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Joined April 2020
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Love it.
I think the Pacific Nations would accept a share of gate receipts rather than hosting. Much better money for them.
I also think the original Super 12 ratio of 5 NZ, 4 SA, 3 AUS would work in a representative draft with a round robin comp.
Otherwise completely agree
The blabbering of an old rugby fan
You’re not wrong. I’m not sure how keen semi-pro players would be with that kind of commitment and travel either. I’d love it if Rugby Australia opened up to the public with different models and asked for opinions or offered a poll
The Wrap: No easy answers for Australian rugby
Great article! Really encapsulates the issues and potential models for the future. I have never been a fan of the National Club Competition idea but listening to the Rugby Ruckus Podcast has made me give it some further thought. As you mention, the idea of 2 separate Semi-Pro competitions is unwieldy and illogical in Australia. The clubs aren’t really the perfect third tier as there are too many of them to get the right level of competition. That said, from a financial perspective, it isn’t feasible to think of eradicating clubs with over 100 years of history for a bunch of manufactured teams and keep the support and connection of fans and players.
We therefore have to think of a model that could plausibly incorporate existing clubs into a national competition without creating too many costs, or being too unwieldy and confusing.
My thought bubble would be for the Shute Shield and QPR to stand as separate conferences with a third Rest of Australia conference with teams from Perth, Melbourne, Canberra, NSW Country, QLD Country and maybe Newcastle. All three conferences would have their own competitions, set up to run relatively equal lengths including finals. Home and away fixtures for QPR and RoA and Home or Away + 3 games for Shute Shield.
At the end of their respective competitions, the the best 6 Shute Shield Clubs, best 4 QPR and best 3 RoA would go into Division 1 which would then play a 13 round home or away competition with finals. The other clubs would go into Division 2 and do likewise.
The next level up would be reduced to three teams with the Waratahs representing the Shute Shield, The Reds for QPR and the Brumbies for RoA hopefully competing in a revised Super Rugby Competition.
Hopefully it could be done so that the club competitions would run at the same time as Super Rugby with the subsequent National Club Competition playing alongside the Wallabies. Super Rugby players would then go back into the clubs for he Club Competition. Players would be able to be traded between the clubs (under a salary cap) with the Super teams and Wallabies providing top ups to their players.
The Wrap: No easy answers for Australian rugby
I don’t think there is or has been an expectation that the emus make the finals. The hop I hear is that they are not rock bottom year-in, year-out and that they might win a game. As for fielding teams, if you don’t have a team in a competition you aren’t in it. Again I think there would be some allowance for being a team short on a given saturday but the issue is much worse.
I hate that we lost the emus and I hope they can stick around this time but it isn’t fair to say expectations have been too high.
The Penrith Emus are building a future in western Sydney