For the World 7's, you reckon this would work ?

[Kurt Angle]

For the 7's comp at the start of the year, would a chnage of format be good, where there was only one Australian side in the tournament ?

The reasoning behind this is it doesn't matter about it being the green and golds, an Aussie side is going to win it anyway.

But the impetus would be the offer an outlet where the fans could vote for the Australian 7's side.

Now, this team wouldn't be called the Roos, and would wear a jersey that's not quite green with a gold V.

But imagine an outlet where the fans could vote, say the Internet and a 1900 number (which could also raise money for the RLIF).

Now the team would obviously be selected along the lines of a good 7's side, and imagine the fuss if Melbourne fans voted heaps for a guy like Billy Slater.

And there is enough foreign sides that could make it a 16 team comp, and we'd all love it.

It would offer foreign teams to assemble their squads once a year to develop and help create awareness amongst RL fans of the nations that play.

Plus too I'd rather see a NZ side wear Black and White rather than a warriors jersey.

 

[Costaki]

if australia put in a 7's team no other country would have a chance

 

[In-goal]

I don't know if Australia would be No.1 at 7's, i think a couple of other countries could put forward pretty decent sides.

 

[dimitri]

i really really like the idea
of the 1900 number and the money going to the rlif

that sorta of thing would be a great money raiser

 

[The Observer]

if australia put in a 7's team no other country would have a chance

In 1996 & 1997, Super League ran the World Nines competition in Suva and Townsville respectiveley. Only national teams took part, like in RU. Australia got dumped out in the semis twice in a row. Even Fiji and PNG managed to make the final in those years, and the Australian team was FULL of past and future rep players. Check here for more:

http://www.rugby-league-world.com/1997/Results/RepMatches/nines.html

http://users.hunterlink.net.au/~maajjs/res/wnines.htm

So the result would be no foregone conclusion.

Kurt Angle, excellent suggestion as soon as it possible to switch to national teams only, it should be done. It may take a couple of years to build up the tournament though, but it will be an excellent way to show that RL is an international game and will show who is good for RLWC.

I can put some teams up that would give the Kangaroos a run for their money.

 

[yakstorm]

Interesting how New Zealand stopped the Kangaroos both times, with only a goal difference.

Look at it this way, if it is National sides, teams like PNG, NZ, Pacific islands and the home nations are all strengthened as their teams can draw from NRL standard players.

 

[mono_mal]

whilst this is a good idea its the club sides that bring people through the gates in the majority therefore ensuring the competition is financially viable.

 

[The Observer]

whilst this is a good idea its the club sides that bring people through the gates in the majority therefore ensuring the competition is financially viable.

Its important that the competition is financially viable and builds up its supporter base and sponsorship etc.

However IMHO the claim that club sides bring people through the gates is a myth.

In 1997, the nations only World Nines attracted very respectable crowds of 12,000+ (Is the capacity of Dairy Farmers Stadium 30,000) on both days when the competition was staged slap bang in the middle of the Super League war AND staged on the same weekend as the ARL World Sevens in Sydney. No ARL players, not that many English based players too (except for the Great Britain team). The Nth Qlders had just gone through a season where the Cowboys had won a whole 2 games from 22.

In 1996 the World Nines attracted crowds of around 2500-4000 to a 12,000 capacity National stadium. The fact that there was heavy wind and rain, practically a cyclone didn't help. I have watched footage of the Australian Super League team taking on the USA Patriots at the time and I am surprised ANYONE was there given the weather.

I believe that the NRL clubs participate in the Sevens because
* they find the short game fun,
* they want the attention,
* they get to try new players,

and, most important of all,
* a chance to win $A100,000

If Sydney can attract 30,000+ people to see the Kangaroos take on the Kiwis and the Lions in test matches, why won't those people go to watch the Roos play in the short game against these teams and more?

 

[dimitri]

i also agree

that it is a bit of a RL myth that the club sides are added to gain crowds


also if they are scared play it in places like gosford or newcastle where it would sell out even without the club sides


soon the capacity of marathon will be close to the capacity of Aussie

so play it there and leave the club sides at home

 

[Misanthrope]

Maybe a compromise then?

Have the NRL teams wishing to particupate (which I'd assume, given the money at stake, would be all) play out a qualifying tournament a month or so before. Have the top three or four qualify, and then have nations fill the remaining spots.

Of course, this isn't as good as just seeing Australia go around, but it'd mean an NRL flavour without having all fifteen wasting spots.

Personally I think an actual World Sevens or World Nines event would work if played in Sydney. Lebanon/Greece alone would attract a big and vocal following. New Zealand have shown they can draw a crowd anywhere (although it usually takes Eric Watson's generosity to get them there), and I can't imagine many fans who wouldn't go to watch an Aussie side play.

I'd rather see it as all national sides- but if a compromise is necessary, I think it'd be best to put in either the winners of a tournament or the more popular sides.

Better yet, why not have a NSW and QLD side take the field? Then throw in the winners of the Emerging Nations cup just to make it a little more interesting. That eliminates the fifteen NRL sides in favour of two sides of Aussie NRL stars, and one of genuine Aussie players.

Chris

 

[The Observer]

i also agree

that it is a bit of a RL myth that the club sides are added to gain crowds

also if they are scared play it in places like gosford or newcastle where it would sell out even without the club sides

I agree Gosford and Newcastle will sell out for any major event with or without club sides. Gosford got 12,000 people in October 2000 for a game against NZ Residents/NZ A

soon the capacity of marathon will be close to the capacity of Aussie

Well I believe the capacity will only be 25,000. The stadium still won't be anywhere near the standard of Central Coast Stadium. Another question is whether the RLIF can make as much money from tickets, sponsorship etc out of Sydney.

so play it there and leave the club sides at home

I'm wondering whether the clubs would wanna stay at home? That's the $A100,000 question.

 

[In-goal]

The clubs want the money so it's a bit of a problem there, i think we should just have a bigger competition

 

[dimitri]

i think if the comp was played at marathon with a capacity of 25,000 it would be excellent considering

aussie only holds 32,000

 

[The Observer]

The clubs want the money so it's a bit of a problem there, i think we should just have a bigger competition

Unfortunately the national teams will always be second class as long as the clubs are in the competition.

 

[The Observer]

i think if the comp was played at marathon with a capacity of 25,000 it would be excellent considering

aussie only holds 32,000

It holds 43,000 at least and the SCG Trust are talking about increasing it to 50,000. You can check their website to find out.

 

[The Observer]

Maybe a compromise then?

Have the NRL teams wishing to particupate (which I'd assume, given the money at stake, would be all) play out a qualifying tournament a month or so before. Have the top three or four qualify, and then have nations fill the remaining spots.

Of course, this isn't as good as just seeing Australia go around, but it'd mean an NRL flavour without having all fifteen wasting spots.

You've employed some lateral thinking to come up with a very interesting idea. Good work. There might still be some resistance to it on the grounds if the Wildcard Tournament were played a month in advance, it could be hard to know just which NRL teams were going to make it and they would have to do stage in December, a time which would be less than ideal.

Secondly, if only the top few NRL clubs qualified, then the others might complain that it wasn't fair on them and would probably think that if they can field teams of a higher standard than the international teams then they should be there. Thirdly, would the club qualifiers draw more attention than/detract from the main event?

Personally I think an actual World Sevens or World Nines event would work if played in Sydney. Lebanon/Greece alone would attract a big and vocal following. New Zealand have shown they can draw a crowd anywhere (although it usually takes Eric Watson's generosity to get them there), and I can't imagine many fans who wouldn't go to watch an Aussie side play.

I'd rather see it as all national sides- but if a compromise is necessary, I think it'd be best to put in either the winners of a tournament or the more popular sides.

I agree that those particular national teams could draw decent crowds. There would be a challenge of overcoming the impression in the RL community, as Costaki held, that the Kangaroos 7s team would be unbeatable. Changing that impression could be tough, veen if the Sevens had been going a number of years. So...

Better yet, why not have a NSW and QLD side take the field? Then throw in the winners of the Emerging Nations cup just to make it a little more interesting. That eliminates the fifteen NRL sides in favour of two sides of Aussie NRL stars, and one of genuine Aussie players.

Chris

The thinking behind this is better still. While the idea of an all international Sevens might be seen as producing too weak a competition, it could be possible to have enter Aussie representative teams instead.

I'm thinking maybe even to compromise more and enter City and Country teams from both NSW and QLD. I'm also thinking that an exception could be made for the Melbourne Storm club because this might allow the competition to get vital exposure in Victoria, which we need, and the Aboriginal Dream team which would represent the indigenous people of Australia. The rep teams would get first pick of players, then the Storm, then the Dream Team.

So Australia's contribution would be reduced from 16 teams out of the 24 to 6.

POOL
A - Sydney Origin, England, Russia
B - NSW Country, Wales, South Africa
C - Brisbane Origin, France, USA
D - QLD Country, PNG, Ireland
E - Melbourne Storm, Tonga, Scotland
F - Aboriginal Dream Team, Fiji, Italy
G - NZ Kiwis, W Samoa, Greece
H - Aotearoa Maori, Lebanon, QUALIFIER

QUALIFYING TOURNAMENT - from Cook Islands, Holland, Japan, Morocco, New Caledonia, Serbia & Montenegro, South Asia Bulls/West Indies Exiles/Nigeria/Argentina

So this is what some teams would look like:

 

[Misanthrope]

Ah, I like that even more. You placate the majority of Aussie fans by giving them all someone to support, promote the game in Victoria, and remove the NRL clubs' monopoly on the tournament.

I'd add Tarstastan to the list of nations fighting for a qualifying spot, provided they could get here...

But I like the proposal, and it has more merit than any other I've seen. I say write it up and send it to the RLIF/ARL.

Chris

 

[The Observer]

Ah, I like that even more. You placate the majority of Aussie fans by giving them all someone to support, promote the game in Victoria, and remove the NRL clubs' monopoly on the tournament.

Cheers. I think the first two are the strengths of the proposal. I wouldn't really say that the idea was to break the NRL clubs monopoly on the competition, but it is to take a step towards turning the Sevens into a genuine international competition (while retaining its competitiveness) that improves the international game and states a case for an RLWC.

I'd add Tarstastan to the list of nations fighting for a qualifying spot, provided they could get here...

That's not a bad idea.

Also, the Australian Emerging States RL team could be added to the Qualifying Tournament. It represents areas like Victoria, WA, SA, Tassie and the NT, and it could feature players that played their junior RL in those states, e.g. guys like Eel Matt Petersen (the USA Tomahawks may well want him), Sharks Nathan Vagg and the Goodwin brothers (sons of Lord Ted).

Another way to reward more teams than just the winners could be to split the 100,000 for the Cup winners to give some reward to the Bowl and Plate winners. Perhaps 60 grand could go to the Cup winners, 25,000 could go to the Bowl winners, 15,000 to the Plate winners. The Fiji team were in the final of this year's Sevens but lost to the Cowboys. $A15,000 would have helped out the Fijians significantly.

 

[Misanthrope]

I wasn't even aware that the winners of the smaller comps didn't get an monetary reward. Well I'd definately agree with you there. Fiji would have benefitted immensely by the cash- the same would be true for any emerging or struggling nation.

Another thing, a little off-topic, I'd rather see the English put together their best Sevens squad. I like the initiative of taking one player from each ESL side, but they should be fielding their best side. That said, the English hardly have need for $100,000 AU when you consider our present exchange rates.

Chris

 

[The Observer]

Very true Chris. Think the England team took one player per club because the Round 4 of the Challenge Cup was on around that time. That's when the SL clubs enter, and they elite clubs (e.g. Bradford, St Helens, Wigan etc didn't want to be without too many players.