Aussie Pro Rugby
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@NTA said in Aussie Rugby:
Shit getting real in Aussie Women's Rugby today
Can’t argue with any of that
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Paid the same? No
Treated the same? Yes
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There's one simple fact, a fucking huge elephant in the room, being ignored here: The ARU has limited funds to subsidize a portion of the game which isn't revenue neutral and given the parlous state of their finances, all endeavours must go to maximising the elements that does bring in the cash in the short term.
Not that I'm suggesting they're doing a marvellous job of it from my distant vantage point.
Or the team could go cap in hand to Gina...
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I do wonder about the reasoning. I understand the ARU has limited funds, but I firmly believe that without decent investment the women's game will wither and die, and also believe women's rugby is by the best chance of growth in the game. I think the money that legue and AFL isn't a revenue neutral situation, but it sure as shit will be assisting those game to grow. Even myseld a grumpy old bugger who never used to think that women's game was worthwhile can see these things.
And when I had a business most of the things I paid for (tools, adverts etc) etc I bought cost me a bit of money and I didn't get to see a return until down the track a bit! Players in academies etc generally a on contract without pulling in cash. I think the 2 things here, investment in future, and don't promise things a (ie pro contracts etc) and then not deliver? -
I don't believe that it will ever be revenue positive. Certainly not if the same standards are applied between the national teams.
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@gt12 yeah there's this massive disconnect where we're told that women's sport deserves support, but this comes from people who aren't prepared to do so themselves. Men don't watch because they've already got their sport and women generally don't watch sport. Female AFL, NFL, NRL, soccer, rugby, basketball, etc. I can't see how that can develop sustainably.
Just look at netball - huge participation, very poor support.
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Agreed.
IMO (and of course this is a generalization), the key difference is that people (men) will demand sport (men’s rugby, men’s footy) as part of the household spend but won’t for the same female sports, and female members won’t demand it.
Both may support it if it is on, so the FTA route and ad-supported looks the best model to me. Perhaps sky can bundle it up because people will watch it when their more preferred sports are on.
However, more sport is more sport. I’m not sure that greater penetration with an entertaining but lesser product really works.
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@gt12 said in Aussie Rugby:
However, more sport is more sport.
Yep, particularly for Cricket it doubles the amount avialalbe. Which is awesome. Provided the quality is reasonable - and that means you have to invest in the players, give them practice time, skills, gym, coaching, nutrition, etc.
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@barbarian said in Aussie Rugby:
Worth noting that ARU have heavily subsidised Women's 7s, just not 15s. Which was a fair decision at the time but probably needs some re-assessment now.
Agreed, but even then: 7s can run on a fairly lean budget because you're looking for a certain type of player you can bring up to speed - even nabbing them from another sport (the irony). Doesn't need much below that in terms of regular competition.
Also winning and Olympic medal helps.
Getting 15s going requries a much larger investment to get right. Requires working structures below it at a couple of levels, and SuperW is all we have right now, with very amateur feeder systems below that. If we want to be good, that isn't enough.
As with men's rugby, most of the starting XV for any women's rugby team in Australia is a potential target for NRLW, which seeks to grow. It can pull from its own development systems but could take the easy option and raid our ranks to get the competition running.
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@NTA said in Aussie Rugby:
Drew Mitchell has reposted it on Twitter.
That's a step up
Betoota - right here for it
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The Australian women’s rugby union team has criticised the code’s governing body this week after they treated the “wives and girlfriends” of the Wallabies World Cup Squad to a weekend in Sydney to farewell the boys before they headed off the France in the front of a Qantas jet.
Known as the Wallaroos, the national women’s rugby team receives a tiny fraction of funding from Rugby Australia compared to the men’s team. Claims that the cost of the Wallabies’ outdoor gym would be enough to cover the women’s team for a whole year have been levelled at Rugby Australia’s boss Hamish.
The complaints against Rugby Australia were made in the form of an open letter, which nearly every Wallaroos player then shared on.
It’s been met with a pensive response from Hamish, who told the media today that rugby would be nothing without women.
“Women are a pillar of rugby union,” he told reporters at the code’s headquarters on Sydney’s Lower East Side.
“They give birth to Wallabies. They give birth to support staff that help the Wallabies be the best versions of themselves. Every coach has a mother. It’s a common misconception that a lot of private school students are from wealthy backgrounds. In some private school families, the woman also works to contribute money towards school fees. It’s actually quite common. Without women working in those families, their meathead sons would end up playing rugby league or no sport at all,”
“We don’t take women for granted here at Rugby Australia. I have a dream that one day, we will see a Matilda-level frenzy on the, uh, the, uh, the Wallabettes? Anyway, it’s all in development and we’re working with stakeholders to continue to push the paradigm on this problem to create more quixotic outcomes for that section of our species. Thanks.”
Hamish didn’t take any more questions.
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Ten months after David Nucifora “challenged” his former national union to move towards a centralised system, The Roar can reveal Rugby Australia is preparing to announce an agreement in principle to work together with the five Super Rugby franchises to become more aligned.
For the past decade, centralisation has become a buzzword in Australian rugby after New Zealand Rugby and the Irish Rugby Football Union have reaped the benefits of moving to a centralised model.
It’s something Nucifora tried to usher through a decade ago, but failed to gain enough support from the states.
“I had my go at it,” Nucifora told The Roar last November.
“I tried to do my best to put in place certain things that I thought would work and there were other people that had different views.”
Australian rugby’s loss has been Ireland’s gain, with the Emerald Isle heading into the World Cup on top spot of World Rugby’s rankings.
While Andy Farrell’s men have an almighty tough task ahead of them, with Ireland to face Scotland, South Africa and Tonga in their pool before a likely match-up with either France or New Zealand in the quarter-finals, their consistency over the past five years has shown their strength.
In stark contrast, the plucky Wallabies have plummeted down the World Rugby rankings and been well outside the top two since their stunning run to the World Cup final in 2015.
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