RL9s as a Commonwealth Games sport

[adamkungl]

Is this still a goal? I remember chatter about it a few years back but don't recall if anything ever came of it (or is likely to).

Would be good and would get a wider range of countries involved than the world cup

 

[adamkungl]

Found what I was looking for..

http://m.nrl.com/nines-to-receive-2018-games-boost/tabid/10874/newsid/81019/default.aspx

Aiming for 2022, will stage an event during the 2018 Gold Coast games

 

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

While Commonwealth games would be good, it would only really give the game exposure in places the sport already exists (though wider exposure is still a good thing)

The huge step would be getting the game into the olymipcs and getting exposure in places that dont have the RL history and therefore dont suffer from the traditional prejudice of "i love RU therefore i must hate RL"

And on a side not, hopefully by 2022 (if the bid is successful) the sport will have a name that wont immediately get us confused with and give all of the exposure to our biggest competitor, "TWO rugby codes in the Olympics?!?! arent the World Rugby so good at what they do"

Probably too much to ask...

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

Doesn't the host nation get to choose a sport to have in the games?

 

[Knownothing]

Doesn't the host nation get to choose a sport to have in the games?

Yes, they do. RL9s is an "exhibition sport" for the next Games only.


Anybody who thinks that there is an easy way to get a new sport into the Olympics is very seriously deluded.



It has taken RU a long time. Sevens tournaments havs been played for a century, although it took the overnight success of the Hong Kong Sevens (overnight = 20 years) to act as the catalyst for HSBC to fund a regular international circuit.


Note that the popularity of Sevens took a long time to build up, getting Olympic recognition came much later.

 

[expansionist]

I make this comment every 4 years - but I distinctly remember a media statement that Rugby League 9's were going to be an exhibition sport at the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

Talk about wasted opportunities there is one right there. In our backyard of the most (arguably) RL centric major city in the world and we still couldnt or didnt get RL in?

 

[adamkungl]

Probably need a regular international event or circuit before any Games will take it seriously, that'd a valid point. Annual NRL club tournament won't cut it. Not only to be taken seriously but to ensure a wide enough pool of competitors actually exists.

While Commonwealth games would be good, it would only really give the game exposure in places the sport already exists

Qualifying should be set up to ensure every continent represented. No Auto-qualifiers. No first grade NRL/SL squad professional contracted players.
We could benefit a lot from the wider exposure, huge reach compared to our WC. Olympics would be great but a much harder nut to crack.

Oceania - 2 teams
Asia - 1 team
Africa - 1 team
Europe - 1 teams
Americas - 1 teams
Host - 1 team
Repechage - 1 team

2 pools of 4, 2 from each into semi finals.

 

[adamkungl]

I make this comment every 4 years - but I distinctly remember a media statement that Rugby League 9's were going to be an exhibition sport at the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

Talk about wasted opportunities there is one right there. In our backyard of the most (arguably) RL centric major city in the world and we still couldnt or didnt get RL in?

There was an exhibition tournament at the Glasgow games and a bigger event is planned for the Gold Coast. Hosting the games doesn't give you any extra influence in getting random local sports included.

 

[Pommy]

Found what I was looking for..

http://m.nrl.com/nines-to-receive-2018-games-boost/tabid/10874/newsid/81019/default.aspx

Aiming for 2022, will stage an event during the 2018 Gold Coast games

Have they found a host? I remember reading there wasn't a great deal of interest in hosting the commonwealth games anymore. Which is a shame.
Would be nice to see 9s in it I mean most RL countries are in the Commonwealth anyway. France being the notable bigger side missing.

Edited to add its in Durban.

 

[deal.with.it]

The reason africa is being developed is because those countries are commonwealth countries. It was part of the deal to get the sport included.

Meanwhile we're still waiting for sport accord membership (we were meant to be admitted, but a new president was elected so they decided to wait until the next meeting).

 

[Evil Homer]

Yeah, IIRC a lack of African/Asian involvement is stopping us from getting Commonwealth recognition at present. I actually think North America would maybe be a better target, we already have Canada and Jamaica and most of the other Commonwealth nations are pretty small Caribbean island which we could realistically get a presence in without too much trouble especially with Jamaica's help. Great athletes there too and also the potential for relatively competitive teams straight away with heritage players from the UK.

Olympics is an unrealistic target IMO. I'm still pretty surprised they admitted 7's.

 

[deal.with.it]

Thats why trinidad and tobago was started and run by the rlef/rlif employed romeo monteith.

The thought was with canada, jamaica, t&t, ghana, sierra leone, south africa etc, we would have a good spread of participants.

 

[Evil Homer]

Not heard anything about Trinidad & Tobago since they announced they were starting about two years ago.

At the moment we only have a presence in around 15/16 of the 53 Commonwealth member nations, and that's including the likes of Kenya, Vanuatu and Sierra Leone who are very new and only have sporadic activity at this stage. I guess we can claim a couple more if you count England/Scotland/Wales/NI as individual nations but there's still a long way to go.

 

[Knownothing]

Olympics is an unrealistic target IMO. I'm still pretty surprised they admitted 7's.

A lot will depend on how popular it has been this time around, although I think it is in next time.


Another very important factor is that sports have a much better chance of admission if there are both men's and women's events.


So the challenge for 9s is not only to get a men's world circuit up and running, but to do the same for a women's circuit.

 

[adamkungl]

So, for this to be realistic:

1) Run a regular Nines circuit for Mens and Womens game. Short term goal, 3 annual events. Medium term goal of 6 annual events in 6 continents. (as a comparison the World 7s series is 10 events currently hitting 5 continents).

2) Increased participation in Asia, Africa, South America. We have Oceania, North America and Europe covered for Commonwealth Games purposes. Medium term goal of having 50% of Commonwealth nations competing in Nines circuit.

Above all...funding!

Ride the wave of publicity generated by 7s while we can. There is a renewed interest in Rugby and most new fans won't know the difference, and when they do won't care about the politics and rivalries (7s isn't closer to Tag League/Oztag than full Rugby anyway). Now is the time to get feet on the ground and promote new RL participation.

 

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

So, for this to be realistic:

1) Run a regular Nines circuit for Mens and Womens game. Short term goal, 3 annual events. Medium term goal of 6 annual events in 6 continents. (as a comparison the World 7s series is 10 events currently hitting 5 continents).

2) Increased participation in Asia, Africa, South America. We have Oceania, North America and Europe covered for Commonwealth Games purposes. Medium term goal of having 50% of Commonwealth nations competing in Nines circuit.

Above all...funding!

Id personally like to see the RLIF put together a kind of mercenary lobbyist group (pros who know what theyre doing) to go in on behalf of these well meaning but poorly suited regional bodies.

You cant send in a volunteer to lobby government then act surprised when they inevitably f*ck it up....

Ride the wave of publicity generated by 7s while we can. There is a renewed interest in Rugby and most new fans won't know the difference, and when they do won't care about the politics and rivalries (7s isn't closer to Tag League/Oztag than full Rugby anyway). Now is the time to get feet on the ground and promote new RL participation.

Id much rather RL got off RUs tailcoat and stepped out of their shadow (its been 120 years, i think its time to take the training wheels off)...

The problem with "most new fans won't know the difference" is that it cuts much harder AGAINST us. We might get some fans accidentally buying tickets to RL instead of RU (hurrah, we have swindled some idiots out of their money and now theyre cranky), but mostly the name confusion will mean every positive RL story will benefit RU. Just look at Hayne in the NFL. Every report had him as "the former Australian Rugby player". Im sure the ARU loved hearing that.

I think our game should aim higher than the dregs and scraps of RU. Or do we actually think RL is too shit a sport to grow in its own right?

 

[Evil Homer]

2) Increased participation in Asia, Africa, South America. We have Oceania, North America and Europe covered for Commonwealth Games purposes. Medium term goal of having 50% of Commonwealth nations competing in Nines circuit.

In terms of the Commonwealth Games we really do not have North America covered, there are 12 North American countries involved and RL is only currently played in 2 of them. We are also only 4/18 in Africa, and 0/8 in Asia which is probably the biggest problem at the moment, we couldn't present an Asian delegate when applying for Commonwealth recognition in 2011 and I still don't think we could. Like I said, a long way to go before we can even think about being taken seriously.

 

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

In terms of the Commonwealth Games we really do not have North America covered, there are 12 North American countries involved and RL is only currently played in 2 of them. We are also only 4/18 in Africa, and 0/8 in Asia which is probably the biggest problem at the moment, we couldn't present an Asian delegate when applying for Commonwealth recognition in 2011 and I still don't think we could. Like I said, a long way to go before we can even think about being taken seriously.

One thing id be interested in testing is an alliance with GridIron bodies...

Gridiron is too niche a sport to get into the olympics in its own right, but an alliance with RL would probably give us enough of a spread.

As ive said before, it seems pretty clear Northern Union is an offshoot of Walter Camps "Rugby Revolution" (NU took on rules almost identical to American Football, 15 years after AF was created) so the historic links already exist. Drop the forward pass and speed up the scrimmage, and AF just about becomes RL9s, which then gives us the basic common rules.

A few playmakers to run the technical stuff and some college runningbacks interested in getting an Olympic gold and we have our teams.

I definitely think it is worth testing the waters there as Gridiron bodies might have an interested in getting a variation of their sport in they Olympics/ComGames...

 

[adamkungl]

Id much rather RL got off RUs tailcoat and stepped out of their shadow (its been 120 years, i think its time to take the training wheels off)...

The problem with "most new fans won't know the difference" is that it cuts much harder AGAINST us. We might get some fans accidentally buying tickets to RL instead of RU (hurrah, we have swindled some idiots out of their money and now theyre cranky), but mostly the name confusion will mean every positive RL story will benefit RU. Just look at Hayne in the NFL. Every report had him as "the former Australian Rugby player". Im sure the ARU loved hearing that.

I think our game should aim higher than the dregs and scraps of RU. Or do we actually think RL is too shit a sport to grow in its own right?

We aren't going to drop the name Rugby. It won't happen. A couple of states of Australia and that tiny country over to the east of us that won silver in the womens 7s are the only places that get antsy about calling one of them "Rugby" and the other "Rugby League".

If we have the better Rugby competitions people will play in and watch them. 7s looks more like League than full Union, we have as much chance of advantaging from any added interest in Rugby as the other mob, as long as we actually have the people and structures in place to do so. Just a matter of being visible.

As for Hayne, everyone who goes to watch him run around in the Rugby will be watching NRL now that he's signed with GC. There's another opportunity.

In terms of the Commonwealth Games we really do not have North America covered, there are 12 North American countries involved and RL is only currently played in 2 of them. We are also only 4/18 in Africa, and 0/8 in Asia which is probably the biggest problem at the moment, we couldn't present an Asian delegate when applying for Commonwealth recognition in 2011 and I still don't think we could. Like I said, a long way to go before we can even think about being taken seriously.

My bad, poor geography showing - I always stick Central Americas in South. Woops.
My general point still stands though - increase participation in the continents we lack presence in.

 

[yakstorm]

Being honest we are at least 30 years away from being in consideration as an Olympic sport and considering there is a consistent push by many countries to reduce the number of sports at the tournament I feel that it isn't a dream worth chasing at the moment.

Commonwealth Games is a bit different. Naturally we are a lot closer to being in contention for it, plus relative to the size of the tournament we would actually be seen as a sport which could help bring crowds and ratings which the GCF is always chasing.

Considering as a sport we lack a strategy for growing the number of nations playing our sport maybe using this as the carrot would be a great way to help drive growth in a more targeted manner versus just waiting for a RL missionary to move to a new country for work.