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Joined December 2018
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There’s nothing wrong with international per se Andy. But basing your whole sporting landscape on development for the national side is misguided. Would you disband the A League & the BBL?
Scrap the Giteau Law: Rugby Australia should look to Rassie's 'Boks RWC recipe if it wants to re-join the big boys' table
That didn’t stop CA from establishing a T20 franchise league (BBL) in the height of summer and clashing with the bulk of the home test calendar!
They even put the Sheffield Shield on hiatus for two months now to accommodate the BBL! 😱 In your preferred world CA would never have made that move because they “should” prioritise development for the national teams (Sheffield Shield, Marsh Cup etc).
Scrap the Giteau Law: Rugby Australia should look to Rassie's 'Boks RWC recipe if it wants to re-join the big boys' table
Your second tier is already heavily compromised for 10-20 years and falls behind AFL, NRL, & A League relentlessly.
Scrap the Giteau Law: Rugby Australia should look to Rassie's 'Boks RWC recipe if it wants to re-join the big boys' table
No, the point is an amateur sport that had/has it’s primary focus on tests sees the current malaise of the sport. The professional tier: SR, is effectively boring and uninteresting for several reasons we’ve already discussed.
Scrap the Giteau Law: Rugby Australia should look to Rassie's 'Boks RWC recipe if it wants to re-join the big boys' table
Ligue 1 has FOUR CL spots??! 😱
Stade Brestois 29: Why they are the story of the top five leagues this season
Yet NZR is putting player development for the national team ahead of everything…to their own detriment.
They’ve created an unsustainable inflationary pressure on themselves where they’re paying way too much money to the professional players, and vastly too much for the semi-professional players, for what their income/revenue actually is, all based on a self-restricting philosophy of an archaic amateur era mandate of not allowing selection for the national team for players who seek professional opportunities outside NZ.
NZR seeks outside financial assistance now to prop them up, and also are currently looking to reform their whole semi-professional NPC structure.
COMMENT: Australian rugby is a depressing picture - the RA board must be axed and the constitution changed
Great points. The only thing I can think of is NSW talent is stretched out to provide playing talent for multiple franchises in the professional era? The amateur era was more akin to a genuine representative “state of origin” style format from what I assume. I could only assume that NSW playing talent has made it’s way to Reds, Brumbies, Force & Rebels over the past 20+ years, thus weakening their own ability to challenge. I guess this also applies to Qld & the Reds as well to some extent.
Even more baffling is how the Brumbies (and others) didn’t rate Mack Hansen, and now he ends up representing Ireland in a golden era for them! 😱
Did Mack Hansen improve out of sight when he moved to Ireland, or are talent scouts and coaches biased against certain types of players? (Or maybe some combination of the two?)
COMMENT: Australian rugby is a depressing picture - the RA board must be axed and the constitution changed
That’s a great point Andy, but the facts are you didn’t allow that to organically develop, what with Union being a weird parochial amateur sport. Rugby league literally got it’s big break through this parochialism in Sydney, and rapidly took over through the working-class masses.
Now if that didn’t happen Andy? Australia probably would’ve been barred from international level for breaching the amateur rules. Yet (ironically) they would’ve led the way for the sport in general. The sport is still suffering through it’s bizarre very late adoption of professionalism (mid 90’s!), and (as much as you are going to hate me for saying it) SR/SRP is a product of an amateur sport trying to be professional, and failing.
COMMENT: Australian rugby is a depressing picture - the RA board must be axed and the constitution changed
I disagree Andy. The MAJOR issue is a boring unbalanced comp: a development war league with NZ where Australian players are spread across five franchises to play five NZ development franchises in their national sport (and SAF’s biggest sport amongst their white minority).
And yes, RA were daft to bring in Force & Rebels into such a comp unfit for purpose, where the development squad SR scenario and the niche nature of the sport in Australia meant it was only ever appropriate to have three franchises: Qld Reds, NSW Waratahs, ACT Brumbies, in such a comp. But that was RA’s fault for not reading the writing on the wall and developing a plan to exit SR in the 2000’s and establish an Australian league.
The same reason why SR is daft is the same reason why kiwis (JD Kiwi, Jacko etc etc etc) NEVER demand to merge the Sheffield Shield with the Plunket Shield: because it’s inappropriate and unsustainable!
COMMENT: Australian rugby is a depressing picture - the RA board must be axed and the constitution changed
Phoenix are doing great but are also casualties of playing in a weird oval shaped multi-use stadium with an apparent lack of shelter. Hence why they need to develop their own stadium.
How can the APL convince casual fans the A-League Men is worth supporting?
They need their own specific stadiums. Perth Oval was great, now it’s just a soulless multi-use rectangular stadium. Adelaide’s stadium is great because it’s just for them. It would be great for Brisbane & Sydney teams too because it needs to be a Winter league, and the rugby codes using the same grounds creates turf issues and scheduling issues, something that can be avoided in future.
How can the APL convince casual fans the A-League Men is worth supporting?
Rookie players NEVER win the Brownlow Medal, Dally M Medal etc Andy. Why? Because they’re not fully developed/matured professional players. A properly run professional league develops professional players, not the tiers below!
COMMENT: Australian rugby is a depressing picture - the RA board must be axed and the constitution changed
NZ has NOTHING like the AFL/NRL, and have NEVER produced one decent professional sporting league, hence their cultural reliance on Australia. NZR has a total professional football code competition of two franchises for the whole country:
1) Auckland/NZ Warriors (NRL)
2) Wellington Phoenix (A League)
Soon to be joined new A League franchise Auckland FC in 2024.
THIS is the reason why NZR feels it has no pressure on them to fix the dire SR system: it’s a tiny economy that is culturally dominated by one sport, and more specifically, culturally dominated by interest in the national men’s team of their favourite sport. Having the whole professional structure of a sport revolve around the success of the national team is a luxury NZ feel they can afford due to the cultural dominance of the All Blacks brand for kiwis.
Australia can’t afford this luxury as there’s too much competition for the sport’s fans dollar in Australia. What’s interesting is even CA prioritises a T20 league (BBL) at the height of Summer, rather than it’s iconic state based first-class cricket league (Sheffield Shield) which now goes on a two month hiatus from before Christmas till the middle of February! 😔
COMMENT: Australian rugby is a depressing picture - the RA board must be axed and the constitution changed
SR is a broken product as I have previously pointed out because of the silly development war scenario it uses for the basis of a professional league.
RA needed to ditch SR in the late 2000’s when they realised they need more professional franchises to compete with other codes and a decent product to try to sell to broadcasters.
COMMENT: Australian rugby is a depressing picture - the RA board must be axed and the constitution changed
Professional sport develops professional players. It’s not up to Shute Shield, HC, WAFL, SANFL, NSWRL, QRL, etc, etc, etc to provide professional level players. You need an extremely competitive and dynamic professional product to do that, something SR/SRP just isn’t, as it’s essentially the descendant of the same amateur state/provincial competition that was it’s forerunner.
I told you previously why when I ask why can’t top NZ talent be recruited to the Force in a proper professional league? There’s a massive roadblock right there in turning SR into a product that works for the Australian market, not to mention the blatant hypocrisy! 👎
COMMENT: Australian rugby is a depressing picture - the RA board must be axed and the constitution changed
The AFL & NRL have leagues that make money, maximise their heartlands, and give non-heartland areas an equal chance to follow a successful franchise.
You’re still locked in the amateur era thinking of the “player development for the national team” mantra that is seeing SR bleed viewers and spectators through disinterest as the comp itself is ultimately meaningless; it exists for the sake of existing for player development for the national team.
You’ve offered me no reasons why I should be interested in the Force or SRP Andy. I asked what you would do to make me interested in the Force, and possibly duck down to HBF Park to watch one day in person. You want even more focus on the “player development” rather than fixing your broken professional product!!
COMMENT: Australian rugby is a depressing picture - the RA board must be axed and the constitution changed
That means the league itself is on the nose and doesn’t appeal to your key demographic.
COMMENT: Australian rugby is a depressing picture - the RA board must be axed and the constitution changed
If it made money then RA wouldn’t be in serious debt, NZR wouldn’t be chasing PE money to prop them up.
The restaurant has been serving up the same scrap for a quarter of a century, and has been losing customers. I’ve heard the Sydney Swans have been a major beneficiary over the past 20 years.
COMMENT: Australian rugby is a depressing picture - the RA board must be axed and the constitution changed
I loved “wisdom of the Elders”. Micallef is brilliant! 👍 😂
Team of the Month: an April-born World Cricket XI
Your professional league makes no money Andy. What are you going to do to fix it?!
You can’t prioritise development before professionalsim. It has got you to where you are now!
COMMENT: Australian rugby is a depressing picture - the RA board must be axed and the constitution changed
So it’s a massive sports league, but hardly a big sport.
Rugby is losing the long-term battle: What World Rugby must learn from Australia before it's too late
NFL??? 😂 😛
Rugby is losing the long-term battle: What World Rugby must learn from Australia before it's too late
Those development comps have inbuilt tribalism and history. The VFA & Shute Shield are leagues that started in the 19th century. Any development comp below the professional tier needs to marry the two ideas of history and development.
COMMENT: Australian rugby is a depressing picture - the RA board must be axed and the constitution changed
You refused to answer my questions Andy. What would you do right now???
When did I say I don’t ever believe in development comps??! I said fix your dire professional tier first as a #1 priority!!! 👍
WAFL & SANFL are tribal development comps, the same way Shute Shield & Hospital Cup are.
The key difference Andy is not only do they have open recruitment in the AFL, but they employ a draft as well. The broke VFL then turned into a colossus AFL in the following 10-20 years, and maximised their heartlands, whilst giving non-heartland development areas a chance to enjoy the sport and enjoy a franchise that has a realistic chance of success.
Imagine the Victorians etc disallowing any Victorian etc player to leave to pursue AFL opportunities outside Victoria, and especially in non-heartland areas like NSW & QLD; would that make for an exciting product? Any time I say turn the dire SR league into a proper professional product where players like Brodie Retallick etc could play for the Force etc I’m met with hostile kiwi parochialism: “Getyaownplayahs!” they say. Who are my “own” players supposed to be Andy, and why would I support such a poor product?!!
COMMENT: Australian rugby is a depressing picture - the RA board must be axed and the constitution changed
JN Australia won two world cups in the 90’s and no one really cared.
Let's celebrate rugby for its differences: Why imitating league is not the answer