Neither fan base will like hearing this but the Wallabies have become the Wests Tigers. And the Tigers are the NRL’s version of the Wallabies.
Both once-proud sporting institutions have gone backwards at a rapid rate of knots over the best/worst part of two decades to hurtle toward that purgatorial place no sporting team wants to occupy – irrelevancy.
The Tigers and Wallabies have each thrown fistfulls of dollars towards fixing their respective problems, had their chairman deny the ship was sinking despite all evidence to the contrary and brought back the coach from a more successful bygone era with dire consequences.
And now Benji Marshall and whichever poor sod who gets the Wallabies’ coaching hot seat have the responsibility of trying to repair the mess left behind by Tim Sheens and Eddie Jones respectively.
While the Tigers try to mount a united front despite the ongoing conflict between their Magpies and Balmain sides of the joint venture, the Wallabies have also been severely hampered by various agendas of factions within Australian rugby working against each other in the sport’s desperate attempt for centralisation.
(Photo by Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images)
And the immediate future looks bleak for both.
From a rugby league perspective, the sudden demise of the Wallabies at the World Cup has been celebrated by the diehards who are never going to want their bitter rivals to succeed.
For the vast majority of league followers who don’t particularly care if rugby is in a solid state, the sad thing for the Wallabies is that they are now not even on their radar.
When Jones was first in charge of the Wallabies two decades ago, the perception was that the lure of joining their golden generation was a real threat to rugby league.
Eddie Jones. (Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images)
Fear and paranoia swept through NRL headquarters at regular intervals when the likes of Mat Rogers, Wendell Sailor and Lote Tuqiri jumped ship to the 15-player code to play alongside household names like John Eales, George Gregan and Stephen Larkham.
But now even the loss of one of rugby league’s brightest young prospects, Roosters rising star Joseph Suaalii, is not even considered a body blow.
Whether his ageing Roosters teammate Angus Crichton crosses codes after the recent reports of inflated offers and dramas at the negotiating table is barely even a blip on the NRL radar.
Rugby would naturally much prefer to be seen as a strong rival to league but alas for them, they have now plummeted in Australia to such a depth that they are being seen by league types with pity, a fate that only George Costanza craves.
This is supposed to be rugby’s time to claw back lost ground to league in Australia – there’s a lucrative British & Irish Lions tour plus a men’s and women’s World Cup and the associated financial windfalls giving Rugby Australia a golden chance to return to centrestage in the national sporting consciousness.
Benji Marshall. (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)
If they don’t capitalise on this opportunity, the future looks bleak for rugby in the crowded Australian sporting market. The Lions won’t be back for another 12 years and it will probably be a lot longer before the World Cup returns.
It’s not quite time for Kent Brockman-endorsed panic among rugby fans to crack each other’s heads open and feast on the goo inside but that can’t be ruled out down the track.
For the Tigers, they are facing a similarly long road to clawing back to respectability after the latest round of boardroom backstabbing in the wake of an independent review into the club’s entire operations on the back of a second straight wooden spoon.
After a 12-year absence from the finals, the worst active streak in the NRL by nearly double (only saved by the Bulldogs’ seven-year itch), the Balmain-Wests joint venture has managed to churn through coaches, players and plenty of money without presenting anything resembling a viable long-term plan.
There’s only so many times the club’s supporters can lie back and think of the 2005 glory days when the team went all the way in one of the three times they’ve made the playoffs since the shotgun marriage at the turn of the century.
Marshall was supposed to serve a two-year apprenticeship as an assistant before taking over the reins and that didn’t even last a season before he was shuffled into the head role three rounds out before the team’s second wooden spoon campaign ended.
And he enters his first full season in 2024 with largely the same roster around yet another new halves combination.
Veteran playmaker Aidan Sezer is returning to the NRL from a Super League stint to partner Dragons recruit Jayden Sullivan or ex-Manly young gun Latu Fainu while experienced five-eighth Adam Doueihi is unlikely to be sighted until the second half of the year following his latest major knee surgery.
It will take Marshall time to work out which combination suits his side the best and it will take a while on top of that before those two playmakers strike up a partnership.
There is no quick fix at the Tigers, just like at the Wallabies.
The goal for the Wallabies needs to be getting back to a stage where they are legitimate contenders for the 2027 World Cup – a repeat of the France debacle where they didn’t even make the quarter-finals will be doubly disastrous.
Forturnes can change a lot quicker for clubs in the NRL but if the Wests Tigers can firstly break their playoff drought and then become title contenders by then, that would also be a remarkable achievement.
Until such times, the Wallabies and Wests Tigers fan bases are unfortunate kindred spirits.
Brett Allen
Roar Rookie
Hey, facts don’t care about your feelings
TJ-Go Force!
Roar Rookie
Grow up
TJ-Go Force!
Roar Rookie
Did you watch the series when Australia beat France 2-1?
TJ-Go Force!
Roar Rookie
Mate it is global because unlike league where every team is made of aussie expats, teams actually have people who are born in the countries they represent.
red_in_london
Roar Rookie
Yes, I do realise the change - saw Leali'ifano play for Samoa - and it's no surprise to see RU again borrowing from RL. Like the line drop out and the 40/20 - league innovates while rugby procrastinates. The point I was trying to make (perhaps not very well!) was that saying that rugby is a global sport compared to league, is really just comparing two shades of brown. Hardly a global affair when NZ and SA share 7 of the 10 RWCs ever competed for, and strong countries like Ireland have never made the semi-finals. In terms of competitiveness for major titles come the last 4, union is about as predictable as league! And comparing either against football/soccer is, to quote the great John Newcombe, like comparing the Grand Canyon to a crack in the wall! :stoked:
The Sporacle
Roar Rookie
Sorry I took stadium Australia's figures as the actual numbers. 35 plus round 2 in Melbourne Apologies :thumbup:
TJ-Go Force!
Roar Rookie
10 games of rugby for the whole year? Of all 5 sides that play a minimum of 7 home games?
Brett Allen
Roar Rookie
I largely agree with you. It may be that Australian rugby positions itself as the Brazil of world rugby. Focuses on youth development, then sells those players to European clubs for juicy transfer fees whilst retaining their Wallaby eligibility. It sure if RA can completely divorce itself from NZR. There’s a solid argument to he made that both countries will only ever be as strong as a united front. It’s obviously not without precedent. Would Ireland be as strong without the URC ?
jeznez
Roar Guru
G'day Brett, this is where RA need to wake up and let the fact the code is so much bigger overseas work for us instead of against us. Right now RA is running up debt trying to match the salaries that the overseas comps can offer. They are failing to keep the best and going broke doing it. Instead we need to exit Super, expand the number of teams locally and spend more on players at the start of their careers. Don't spend an average of 550K on the top 50 players in the country and a further average of 250K on the next 125 players. Instead spend an average of 80-150k on 350 players, run a 10 team local comp. Push that figure as high as we can while living with our means. Let our best go offshore and still select them for the Wallabies. This is where the game being big offshore can work for us. We should be celebrating Rory Arnold earning 1.5m a year, rather than wringing our hands that we can't get him back. Certainly don't spend 1.6m a year to recruit an outside back from the NRL. Spend money on the young talent/late bloomers, the developing professionals. Then let the richer tournaments overseas pay the top players what they are worth. Invest in the amateur comps, connect the pathways. Make sure players can see how they progress from park to pro footy.
Brett Allen
Roar Rookie
But Australian Rugby will still suck.
Brett Allen
Roar Rookie
Yes but how many kids are ever going to play for the Wallaby’s ? How many players get an RA contract, where the real money is ? 35-40, maybe. The NRL provides a clear pathway from junior footy to the NRL. It provides professional coaching, increasingly a fully paid for private school education & there are over 500 full time contracts available with a minimum salary of 125k, plus another 100 or so full time development contracts, hundreds of part time contracts at semi pro level and you can play professionally in England and still earn more than the average professional Australian rugby player. And if you are elite you can earn another 150-200k a year in rep footy payments. And our guys play anywhere between 25-40 games a year. They are higher profile here, they make more in endorsements, even post career opportunities are exploding for NRL players. So yeah, for six weeks every four years your guys get to flounder on the world stage, meanwhile our guys play to passionate fan bases 35 weeks a year, every year. If I’m a 14 yo faced with the choice between an NRL career or a long shot at playing for the wood duck Wallaby’s, armed with all knowledge, I know what my choice would be.
Panthers
Roar Rookie
Then there’s the getting sent to the bin , for being too small . After not being able to hold a scrum up with several attempts . Plus a possible try against your team , for that same reason. All exciting stuff.
The Sporacle
Roar Rookie
I think based in Oz there was 10 super rugby games played for the season. That was based on Stadium Australia's figures.
TJ-Go Force!
Roar Rookie
10 games?
TJ-Go Force!
Roar Rookie
You realise they’ve changed the eligibility laws so that players can return and play for their parents or own birth country after a 3 year stand down? That’s why Samoa and Tonga were far more competitive at this World Cup and will continue to get better as more players move overseas and play abroad. Richie Mo’unga is a great example. He’ll likely represent Tonga at next World Cup as will Leicester Fainga’aunuku. There will be loads more cross-over strengthening the regions. They’re also improving the pacific nations championship and introducing a tier 2 nations championship, so these ‘minnow’ nations will actually play more tests than ever before.
Dionysus
Roar Rookie
As I have said many times so much so that it has probably become boring but .... Rugby should be working with the NRL recognising their similarities whilst celebrating their differences. The NRL could help Rugby enormously whilst a pair of strong Rugby Codes can only be beneficial for each.
Dionysus
Roar Rookie
"From a rugby league perspective, the sudden demise of the Wallabies at the World Cup has been celebrated by the diehards who are never going to want their bitter rivals to succeed" Only from a Rugby perspective has any element of that ever been true. I am a diehard who is a fan of both games but with a very strong preference for League. I do not want to see the demise of either code (AFL is different matter) despite the historic malevolence against my preferred code. Lets cut the BS here and recognise that League fans though possibly indifferent, hold no malice towards Rugby.
Panthers
Roar Rookie
So you were expecting a gloomy , boring , slow , snoozefest ? Then you weren’t disappointed at all? :thumbup:
Brett Allen
Roar Rookie
Can’t wait for the government on behalf of the legal system to wrap us up in cotton wool for the entirety of our lives.
Brett Allen
Roar Rookie
I watched my nephew play a game for his school up here, and honestly, apart from a few rucks and line outs I honestly couldn’t see the difference between it and a game of high school rugby league