Note to administrators: Rugby is no longer an amateur game

And your point is ? I think I have made my point abundantly clear throughout the thread. I will repeat it once more because clearly you didn’t get it the first ten or so times . Australian Rugby offered virtually no product to speak of for a large portion of the Winter season. Is that clear enough. Whether the NRL or the AFL or whatever it is that you are trying to say are trying to be more American is besides the point. I’m not interested in your xenophobia. I am simply making the point that in structuring the season as they did it left the door open for the opposition codes. It is Business 101. If you cannot grasp that concept then clearly you have never been in business and/or don’t live in Australia and have no appreciation of just how competitive the Australian sporting landscape can be.

Thanks for asking MAXP. I think that a sustainable national championship is the way to go. Clearly from your comments you don't think that short of selling it's soul Rugby is capable of funding such a tournament. To that I say nonsense. Netball Australia is able to fund a national competition and yet their revenue last year was $16.6 million. The Australian Rugby Unions revenue though down from the year before by $8 million was $111 million. Rugby Australia doesn't have to have the best players just the best tournament. The Shute Shield has been running on the smell of an oil rag for years and yet it continues to deliver engaging entertainment week in, week out, or at least it did until Covid hit. So engaging was it that the Seven network picked it up until the rights for it were in turn picked up by the Nine Consortium. The problem with the much maligned NRC was that the tournament was not run for the tournaments sake but for the ulterior motive of strengthening the national squad. This is frankly elitist. As a child I relished seeing my hero's each weekend. Rugby Australia pack them up in cotton wool for half the season. An 8 Team national championship that seeks to engage and entertain as many people as possible in all the major metropolitan hubs of Australia should be the objective. The Syndicated Media would feel compelled absolutely COMPELLED to cover it if it was truly a national competition. How could the National Broadcaster, the ABC not. Of course Rugby support is stronger in Queensland and New South Wales. With this in mind a Rugby Heartland like Sydney for example should have multiple teams. Two, three at most teams thus allowing for highly marketable derby's and helping to balance the inequity of support that exists in other parts of the country for the game. The State based Super teams are a 21st Century anachronism and we must look beyond them. Rugby Australia must recognise it's own limitations too. If we cannot afford the worlds best players then let them go overseas. They will anyway. Rugby Australia should be obsessed about competition but by that I don't mean competing with New Zealand. That's like banging your head against a brick wall. Rugby must create the most compelling balanced and yet engaging competition it can. In all likelihood that will require transplanting or drafting players in the interest of sustainability and fairness but the Melbourne Storm, the Sydney Swans, hell even the Brumbies and half a dozen international Rugby teams have proven that that this is more than possible and not just a pipe dream and if it is just a pipe dream then why have Rugby USA and Rugby Japan established their own national championship's in the last two years. Many on this forum have hinted at rejigging the NRC but in doing so they have failed to articulate what the benefit of doing so would be. A national championship should not exist for the benefit of a few elite athletes but for the greater good and enjoyment of all Australians.

I think that what you say is correct bleep. Just as the Test Matches lead into the Twenty Twenty over summer. Just as The U.S Open Tennis leads into children picking up a Tennis Racquet at the local court Rugby should run as you put it concurrently a national championship with the International season. I have always thought of the State based Super franchises as somewhat anachronistic. I would prefer to see an 8 team National Competition that featured two sydney teams based in those parts of Sydney that are it's traditional heartland, say for example, Sydney North and Sydney South. Apart from all the other marketing possibilities that would spring from the concept a Sydney derby would be a palatable one. I feel certain that an eight team format that featured teams in each of the major Capital city's but with talent evenly drafted or transplanted so that neither Sydney nor Brisbane dominated would be an appealing product indeed. It's only three more teams than are currently funded. If, the players were forced to take a pay cut, then so be it. No one is forcing them to play. Such a concept would be readily embraced by the media, reported on by the media and generally supported by the broader Australian community but having said as much a good start would be if Rugby did not exhibit one of it's marquee events at the same time as the AFL grand final as it has done this year. That just doesn't make any sense to me at all and if there are extenuating circumstances that forced the clash they remain a mystery to me.

Hi Blerp, Thanks for giving consideration to my comments. That you did so is more than can be said for many others on this forum and yes, you are correct. There has been plenty of Rugby played domestically and overseas at various times throughout the year. I was pointing out that during the height of winter over an 8 week period, in what has traditionally been the heart of the season, only 4 professional games were played domestically between the 11th of June and the 5th of September. I understand that Covid has made things difficult but frankly the period post Super Rugby was an issue for Australian Rugby even before Covid. Rugby is missing a trick in scheduling just 4 professional games during this time especially if one considers that their immediate competition, the NRL delivered 88 professional games over the same said period and AFL, one would assume a similar number. That my comments should be construed as misguided or poor form by many on this forum that only last year were prepared to condemn Australian Rugby for all and sundry strikes me as absurd. Any businessman will tell you, you don’t give the opposition a free ride but in scheduling the season as they have done Rugby Australia have done just that.

Yer god bless them Pinetree, all the way from their Akubra hats down to their RM Williams boots. How benevolent of them. 4 professional games of Rugby in 8 weeks over the heart of the Australian winter whilst the NRL delivers a total of 88 professional fixtures and the AFL a similar number. Glad you like to set the bar nice and high Pinetree. What a great job they are doing. Better buy them all a Land Rover each as a bonus for the sterling job.

Carlos, what is Parochial about my article that so offends you. Or do you just like spewing vitriol around the place ? Did you even read the article and my subsequent posts. If anything I am advocating for a loosening of the protectionist instincts that have stifled Australian Rugby. That you, of all people should attack me for demanding more and inclusive Rugby is as extraordinary as it is misguided. I have advocated for a better deal for Argentinian Rugby ever since Hugo Porta potted his last field goal. Wow, talk about biting the hand that feeds Carlos. I know that the Puma's have developed their attack in recent years but I didn't know that they bite as well. Next time you should think who it is you attack before doing so.

Hi Max, I have never suggested that there hasn’t been a lot of Rugby. There’s a lot of Rugby in Mongolia too, if you know how to access it. Just not enough domestic Rugby when and where it counts in Australia. I’ve just finished watching Harlequins vs Newcastle in the English Premier League. I too sat through the tawdry arm wrestle that was the Lions series. My memory is perhaps failing me as I get older but yes, I too remember that Super Rugby was played earlier in the season. I also remember how the Australian sides bowed out as would seem to be habitual a week before the final in New Zealand of the Trans Tasman competition. That meant that from the 11th of June until the 5th of September. An arbitrary choice of dates i grant you but none the less a substantial 8 weeks, a total of only 4 professional games of Rugby Union were played in Australia. It beggars belief. Three Internationals against what for all intents and purposes was no more than a French development squad and one rescheduled Bledisloe Cup match. During this time the NRL managed to deliver 88, that’s right. Eighty Eight professional games. One could reasonably assume that the AFL scheduled a similar number over this period. I take no pride in saying this, I am neither a supporter of AFL or the NRL. I am a Rugby follower or at least I would be if I was given a game to follow. During the period specified not one professional domestic game of Rugby Union to speak of was played other than the aforementioned “Tests”. This, despite the winter months of June July and August traditionally constituting the heart of the Rugby Season. That I should have to explain to Rugby supporters on this forum and to the governing body why this is not nor should ever be ok goes along way to explaining why Rugby Union continues to struggle to regain traction in Australia.

I couldn't agree more Happy Hooker. Rugby Australia is more than just the Wallaby's. That is why I find the fact that only 4 professional games were played domestically over the heart of winter so egregious. I never claimed that Super Rugby didn't happen. My point and I refer you to some of my other posts regarding this is that Rugby has become too heavily reliant on the Wallaby's. The limitations this creates with scheduling were clearly exposed during lockdown. Whilst other sports were able to reschedule domestic competitions Rugby was left bereft. How do Rugby Australia expect to maintain interest in a code that goes missing in the heart of it's season. It's just common sense. Never again should Rugby supporters be treated with such contempt. Last year Rugby's administrator's couldn't do a thing right, this year the fair weather commentary would have us believe that they can't do a thing wrong. Well I'm telling you, leaving the playing field open for rival codes to win the hearts and minds of fickle Australian audiences was wrong, very wrong indeed.