums on seats and make it pay for itself. PE money or RWC money, the result will be the same. Rugby pays for itself if it engages with supporters. It goes broke when it doesn't, the sweet irony is that the only people that will care were the small number going to games or putting their hand in the pocket.

Sorry mate despite this being a great idea, it doesn’t pander to the inflated egos of those people running the club rugby in NSW and QLD so it will never be supported by their power brokers. I must admit I don’t fully understand the governance structure in NSW but it appears that there is a split between the RA governance and NSW Rugby so RA has little influence. If RA wants to move rugby forward it needs to revamp the whole structure of rugby here in Australia and break the self interest from the power brokers who don't care about anything except their little power pool

Progressing to addition/split: 9. Northside from Sydney. 10. Gold Coast from Qld Country. 11. Adelaide Barbarians. 12. As future directs. Cheers KP

2. Based out of Toowoomba but travels. 5. Based out of Newcastle but travels. Perfect. Cheers KP