Where to for Super Rugby?

[wamberal]

The Storm is in Melbourne purely because it gives 'victorians a reason to watch the NRL. And they do, apparently, not particularly caring whether the Storm players are Martians in disguise.


Not to mention State of Boringness. Who cares about the "grass roots" when you can win the ratings battle?

 

[Runner]

I'll take Storm "failure" ahead of Force/Rebels "success" any day of the week and twice on Sundays.

Don't need to be home grown players. Look at State of Origin. The biggest game in town built on a lie about where players come from but crowds don't know or care. You can sell a product if it is good enough to sell. Problem goes beyond the Force and the ARU management. Try looking at the way the game is played and the laws. Unless your a diehard scrum favourite it drives people nuts and away to watch games which flow.
Who understands why scrum penalties are given. In over 50 years of watching I might get 20%

 

[andrewM]

The more I have researched the chain of events in this entire fiasco the angrier I have become. Just reading the VRU's statement regarding Cox's sale of the Rebels licence to the VRU - what was the ARU's response 'He can't do that!' what did they do about it? Sweet FA. Obviously legal detail doesn't mean much when it doesn't suit their cause.

I've also been looking to see what Rebels supporters have done. Sure, there's a few regular posters on forums here and elsewhere, but sweet FA otherwise.

Have they put up their own hard earned cash to help out their club? No.
Have they gone out of their way to actually support their club? Not if you look at their attendance figures.

Where has the Rebel Army been? Hiding obviously. Sea of Blue have taken every opportunity to support their team. Marches, Fundraising, showing the colours. You don't have to look hard to find images of Force supporters doing something. Rebels..still looking. Must practice guerrilla warfare.

Despite the outcome of legal action still not being known, ARU turns around and gives the Rebels Genia. We didn't need him, but it really was a kick in the teeth and truly showed the ARU's true colours.

To all of you Rebels supporters on here, get off your backsides and actually do something for your club. You've been given an undeserved lifeline so make sure it makes a difference before the ARU turns on you too.

 

[Moono75]

The more I have researched the chain of events in this entire fiasco the angrier I have become. Just reading the VRU's statement regarding Cox's sale of the Rebels licence to the VRU - what was the ARU's response 'He can't do that!' what did they do about it? Sweet FA. Obviously legal detail doesn't mean much when it doesn't suit their cause.

I've also been looking to see what Rebels supporters have done. Sure, there's a few regular posters on forums here and elsewhere, but sweet FA otherwise.

Have they put up their own hard earned cash to help out their club? No.
Have they gone out of their way to actually support their club? Not if you look at their attendance figures.

Where has the Rebel Army been? Hiding obviously. Sea of Blue have taken every opportunity to support their team. Marches, Fundraising, showing the colours. You don't have to look hard to find images of Force supporters doing something. Rebels..still looking. Must practice guerrilla warfare.

Despite the outcome of legal action still not being known, ARU turns around and gives the Rebels Genia. We didn't need him, but it really was a kick in the teeth and truly showed the ARU's true colours.

To all of you Rebels supporters on here, get off your backsides and actually do something for your club. You've been given an undeserved lifeline so make sure it makes a difference before the ARU turns on you too.

Melbourne has a smug sense of entitlement. Where we as a rugby state and community fought, rallied, protested, explored alternative and innovative funding options, secured sponsorship, took legal action did everything we could to survive.....well Melbourne did as you say, sweet FA as can be said for the rest of the Australian clubs and RUPA. "Thank God it wasn't us....oh well onwards and upwards". A bigger display of cowardice you won't see by a sport!

 

[daz]

The more I have researched the chain of events in this entire fiasco the angrier I have become. Just reading the VRU's statement regarding Cox's sale of the Rebels licence to the VRU - what was the ARU's response 'He can't do that!' what did they do about it? Sweet FA. Obviously legal detail doesn't mean much when it doesn't suit their cause.

I've also been looking to see what Rebels supporters have done. Sure, there's a few regular posters on forums here and elsewhere, but sweet FA otherwise.

Have they put up their own hard earned cash to help out their club? No.
Have they gone out of their way to actually support their club? Not if you look at their attendance figures.

Where has the Rebel Army been? Hiding obviously. Sea of Blue have taken every opportunity to support their team. Marches, Fundraising, showing the colours. You don't have to look hard to find images of Force supporters doing something. Rebels..still looking. Must practice guerrilla warfare.

Despite the outcome of legal action still not being known, ARU turns around and gives the Rebels Genia. We didn't need him, but it really was a kick in the teeth and truly showed the ARU's true colours.

To all of you Rebels supporters on here, get off your backsides and actually do something for your club. You've been given an undeserved lifeline so make sure it makes a difference before the ARU turns on you too.

Turns out we didn't need to do any of that to stay in Super Rugby. Pretty happy about that, otherwise I would have had some real calendar conflicts.

But truthfully, there is so much to do here in Melbourne that we need to ration our rugby time. Besides, you can never spend too much time chewing the fat with your local barista.

Anywhoo, in your research, did you discover who sold the Force IP and Licence to the ARU, basically making the Force a play-toy for future negotiations?

Maybe you should go kick them for a bit and stop whining about Melbourne.

 

[Highlander35]

From my perspective:

I was geared up for a massive fight when it was announced.

Then when Turinui said that Cox had said he wouldn't sell, a lot of the fight left me.

And most of what was left left when the Rebels released the Statements to the effect of "We're not going sell to the ARU and they can't cut us without the license."

And clearly those in the know weren't worried, given not one of the VRU, the Rebels, or the fan groups looked to establish any public support.

Happy for anybody to launch into tirades on the unfairness of the process, that's a given, but I think everyone in Victoria (particularly the powers that be) knew/hoped that it was simply a case of no license = can't cut, and anything fan based would do sweet fuck all in whether we would be cut or not.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

 

[Slim 293]

 

[daz]

So here's how it goes. The Force got cut. I'm really very sorry about that, but its done and nothing we can do will change that.

You can complain about the process, complain about the unfairness, complain about the secrecy, etc, etc.

Make it personal and not only will I come roaring back, you can also go sit in the naughty corner for a bit. I'm done tip-toeing around absolute idiocy and blatant forum rule breaches. You will always have my sympathy, but no longer my patience.

 

[Slim 293]

Meth connoisseurs.........

 

[Derpus]

^^^^
People say silly things when they are upset. As if you wouldn't just keep ignoring it?

Venting is part of the grieving process and if they can't vent on an internet forum dear god man what are internet forums for?

 

[TOCC]

Did the wrong team get cut? Yes
Is it the Rebels fans fault? No

It's never going to be an easy issue to discuss because Rebels fans take it personally that other fans think it should have been their team which should have been cut, and understandably so, I'd be annoyed about it as well. That's why some of the emotional and ridiculous comments have gone both ways.

 

[daz]

^^^^
People say silly things when they are upset. As if you wouldn't just keep ignoring it?

Venting is part of the grieving process and if they can't vent on an internet forum dear god man what are internet forums for?

Because this isn't any old internet forum. This is GAGR.

 

[RugbyReg]

A lot of off-topic childish comments here, even by moderators. Back on topic please.

Moderators gotta moderate

 

[brokendown]

yeah,Daz,bit of an over reaction i feel

 

[Killer]

yeah,Daz,bit of an over reaction i feel

Yeah, he deleted my post saying the same thing, presuming it was him.

 

[James Pettifer]

Melbourne has a smug sense of entitlement. Where we as a rugby state and community fought, rallied, protested, explored alternative and innovative funding options, secured sponsorship, took legal action did everything we could to survive...well Melbourne did as you say, sweet FA as can be said for the rest of the Australian clubs and RUPA. "Thank God it wasn't us..oh well onwards and upwards". A bigger display of cowardice you won't see by a sport!

Ok guys, can you stop with all this "Melbourne doesn't like rugby", "there is no passion in Melbourne". It is pure trolling. Yes, the Melbourne rugby public did not get heavily engaged into the process because it wasn't necessary. Clearly a lot of the discussions happened in private between Cox, the VRU and other rugby supporters in Australia.

And realistically, your crowds were shit. Our crowds were also shit but at a roughly comparable level and we sucked bad which pulled away crowds. If Perth was demonstrating the passion that exists for rugby by crowds of 15,000-20,000 attending every game then maybe you'd have a point. I understand the frustration. It sucks. But take it out on the ARU please ...

Really, it is now all about how do we bring the Force back. Twiggy is doing an awesome job so far in supporting WA rugby but also trying to work in partnership with the ARU and I think that this will have a much better long term impact on the future of rugby in Australia and Western Australia than challenging the ARU outright (as much as I would like to see that)

Hopefully either the Sunwolves will bugger off in 2019 or one of the other South African teams will move north and the Force can rejoin then. If not then in the next broadcast arrangements or in the replacement for SuperRugby. And with some extra funding from Twiggy, we can bring back some of the strong super rugby players just below the big top up level and be in a much better place. Obviously it would be better if Twiggy had come in last year to do the same but we are where we are.

 

[Moono75]

I think reminding the rest of the Australian rugby community that they sat silently by and let this happen is entirely relevant to this thread. Unfortunately the extent of peoples resistance to culling the Force was to invest in a social media hashtag #strongerasfive

Way to go Australian rugby! Great resolve!

 

[wamberal]

I think reminding the rest of the Australian rugby community that they sat silently by and let this happen is entirely relevant to this thread. Unfortunately the extent of peoples resistance to culling the Force was to invest in a social media hashtag #strongerasfive

Way to go Australian rugby! Great resolve!

What were we supposed to do? March in the streets? Storm the barricades?

 

[Gnostic]

A great pity IMHO that it appears that the best opportunity for real and lasting reform of the ARU (and NSWR?QRU nexus) has/is passing by. I doubt we will see such an opportunity again.

 

[Killer]

A great pity IMHO that it appears that the best opportunity for real and lasting reform of the ARU (and NSWR?QRU nexus) has/is passing by. I doubt we will see such an opportunity again.

It will depend on the outcome of the Wallabies income generation, broadcast income and sponsorship versus the big spreadsheet of loss making activities and probable negative surprises. If things are any worse than they are now they will have to trade power for survival.