G&GR GRASSROOTS RUGBY THINK TANK

[Dave Beat]

I'll also post the same in the 3T.
The only change to the Shute Shield I'd like to see, move it forward and a full home and away.
With regards to the 3T, whether it be only having 2 grades and a colts, a rep type structure, a top 6 structure, an academy structure, a university model - I ask the question;

Does the 3T in NZ, or SA compete with the Super Rugby rugby season, or their club comps?

We have a void after the Super and Club comps that they do not have - instead of tampering with clubs why not let them grow and develop talent to assist in filling this void. It would keep the fringe WOBs match fit, it would provide the potential Super players the ability to show their wears.

Cheers

 

[Froggy]

I'm a bit of a late starter on this thread, but it seems that a lot of the focus has been on schools rugby (very important) and promotion (perhaps should not be the primary focus here).

It seems to me the biggest difference between NRL and AFL and our game is the club competition, the fact that, for most of the year it is the primary focus of the game, and the tribalism that goes with it. That tribalism, that passion for your local club, is what drives the support of the game, which in turn drives the sponsors, the media coverage, and that in turn is why the kids want to play the game.

So why is the tribal support for those games so strong? It seems there are three reasons. One, for a significant part of the season the club competition is the main game (or all the season in the case of AFL). Two, you can turn out at your suburban ground any weekend and see the best players in the world going round, not just those left after five 22 man super rugby squads plus injuries have been removed. Three, they are easy to follow, there are any number of games each weekend on free-to-air, they are on the radio, and the first six pages of any sports section covers them extensively.

Now, given our structure I don't have the answer to this, nor am I sure whether we should be looking to build this tribalism at club level, Super level or the elusive 'third tier', but the first step to solving a problem is to identify exactly what that problem is.

And while I respect what everybody has being saying here about junior development, as long as the kids in the vast majority of the state schools (which is the majority of the kids) are growing up with this tribal bond to an NRL club, that's where they are going to want to go to play footy. All the junior development programs in the world are only going to entice a very small group.

I don't mean to be negative, but I'm just giving my opinion as to exactly what the issue is here that we should be trying to address.