gatesy's Roar Profile

Cautiously optimistic and I would say, a good first step. Now need to get the schools integrated at both State and National level for a co-ordinated push to get all (or as many as possible) schools playing some form of Rugby.

'Bold step': NSW Rugby confirms RA alignment in bid to rid game of 'conflicts and self interest'

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Nov

It’s actually very simple – he’s lost the plot.

'Always knew it would get really ugly': RA chief's strange admission as World Cup budget blow out revealed

I’m guessing he will take the USA job.
Those blokes are coming from a long way behind. 2031 hosts who did not make this RWC. The MLR is a good comp but one of their problems is nationalism. They want to go on their own without foreign interference, which is why they got rid of the 2 Aussie owned teams in the MLR – Gigronis and Negronis.
They have, by now, realised that they need help if they are going to put on a good show in 2031.
I’m guessing EJ has been offered a bucket load to become the Eagles coach…and those blogs know how to write a watertight contract.
Hollywood and the big end of town will get behind this World Cup, so there is going to be some money to chuck around.

Rugby News: Eddie to reveal next step 'very shortly', Rassie resumes 2019 role, Wales legend joins Crusaders

Not sure which game you were watching but I did not see it that way.

Eddie's painful reminder of what might have been at World Cup as big name Wallabies star despite Baabaas defeat

Anyone know if it’s being televised?

'You don't go back': Deans distances himself from Wallabies return as he echoes Waugh's comments on Jones era

What makes you think that any issues will be resolved in the next 5 years?

Silly comment, repeating what you have been reading here the last week or so. Deans is highly regarded and highly paid in Japan and that is why he can make those comments. He is now an elder statesman of the game and entitled to his opinion. I thought his comments were fairly diplomatic. He does not need to come back to oz and he is not being asked to.
Roarers, get real!!

That’s my whole point. Not all kids play for a club -in case you hadn’t noticed a lot of them play other sports such as League or AFL or Soccer. This is a chance to scoop up a lot of them and you won’t necessarily feed all of them into clubs, but I would guess we could broaden the base.

I’m happy to put an organising committee together and ask the Roar to do one of their great surveys. If we can get an indication that there is sufficient interest we can put the petition and the submissions together. What does everyone think.

'I'm not a quitter': Under-siege RA chair won't follow Jones, blames 'broken system' for chaos

It seems to me that, rather than just ranting here on this venerable site, we should be getting organised and start sending petitions and lobbying our state representatives. Novel idea?

I saw a stat somewhere that said 50% of all Brumbies have represented the Wallabies – interesting.

Eddie Jones quits as Wallabies coach - 'Sometimes you have to eat s--t for others to eat caviar'

I hear that RA is still paying DR. Why not swallow a bucket load of pride and invite him back, with a remit to accept centralisation. I always remember that story of when Bob Dwyer came back to coach Australia, after being sacked and replaced by Alan Jones. Apparently, the first words to the players at the first training session were:- ..” … as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted..”.

Great comment, Steve, but my suggestion is not to get bogged down in the detail yet, but to for RA to get every stakeholder around the table for a think tank, get an issue paper (whitepaper) written promptly and then start putting in place the basic pyramid structure that is needed from the ground up.

I wasn’t suggesting that we dismantle the private school system. That would be seen as heresy to the system. This is just about creating a funnel for all schools to improve participation rates, talent identification and talent recognition, and by talent I don’t just mean players. It can extend to referees, coaches, enthusiastic parents who might become sponsors, etc

I’m not suggesting that the two are mutually exclusive. My plan, if possible, would see Rugby in schools as a mid-week event, then allow those new recruits to feed into the club system, on Saturdays and let the clubs do what they have always done best – that is tribalism and inclusiveness.

I recently wrote a paper on it, which I am privately circulating. In short, forget about NRC’s v state comps etc (until we sort out the basic issue), which is that we need to centralise by each state and Territory having an equal pyramid structure, leading upwards to state academies (the smaller states can merge with their nearest SR franchise, then funnelling up into a national structure the whole thing controlled by RA which appoints state union board and State Schools boards via a transparent recruitment process. Where votes are needed on the RA board, each state or territory, regardless of size to have an equal vote. ….. But the secret sauce is the ability for each states Schools organisation to get Rugby programs into all high schools and mini-Rugby programs into primary schools, with a uniform national program of state 15’s and 7’s championships, funnelling into Nationals. Schools to play on a weekday, leaving the clubs to recruit the kids for the Saturdays. Boys and girls treated equally.

As the Irish describe it “one team, one family”. If you broaden the base, substantially, a whole lot of our current problems begin to disappear. More referees at a younger age, more players, more informed spectators, more parents getting involved with clubs, and importantly, more sponsors, and greater economies of scale, and even more broadcast revenue. There are a myriad of little things wrong around the periphery, but this is the first one to attack. If the end result is that it strengthens SR substantially, then we can look at ways of dovetailing 2nd tier comps into the framework, and look at questions of player retention etc, and get rid of the Giteau law.

QRU’s centralisation poison - denial and delusion that fails the pub test

If the Wallabies coach is allowed to block players from playing at Club or Super level, the players will end up playing even less games than they do now. It probably can’t happen, but if we could interlace club Rugby with Super, so that players are simultaneously playing in 2 comps as they do in Europe, that might go some way to developing players and give them more outings.

REPORT: Eddie Jones to quit Wallabies and join Japan as head coach

Nothing to see here.

'Caesar is not going to be unkind to Caesar': Ex-ARU coaching director's report for RA - and what's needed to fix game

Good article and I would love to chat with you about it.

I wrote a long paper on it, but I decided not to send it to RA, because who can you trust?

Don’t forget we have already tried it with ARC and later NRC but the doomsayers and the vested interests always shut them down. If the original ARC was allowed to progress it would be somewhere around its 20th season around about now. But Aussies love the short term view, of if you do what you have always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got and, voila!…look where we are currently. Getting got!

Your system is good, but needs to work off the back of how players are fed into it.

My view is that we need to get it into all schools, to be played mid-week and then encourage those newcomers to play for their local club on Saturdays and let the clubs do what they do best, foster the grassroots and make Rugby fun and tribal.

If we got an extra 1,000 kids in most states each year, feeding into the club system, that is a great start.

Completely uniform system across every state, no exceptions, each State having an Academy, then at that point, some mergers, with Tas, SA and NT feeding into the five SR academies (Tas with Rebels and NT and SA with WA).

At that point, it gets serious and we create massive competition.

The NRC is then there to find the talent coming out of Clubland. A uniform pathway.

Then we centralise and fix our coaching system and we centralise and have a national Props Academy.

That’s me done, what happens upstairs is out of my league, but we need to centralise everything and eliminate vested interests, wherever they are.

This system is an adjunct to the clubs’ existence and does not get in its way.

More to come.

Shrinking Super Rugby isn't the solution to Australian rugby's problems, expanding the game below it is

Sep

Beats not making it!

SPIRO ZAVOS: Eddie Jones' coaching flaw is his belief that rugby is the same game as league

Here’s a thought out of left field – my glass is still half full – what about, just what about, if Fiji had made the Australia game their mountain that they had to climb, peaked there and have slacked off since? It’s not out of the realms of possibility.

You get two years to prepare for your first game, or first hard game. Over that two year period The Wallabies have been in front of Wales in the rankings. It is just possible that they got up for the Wallabies and not Wales for a reason.

Portugal have improved out of sight, this tournament and maybe an eight point win is doable. Bonus points are not a thing for the Portuguese, but they are for Fiji.

Who wants to jump on the “glass half full” bandwagon with me?

I’ve said it before and will keep saying it. If the ARC (precursor to the NRC) had been left to run it would be nearly 20 years old, now, and a well-established pathway, but it would have still taken time, and Australian Rugby has this view that you should do what you’ve always done…but the obvious segue to that is that if you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got. Too many people living in the past, remembering and yearning for the glory days, while failing to notice that the rest of the world has moved on. Too many using the excuse that we suffer because of League and AFL and soccer. Well, boo-hoo to them. Most people in sales will tell you that there is no thing as a saturated market, you just have to be better than the competition, first to market, more innovative, more energetic, whatever it takes.

I have written a paper on what we can do to fix the problems and get the wheels back on, but, to be honest, I don’t know who I want to send it to, or who you could trust to take it seriously.

'Semi pro sport at best': Ex-Ireland HP manager's scathing critique of Aussie rugby, and dire warning for its future

What is your point?

Eddie Jones must act more like Gordon Bombay in The Mighty Ducks if he's to save Australian rugby

Arrogance to think you can start planning the next World Cup cycle when you are still in the old one.Planning for the next cycle should start the day AFTER the Finals, not before it. RWC should be the pinnacle of the last 4 years and reward those who are good enough and who have put the work in. Arrogance!! Embarrassing! Goat!!

'I watched the whole game, mate. Incredibly depressing': How the Wallabies moved on from their horror night in Lyon

If Eddie survives this he is truly the Messiah and not just a very naughty boy!

The Wrap: With Wallabies done and dusted in 15 miserable days, who do we trust to take Australian rugby forward?

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