Highlanders 2024
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@SouthernMann surely you have to acknowledge there is a middle ground here....we had a couple of decades of online news paid for by advertising, couldn't open an article without a banner ad....so i dont think its completely out of the blue for people to notice the change....there are reasons for the change but for me i found the articles and even quality of the website becoming poor or at very least not keeping up with the rest of the net...and then they wanted people to pay for something i was less and less inclined to read anyway
its like adds on sky...the whole reasons for pay TV back in the day was so you didn;t have adds
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@SouthernMann haha ok mate good for you.
Again, as per my previous comment, football/NFL/NRL all have press conferences and the likes on YouTube, Facebook and their own website all for free… Why can’t super rugby teams do the same? How good would that be?! Maybe then we could perhaps even know just a little bit about some of our injured players, at the moment all we get is an email if you’re a member saying ‘unavailable due to injury’.
Don’t get your knickers in a twist over it mate. It wasn’t a jab at the ODT at all, just an observation. I’ll leave it at that. Go the Highlanders.
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@Kiwiwomble said in Highlanders 2024:
@SouthernMann surely you have to acknowledge there is a middle ground here....we had a couple of decades of online news paid for by advertising, couldn't open an article without a banner ad....so i dont think its completely out of the blue for people to notice the change....there are reasons for the change but for me i found the articles and even quality of the website becoming poor or at very least not keeping up with the rest of the net...and then they wanted people to pay for something i was less and less inclined to read anyway
its like adds on sky...the whole reasons for pay TV back in the day was so you didn;t have adds
Comes down to choice of the consumer. My ODT subscription costs me about .50c a day. For that small cost I get to support journalism in the city I'm from and read stories about the rubbish teams I support. In terms of advertising millions has been stripped out of the local advertising market. Free advertising won't keep stories on teams going. The stories that should go behind the paywall are the ones people want to read. Often for people living out of region, those stories centre around our sporting teams. Is the ODT perfect? No. Does it try hard to cover sport for its readers. Yes. Can you get it elsewhere? Not really. Supporting journalism through .50c a day seems like a win-win for the consumer and news producer.
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@Landers92 said in Highlanders 2024:
@SouthernMann haha ok mate good for you.
Again, as per my previous comment, football/NFL/NRL all have press conferences and the likes on YouTube, Facebook and their own website all for free… Why can’t super rugby teams do the same? How good would that be?! Maybe then we could perhaps even know just a little bit about some of our injured players, at the moment all we get is an email if you’re a member saying ‘unavailable due to injury’.
Just on this. Resources. NFL/NRL/football have decent comms staff. The Highlanders have a few digital media team members. Earlier in the season they did put up press conferences. Probably need to do that again. Unfortunately feel as if they have gone inwards after a few shit results.
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@Landers92 said in Highlanders 2024:
Again, as per my previous comment, football/NFL/NRL all have press conferences and the likes on YouTube, Facebook and their own website all for free… Why can’t super rugby teams do the same? How good would that be?! Maybe then we could perhaps even know just a little bit about some of our injured players, at the moment all we get is an email if you’re a member saying ‘unavailable due to injury’.
The Blues put the post match press conference up on youtube after every game. Not sure if any other teams do. That still relies on good questions getting asked of course.
In general I think all the teams should put more up on social media/youtube. It doesn't take much effort and the content doesn't have to be polished
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@Duluth said in Highlanders 2024:
@Landers92 said in Highlanders 2024:
Again, as per my previous comment, football/NFL/NRL all have press conferences and the likes on YouTube, Facebook and their own website all for free… Why can’t super rugby teams do the same? How good would that be?! Maybe then we could perhaps even know just a little bit about some of our injured players, at the moment all we get is an email if you’re a member saying ‘unavailable due to injury’.
The Blues put the post match press conference up on youtube after every game. Not sure if any other teams do. That still relies on good questions getting asked of course.
In general I think all the teams should put more up on social media/youtube. It doesn't take much effort and the content doesn't have to be polished
Yeah mate exactly, you’re spot on. The blues do a lot right on the social media side of things and fan interaction and most importantly, on the field.
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Blues also have substantially more comms and engagement staff. Highlanders are sadly run on bare bones
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@SouthernMann said in Highlanders 2024:
Blues also have substantially more comms and engagement staff. Highlanders are sadly run on bare bones
But does it have to be professional level?
Have a junior squad member point an iphone at a member of the coaching staff and ask for an update on injuries. Don't swear. Upload it.
This isn't directed just at the Highlanders and it's even more of an issue at NPC level.. but a tiny bit of effort can keep the fans informed
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Speaking of engagement, Roger Clark will be praying we can pickup back to back wins here for several reasons... Saturday kickoff against the Crusaders, in what could be a battle for a playoff spot does actually have a bit of marketability to it if you can get the goodwill back.
I think at the start of the season they'd have circled that game, with hopes of 17k+
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The most frustrating thing about this team, and Otago on an NPC level as well, is that they just always seem to make the wrong decision with ball in hand. Go the wrong side of the ruck, away from the space. Hit up off the forwards when the space is out wide, and conversely throw a ball to a playmaker that isn’t in position. The chip kicks and grubbers that never work. The lack of any real long tactical kicking game.
The forwards can’t catch and pass, and the backs are brain dead.
You watch them and you have to think they are trying to score in 2-3 phases. Because once it goes past that, there is literally no game plan. The complete inability to work long term success on attack is infuriating.
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@Landers92 said in Highlanders 2024:
football/NFL/NRL all have press conferences and the likes on YouTube, Facebook and their own website all for fre
lol what?
The Carolina Panthers are the worst team in the NFL, their annual revenue is $530m US$
The Detroit Pistons are the worst team in the NBA, their annual revenue is $274m US$
Sheffield United played in the Championship last year and still had revenue of 64m pounds. Even as the worst team in the Premier League their revenue will be exponentially higher this year.And they are just teams, scale that up to what the leagues themselves make
NZ Rugby as a whole gets $271M NZ$
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@SouthernMann said in Highlanders 2024:
@Kiwiwomble said in Highlanders 2024:
@SouthernMann surely you have to acknowledge there is a middle ground here....we had a couple of decades of online news paid for by advertising, couldn't open an article without a banner ad....so i dont think its completely out of the blue for people to notice the change....there are reasons for the change but for me i found the articles and even quality of the website becoming poor or at very least not keeping up with the rest of the net...and then they wanted people to pay for something i was less and less inclined to read anyway
its like adds on sky...the whole reasons for pay TV back in the day was so you didn;t have adds
Comes down to choice of the consumer. My ODT subscription costs me about .50c a day. For that small cost I get to support journalism in the city I'm from and read stories about the rubbish teams I support. In terms of advertising millions has been stripped out of the local advertising market. Free advertising won't keep stories on teams going. The stories that should go behind the paywall are the ones people want to read. Often for people living out of region, those stories centre around our sporting teams. Is the ODT perfect? No. Does it try hard to cover sport for its readers. Yes. Can you get it elsewhere? Not really. Supporting journalism through .50c a day seems like a win-win for the consumer and news producer.
poeple do know all that, they have just come to a different conclusion as to value for money or in my case just another subscription...id rather just come on here and chat to you all about rugby
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@frugby said in Highlanders 2024:
Tough supporting us right now, but I do actually think long-term I still feel the most confident I've felt in this team since 2017.
Front row might well be a problem, but I've seen enough from Bell and Taylor to say if nothing else they'll be two tidy options for the next 4+ years. Still got de Groot, and I think Ma'u is fine. Jury very much out on Wingham, who I think is surely a loosehead long-term if he is going to play at this level.
Outside of that though, Holland and Dunshea is a good lock pairing and in recent weeks, we've seen Haig and Stodart both look quite tidy. Add them to Withy (Who I thought looked much better playing as an openside) and Harmon, and think we're onto a bit of a winner. Makings of a good pack, that I reckon. Need to find some more depth, but a pack of:
- de Groot
- Bell
- ADD
- Holland
- Dunshea
- Haig
- Withy
- Harmon
Bench
16. Taylor
17. ADD
18. Ma'u
19. Plummer
20. StodartActually is something to work with, particularly with some new coaches. I think at the very least, Donnelly will get the chop regardless of what happens with Dermody and Dillon.
Ben Herring is leaving Toyota Verblitz at the end of this season, I wonder about the potential for him to take over from Dillon as defence coach in addition to being a breakdown/contact skills coach? He's a former no7, is a good coach of the breakdown area - has compiled a lot of great content on the rugbysite. If Donnelly is also replaced, as for another forwards coach I wonder if Jono Gibbs would be interested as he's only a Chiefs resource coach at the moment and also spends a few months with the NZ-U20s?
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@mariner4life said in Highlanders 2024:
@Landers92 said in Highlanders 2024:
football/NFL/NRL all have press conferences and the likes on YouTube, Facebook and their own website all for fre
lol what?
The Carolina Panthers are the worst team in the NFL, their annual revenue is $530m US$
The Detroit Pistons are the worst team in the NBA, their annual revenue is $274m US$
Sheffield United played in the Championship last year and still had revenue of 64m pounds. Even as the worst team in the Premier League their revenue will be exponentially higher this year.And they are just teams, scale that up to what the leagues themselves make
NZ Rugby as a whole gets $271M NZ$
Yes I understand that, but like someone pointed out above, doing something off a camera or phone isn’t hard. You can literally upload to YouTube for free.
Like I said to southermann it’s not a shot at anyone, was just an observation and creating a small discussion about what the highlanders and NZ rugby as a whole could work on. Didn’t expect it to escalate like it has haha.
Appreciate your point.
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i think what i see compared to some other sports at different levels is that the Franchises are still not an inherent part of their local communities, not too the extent we see elsewhere....when these sports teams ARE then we see people volunteering their time because they want to be part of it and all those perifial things flesh out the whole organisation...but what we see is this very lean organisation...they play rugby...and thats kind of it
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@Kiwiwomble said in Highlanders 2024:
i think what i see compared to some other sports at different levels is that the Franchises are still not an inherent part of their local communities, not too the extent we see elsewhere....when these sports teams ARE then we see people volunteering their time because they want to be part of it and all those perifial things flesh out the whole organisation...but what we see is this very lean organisation...they play rugby...and thats kind of it
Disagree here. The Highlanders have stepped up their community engagement a bucket load over the last year.
- Pre-season tour in Central Otago
- Easter egg hunt in the botan gardens
- Split Crusaders/Highlanders trip to Temuka
- Southland Highlanders in Invercargill
- Updates around who is playing club rugby each week
- plus, plus
From a social media perspective, sure they could probably do a couple more things and I reckon they'd be nailing it. One, being like a players corner on a Wednesday or something similar. Plus a coaches round-up. There seems like a lot of short-clips, but from the sound of things, people are wanting a bit more depth.
If I was them, what I'd do with the ODT as a sponsor, would be say, if you are a Highlanders member get a 50% subscription reduction. Get ODT to do their videos, play 30% of them on the Highlanders social channels and say for the rest they are behind the wall on the ODT website. Creates content and drives traffic for a sponsor.
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@Kiwiwomble said in Highlanders 2024:
when these sports teams ARE then we see people volunteering their time because they want to be part of it and all those perifial things flesh out the whole organisation...but what we see is this very lean organisation...they play rugby...and thats kind of it
volunteers??? my guy these are supposed to be top-to-bottom professional sporting organisations! This isn't Dunedin Marist.
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@mariner4life we cant have it both ways , we cant say they're tiny compared to these other sports/teams that are doing lots of cool stuff.....but we're too big and important to look to volunteers.... unless we're just giving up...whatever we have right now is all we can ever expect
Its also a stepping stone, volunteers start something for the love of it...prove the fans like it...pick up sponsors or subscribers, become official
Wimbledons official Podcast, pre and post match shows and you tube channel grew from two guys doing their own podcast for fun on their phones
@SouthernMann i would say that list of things is all pretty route one...but my main point is the result...its still not the default for +20k people to go to a game every week.....or start a podcast...or a you tube channel...or a supporters club than arranges road trips or away game get toegthers
