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Australian Rugby / RA

RedsHappy

Tony Shaw (54)
and who pays for the relocation costs, salary and accommodation of these players?

Negotiate with Foxtel to permit a 2020 live streaming supplementary product produced by the 'cheap but good' Double Take guys and with competent but fun commentators (you maybe? and others that have a totally different take on commentating), ie, total contrast to Kayo with its awful, dull, robotic and cliched Foxtel commentators.

Aim to sell it for this special Super Season for $50 the season incl Finals and with a target subs of 35k = $1.75m approx., should be able - on this type of model I emphasise - to make a small profit or cover costs of an Aussie Barbs (or such like) team for this special 2020 comp (which btw will not assume a great amt of travel given COVID issues).

That is: think different! (I know that is a kind of oxymoron thing for the Aust rugby status quo, but let's just try.)
 

formerflanker

Ken Catchpole (46)
A draft?

thats where each club takes turns in signing uncontracted players.


How would that help anything?

FFS Reds just lost 3 cos they couldn’t pay them their contracted payments.
I'm trying to work out a method of all teams in any new Super Rugby competition for 2020 getting access to underused but high quality players. If top players simply watch from the grandstand most weeks, not being in the match day 23, surely they and Australian rugby would be better off getting game time at another franchise.
 

I like to watch

David Codey (61)
I'm trying to work out a method of all teams in any new Super Rugby competition for 2020 getting access to underused but high quality players. If top players simply watch from the grandstand most weeks, not being in the match day 23, surely they and Australian rugby would be better off getting game time at another franchise.
They all have access to them now.

a draft is designed to ensure the weakest clubs can snare the hot rookies.
It’s not designed to force clubs in a weak financial position to contract players they have not planned on signing.
 

KOB1987

Rod McCall (65)
https://www.smh.com.au/sport/rugby-...ve-of-australian-exports-20200528-p54xfa.html

Sources with knowledge of the Japanese landscape have also indicated the Wallabies' lack of recent success will, ironically, help RA keep talent.

Japanese clubs keep a close eye on the world rankings, which is why they first chased star Australian talent like George Gregan and Toutai Kefu after the golden era in the early 2000s.

When the All Blacks ascended back to the top of world rugby they became the prized recruits. South Africa's two World Cup wins in the last 12 years have seen their players' market value soar, too. Even English players - who have never been a primary target for Japanese clubs - are now being chased due to their success under Eddie Jones.

That has seen the market value of most Wallabies - outside of a select few - drop.
 

Mr Wobbly

Alan Cameron (40)
https://www.smh.com.au/sport/rugby-...ve-of-australian-exports-20200528-p54xfa.html

Sources with knowledge of the Japanese landscape have also indicated the Wallabies' lack of recent success will, ironically, help RA keep talent.

Japanese clubs keep a close eye on the world rankings, which is why they first chased star Australian talent like George Gregan and Toutai Kefu after the golden era in the early 2000s.

When the All Blacks ascended back to the top of world rugby they became the prized recruits. South Africa's two World Cup wins in the last 12 years have seen their players' market value soar, too. Even English players - who have never been a primary target for Japanese clubs - are now being chased due to their success under Eddie Jones.

That has seen the market value of most Wallabies - outside of a select few - drop.

Silver linings, eh?
 
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Rebels3

Jim Lenehan (48)
Wayne Smith in his most recent article says that there is a former wallaby in a senior rugby position is death riding the game to player agents.

I find the avoidance of the words RA here interesting, which says to me it’s someone outside of RA. It’d almost certainly have to be someone at one of the states or RUPA.
 

barbarian

Phil Kearns (64)
Staff member
Justin Harrison springs to mind, but why would it be in RUPA's interest to have players walk out, damage the game and potentially reduce their membership base?
 

KOB1987

Rod McCall (65)
Wayne Smith in his most recent article says that there is a former wallaby in a senior rugby position is death riding the game to player agents.

I find the avoidance of the words RA here interesting, which says to me it’s someone outside of RA. It’d almost certainly have to be someone at one of the states or RUPA.

I can't find that in either of his articles today, which one is it?
 

RugbyReg

Rocky Elsom (76)
Staff member
Gees we talk about the admin heavy RA structure. The latest Halloran article brings another to the table “national player contract manager Nick Taylor”

Why the hell cant Ben Whittaker - GM High Performance do it?
Or perhaps Scott Johnson as Coaching Director ?
There also seems to be a Head of Professional Rugby in Anthony French.
 

ForceFan

Chilla Wilson (44)
Gees we talk about the admin heavy RA structure.

The last numbers I heard was that there were 140 employees at Moore Park.

Minderoo has 12 people to organise/manage Global Rapid Rugby (with involvement across 6 countries).
There is an additional 15 people to organise/run the RugbyRoos and other community programs.
27 employees total.
 

RugbyReg

Rocky Elsom (76)
Staff member
The last numbers I heard was that there were 140 employees at Moore Park.

Minderoo has 12 people to organise/manage Global Rapid Rugby (with involvement across 6 countries).
There is an additional 15 people to organise/run the RugbyRoos and other community programs.
27 employees total.

yes 140 is inflated but making a comparison to Minderoo is ridiculous
 

ForceFan

Chilla Wilson (44)
It's worthwhile providing all of Wayne Smith's article from today as it's certainly on the money (or potential lack of same).

Western Force holding the strongest cards in Australian rugby
Wayne Smith - The Australian - 30 May 2020
It’s hard to ignore the reality that the franchise holding all the power in Australian rugby right now is the Western Force. Or, to be more precise, Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest.
Rugby Australia could have proceeded with just four teams had Forrest not agreed to the Force participating in its domestic Super Rugby AU
In McLennan’s position, it was the smart political move but it was also the correct and very necessary thing. For all their attempts to keep WA at least partially inside the tent, RA had never really admitted the grievous damage they had inflicted on the people of Perth and Western Australia.
Forrest is absolutely correct when he says he supports rugby because of its community-building capacity. But the corollary also holds true. Take a rugby club away — indeed, punish it for no other reason than the fact it was particularly vulnerable at a precise moment in time — and it rips the heart out of a community. So full credit to McLennan. Yes, it was easier for him because he had played no role in the events of 2017, but he recognised that a terrible wrong had been committed and he set out to at least partially rectify it.
Even so, Forrest didn’t make it easy for him or RA, warning that unless there was considerable change, particularly in its governance model, he could see no way that he could continue his investment beyond 2020. So the ball is now entirely in RA’s court.
Except that it’s not …
Everything is now dependent on whether interim RA chief executive Rob Clarke is able to get a signature out of Patrick Delany at Fox Sports in the coming days. If he does, the wolf will have been pushed back from the door, just for a moment. If he doesn’t, then Jessica Halloran’s story that appeared in The Australian on Thursday about the possible defections from the Melbourne Rebels will turn out to be only a quarter true.
If no broadcast deal is done, then all four Super Rugby franchises can expect a player stampede to the international airport — presuming there were any flights for them to catch. It certainly wouldn’t just be the Rebels.
All this sparring only forms the undercard to the main event: the broadcast deal from 2021-25. If Fox Sports or some other mystery buyer doesn’t come to the party with a meaningful offer, rugby will be floundering. When the previous deal was negotiated, there were five Australian teams. Now there are four and, on a per-franchise basis, the $US25m ($37.5m)-a-year Fox offer rejected by Raelene Castle would have been enough, just barely, to keep professional rugby ticking over in this country.
At the time, her rejection of Delany’s offer looked like no more than the usual argy-bargy of negotiating television rights. Now, in hindsight, it looks like Castle passed up a golden opportunity to secure the future of the sport. Not that she would have known that in those pre-coronavirus times.
In her mind, she would have needed an improved number from the broadcaster to make up for the fact that each union would, every second year, have two fewer home games from which to make money, eight down to six. The other year they would have had seven home games, all as a result of
SANZAAR’s decision to do away with the conference system and replace it with a 14-team round robin competition.
So now it is not only whether Fox will make an offer at all but, if it does, how much money will be required to keep the existing four franchises afloat.
That’s difficult to say given that RA must surely be looking at cutting at least $5m from its own headquarters’ expenses through rationalisation and mere commonsense spending, and arguably the same again collectively from the four franchises. Consider, too, the savings to be made by trimming Super Rugby squads from, say, 35 players to 30. And there will be job losses, sadly but inevitably.
Beyond that we are forced to consider culling or merging franchises, and I can imagine a number of Super Rugby bosses tuning out at this point because that is the last thing they want to hear.
Would one of the surviving franchises turn out to be the Force? Having made it back into Super Rugby — of sorts — this year, they wouldn’t take kindly to being elbowed aside in 2021. So, if there is only enough money for four, why wouldn’t a self-sufficient Force be one of them, which would leave the Rebels and Brumbies eyeing each other dubiously?
And what if there is an appetite for only three Aussie sides in a remodelled trans-Tasman competition alongside five Kiwi teams, two Japanese and one islander side? It would be unthinkable to cut the most successful Australian side, the Brumbies, but does it all come down to the states that are producing players and/or can look after themselves financially? The Waratahs, Reds and Force?
And if it transpires that there is no broadcast deal or that the money offered is pitiful, which bewilders me given that this broadcast cycle includes a tour by the British and Irish Lions in 2025, might everything then be turned on its head? Could Global Rapid Rugby become the lifeboat for professional rugby in this country? Would Forrest be able to negotiate a broadcast deal? Would he even need to? Whatever happens, Forrest will be in the middle of it all.
I admit this is all totally fanciful stuff. But when you realise that quality Australian players are taking up offers to move to the US for about $80,000 plus free accommodation for a five-month Major League Rugby contract, you get a stark sense of how unsettled the game here has become.
Small wonder Clarke told the Super Rugby franchise bosses on Thursday that he understood the need for urgency. Until there is success on the broadcast front, they are sitting ducks for overseas clubs and player agents with cashflow problems.
(In my view it's unlikely that there'll be any player move to the USA due to work visa restrictions)
 

Rebels3

Jim Lenehan (48)
You forgot: , lazy and ineffective.
That’s a shit statement. How the hell would you know if the people there are lazy? Perhaps it’s the processes etc. or maybe the model is ineffective? That’s peoples jobs most earning around $50-60k a year getting asked to do things that people in other businesses are getting paid considerably more for.

You can be bitter and angry at the game but don’t call someone that’s probably working their ass off for little lazy when you wouldn’t have the slightest clue what goes on in that workplace. Just remember you can work your ass off in a business with incredible employees but still fail
 
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