Australian Rugby / RA

[Pfitzy]

Sorry I've beaten all of you to it - go reference my McDonalds argument. Its on here about a thousand times.

 

[TahDan]

Sorry I've beaten all of you to it - go reference my McDonalds argument. Its on here about a thousand times.

What is it? I've always referred to soccer as the MacDonald's of world sport: cheap, ubiquitous, accessible and basically crap.

 

[Quick Hands]

the ARU was reported a couple of weeks ago to have hired a PR-type company to brush up its image, help it to avoid bad media and promote the game.

does anyone know:
- what is the ARU's in-house PR and publicity capacity and capability?
- just what the newly hired PR company has been asked to do?
- which is the newly-hired company?

You'd be wanting big bucks for that gig.

 

[Pfitzy]

What is it? I've always referred to soccer as the MacDonald's of world sport: cheap, ubiquitous, accessible and basically crap.

Rugby League = McDonalds. Has nutrients, taste that is popular and can be taken in small doses by the discerning. Not all that good for you regularly. But it is presented in roughly the same way every time, so it never dips too low from the median, but never scales any heights either. Homogeneity is the key when your audience accepts mediocrity.

Rugby Union = Gourmet cooking. Covers a much wider range of tastes. Product can look different everywhere you go. Sometimes it is crap.

Like those restaurants where every dish looks good on the menu but just has ONE FUCKING ITEM YOU DESPISE! DON'T FUCK AROUND WITH MY WAGYU, THIBAULT, JUST KNOCK THE HORNS OFF, WIPE ITS ARSE, AND PUT THE FUCKING THING ON THE PLATE!!!!

Where was I? Oh yeah.

The point is - rugby can be utter bullshit, but it can scale some tremendous heights. The pinnacle of sport in its beauty. The ugly bridesmaid that your wingman should take care of some days.

Here endeth the lesson.

 

[TahDan]

Rugby League = McDonalds. Has nutrients, taste that is popular and can be taken in small doses by the discerning. Not all that good for you regularly. But it is presented in roughly the same way every time, so it never dips too low from the median, but never scales any heights either. Homogeneity is the key when your audience accepts mediocrity.

Rugby Union = Gourmet cooking. Covers a much wider range of tastes. Product can look different everywhere you go. Sometimes it is crap.

Like those restaurants where every dish looks good on the menu but just has ONE FUCKING ITEM YOU DESPISE! DON'T FUCK AROUND WITH MY WAGYU, THIBAULT, JUST KNOCK THE HORNS OFF, WIPE ITS ARSE, AND PUT THE FUCKING THING ON THE PLATE!!!!

Where was I? Oh yeah.

The point is - rugby can be utter bullshit, but it can scale some tremendous heights. The pinnacle of sport in its beauty. The ugly bridesmaid that your wingman should take care of some days.

Here endeth the lesson.

I prefer my Maccas comparison. But that's just because I hate soccer more than any other sport and happen to hate Maccas too .

 

[Pfitzy]

But McDonalds isn't crap if you don't have anything to compare it to.

Soccer isn't McDonalds - its more like, well, like a Cornetto. Mostly its just fucking ice cream, but occasionally you get a bit of awesome chocolate to make it seem better than it is.

 

[TahDan]

But McDonalds isn't crap if you don't have anything to compare it to.

Soccer isn't McDonalds - its more like, well, like a Cornetto. Mostly its just fucking ice cream, but occasionally you get a bit of awesome chocolate to make it seem better than it is.

Nah, it's MacDonalds - it's all over the world, pretends it's cultured by throwing in the odd locally targeted burger with a chunk of beetroot or salsa, but ultimately its all the same crap and you wouldn't eat it if you had pretty well anything else available.

 

[Pfitzy]

I think your personal view point colours your analogy

 

[TahDan]

I think your personal view point colours your analogy

LoL I'm sure it does - but then are you saying yours doesn't? I still think I have a point - soccer fans are the biggest wankers of any football code in Australian sports. All the sanctimonious nonsense that gets bandied about by their fans about its cultural sophistication and ownership of the word "football" (total BS) does annoy me.

 

[Braveheart81]

I think that says more about you than them.

 

[TahDan]

I think that says more about you than them.

No, it really says more about them. I don't tell people off for using the word "football" in any scenario, but work with guys who get into a massive tiz if I use the word "soccer" and then feel the need to give me a sermon on their game and why it'll take over Australia when I argue it's a legitimate term.

 

[cornetto]

But McDonalds isn't crap if you don't have anything to compare it to.

Soccer isn't McDonalds - its more like, well, like a Cornetto. Mostly its just fucking ice cream, but occasionally you get a bit of awesome chocolate to make it seem better than it is.

I resemble that remark....

 

[Sully]

Maybe we should spend less time making up analogies denigrating other sports and more time talking about our sport.

 

[TahDan]

Maybe we should spend less time making up analogies denigrating other sports and more time talking about our sport.

Haven't seen you mods get involved when people go on tangents bagging League for some reason.

Anyway, that was very much my point if you look at my post on the last page; that Rugby needs to talk about the areas of the game so often criticised by fans of other football codes as positives, rather than simply allowing them to set the tone for how we talk about it by passively agreeing.

 

[Pfitzy]

LoL I'm sure it does - but then are you saying yours doesn't?

Of course - insofar as I prefer rugby to everything else.

HOWEVER, I don't think a game is shit by its very existence, or that of its fans. League bores the shit out of me, as do soccer and basketball by and large. But they still have highlights that are watchable, and fans you can talk to.

Anyone who doesn't get rugby can't be blamed when its so technical, so to segue nicely back into the topic:

The ARU are now facing a financial crisis with the impending court case from Di Patston I can see happening, so they need to start thinking like a business instead of a collection of old farts.

 

[formerflanker]

Latest Media Techniques
8AC168AD641138728861031624704_242a1f0b2a1.5.1.5784086006206524510.mp4

I think the bodyguard/media manager/crisis manager should have been playing!

 

[cyclopath]

Haven't seen you mods get involved when people go on tangents bagging League for some reason.

Anyway, that was very much my point if you look at my post on the last page; that Rugby needs to talk about the areas of the game so often criticised by fans of other football codes as positives, rather than simply allowing them to set the tone for how we talk about it by passively agreeing.

You can bag another code if you like, if you have a point. No rule says you can't.
He's trying to get the thread on some track, rather than 2 people arguing over whose analogy fits better - i.e. rather than bore everyone else with a pointless tit-for-tat, talk about something else.
Rule 10.

 

[Paradox]

You are choosing to believe that the only reason there is an issue is because of Kurtley Beale and everything at the ARU and the Wallabies was hunky-dory apart from that.

I don't think that's the case and ultimately, I think the CEO and the Chairman won't be Pulver and Hawker by the end of next year.

But we have nothing else to go on by?

 

[Paradox]

That's not what I was saying at all. In fact, I didn't say anything like that.

I think it was a mistake that McKenzie involved himself in so many areas of the ARU. I agree it was done with entirely noble purposes but it created the potential that McKenzie would likely be in the middle of any dramas that unfolded anywhere within the ARU.

Ultimately, that's what eventuated. A scandal that was unrelated to on field matters developed and McKenzie was smack bang in the middle of it.

So it's McKensie's fault that the scandal erupted because he involved himself in to many areas of the ARU? More speculation and sounds a but like victim blaming. As I see it, Link is a victim of this crap. An extremely experienced and successful coach. Great player. Link has involved himself successfully in 3 Australian provinces and was a previous Wallaby assistant coach. I don't think it's fair to suggest he didn't know what he doing and was under performing. There is nothing to suggest this.

 

[ACT Crusader]

I know Link's Wallabies head coaching career was bookend by RC campaigns, but a 50% record - some would say that is scandalous....

There are still a few unknowns that have not been confirmed from the right mouths regarding just how hands on Link was in terms of "other" roles/commitments. Did he really hire Patston? Yes they were at the Reds at the same time, but was it Link that interviewed her or someone else at the ARU or did Link just "parachute" her in?

Head coaches past and present bring in people and keep on those that were under previous regimes, and some head coaches have to adjust their expectations due to established processes and policies.

I guess a book or candid interview may be the only way to reveal what Link got right and where he think things turned on their head.