Aussie Pro Rugby
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So the Wallabies were generally shit until the 80s and after more than 3 decades of growth and competitiveness they're just returning to the natural order. Nah that's nonsense. Union in Australia used to be an amateur snobs game played in the private schools. NZers would be incredulous about how women wore dressed up in their jewellery to watch a game at Ballymore. It isn't 1972 anymore. League had its back broken by Super League and Union was handed the opportunity of a lifetime. I remember Arthur Beetson lamenting about how kids were now turning to union in traditional League areas. But they fůcked it up. Through sheer hubris, arrogance and greed those same same types of private school gatekeepers who did their best to keep people away from the game in the past have done it again.
Blind then and blind now. Never changes.
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@antipodean said in Aussie Rugby:
@chimoaus said in Aussie Rugby:
@antipodean said in Aussie Rugby:
@Kiwiwomble said in Aussie Rugby:
@voodoo NZ doesn't look much better to me, clubs going belly up, abysmal crowds in stands, i think some of us look at +60k people turning up to an AB's game and think all is fine....what we need to +20k every week for all teams in the super rugby
Why, when you can watch it from home and not get gouged for food and drinks at a ridiculous nonfamily friendly time?
I guess the question is how do the AFL and NRL still get plenty of numbers turning up.
Atmosphere that doesn't rely on some shit DJ ?
Well, the worst shit DJ I have ever experienced in my life was at the Warriors v Penrith prelim final, so it appears the NRL gets the numbers in spite of the shit DJs.
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Does anyone have access to the paywalled Financial Review article about Kim Jong McLellan? I read it via a mate, but was thinking it might be a perfect representation of Oz rugby that it has a substantive article in the AFR. (They may discuss the other Oz sports frequently though, I don't know as I don't normally read it).
Anyway, I didn't know he was also Chair of a News Limited owned company. Seems to be a bit of a conflict of interest that the Chair of an organisation with a broadcast deal with Stan/9 is also Chair of a company owned by their competitor.
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@Rancid-Schnitzel said in Aussie Rugby:
So the Wallabies were generally shit until the 80s and after more than 3 decades of growth and competitiveness they're just returning to the natural order. Nah that's nonsense.
The natural order of letting opportunities slip because everything in your back yard is apples. That's Australian Rugby.
Hoiles is on social media and on Stan saying club rugby is pumping. He's fucking deluded and/or just looking at "club rugby" = "Randwick".
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@Nepia said in Aussie Rugby:
Anyway, I didn't know he was also Chair of a News Limited owned company. Seems to be a bit of a conflict of interest that the Chair of an organisation with a broadcast deal with Stan/9 is also Chair of a company owned by their competitor.
McLennan comes from an advertising background and (IMO my lawyers have advised me to say) has clearly brought that twaddle and misrepresentation to the administration of rugby. That somehow additional public noise is beneficial, is always a net positive rather than realising in the Australian sporting market, winning is the only thing that counts. The net effect of which will ensure that sponsors will go to something else, television advertising will diminish. I mean, who in their right mind would pay anything for this current product that practically everyman and his dog is walking away from? It's at the point that rugby people I know in this country are overwhelmingly not even discussing the current clusterfuck. That's how bad it is; they aren't invested enough now to be publicly angry.
So to the professionalism of the people that got rid of Rennie. That paid millions for another unproven league back. That are still paying Rennie because they can't afford to get rid of him. How are they to get rid of Eddie? What case can they make for private equity funding since they were jerking themselves off they could get more than NZR got from Silver Lake? A game surviving on loans.
This collection of incompetence was banking on securing tens of millions from a Lions tour that now looks like a whitewash. Pending a stunning revival in world rankings, how many Wallaby fans will invest sizeable sums to attend that? Does anyone have confidence the Wallabies can capture the imaginations of the Australian public for 2027 like the Matildas did?
For all the talk of governance improvements, who at the lower levels would have any faith that these imbeciles can fix anything when their track record is the above?
And this should genuinely worry NZR, so the governance review can't have come at a better time. Australian rugby is a mendicant, so NZR need to determine whether to invest in it, or try to minimise the fallout.
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I always found the deflection of reponsibilty was a thing that infuriated me when I was really involved in rugby in Australia, and still happens, the it's not our fault, NRL, AFL are stronger games. NZR should be giving us more help ,it's Qld's, Tahs/North Sydney etc etc running the game, or everyones against us. While every thing has a smidgen in it, they get used as an excuse to bloody much .
One great example I always think , I was a member of Reds for a few years, and remember clearly in 2006 Reds were not very good at all, and almost every game I attended thepeople/supporters around me would be saying out loud , this is crap, I not watching these fellas anymore (and anyone who sat just to left of players tunnel right at front cwould be able to attest to fact.
Anyway begiining of next season I was at a luncheon at Ballymore with mates (Grant Fox was speaker) and he was asked what he thought of the idea of ABs getting a few games off that season (07 WC year) the man from Reds (a very good passionate Reds man) stood and said how upset he was as it was so hard to get crowds to rugby etc and NZR were letting them down.
I stood up in questions and asked why he felt an AB or 2 was hurting the crowds and I quoted what I was hearing at Suncorp every week about the Reds being useless etc. He didn't answer and a few of the lunch crowd kind of gave me shit for saying it, (Foxy actually asked them to shush up etc), I told him not to bother, because any of them who were actual rugby supporters knew what I was saying was true. Actuall Foxy came and had a beer with me and mates (all Reds long time Reds supporters) upstairs and sia I had hit nail on head (perhaps he would of put it a little differently/diplomatically) and was a little surprised thatReds board didn't see what was in front of them. But as I said I knew before then, but that to me was a massive statement what one of huge problems was and still is Australian rugby.
It's not us, it's everyone else's fault! -
@Dan54 i think i can see a variation on what your saying in lots of facets, stuff just gets put in the "too hard basket", we're never going to get big crowds or large memberships, never going to attract big sponsors....so why bother....let just accept things for what they currently are
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@Kiwiwomble When I was first in Aus and on club committee (and coaching etc) I suggested we try and do a some kind of promotion at local schools even put up signs etc around them and in shopping centres, and got told, naa none takes notice because League is the big sport around Qld (Lions had just come on AFL scene). I was somewhat gobsmacked! We did get that changed a bit after a few years, where the attitude was lay down and get walked over.
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@Dan54 said in Aussie Rugby:
@Kiwiwomble When I was first in Aus and on club committee (and coaching etc) I suggested we try and do a some kind of promotion at local schools even put up signs etc around them and in shopping centres, and got told, naa none takes notice because League is the big sport around Qld (Lions had just come on AFL scene). I was somewhat gobsmacked! We did get that changed a bit after a few years, where the attitude was lay down and get walked over.
AFL is a great example. It barely had a footprint in Qld and NSW. It was a joke. Aerial ping pong and gay shorts. Now look at it.
I recall years ago signing my son up to a Reds afterschool programme. The time? 3pm, i.e the exact time school finishes. Even being close by you're lucky to get there in 15min. The whole thing was also a complete joke. Couple of months later AFL comes along. Hands out a heap of free shit and signs up a tonne of kids. And this is a game that didn't even exist here not that long ago.
It's still amateur hour here despite them getting paid now.
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I'm not qualified to talk about the Australian situation but I do think the negativity around the prospects for the NZ gme are OTT.
We've been here before, most notably after the 81 Bok tour but also to a lesser extent from 98-04. The shy didn't actually fall on our heads then and I don't think it is going to now either.
I don't see any real drop off in support for ruby. In the main centres club rugby was always pretty niche. A lot of rural clubs are struggling but where they remain, they still seem to be a focal point for their communities.
How we support rugby has changed. People don't go to games any more. They're too expensive, on at the wrong time and you can easily watch them on line or TV. Still see a lot of Super Rugby jerseys being worn though.
Other sports have definitely made inroads. League basketball and soccer particularly. All do have a more tribal element and have done their marketing much better. But in the main they grabbed their support through TV. Not many Kiwi's in the stands at a Lakers game but still see their (hideous) team colours all around Auckland.
there's a shitload more ways to entertain yourself than even a decade ago. Rugby really had a captive audience for generations and hasn't vcoped well withy the challenges, but I would be worried if I didn't see kids in AB jerseys etc and that's not the case. We just need to have some success. We are definitely more discriminatory, less dedicated in bad times, but we only have to look back 12 months to the WRWC to see how the country wants to follow a successful team.
Rugby is still the #1 sport in NZ and will remain so for the foreseeable. It hasn't got the field to itself any more but it's not dying.
I do accept the issues around the Super rugby comp. I've said before I don't think it is preparing our athletes for test rugby. It does need a fresh think but changing it all the time is what has helped undermine it. Particularly in Oz. The success of the Crusaders has been bad for the comp too. People lose interest if they think the results are predetermined. However, it's not that long ago that we were proclaiming how the NH got it wrong concentrating on club rugby and how NZ with central contracts and the franchise model was the way to go.
Certainly Wales and Ireland adopted some of that. The truth is somewhere in the middle I think.
NZ is just collectively losing its shit because we are not lording it over everyone else. Oz similarly but with less reason to think they had a preordained right to dimne at the top table.
England have a club scene and its a shambles from what I observe. France, Sth Africa, Wales all had periods in the doldrums not all that long ago. Ireland's time in the sun will end.
We just need some perspective. Over-performing in the next 6 weeks would help too.
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108K views · 10K reactions | Did Dave Rennie’s time with the...
Did Dave Rennie’s time with the Wallabies cut short? 🤔 #Wallabies #GitsGenia #Rugby #AustraliaRugby.
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yeah, thik he was pretty hard done by....he seemed to have an actual long term game plan that was obviously going to take longer than this world cup cycle....and they dump him for eddie originally for the smash and grab....which i can...kind of understand, want to build some hype before the next world cup etc....but then he picks a young squad and starts talking about the future.....
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Some good points.
I think there's a risk of over-obesseing about Super Rugby's ability to prepare players for international rugby. I'm not saying it's not important, you do want and need it to be a really good step up (as well as an entertaining and healthy comp in its own right). But as the cliche goes, perfection is the enemy of good.
The club / province / regional systems in place in England, France, Ireland & Wales are far from perfect. Very very far in some cases, the Welsh regional system is an absolute basket case, the English league is a money pit, the workload in the French system would put a Soviet labour camp to shame. But somehow, the NH sometimes produce decent national teams.
Absolutely not suggesting that Aus / NZ should follow any of the NH models, just pointing out that the competition below national level is only one of many factors
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@Nepia this one?
Hamish McLennan and rugby’s schoolboy errors
The Wallabies slumped to a historic World Cup loss. It’s time for scrutiny of rugby’s administrators, chief among them chairman Hamish McLennan.
Hamish McLennan and rugby’s schoolboy errors
The Wallabies slumped to a historic World Cup loss. It’s high time for scrutiny of rugby’s administrators, chief among them, chairman Hamish McLennan.The Wallabies’ descent into national embarrassment territory on Monday morning means the knives are out for coach Eddie Jones, the moody gremlin of global sport.
Australia had their arses handed to them by Wales, inflicting the country’s largest loss in World Cup history. Or in the traditional Welsh: “ffwrch!”
Jones rightly remains the focal point of ire. But scrutiny must show up at the doorstop of Rugby Australia and its cast of administrators.
Rugby Australia CEO Phil Waugh and chairman Hamish McLennan at Allianz Stadium. James Brickwood
What, then, of the performance of Rugby Australia chairman Hamish McLennan? The Hammer’s blue-sky idea was to pilfer Jones. McLennan can’t be blamed for the veteran coach’s baffling selection decisions. He can cop it for signing a clearly past-it coach to a five-year contract on the eve of a World Cup.
You can imagine how it went down. Eddie comes around for dinner at the new Darling Point digs. A few chablis in, Hammer says he should come home. Save the Wallabies. He accepts on one condition, scanning around the $30 million trophy home: “Five years.”
Hammer has his guy! Lock it in, Eddie.
McLennan is a product of corporate Australia’s fail-up culture. After being part of the calamity at Channel Ten on behalf of Lachlan Murdoch, McLennan’s stunning career has soared. He now chairs not only Rugby Australia but occupies the top board seat at News Corp’s REA, media company ARN Media, and serves as deputy chairman at the little shop of horrors, Magellan Financial.
Three chairmanships. The Hammer is the east coast Richard Goyder. The very existence of the McLennans and Goyders – spread obviously too thin to actually provide adequate scrutiny for shareholders – proves the professional director class is taking the piss.
Set aside the Eddie shambles, McLennan’s rugby turnaround narrative hinges on Project Aurora, which proposes hawking off a slice of the sport to investors and private equity. That was supposed to raise $250 million. Jefferies star banker Michael Stock was tasked with finding investors to buy in.
What exactly is Stock offering up? We give you a claim to several years worth of ticket receipts and broadcast revenue to losing games, played in front of half-full stadiums. The Wallabies are going to get spanked 3-0 by the British Lions on home soil in 2025. But you and the lads can get a box on the halfway line.
Earlier this year, McLennan tapped former Wallabies flanker Phil Waugh to lead the turnaround. McLennan, graduate of the exclusive Sydney Church of England Grammar School, needed a CEO to execute the game’s vision and settled on ... another Shore boy.
Waugh was then given ample space in this newspaper to explain his “plan to save Australian rugby”. Along with trying to get PE interest and growing the game in western Sydney to fend off competition from competing codes, he had a neat idea.
“I love the concept of an old boys’ day at Allianz Stadium ... three back-to-back GPS [Great Public Schools] games at Allianz Stadium from 11am to 5pm, and you just make it a festival,” Waugh said.
The “save rugby” plan involves a “festival” of Riverview, King’s and Joeys? Phil, that’s not a plan, that’s a Betoota Advocate headline.
After the 2019 World Cup exit, no fewer than 11 former Wallabies captains wrote a letter expressing no confidence in then-CEO Raelene Castle. The group included Nick Farr-Jones, George Gregan, Michael Lynagh, and successfully agitated for Castle to fall on her sword.
The Wallabies are for the first time all but guaranteed to exit a World Cup without making it out of the group stage, strapped to a checked-out coach, with a tied-up chairman. Time to get out the stationery again, boys.
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@bayimports
That's a good article, thanks for pastingThe Betoota reference is spot on. The ARU is increasingly indistinguishable from satire.
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@bayimports said in Aussie Rugby:
After the 2019 World Cup exit, no fewer than 11 former Wallabies captains wrote a letter expressing no confidence in then-CEO Raelene Castle. The group included Nick Farr-Jones, George Gregan, Michael Lynagh, and successfully agitated for Castle to fall on her sword.
The Wallabies are for the first time all but guaranteed to exit a World Cup without making it out of the group stage, strapped to a checked-out coach, with a tied-up chairman. Time to get out the stationery again, boys.
Our own @barbarian tweeted something much to the same effect.
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AFR has some very good writers. I particularly enjoy reading Joe Aston's work.
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@antipodean said in Aussie Rugby:
AFR has some very good writers. I particularly enjoy reading Joe Aston's work.
as do most people not called Alan, Richard or Christine
