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Rugby in Australia is broken right now. I think we can all agree on that. Be that as it may, the way forward is not to shrink the empire, wall the borders and wait for the inevitable end of days. If rugby in Australia wants to win, it has to be bold, and think of expansion.
There are many problems in Australian rugby (even outside of HQ). The biggest issues are that there is an enormous disconnect between the club and professional game, there aren’t enough slots for youth (so we lose them to other sports) and there isn’t enough money, because we’ve never focused on building a fit-for-TV model for our domestic competition.
So, I think we need an NPC model. This article aims to outline what I believe the aims of that competition should be (the why), and the general structure of the competition (the how).
The primary aims for this model are to:
1. Bring a connection to the current club rugby scene,
2. Create a pathway between club rugby, NPC, and Super Rugby
3. Create more games, between more professional players in Australia
4. Create extra professional rugby pathways for our youth
5. Bring the game to a wider TV audience
All of these things are actually relatively achievable, with planning and foresight. It would be tough, but so is watching the Wallabies right now.
So, to the big idea…
My basic outline is that NPC clubs are essentially the rep sides for groups of clubs on top of the current club competitions, based on their geographic region – e.g., Uni and Wests, Souths and Sunnybank, Randwick and Randwick (they wouldn’t like playing with anyone else), etc.
This way, we’ve got pathways for development. Not only relationships with clubs, but we have their infrastructure and grounds at no extra cost to the clubs, and we can create that relationship that’s been missing between the current clubs and the proposed NPC-level. In addition to providing a rep-side that isn’t as far away as the Super Rugby sides, an NPC side would bring extra games to local grounds, with home games to be split – bringing more revenue to the canteen / bar and a tribal loyalty at NPC level.
Additionally, this would increase the competition at club level between those paired clubs, as everyone would be playing against their direct competitors for a slot in the higher side.
The nature of the rep games would also provide ample opportunities for those great club players, who were overlooked during junior pathways, a way to showcase their skills with the Super Rugby coaches watching on. This level would also serve as a bridge of levels between the quality of the club comp, and the enormous step up to Super Rugby.
While it’s true that many people are suggesting Australia needs to condense its player pool, I firmly believe that we need to do the opposite and grow the number of teams, games, and players.
While we’d need to start with fewer, I would propose we need four Queensland teams, five NSW/ACT Teams, two Victorian teams, and two Western Australian teams. That gives you 13 teams.
I wouldn’t start with a full home-and-away schedule of 24 rounds. I’d play probably 16 rounds, which means you play everyone once, and everyone in your conference twice (except NSW) to keep travel costs down. That gives you 96 games a season of rugby. Now, you package that up for TV, so you’ve got a Friday night game, three Saturday games, and one Sunday game, all in the right timezone! Suddenly, TV networks can plan their advertising.
If we could even sell each game for $500K (TV rights) that means that you’ve got nearly a $48M influx into pro rugby annually in Australia. That works out at $3.7M per side – so, assuming that we’re adding an extra 20 semi-pro players at say $120K a year average (the rest being already contracted players), that’s roughly $2.4M spent before admin and travel costs.
At the bottom end, I think that each team would need to generate 3-4M in revenue and sponsorships to break even. This is one of the reasons that I’d specifically design the comp to take advantage of existing infrastructure and supporter bases. If each side had an extra eight home games, it’s very doable. It’d be tough, but with the right approach, it could work financially.
Assuming that all of this worked, imagine the benefits from a player and coaching pool perspective. More junior talent coming out of rugby would be able to stay in rugby. A $150K salary wouldn’t compete with league, but it would get players into the pathways, and only keeps them for half of the year. The rest of the year, send them off to play in Japan, US, Europe – anywhere that they can get a game, and continue developing. Likewise for the coaching staff.
Finally, with teams in most states, and a predictable TV schedule that can become part of the public’s weekend habit, we could finally have a chance to grow rugby to a wider audience in Australia.
Over time, we could actually grow the game, grow the audience, grow the player pool and improve the state of the game in Australia.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.