Centre Court, Wimbledon, Monday 9 July 2001. The gentlemen’s singles final between Aussie Pat Rafter and Croat Goran Ivanisevic is being held a day late due to the wonderful English summer weather.
With Wimbledon tickets sold for a day rather than a particular match that meant that seats were up for grabs. Suddenly it wouldn’t just be genteel “Come on Tim” Middle England populating the stands. It would be those compatriots of the finalists who had been willing to queue early, to passionately and rowdily get behind their man.
There were plenty of Aussies in town. A lot of residents of course, but also sports fans celebrating after Australia had killed off the Lord’s Ashes Test a day early. This meant that Rafter was sure to have his share of support.
With so many red and white checked Croatia soccer shirts in the crowd, what was the football uniform of choice for many of the antipodean fans? A rugby league Kangaroos, State of Origin or club jersey? An AFL singlet? How about the Socceroos?
No, it was Wallabies jerseys (of different vintages from traditional orangey “gold” to star spangled canary yellow) that symbolised national pride in those days. AFL and league jerseys might have represented popular local parochialism but the world champions represented the nation on the world stage. Even Rafter had been late to the complex one day so that he could watch them beat the Lions.
If that’s hard to believe for today’s youngsters, those of us from Generations X and Y who grew up watching winning Wallabies might be equally surprised to learn that boomers and builders would never have thought those heights possible. For they had grown up with Aussie rugby struggling to make an impression both nationally and internationally. It was a minority sport at home and very much a middle ranking power in the world game.
In this article we will tell the story of why Australian Rugby was for many decades in obscure mediocrity before being transformed into triumphant glory and then sliding back again. Once again, as a non-Australian I will merely draw the outline – this is the chance for Aussie Roarers to share their impressions of the last fifty years or more. What held you back before the glory years? How did you drag yourself up by your bootstraps? What are your memories of those golden generations and which was the most golden? Who were the heroes who made the good times possible and who were the villains who dragged you back down? And what are the lessons that your current leaders need to take heed of?
MELBOURNE’S CHOICE
In theory, Australia had many of the same advantages as the two other great Southern Hemisphere rugby powers (described above and below the line in the South African article in this series.) Most importantly, their national identity was built on a pioneering spirit requiring ingenuity and hard physical work. Also rugby was introduced and encouraged early on by leading citizens wanting to give men something to do other than drinking.
In fact it may have been introduced too early. When the great and the good of Melbourne were deciding in the 1850s which winter sport to pursue, there were still any number of rugby-like codes being played in England. These came from such venerable institutions as Cambridge, Winchester, Harrow and Eton as well as Sheffield (similar to soccer with a “fair catch” rule) and of course Rugby. Then there were First Nations sports such as Marn Grook, while Irish immigrants favoured Gaelic football and hurling.
So there were a lot of codes to choose from in those days, whereas maybe rugby was more prominent in the 1870s when it took off in the other big Southern colonies. In the end Melbourne adapted laws from several places to create a simpler game with less chance of injury from being tackled on the hard Victorian fields.
Victoria’s new form of football soon also became dominant in South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania. That’s never changed and it’s hard to see rugby ever becoming central to the culture of the whole country.
THE TOFFS’ FOLLY
Rugby was still dominant in New South Wales and Queensland though and perpetual cultural hegemony was certainly possible in those two great states with a combined population well above New Zealand’s. Instead the upper classes followed their English counterparts’ lead and refused to allow working class clubs to compensate their players for time off work. The latter took up rugby league just like their Northern England equivalents and rugby relegated itself to niche status.
One could be forgiven for wondering whether the attitudes of the richer Sydney clubs haven’t changed much over the years, with similar consequences for the sport.
Not surprisingly, the Wallabies were dominated by the Springboks and All Blacks for many decades. Just two of the first twenty Bledisloe Cup series from the early 1930s to 1978 were won and against South Africa a victorious series in 1965 and a drawn series in 1963 were the only highlights. A number of matches against Pasifika teams were lost and so were most games against the Lions. One statistical quirk is that Australia had a losing record against Scotland, Ireland, France, and Wales but a winning record against England – all of these have subsequently been turned around.
THE GOLDEN ERA BEGINS
The early to mid 70s was a particularly galling era. The 1972 Wallabies were known as the “Awful Aussies” in New Zealand, after losing the three tests by a combined 97-26. The following year Tonga won a test in Brisbane and soon after the Australian Rugby Union was almost broke.
The first ray of light came when a schoolboys team embarked on a sixteen match tour to Europe and Japan in 1977 (my thanks to Mzilikazi for reminding me of them.) They made headlines at both ends of the Earth, not just for coming home unbeaten but also for the exhilarating running rugby that they played. And the Wallabies were to go on to become renowned for their skill and flair for many a year.
Golden Generation? Try Mark Ella, Glen Ella, Gary Ella, Michael Hawker, Michael O’Connor, Tony Melrose, Chris Roche, Tony D’Arcy, Shane Nightingale and Dominic Vaughan for starters. One of rugby league’s greatest legends Wally Lewis wasn’t even a Test regular. Steve Cutler, Lloyd Walker and Eddie Jones couldn’t even make the squad.
Wallabies legend Mark Ella. (Photo by Getty Images)
Simon Poidevin, Roger Gould, Peter Grigg, David Cody, Steve Williams and Brendan Moon were just a year or so older and David Campese, Nick Farr-Jones, Brett Papworth, Tom Lawton, William Campbell, Jeff Miller, Rod McCall and Bob Egerton were not much younger. And thanks to Sheek for telling me about the 81/82 schoolboys who featured NFL defensive tackle Colin Scotts and Wallabies Michael Lynagh, Cameron Lillicrap, Steve Tuynman, Mark Harthill, Tim Kava, Brad Burke, Matt Burke, David Knox, Brett Papworth and Ian Williams.
This was a true golden generation.
THE YEARS OF UNPRECEDENTED SUCCESS
Just two years after that first schoolboy’s tour, the precocious Melrose was already running the cutter at first five for the Wallabies as they won the Bledisloe Cup for the first time in thirty years. He was soon poached by league but the following year Mark Ella took his place, Gould, Grigg, Moon, Hawker and O’Connor formed the rest of the backline, Poidevin was in the back row and D’Arcy was muscling up at prop. That’s a lot of very young players making up more than half the team. The All Blacks were thrashed 26-10 (then their second biggest defeat) in the third test, the Bledisloe Cup had been retained for the first time ever and the new golden generation was already making history at the highest level.
Over the next few years, as the team matured, it was still going up the bell shaped curve and results were inconsistent. League defections also had a significant effect. The European tour in the bitter 1981/82 winter was particularly harrowing and there were losses to Argentina and France in 1983.
However by 1984 Ella’s generation was starting to hit its straps under charismatic new coach Alan Jones. A world leading All Blacks team only just prevailed by a point in a thrilling deciding test but after that the landmark records continued, including Australia’s only Grand Slam winning tour in 1984 and only test series win in New Zealand in 1986. Landmark achievements in Australian rugby.
The rest of the Jones era wasn’t so great but Campo, Lynagh, Farr-Jones, Poidevin and late bloomers Egerton and McCall were all in the run on fifteen for the pinnacle – the 1991 Rugby World Cup final. By then a new golden generation had started to arrive with true greats John Eales, Tim Horan and Jason Little all born as recently as 1970 and destined to become in 1999 the first players to win two Rugby World Cups. By then a new golden generation born between 1973 and 1975 was entering its prime – Matt Burke, Dan Herbert, Joe Roff, Stephen Larkham, George Gregan, Toutai Kefu, David Giffen, Nathan Grey and Chris Whitaker. And this was in the midst of an unthinkable five year run with the Bledisloe.
Australian captain John Eales (C) and his teammates celebrate after winning the 1999 Rugby Union World Cup final against France. (Photo by Franck Seguin/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images)
SOME STATS
This table of Wallabies coaches’ win rates gives a sense of how, prior to 1984, Australia had mediocre win rates of under 50% for every coach, apart from Daryl Haberecht’s brief reign when Wales toured. Overall the period 1962 to 1982 Australia had less than a 40% win rate, and this included tours by tier two nations.
Note that there were no acknowledged coaches prior to the 1960s, but results were consistently mediocre then as well.
Brian Palmer (1960s) 0%
Alan Roper (1960s) 40%
Des Connor (1968-71) 14%
Bob Templeton (3 spells up to 1982) 45%
David Brockhoff (1970s) 47%
Daryl Haberecht (1978) 60%
Bob Dwyer (1982/3 stint) 45%
Then came the golden years 1984 to 2001. Eighteen seasons with an average win rate of 70%, with a peak of a whopping 79% for the Rod McQueen era.
Alan Jones (1984-87) 70%
Bob Dwyer (1988-95 stint) 66%
Greg Smith (1996-97) 63%
Rod MacQueen (1997-2001) 79%
Notwithstanding two Rugby World Cup final appearances, Australia have never quite managed to get back to the golden era, with a general feeling of decline since John Connolly left. After an excellent 2015 results have been back to pre Ella era levels and it’s debatable whether this will prove to be the nadir of modern Wallabies history or the story of the coming decades. Do you agree with Eddie Jones – has Australia become a tier two rugby nation?
Eddie Jones (2001- 05) 58%
John Connolly (2006-07) 64%
Robbie Deans (2008-13) 59%
Ewen McKenzie (2013-14) 50%
Michael Cheika (2014-19) 50%
Dave Rennie (2020-23) 38%
(Photo by Harry Trump/Getty Images)
HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?
Golden generations or a steady stream of high quality players? Whichever way you look at it, the generational cycles of the Wallabies from 1979 – 2007 were operating on a different plane from anything we’d seen before. How were they able to do this for nearly thirty years and why have they generally been on the slide ever since?
One important visionary decision came out of the ashes of those crushing defeats in 1972 and 1973. Prioritising the long term, the ARU appointed Dick Marks as National Coaching Director in 1974.
If those 1977 Schoolboys were his firstfruits, the list of highly successful Australian coaches like Rod McQueen, Bob Dwyer, Alan Jones, John Connolly and Eddie Jones who came up through his systems were his crowning glory. Incredibly, John O’Neil sacked him in 1995 and although his coaches and the players they developed kept producing the goods for a while after that, his influence was never going to last forever and Australian rugby hasn’t been the same since.
THE COHESION ADVANTAGE
Marks’ coaching system and book not only raised the standards of coaches and therefore their players at all levels of the Australian game, it also improved the cohesion of Aussie rugby. There was a common philosophy that made it easier for players from around the country to come together and function instinctively as a team. That’s been lost with decentralisation.
For more on cohesion I can highly recommend “Gold Digger: The Search For Australian Rugby” a pod by Matt Durrant (Roarer MDiddy.) Start with episodes 29 and 30, where he interviews cohesion expert and former Wallaby Ben Darwin.
Darwin talks about how, in music as well as sport, people develop their skills better and play better together if they play together for a long time. It wasn’t just a coincidence that world class musicians like Bono and the Edge went to the same school in Dublin, as did Mick Jagger and Keith Richards in London, while Paul McCartney and George Harrison took the same Liverpool bus. They improved together over a long period.
Through the bulk of the Wallabies’ golden age, their Ben Darwin Team Work Index (cohesion score) was through the roof compared to their competitors. Whereas other countries had big club or provincial leagues, Australia had two states, so new players already had lots of mates in the squad and were used to playing a standard of rugby as close as possible to test rugby. And we’ve already talked about all those players coming through together from the same Australian Schools teams.
They even picked combinations who had come from the same club as well as the same state. For example the Randwick front row of Ewen McKenzie, Tony Daly and Phil Kearns and the Brothers locks John Eales and Rod McCall.
Souths centres Tim Horan and Jason Little had already known each other for seven years when they played for the Wallabies against New Zealand as teenagers. Two years later they were the World Cup winning centre partnership aged just 21.
THE LONG SLOW SLIDE
For the first ten years of the professional era, Australia retained most of these advantages, which enabled them to compete with other nations who had much higher player numbers and in some instances an integral role for rugby within the national psyche. Expansion to a third major representative team wasn’t excessive and the Brumbies had their own high cohesion score from the existing Kookaburra team. And Marks’ coaches and the players raised under his structures were still having a big impact.
Gradually though their influence waned as inferior, less joined up systems took over. At the same time a fourth and then a fifth team were added without sufficient depth of talent to keep up the standard, whereas by now the likes of New Zealand, Wales and Ireland had come down to four or five teams.
Not only were fewer Wallabies playing together regularly, the standards gap increased between the state and federal teams. And for that matter between the kiwi and Aussie Super teams. Losses became expected and both fan engagement and player numbers have been on the slide ever since. A far cry from the cohesion and competitiveness of the two or three teams era. Quality, not quantity, was the key determinant of success or failure for Australian rugby.
Australia had lost the advantages that made them great, other countries had closed the cohesion gap and the tectonic plates were inexorably shifting in the wrong direction.
YOUR TURN
Of course there is much more to the How question than that. This is where you come in.
Many of you are very well informed about Australian rugby and a lot of you have been involved in the grass roots for years. From what you saw, what changed between the bad old days and the golden era? How about between the golden era and the years of decline? And in more recent times, did anyone do anything to make real improvements?
Over to you.
Muglair
Roar Rookie
Its a side deal that has not been dwelled on in the media. An additional 85% PE owned company is set up with NZRU and NZ Players (presumably the association) own 7.5% each. I assume NZ did what Australia did, all the IP (Wallabies, Waratahs, Reds etc) signed over from the historical NFP community based ARU to the company RA which has as its constitutional objective to promote and protect rugby at all levels, from grassroots to elite. Hah. What a poor return to the New Zealand rugby community. The All Blacks is one of the great sporting brands in the world. All of the blue sky for NZ rugby is in new global opportunities. Very sad. IF RA does the same thing, community rugby needs to take legal action to prevent the deal, or sue for the proceeds. NZ needs to focus on the NPC and RA on the NRC, but not just for ensuring the future of player development. The SR franchises will be the only assets they still own and they must turn SR into a globally significant competition that attracts the best players. They can then start to sell down the franchises to new owners in Japan, the Americas and Pacific.
JD Kiwi
Roar Rookie
Not seen that 85% before! I don't know why Australia need all that money now with the RWC and Lions coming up.
Muglair
Roar Rookie
Its hard to imagine them getting anywhere near the money they want without giving away a significant %. Hopefully they are not as dumb as NZ and sign away 85% of the rights to future technology and global opportunities.
JD Kiwi
Roar Rookie
I'm not a league fan, but Ben Darwin talked about three kids playing together right through school in Queensland before becoming all time greats for Melbourne. I'm sure you'll know who I mean! :laughing:
BeastieBoy
Roar Rookie
Just look at how many Roosters league players also played for Scots College.. in the Rosters you have Angus Crichton .. Billy Smith ... Siua Wong and others. From the Kings School you have Joseph Suaalii. There are examples in other Teams.
JD Kiwi
Roar Rookie
20% forever is truly frightening!
Muglair
Roar Rookie
They keep complaining that they do not have any money to do anything. That is due to poor management and continuing losses while just doing exactly the same thing, season after season. Businesses fail because they are undercapitalised, poorly managed or mostly, like RA, both. You turn a business around by injecting new capital, new management, or preferably both. RA is uniquely structured so that that the Board is only accountable to itself. New directors are specifically selected with undesirable trouble makers excluded through the process. You will have noticed at AGMs the number of new directors put up for election matches the number of vacancies. Not that it matters much with the shareholder voting so spread out. Even NSW and Qld combined have only 37.5%. 75% is required for significant change, which is all five SR states. RA has them by the short and curlies financially so I do not see the states openly seeking each other's support. They were not with the Force! What would happen with a real business and real businessman, is that you develop a strategy to demonstrate how the game will be turned around, massage it into a Prospectus, and go and sell it to the fans to raise debenture funds. Allow for early repayment from Five Nations and RWC funds with maturity and final repayment in five years (2029). Final payment of principal and interest could be secured for investors by using the sorts of structures that are to be used with PE. If at maturity the balance of debentures cannot be repaid or refinanced commercially, then investors have first rights to a percentage of the revenue until they are repaid. Unlike PE which is forever.
JD Kiwi
Roar Rookie
Thank you so much for such a comprehensive, well informed and wise post. The key paragraph for me talked about a strategy of how to relentlessly pursue excellence. Australian rugby won’t recover by deal making, poaching and bludging but that seems to be all Hamish has. As you also say, there is such potential with the latent interest in the game and upcoming windfall… it’s a moment that needs to be seized.
JD Kiwi
Roar Rookie
Sorry, one other thing I forgot to mention... it looks to me like Hamish is the current leader of the spenders and he ousted Marinos, the financially prudent one, earlier in the year. At a time when Australia are about to come into some once in 12 years/24 years/a lifetime riches all I can see are the same mistakes being made again.
Muglair
Roar Rookie
An interesting title. I have Marks' book in front of me "The Descent of Australian Rugby - Hellish Times for the Game They Play in Heaven". I cannot recommend this book highly enough and it covers the same ground as you, in a much more detailed format. You can find him on the internet or on Facebook using his name and the title. Even if you are not a Queenslander I am very confident he will send you a copy if you send him money. For those of us looking on in horror, it explains some of the developmental background on why we have today's unfolding horror show. Also a lot of his rugby philosophies for those interested. Marks must have been one of those players always ready to discuss his theories with team mates, whether they wanted to hear them or not. However he attributes his success to being able to draw on others to support him, especially the gurus of the time like Ray Williams, whose knowledge formed the basis of Marks' early work. Although the ARU was heavily involved, the scheme was only made possible by the Rothmans Sports Foundation and it ran independently from the ARU. Its impact was certainly being felt by the late 70s but Australian rugby really hit its straps by about 1983. In 1994 the Government decreed that Tobacco companies must exit sport and the Foundation and its intellectual assets and $300k were taken over by the ARU. There will be more to the story than Marks' version but the bottom line is that JON retrenched him and downgraded the importance of the program significantly. My guess is the advent of SR allowed ARU to hand off responsibility for development to the 3 SR clubs. We all now how it is with professional clubs, there is never enough money to do the important, but not urgent, stuff. A tight working arrangement was built with the AIS, but discontinued. According to Marks, Gregan was the last rugby scholarship holder. Clearly by 2003 the benefits of a program downgraded in 1994 are largely gone. The windfall gain of $30m was largely off the back of NZRU stupidity and arrogance, which JON and the board took advantage. Many remember JON as the hero of the story, and that his successors blew the money, but that is not how I see it. Sadly RA does not understand the lesson at all, probably for the same reason as JON failed. JON had no concept in 1994 that the success of the Wallabies for the previous 20 years was built on the scheme, the investment in it, and the dogged and relentless pursuit of excellence and success. I am guessing by 2003 he figured that the results of the previous five years were pretty much down to the genius of board and management. Is it therefore surprising that in December 2003 that we had a pile of money, but no plans on how it should be spent to invest in the growth of the game? I am sure that even today the board and management see themselves as successfully meeting RA's charter as "keepers of the code" of the game of rugby in Australia, from grass roots to the elite level. Any shortcomings are due to other people like Marinos, Cheika and Rennie. Or the incompetent SR management, or community clubs wasting money. To avoid the catastrophe of 2003-2023 they intend to put $100m in the bank in trust, no doubt professionally managed. Some readers will have interesting tales to tell about what happens to rugby windfalls invested for the future. The RA strategy not to waste the profits this time is not to spend any of it. In 2003 there was no investment in building any infrastructure to accommodate the hoards of children that would be attracted to the game. Now I am talking about programs, administration and coaching across the entire country with a detailed strategy of getting children and parents from media observers to clubs, where they can be coached and play. Not Phil Waugh's idea of building a $30m academy in Sydney's west. Apart from being a dumb idea, I hate the politician's ploy of earning plaudits today for announcing that you are doing something which is spending a fortune of other people's money on a monument without any plan or cost benefit analysis. Won't be built before he and the board are gone, and nobody will remember who did it when it fails completely in 2033. There is no plan in pace and there won't be. Observe the strategies and actions for the post Olympic periods 2016 and 2021. We will continue to chase the riches to be found in the non Rugby community. 2003 found the other football codes struggling from both a management and marketing perspective. We were going to be the leading winter sport and figured the best way to get there was attracting new viewers. Rugby is complex, both its laws and its culture. People at rugby games tend to have played the game, or know somebody that did. RA continues to not understand the market segment and interest continues to drop off. Non-contact is coming over the hill very very fast. I have not seen a greater opportunity for rugby than TriTag, a game invented by Mark Gasnier. I am astounded if there is a bigger no brainer opportunity for rugby, but there is little appetite to try anything different, anywhere. I only mention that because he continues to be surprised in his travels, mainly in the regions, at the depth of support for the game. I will presume it is matched by the level of frustration. The game is not dead, its prospects are not dead. It is running out of time, especially if the Matildas go a long way.
JD Kiwi
Roar Rookie
Cheers Prof and an excellent analysis. So sad that the big spenders won and that they blew it all in a tiled roof while they allowed the foundation to crumble. Tragic indeed.
JD Kiwi
Roar Rookie
Thank you BB for that valuable contribution. I'll write more about this (& namecheck you) in a future article but the clear message is that rugby nations fulfill their potential when everyone is pulling in the right direction for the national interest. Australian rugby is too small to afford people who are only interested in their own little patch. The idea that the children of wealthy Aussies getting are turned off the game for life because they aren't getting a fair chance to play for their school just beggars belief, as does the deprioritisation and demise of the Waratah Shield. You're absolutely right, the domestic game needs to be controlled centrally for the good of the game. Hard to do of course when powerful foxes control the henhouse.
JD Kiwi
Roar Rookie
That's a sad post mate. The way I see it things aren't hopeless with the right leadership, but that certainly isn't Hamish. Not quite true that they always had no money though. JON had a massive war chest that he blew like a foolish lottery winner. Building the unsustainable while spending less on keeping the house maintained. As you say totally hollow and counterproductive after the ARU had it so right. I don't know much about economists, but politicians seem to fail up by ignoring their morals to support their bosses and appeal to the worst instincts of their tribal voters. You've carried the baton well, best of luck in your next endeavours and don't be a stranger!
JD Kiwi
Roar Rookie
I've not noticed Ken! Why do they put these things on in the middle of the night? :laughing:
Prof_Kaos
Roar Rookie
Great article. You prob know all this but for those who dont... The fall of RA is like a Greek Tragedy. I cant believe what RA has "achieved" in only 20yrs. From the record biggest test crowd at Bledisloe, Homebush 2000, 108k to me, at the last minute, getting a ticket to Aus v France 2021 Brisbane for $35.00(legitimately), reflecting low public interest. I blame the board generally, sacking coaches has made no difference. And John O'Neill specifically who frittered away RA's huge war chest of $50mil, [enough for 7-8 Folau payouts], after RWC 2003. There was a fight in the board, live off the interest + general income or spend up large, sadly spend up large won. Once gone to balance this there was a change in focus for $, from grass roots clubs to the elite at the top of the pyramid. This worked briefly until they needed the grass roots to replace retiring players. A shortage of capable players gave some rock star attitudes like the young James O'Connor, with this pandered to team culture & RA cash took a hit. But results continued to drop off, public interest dropped off so income dropped off. Then while running out of cash & leaning on SANZAR/SANZAAR for more they get Folau-gate & a rumoured $5-8mil debt plus the loss of long term sponsor & socially inclusive QANTAS. All the while losing more public support over this & more bad results. RA was left open to being plundered by the NRL + AFL who started fighting over rugby's carcass. Tragic.
Kenners
Roar Rookie
If you're watching the Ashes at the moment, all the Aussie supporters (outside those tour groups) are wearing Wallabies jerseys; if wearing anything to signify that they're Aussie supporters. I've seen about half a dozen of them at the Oval.
BeastieBoy
Roar Rookie
Out of that list above, I had Brian Palmer, David Brockoff and Greg Smith. Plus of course many more. Interesting read having lived through the lows.. to resurgence and now the lows. I want to comment on what has happened to cause this, so hopefully we may correct it. In the leadup to our resurgence before, Rugby we run by the clubs in Sydney and Brisbane in practical terms. Now, we have had the same power clique in charge for 25 plus years. They cant be voted out by the general rugby community. They have run us into the ground and we need to make them accountable. They want to sell our game to private interests. They no longer contribute funds to the clubs. Instead we have exorbitant fees charged to our junior teams forcing kids and families away from the game. We once had a thriving Public School rugby competition, the Waratah Shield which was allowed to die. That added to the base of numbers coming through the system. Pathways were shrunk to favour the Private Schools. From that the Elite Private schools went to war and started buying up all the 12 year old League talent on Scholarships. Ok. But what happened then is that their A teams were full of scholarship boys and the fee paying kids and their families could not get a look in. So it turned them off and they put their kids in basketball, AFL, soccer etc. This shrunk the number of teams in the Private schools as well. So really many of this Private schools are no longer “Rugby” schools as more kids are playing the other sports. What this does is that these kids when they graduate and become captains of Industry, will no longer be Rugby Alumni that sponsor Teams or support the code. Additionally, as the professional era progressed with Professional Coaches they worked out how to game the system. In the northern hemisphere that resulted in slowing the game down allowing even bigger Men to play the game and to structure their plays around Penalties from set plays and goal kicking. As a Result the game is boring to Play and to Watch. That is why it is DYING in Australia. Solutions Setup an Australian Domestic Rugby Union to control the game in Clubs and schools. Have it pay under radically improved rules to allow the game to flow and reduce stoppages so people of more normal size can thrive who are skilled. I dont know if it possible to bring the schools back. So much damage has been done. But we need to try.
sheek
Roar Guru
JD Kiwi, I am struggling with this. I can provide historical background from the beginning as to how Australian rugby fell behind at the start in the late 1890s & failed to bridge the gap in the ensuing 125 years or so. In 1995 Australia had 3 provinces – NSW Waratahs, Qld Reds & ACT Kookaburras. The major difference in 1996 is that the Kookaburras were rebranded as the Brumbies & attracted quality players from outside the ACT. They were joined by WA Force in 2006 & Victoria Rebels in 2011. So Oz rugby managed to develop the provincial standard base of players, triple it in fact during the formative pro years. And yet our standard of quality at the very top slipped alarmingly. So there are plenty of examples of how Oz rugby slipped over the past 20 years, but the ‘why’ remains elusive. One imperative has remained the same. As the game evolved, Oz rugby has always played catch-up. As soon as it thought it had reached the point of parity, the goalposts shifted & it had to chase again, & so on it goes, always chasing. You would have thought getting to 5 provinces was a mighty achievement, & it was. But lo & behold it was a ‘hollow man’. Dig beneath the surface & there was little there, no depth of quality. Oz rugby has never had money. In the amateur era it didn’t matter so much. But in the pro era it matters a lot. For all the players Oz has produced in the pro era, many of those who can’t see themselves making the Wallabies, or are discarded, head offshore to seek their fortune. Oz rugby has never been able to afford to lose these players, or indeed afford to keep them. But it would be essential they remain to provide substance to the provincial program & present an effective bulwark against the AFL & NRL. But it hasn’t, & won’t, happen. I have often made the point that if rugby union & rugby league ever merged, union would be the game played in Oz but all the national icons, ie, the national clubs, would be league. Fancy that, leading Wallaby contenders coming from Sydney, South Sydney, Penrith, Parramatta, Manly, Melbourne, North Queensland &/or Brisbane, etc. How ironic would that be? But that highlights the dilemma of Oz rugby. Randwick & Brothers, along with Sydney University & University of Queensland, might be the dominant historical clubs in Sydney & Brisbane club rugby, but their footprint is next to meaningless outside of their own sport. Many of the problems of Oz rugby today are historical structural – the failure to develop a footprint outside of NSW & Qld; leading to the failure to develop a Sheffield Shield like national provincial comp & providing Wallaby candidates with the same intense local competition as was found in NZ (NPC) & SA (Currie Cup). But many our problems are also recent – failing to increase the overall player participation numbers as well as the quality players at the top; failing to provide a clear domestic structural pathway from grassroots to Wallabies; failing to reconcile the twin problems of aspiring pro players & social amateur players. District premier club rugby is caught dead centre of this divide, trying to cater equally to players seeking a pro career & those happy to play with their mates. How do you solve this satisfactorily? I don’t know anymore & perhaps sadly I don’t care. I have fond memories of Oz rugby (& other sports) to sustain me from the late 1960s to the late 2010s. I have 50 years of wonderful memories. The problems of the 2020s & beyond belong to the current generations. They’re no longer my problem. I know this doesn’t provide you with any satisfactory answers, but I’m moving onto other non-sport projects. I now want to learn more about economics & politics, & how bankers & economists & politicians can get paid so much money for getting so many of their predictions so wrong. I would love a job where I can get paid huge money for being wrong so often!
JD Kiwi
Roar Rookie
Looking forward to it!
sheek
Roar Guru
JD Kiwi, Great article. I need to think a bit about a decent response!