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Thread: A GRASSROOTS PERSPECTIVE ON THE ARU’S STRATEGIC PLAN

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    Veteran pieter blackie's Avatar
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    A GRASSROOTS PERSPECTIVE ON THE ARU’S STRATEGIC PLAN

    A must read for all

    Some highlights from the article below full story here http://www.rugbynews.net.au/a-grassr...trategic-plan/


    By Brett Papworth


    Back in about 2012, the ARU decided to conduct an audit of the premier clubs in Sydney and Brisbane. I can’t tell you why, but I suspect it was a way for them to justify the reduction in the grants previously given to our clubs. But of course they didn’t tell us that. They just sent the highly paid wise men to tell us what we didn’t have or didn’t do. To justify why we didn’t deserve their financial support any longer, and to be able to tick that box. ...............

    ..........It was after this meeting I realised the problem in our game. My light bulb moment! My club, and many others, are run by a bunch of really high quality volunteers. Our board is made up of a CEO, a HR director, a senior partner at a major law firm (and former Wallaby), a former school principal, a successful businessman or two, and then me. Are any of them women? Yes, but that shouldn’t be relevant, but it is to the ARU. We are all there because we have a real connection to the place and we care about the success of our club. In Bill Pulver’s opinion, if he gave us money, we would “piss it up against the wall”! He actually said that at a NSWRU board meeting in January.

    The ARU board is made up of big end of town corporate high flyers, who are on the board for the benefit of their own CV’s, and who in my opinion couldn’t give a hoot about how many kids play the game in 2035. Western Australia, through Geoff Stooke, gets as much focus and funding as NSW or Queensland, which is simply crazy when you consider that the latter two make up a good proportion of the game at all levels, and are what you might call rugby heartlands............

    .....We now have Junior Gold programmes, and an under 20s competition that takes the best youngsters out of the club system, and creates an elitist group who are told by the endless list of paid development coaches how special they are. Because they believe no one can develop a young player quite like they can. It is just rubbish, and creates a culture of elite teens, who frankly couldn’t make first grade, and often think they don’t need to. We are spending huge money on the wrong things!

    For example, the norm these days is that if you want to win an under 16s game of rugby, you simply pick the biggest blokes. Simplistic, I know, but that is what happens. A coach gets a job, gets ambitious, needs to win (for his benefit, not the kids), so he selects the biggest boppers he can find, because 90% of the time they will win. The smaller lad who may develop in his twenties misses out, and once you have missed out, it requires an admission of error by the paid development coach for you to ever get back in, and those admissions are very rare.

    What makes it worse is that we know with some certainty that our best players are more mature players, often approaching 30. The best in the world in both rugby codes are over 30, yet we spend millions on empires trying to find the genius 18-year old. Not because it has any benefit, but because it’s someone’s job to perpetuate this myth.

    Most senior clubs have coaches who would run rings around these paid servants of the game, and who develop not only the playing abilities of 150 young men, but also a culture whereby these young blokes don’t get ahead of themselves. Most of the paid development empire couldn’t survive in the club world, because you actually have to win something, and be accountable. Much easier to fill in a spreadsheet showing the training habits of 17-year olds, and arrange meaningless matches where the result doesn’t matter.

    The fact is that our best players ultimately find their way to the top, regardless of how much money is wasted on the “pathway” system. Why? Because they have a different mindset to those who almost get there. They know they are talented, but they work harder, and do the things required without being told to. They don’t need a paid development coach to tell them to get to the gym or the track, they are already there! It is the way the world works. ................

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    Legend Contributor brokendown gunfighter's Avatar
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    a must read!
    its a croc of shite!

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    interesting read, and he is not wrong on some points, i don't agree that NSW and Qld should get the same as WA/Vic, there is grossly different numbers playing. I think there is a great market in WA to get players to move to rugby from AFL.

    If what he says about the ARU spending is correct - it does seem a little bit over the top. move ARU headquarters out of the centre of the city to cheaper rent, it is not like they need to be there, see RWA for an example of that.

    If you can read past the hate of the non-east coast, it has some interesting points.

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    Quote Originally Posted by brokendown gunfighter View Post
    a must read!
    its a croc of shite!
    The reason I said it is a must read is to so everyone can see how the rugby people from the east thinks I dont agree with some of the things he says however some of his statements regarding the ARU is on the money

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    Quote Originally Posted by palitu View Post
    If you can read past the hate of the non-east coast, it has some interesting points.
    Sorry mate, I wasn't able to make it past the first paragraph. Something about all the funding in aussie rugby needing to go to the shite shield made me puke a little

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    C'mon the

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    Didnt Pulver say he wasnt going to give Sydney clubs money just to piss up against a wall and thats got them all up in arms?

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    "By Brett Papworth" that's all you need to know!

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    this sounds like a elite rubgy coach role description at a Australian rugby union:
    We now have Junior Gold programmes, and an under 20s competition that takes the best youngsters out of the club system, and creates an elitist group who are told by the endless list of paid development coaches how special they are. Because they believe no one can develop a young player quite like they can. It is just rubbish, and creates a culture of elite teens, who frankly couldn’t make first grade, and often think they don’t need to. We are spending huge money on the wrong things!

    For example, the norm these days is that if you want to win an under 16s game of rugby, you simply pick the biggest blokes. Simplistic, I know, but that is what happens. A coach gets a job, gets ambitious, needs to win (for his benefit, not the kids), so he selects the biggest boppers he can find, because 90% of the time they will win. The smaller lad who may develop in his twenties misses out, and once you have missed out, it requires an admission of error by the paid development coach for you to ever get back in, and those admissions are very rare.

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    Immortal Contributor shasta's Avatar
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    Has the ARU actually laid out the future funding plan for grass roots Rugby and how it will be distributed? Are his figures re WA getting equal funding anywhere near accurate?

    Papworth has been spouting this same stuff for years. What he actually wants is for a large slice of the TV money to be handed directly to the Shute Shield clubs. Pulver could have chosen his words a little more carefully but what he was on about was their track record of not using funding for juniors, but rather squandering it on player (poaching) payments.

    The thing that shits me is that he is a paid panelist on a daily sports talk-back programme that goes through NSW and Queensland. He uses this to continually pormote his point of view.

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    Last edited by shasta; 01-03-16 at 20:05.

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    Veteran pieter blackie's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by shasta View Post
    Has the ARU actually laid out the future funding plan for grass roots Rugby and how it will be distributed? Are his figures re WA getting equal funding anywhere near accurate? .
    there are no funding from the ARU to any grassroots rubg this year also the JGS now need to be funded 100% by Rugbywa Juniors( WAJRU)

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    Immortal Contributor shasta's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by pieter blackie View Post
    there are no funding from the ARU to any grassroots rubg this year also the JGS now need to be funded 100% by Rugbywa Juniors( WAJRU)
    OK. I was asking about future plans with respect to the bigger TV deal.

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    Quote Originally Posted by shasta View Post
    OK. I was asking about future plans with respect to the bigger TV deal.
    No Idea but looking at the overall picture then my feeling is that no money will get to grass roots in the unforeseeable future

    Rumour has it that the WAJRU has been asked for 16K more in service fees this year and will also not get any sponsorship for the JGS meaning that running the juniors will cost the WAJRU $60,000 more this year, that means that in 2017 the WAJRU funds will be dried up and there will not be money for JGS teams.

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    A genuine question.
    I understand there is a JGS team, that's costs money.

    Is there a reserve team and 3rds squad for players that are not quite there yet, that could develop in a couple of years. For coaches who are happy to coach teams and to try and keep players involved with in the system, even if the kids aren't the number 1 or 2 choice. To provide depth and to provide competition for spots and trails of coaching and coaching ideas and ideals etc?
    Getting sports science students involved and building whole squads with very little resource, but providing huge amounts of people to exposure to the next level and practical experience for young physios, fitness and sport science graduates.

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    Mate great concept unfortunately that has never been an option Various coaches including myself have tried to get something like that off the ground and the first thing that will happen is a another club will force you to close shop as you will be "stealing/ poaching" their players

    when regionals were still in the beginning of the season I tried to set up a pre season training camp so we could get the players into some sort of form for the trials and a northern club protested so loudly that they even lodged a formal compliant to RugbyWA of pouching against Wanneroo.

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    What about post season for 6 weeks?
    Again I only ask, as I don't know about this yet, and to what timing these squads are run on.
    Ta.

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