Roar Rookie
Joined April 2017
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One of the great furphies that is put around the Australian rugby scene, mainly by the ARU, is that Australia has a Player Depth…
I can accept that line for Hooper, but people really need to move on from Cooper being some messiah. If not convinced but prepared to take the time, go to Stan and watch the Player Cam dedicated to him against los Pumas. “Poor” and “toxic” are the two descriptors I have previously used. There is no sane Coach who would have kept him in once that was distilled.
He was addressing the players (the following match as I recall) after another poor showing.
While he may not be the answer, Gordon made an immediate impact in his first match, so the ball was there to be used.
I’m yet to read or hear for certain when Hooper would have been available, it would have been earlier than originally forecast to make Wales, but agreed he could well have been there as a “Coach” and justified his position.
Eddie Jones says he needs to 'give myself an uppercut' but '100 percent' committed to coaching Wallabies
They all feed in, but not all are hosting, such as North Harbour, BoP, Taranaki etc. They have aspirations beyond feeding into the existing Provinces.
'Is there any light on the horizon?' - what the Super Rugby franchises are up to in the off season
Of the 7 I think you’ll find several are a. departed ’23 Squad &/or b. previous allegiance &/or c. new ’24 Squad.
More is the reason to have a higher standard in the Australian scene to keep them playing locally.
'Is there any light on the horizon?' - what the Super Rugby franchises are up to in the off season
There were Provinces without SR teams in NZ that were showing interest, but regardless if that is the major “problem” you have then it doesn’t go that far, there is an easy 10-12 teams that can be raised or expanded from current structures.
'Is there any light on the horizon?' - what the Super Rugby franchises are up to in the off season
Came across this old post from 2017.
At the time, I wrote that there were- “a grand total of 104 professional Australian rugby players plying their trade in countries other than Australia.” I found that quite alarming given that- “pre-Force (ie 2004) I did a similar thing to get an idea of who we might see in the inaugural Squad and came up with about 30 names overseas”
I undertook the same process for Squads in the 2022/23 season and there are now +150 playing professionally overseas. I’m no mathematician but that is a concerning increasing trend in my view.
Australia does not have a player creation problem, it has a player retention problem.
We need to develop opportunities and create market value, the playing stocks are “there”.
There was a time that the IRB listed the playing numbers for each Nation and broke into Senior Male, Female, Junior etc. The last time I was able to see them (late 2010’s) Australia still had more “Senior Male Players” than New Zealand despite all the doomsdaying of a dying sport. I have no readily available source to check in 2023, but suspect while numbers would be falling, overall it isn’t “dying”.
The 'player depth' argument is a complete furphy
The NSW establishment a. don’t really want to be in SR, b. think that Shute Shield should be the domestic summit of Aus Rugby but, c. expect to be in any provincial format.
Personally I would group the Sydney and Brisbane teams into regional clusters as feeder clubs for each NRC entity. Canberra, Melbourne and Perth having first dibs on their own developed players through each local Club comp.
If the concept of NRC team allegiance is too difficult to grasp then let the Waratahs go back to Shute Shield (and Reds to Hospital Cup too if they want) after SR Pacific while the rest of the franchises embrace a relaunched Global Rapid Rugby tournament.
As a reminder, the GRR locations when cancelled for covid was-
Shanghai, China (Rotorua)
Suva, Fiji
Apia, Samoa
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Hong Kong
Perth
If you were to add-
Brisbane
Canberra
Melbourne
You would have a solid 9 team competition with further expansion potential into-
Adelaide
Gold Coast
Newcastle
New Zealand
Tonga
China
Japan
Regardless of whatever format it is, the next form the Australian Third Tier takes needs to be a pick and stick for at least a decade. You can’t complain about the lack of allegiance if you don’t allow that to build. Let’s face it, the single team towns (ie Perth, Melbourne & Canberra) aren’t having those issues, we just want something decent to watch and get behind.
'Is there any light on the horizon?' - what the Super Rugby franchises are up to in the off season
Cron 40 d Kiss 31
Set up to fail: The gaping hole in Aussie Super Rugby coaching CVs - with one clear exception