In the midst of what I can only describe as an absolute media frenzy surrounding the future of Australian Rugby’s broadcasting rights, with people’s opinions flying left right and centre, I thought I would share my own 2 cents on the matter.
Australian Rugby needs to make changes, I think we can all agree on that, but I also think Raelene Castle is the best person for the job, and I am backing her.
I’m not sure how else to quite say this, but she is literally working towards a better broadcasting deal for rugby and people are adamant she has destroyed rugby union. Prior to the media’s meltdown people were complaining about Fox’s lack of quality broadcasting, now when we have an opportunity to expand and explore other opportunities people are demanding to remain with Fox.
- On a side note, it’s disappointing that people continue to feel the need to attribute her appearance to her performance. If you come to me with concrete hard evidence on how she’s failed as a CEO, I’ll listen. But so far no one’s actually been able to say WHY she needs to step down.
But I digress, let’s start from the top:
1. Wallabies/International Rugby
The signing of Dave Rennie (thanks Raelene) seems to be a great positive for the Wallabies. However, I cannot comment on the Wallabies performance under a new leadership team until we see them in action. We are all well aware of their performance at the World Cup and in previous years, but there is no use rehashing what’s already been said, so my pain points for Wallabies discussion is around the Rugby Championship.
A few days ago, an article was released (true or not) stating that South Africa wished to part ways with the Rugby Championship and join the Six Nations. This move would actually greatly benefit World Rugby and Australian Rugby.
Our Rugby Championship should include New Zealand, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, Japan and likely Argentina.
Someone pointed out there are a number of Samoan, Tongan & Fijian players who play in the UK, which would prevent them from playing for their countries in the Rugby Championship.
But this is no different to the Six Nations being played alongside Premiership Rugby/Pro 14. Eligible players would be able to take time away from their clubs to play for their country.
In an ideal world, it would be fantastic if the Island nations could establish their own local competitions, but unfortunately, this is a long way off from fruition and given these players do have places to play, we should put our efforts into developing their national sides. We know they produce quality players and together with World Rugby funding, the right admin and coaches they will be teams to be reckoned with.
We saw them perform at the World Cup, now only if they could play a few extra International games a year! The real problem is convincing World Rugby they should pump money into their rugby programs…good luck.
This would create a fantastic Southern Hemisphere competition with likeminded supporters.
2. Super Rugby
Super Rugby is unfortunately past its due date. It is no longer (or perhaps it was never) financially or practically viable to continue. Our ‘local’ competition is at the mercy of South African Rugby who are the major stakeholders in Super Rugby. We need to take back the reigns and create a homegrown, nationwide ‘local’ competition. The one thing rugby needs right now is its supporter base and we’ve almost completely lost them.
You look at any other sport around the world whether it be the Premier League, NBA, NFL, NBL, or even English Premiership Rugby in the UK, fans flock because they have a sense of belonging, a sense of pride in their local team – win or lose. The NSW Waratahs, Queensland Reds, Brumbies and Melbourne Rebels don’t have that – they’re covering too much ground and they’re disconnected from their supporters.
We are the only competition where teams are flying to the other side of the world to compete on a regular basis, and costings are undoubtedly through the roof to sustain the travel.
Every country involved in the Super Rugby competition being Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Argentina and Japan (although not for too much longer) have different agendas. People don’t care to watch South African rugby, which is why no one bothers to stay up until 1 am to watch a Melbourne Rebels, Stormers game, they want to watch AUSTRALIAN rugby. They want to see the boy who once played rugby in a small rural town who’s made it professional.
The proof is in the pudding. The crowd attendance at the overnight broadcast of the Lions and Queensland Reds game in South Africa looked woeful. But the SA v SA Stormers and Bulls game, the stadium was packed – go figure.
We have too many Australian players that have had to take their talents overseas because we don’t have anywhere for them to play professionally and domestically. We should have a 12-14 Australian club competition. Creating a Wallabies side from these teams, we should be unstoppable because we know we produce talent! Not to mention, players shouldn’t be enticed to go overseas, they should actually want to play in Australia and become a Wallaby because we should have a good enough product. We have seen far too many players who are okay to give up on their Wallabies dream and go overseas.
3. National Rugby Championship (NRC)
When the National Rugby Championship was first founded back in 2015, it was a great initiative. A nation-wide competition in between club rugby and professional rugby aimed to develop those club rugby players who were ready to make the step up.
But alas it goes downhill from here.
1. The season is over before it’s started. Clubs have no preparation time and just when teams are getting into the groove, we are in finals mode already.
2. The rugby standards are actually no better than club rugby. In fact, at times Shute Shield is better quality rugby.
3. No one knows who to support and the tribalism is long-gone. Year by year a team was picked off. First Sydney Stars and then Greater Sydney Rams leaving Sydney and NSW Country. If they had of done this from there start, there might have been some hope in its longevity. But supporters have lost interest and I don’t think you’ll ever win them back.
4. There is no buy-in from players. Players are choosing not to play because there is no money it. Training full-time for no benefit.
5. It was established to be a pathway into Super Rugby. How is it a pathway if Super clubs have already picked their teams for the next season? More than half of the NRC team is made up of young already contracted players leaving little to no room for newcomers – Having said that though, the young contracted players do need more game time and experience.
In summary, NRC needs to be abandoned and time and effort needs to be put into club rugby across the country.
4. Shute Shield
The Fox Sports deal for Shute Shield while on the surface sounds extremely appealing, what with completely wiping SRU’s $300,000 payment and streaming live/broadcasting every single game each week (in turn increasing sponsorship investment for clubs) for the next 5 years, I still do not think it’s in the best interest for club rugby’s progression to go down this avenue.
I don’t believe Fox has a genuine interest in Club Rugby. Shute Shield is the only piece of rugby union that Fox has a hope of obtaining and they are probably very well aware they will lose a portion of subscribers if no rugby union was to be shown.
Nick Fordham and John Murray will absolutely do what is best for Club Rugby as rights holders, and they will fight to obtain the very best deal for the Shute Shield.
The Shute Shield competition, along with the Queensland Premier Rugby and Victoria and Canberra competitions needs to become semi-professional and officially the tier underneath professional rugby. That is where we want our coaches to be picking players from. Without NRC, this would mean the season should revert back to a round-robin system where each team plays each other twice, home and away. If extending the season is too much of a burden on the whole club, then perhaps it is only first grade that continues and extends their season? Food for thought.
We don’t want to further divide Shute Shield and Rugby Australia; we need to unite the competitions, marketing rugby as a complete package is the best way forward. Provided is it is clear how clubs will benefit.
Rugby needs to be one package, with streamlined and an evident pathway if it is to flourish.
Let’s hypothetically say that Shute Shield is on Fox and Super Rugby (or an equivalent competition) is on Optus. Punters will have to choose which network they sign up to? I know many will say that people will most likely pick Club Rugby given the state of professional rugby right now, but how are we growing the game if we’re just working against each other?
This may mean increased responsibilities from the clubs and first grade would need to be run at a much higher standard than the rest of the club (Grade, Colts & Women) but if Australian Rugby is to restructure itself as I have mentioned, clubs would have the money and resources to operate in such a way.
The committed and devoted fans, as well as the love players, demonstrate for their clubs that we see in the Shute Shield is what we need to be seeing at the professional level as well.
5. Grassroots
Now I will say first up that I don’t have too much knowledge of grassroots rugby. Growing up overseas I never witnessed junior rugby first-hand, nor do I know anyone’s children currently involved with a club. But like many others, I am able to identify that grassroots rugby is the biggest asset we have.
I don’t have the exact figures of how many millions travel alone would cost us per year, but can you imagine how much more money we would have for grassroots if we drastically minimised our International Super Rugby games?
All our junior coaches and volunteers do a fantastic job of keeping youth involved in the game, and while it might a simpler level of rugby, it has always been and will continue to be one of our strongest resources.
The points I have raised throughout my mini argument (for lack of a better word, I think it goes a bit beyond a Facebook post!) are not quick fixes. We need to look at long-term progression and not everything can be achieved in 1-2 years. Questions need to be asked and strategies put in place if there is to be a future for our great game in our nation.
There is a lot more I could say on each topic, but I wouldn’t want to bore you!
Do you agree with what I’ve written? I would love to hear your thoughts! Feel free to email me on jessica@readingmedia.com.au or comment on social media.