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Rugby Australia, lend me your ears.
Rather than focusing solely on who the next Wallabies coach is going to be (like that is going to save all of the game’s problems), what about harnessing the single strand of the game that is thriving in Australia?
A strand that with some nurturing, some innovation, some vision and some foresight can see rugby become something that its people are proud to call “their game”.
Something that can help bring the fractured rugby community together, its players, its respective boards together and help the Wallabies once again become a powerhouse rugby nation in the world.
What is this idea you ask?
A National Club Championship, which embraces the excellent support and quality that exists throughout the grassroots level of the game.
As crowds continue to dry up quicker than the Murray Darling River at Test and Super Rugby level, and it’s national Board comes up with as many fruitless ideas on how to fix the professional game as the Australian Government does about the dried up body of water, disenfranchised fans are flooding to the grassroots level of the game.
But there is one fix that can build a bridge between the two widening gaps of the game – the professional and amateur levels – and that is to scrap the National Rugby Championship and introduce a new national club competition.
The NRC is a dead horse and never rising again.
The professional players roll their eyes at the game while the punters care nothing for it either.
Australian rugby fans struggle to understand who on Earth the Stormers, Bulls and Sharks are even before getting to grips with who the heck the Melbourne Rising and Sydney Rays are.
There is simply no attachment to the NRC and the men playing for the NRC sides have no attachment nor loyalty and love to the made up clubs either.
Men and women, boys and girls, grandfathers and grandmothers, current players and former players do, however, have an already built affiliation and deep care for their club teams though.
That’s why unlike the NRC, where grounds are virtually empty, thousands turn up on the weekend to watch their first grade side run round.
Ask a professional player what their fondest memories are in the game and almost all talk about their clubs. Where it all begun.
Ask them what their greatest achievements were and many, again, refer back to winning premierships with their club.
Ask them who they credit for their success and almost all thank their early club coaches.
So what’s the plan you ask?
Well, the first thing Rugby Australia could do is draw up a competition which mirrors Europe’s highly successful Heineken Cup and is played throughout the respective club competitions.
The same format could apply throughout Australia, with the National Club Championships being played concurrently alongside the respective club competitions on a Saturday and naturally the season would, therefore, be extended and allow players of national interest to continue playing even after the Super Rugby season finishes.
Understandably, the vexed point, particularly in Sydney and Brisbane – where the bulk of Australia’s professional players come from – will be, well who gains qualification?
To begin with, all of Sydney’s Shute Shield clubs and Brisbane’s Premier clubs.
That alone will see 20 clubs qualify.
Plus, two representative sides from Canberra, Perth and a single side from Melbourne.
Five pools of five followed by knockout stages.
Imagine Brisbane’s Brothers club up against Warringah at Rat Park in Sydney, or Randwick travelling to Queensland University, Canberra’s Owls hosting Sydney University down the Hume Highway or Nedlands against the Marlins at Manly Oval?
Supporters could make a weekend of it – and they would too.
Professional players would jump at the chance to represent and attempt to help their club win a National Club Championship.
Sponsors and broadcasters would also likely jump at the chance to support and cover a National Club Championship unlike the flagging NRC.
It would also act as another tournament style competition, thereby helping develop Australian players and exposing them to the pressure-cooker environments of playing knockout rugby more often.
The worst thing Rugby Australia could do is to do nothing.
Even if the above proposed structure needs tweaking, action needs to be made. Not in six months, not in two years, but straight away.
There are men and women all over Australia that would do anything for the game.
Let’s get the greatest rugby minds in the country, which funnily enough also exist beyond the walls of Rugby Australia at Moore Park, together in the one room and come up with a solution.
A Wallabies coach can only do so much – and as has proven the case for years, isn’t a lot.
But a nation fully behind the Wallabies and pushing in the one direction can lead towards long-lasting improvement and inspire young boys and girls to play the game.
It’s time for a National Club Championship to be introduced.
That’s the golden thread that can unite Australia.
https://www.foxsports.com.au/rugby/a...d79072bfc7b6ae
I not a fan of the NCC, but I am a fan of this, until all those big talkers from all sides of the country need to come together and sort this mess out, no taking sides, just the best for Australian Rugby, if they can see that until everyone unites, no matter which direction they head, there will always be others trying to push their own agendas.
It really is now or never for RA.
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Education is Important, but Rugby is Importanter!
Make Rugby Great Again
Do the same as always, concentrate on the East Coast. Look at the results of Super Rugby, so successful. No Sydney does not like the NRC...
2014 - Bris City V Perth Spirit
2015 - Bris City V Canberra Vikings
2016 - Perth Spirit V NSW Country
2017 - QLD Country V Canberra Vikings
2018 - Fiji Drua V QLD Country
2019 - Western Force V Canberra Vikings
SYDNEY: "If we cant win, we'll start our own comp where we make up the majority of teams, yeah go Sydney"
Aside from the head in the sand out look, why no mention of GRR which has better crowds than just the Shute Shield final... Facts not good enough for the article?
Nothing will change while Clyne and his acolytes are still steering the ship.
The board needs to be spilled and replaced with people who not only have the skills, experience and vision to right the sinking ship, but who are also able to put the needs of the game itself before themselves and/or their vested interests.
Proudly Western Australian; Proudly supporting Western Australian rugby
Sydney is the weakest NRC team and supposedly their players are not keen on NRC. Kick Sydney and their 10 clubs out of NRC, and let them run own competition called the Shute Shield in Sydney.
Let NSW Country and the rest of us play NRC. We dont need them.
'I may be a Senator but I am not stupid'
https://omny.fm/shows/the-alan-jones-breakfast-show/cameron-clyne
Link to Senate Report http://www.aph.gov.au/senate_ca
https://www.change.org/p/rugby-australia-petition-for-cameron-clyne-to-resign-as-chairman-of-the-rugby-australia-board
"The main difference between playing League and Union is that now I get my hangovers on Monday instead of Sunday - Tom David
Well if the clowns at ASIC and the Australian Sports Commission aren’t gonna to investigate the shifty deals we need to go bust to start again. If it takes Folau to do it so be it. I rather it happen now than in two years time when we are in to a new tv deal, lose more money on a failed RWC bid and there is no guarantee of a Lions tour windfall as that is not signed yet.
If the status quo continues the RA will start their 14th review in around 7 years or so, the fuckwit Chairman will stand for re-election, more paragons of virtue agendas rather than proper governance, the nominations committee will appoint another member of the Sydney Uni ‘mate’s club’ on to the board and there will be a rotten tv deal as FOXTEL are skint.