Aussie Player Exodus

[rugbyking2]

Possibly. But how many have racked up 60+ before they are almost 30?

If Hooper does he will have remained injury free after being selected very early. That would put him in the minority anyway.

With players lasting longer in the game, many players may become established in the Australian game/market and then depart by the time they are 28-31 with a minimum of 3 or 4 good years of rugby left in them (or 10 if they are a Brad Thorn clone). While a do agree the flexibility of the contracts and 60 game options, problems may still arise as ARU can't compete with the increasing value of the game in England, France and Japan.

 

[Marcelo]

With reference to Hooper's new contract, I have a sick feeling in my gut that by the end of the contract he will have made his 60 test caps and will be on the first flight to the south of France. I hope I am proven wrong but will a trend like this continue with players just playing the 60 before jetting off to greener pastures?

I'm not sure, his new contract is until 2018, a year before WC 2019. Maybe he will extend his contract another year and after WC he will join to the traditional exodus.

 

[boyo]

They don't have any issues being associated with Quade now. I agree he definitely had an imagine problem early in his career though

Is that imaginary?

 

[Jagman]

With reference to Hooper's new contract, I have a sick feeling in my gut that by the end of the contract he will have made his 60 test caps and will be on the first flight to the south of France. I hope I am proven wrong but will a trend like this continue with players just playing the 60 before jetting off to greener pastures?

Sorry but I think it means the exact opposite of what you're implying. He already has 43 caps so by the end of 2016 he will have 7 years service and most likely 60 caps. That means he's staying at least an extra 2 years more than needed to become eligible as an overseas Wallaby.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[TOCC]

Players are heading to Europe for the money, not the crowds...

 

[Highlander35]

6 and a half thousand average home attendance? Wowee, well done Glasgow. Permanent capacity of Scotstoun is 5000! Need to consider making a move soon, or petitioning for more permanent stands.

 

[qwerty51]

Players are heading to Europe for the money, not the crowds.

I've said this before but some of those stadiums are at full capacity. And we're talking 12 teams in England compared to 5 here. And 14 1st division + 12 2nd division in France.
Arguing that they have worse crowds than us is pretty dumb. They support their teams much better. Look at the Tests which sell out. Looks like 80% of the clubs have improving numbers too. Game is in real good shape over there.

Aren't some EPL crowds similar?

 

[Ash]

I've said this before but some of those stadiums are at full capacity. And we're talking 12 teams in England compared to 5 here. And 14 1st division + 12 2nd division in France.
Arguing that they have worse crowds than us is pretty dumb. They support their teams much better. Look at the Tests which sell out. Looks like 80% of the clubs have improving numbers too. Game is in real good shape over there.

Aren't some EPL crowds similar?

Some EPL games are impossible to get tickets for. The top EPL teams have good crowds, generally sell outs. The bottom EPL teams, not so much.

http://www.worldfootball.net/attendance/eng-premier-league-2014-2015/1/

Those crowds don't look too dissimilar to the NRL, though. edit: the rugby, not the EPL.

 

[qwerty51]

I just checked the bottom EPL crowd. QPR - 17.8k average with a capacity of 18.4k. I'd say almost every EPL is a sell out.

Do the stats by crowd capacity %.

 

[TOCC]

.
Arguing that they have worse crowds than us is pretty dumb. They support their teams much better. Look at the Tests which sell out. Looks like 80% of the clubs have improving numbers too. Game is in real good shape over there.
?

Settle yourself champ, what exactly is this argument that you are calling 'dumb'? All i said is that the players aren't going for the crowds..

Highlighting test crowds is irrelevant since foreign players won't be playing in the tests anyway...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[qwerty51]

My argument would be they do go for crowds. Better atmosphere at games in smaller full stadiums who sing and chant etc. when Ruggamatrix chatted to some players over there they all mention how they love it the atmosphere at games over there.

 

[TOCC]

Nah.... They go for the money, and a less hectic travel schedule...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[GunnerDownUnder]

EPL games are all ticket games - its pretty hard to get a ticket for any ground unless you pay a scalper or one of those websites or are a member of the club
The reason some grounds are under capacity is because when they move up to the EPL tickets are wanted more and as a result they split a stand into two and allow home fans in the usual away section (away tickets for every game are very very hard to get even as a season ticket holder) this means the need to use a chunk of seats as the dividing line between fans and thus the average gate is less than capacity at some grounds

 

[GunnerDownUnder]

I've said this before but some of those stadiums are at full capacity. And we're talking 12 teams in England compared to 5 here. And 14 1st division + 12 2nd division in France.
Arguing that they have worse crowds than us is pretty dumb. They support their teams much better. Look at the Tests which sell out. Looks like 80% of the clubs have improving numbers too. Game is in real good shape over there.

There is actually 16 teams in the D2 and the English 2nd tier gets ok crowds also.

The main thing about those crowd figures is that rugby really is a fringe sport in comparison to football in Europe.
Also many of the cities and towns on the list are pretty small - take Leicester for example just over 300k there and they have a team in the EPL also, Toulon is about half the population of that.
Clubs in Europe are generally very well supported by the areas for what they are.
France and England have clubs not regional teams like here thats the main difference - while Ireland have regional teams they always have and people identify as an Munsterman for example and love the team.
Wales and Scotland have suffered due to these new regional sides and crowds are poor - hats off to Glasgow though they are doing well and for most things are improving.
That being said Edinburgh has 500k and we get crowds of just under 5k while Sydney has 4.5 million and got just over 17k two seasons ago.

 

[RugbyReg]

My argument would be they do go for crowds. Better atmosphere at games in smaller full stadiums who sing and chant etc. when Ruggamatrix chatted to some players over there they all mention how they love it the atmosphere at games over there.

no way in the world. It's not as if they'd jump on a podcast and say "Bronc, mate, they are paying me twice what I got at home, Its bloody fantastic. Plus they've given me a car and put me up in a big house near the stadium"

"oh and the stadium is nice"

 

[Train Without a Station]

Yeah not exactly compelling evidence for players to say how great their current employer is.

I remember reading how stoked Wallaby's players were about Robbie Deans coaching in 2008.

 

[qwerty51]

 

[oztimmay]

Looks like Digby Ioane is done at Stade francais. Care to speculate on a return to OZ, or you think he's after the yen?

 

[RugbyReg]

He's off to Japan. Playing in Hugh McMeniman's team.

 

[lemoen]

Looks like Digby Ioane is done at Stade francais. Care to speculate on a return to OZ, or you think he's after the yen?

How has he been doing over there?
There were speculation a few years back regarding knee problems?