How to rebuild Australian rugby's depth - without breaking the bank

Nice article Phil. I like a SR reserve grade style comp. Make it domestic to save money. The winner can play the winner of the NPC? I like the idea of competing for August on the calendar however i worry about the disinterest fans may have when there's test rugby on simultaneously AND it would be a step down in quality from SR....fans may find that step down hard to stay interested in. That said, it's too hard to do this comp as a pre-cursor in summer. I don't have any interest in club rugby but perhaps an FA cup style domestic club comp? Each comp stays as is but the top 2 from each competition qualify for this FA cup? To entice fans to attend SR there needs to be a warm up game like in the old days when reserve grade was on before the main game...its good to see the up and coming young players.

@LuckyPhil Yes good luck. I predict you'll get exactly the same response from RA as me - silence :laughing:

I think repaying them the 8m we took last year is much cheaper than the cost to meet the commitment out to 2030. If that’s what it takes. We should do it.

How about buying a lotto ticket?

G’day Phil. I think the number of players you add is on the short side. 75-100 given your range and you will add ten teams. Tahs are quite good at advising who is playing club each week. Generally they’ve got less than 10 available due to injuries. I much prefer exiting Super, adding three teams (105 players for three squads) and then running a local comp. Even better, let the high earners go off shore, still have them play for the Wallabies and we’ll have the funds for the 100-200 players needed to build our own comp.

100% correct. In setting up that first NRC they ignored one of Rugby’s greatest strengths… it’s tribalism.

@Lucky Phil Ok please tell us how you get on with that Phil :laughing:

This is basically what the original ARC/NRC was meant to do, but it included the other Super Rugby states and ACT, which should be a given. It would be a backward step to just focus on NSW and Qld again. From memory, I think that Perth Spirit won the last or second last iterations of the NRC. There were 8 teams initially in the ARC, which only lasted a year, but IMO it was prematurely cut short, when some realignment of the 3 NSW teams and possibly the 2 Brisbane teams as well, could have made it a viable competition. It was doomed to fail the way it was set up. For example, in respect of the NSW teams, there was the Central Coast Rays based in Gosford, supposedly representing the Northern Sydney Shute Shield clubs; the Sydney Fleet based in North Sydney, representing the Southern Sydney Clubs and the only one they got right was the Western Sydney Rams based in Parramatta representing the Western Sydney clubs, which also included Penrith at the time. It's no wonder that there was minimal tribal following, although there was one game I attended at a packed out North Sydney Oval between the Sydney Fleet and the Western Sydney Rams. That demonstrated how successful the competition could have been if the Sydney teams had been properly aligned with their respective Shute Shield clubs which would engender a greater tribal following. The later NRC was even worse, with Sydney and NSW Country teams made up exclusively of city based players, with no meaningful connection to Shute Shield clubs, let alone country clubs. Most, if not all of country talent is now recruited by the NSW Academy and Shute Shield clubs and I suspect the same thing happens in Qld. It is still not too late to reinstate the ARC/NRC concept at the conclusion of the Premier Rugby competitions, but with more logical alignment with the respective Premier clubs in Sydney and Brisbane to foster a tribal following. Those players selected in the Wallaby squad would be excluded and that would create more opportunities for talented club players coming through the ranks to show their wares. I would add one further proviso, that there should be a meaningful break between the respective grand finals and the start of the ARC/NRC competition to allow for those players selected from the grand final teams to train with their respective ARC/NRC teams. We've had the ridiculous situation in the past where the NRC started a week after the last grand final, when selected players from the respective finals' series had no training with their NRC teams, which placed them at a disadvantage. There should be a 2/3 week break at a minimum and the competition including finals, assuming 8 teams, could still finish by mid-November. As I have suggested previously, the ARC/NRC should initially start with 8 teams identified with their regions as follows- - Northern Brisbane - Southern Brisbane - Northern Sydney - Southern Sydney - Western Sydney - Canberra - Melbourne - Perth I have also previously suggested that if the current Super Rugby format doesn't continue, then the above ARC/NRC format should be the basis of a fully professional domestic competition, played home and away over the same time-frame as Super Rugby, i.e. 16 weeks including finals, from March to June, before the inbound July international tours. Those players not selected in the Wallaby squad would then return to their respective Premier clubs as they do now.

I have yet to hear/read anything to do dissuade me from feeling that the quickest way forward is for Queensland and the Brumbies to stop their recalcitrance and sign up to the centralised programme.

Sack Hamish

Hey Lucky Phill! Love it! more people playing and more games played with a feeder path! Yes, I wonder though how many Premier Rugby GM's will reach out to their RA mates to white ant it! The academy and SR seconds are likely to be owners of the box of chocolates at the end of the season. Another good idea is to recruit contracted players from the U16 Nationals for like 30K/pa and once out of school, move them into Premier Colts teams until they can make it to the academies. One Suilai fee per year could run 30-60 u16's for 2 years. A good use of investment money!

In principle a very, very good idea. Details need to be worked thru. Nothing good is ever easy but we need to start somewhere. The SR franchises would need to see that is would put no extra load on the expense side of their budget. They are already running on very narrow margins.

My 2 cents would be to have a pathway between Hospital Cup and Shute Shield. It would consist of amalgamation of several teams in Brisbane (North's, GPS and West's in BNE form a team. UQ, South's, Sunnybank etc) and in Sydney (Randwick, East's etc) This retains local rivalry and passion for the local fan base. Leverage that to drive the community aspect of rugby. It extends the season and exposes up and coming players to a higher level. I know there is rivalry between clubs but structured right you can create another level. That brings bums on seats meaning more kids playing the sport

Absolutely. My ideal would be the amateur game administered by the senior unions, up to the level of NRC and funded by a guaranteed return from the professional game. And the professional (franchise/national) game controlled separately, managing solely the professional aspects of the game, under a more centralised model. Lots of details obviously, and not without challenges, but better than what we have now which seems to be the worst of both worlds.

It's not really too hot. It's not too late as Wallabies are playing and is when RWC matches occured in 2003 and will occur in 2027.