National Rugby Competition - already in planning

[bazza]

BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMMMPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP

In the year and a bit since the last post was made, has anyone heard a thing about this?

I have heard nothing about this.
I heard they were changing the Shite Shield comp next year in Sydney to include teams from Newcastle, Illawarra, Central Coast and Western NSW.

 

[bayrep]

Aus needs something between club and S12/14. Now that you have a team in Perth there is even more reason to get a national comp underway.

 

[Timbo]

I'd heard about the Shute Shield.

But we badly need something along the lines of the NPC and Currie Cup.

Part of the massive WC profit was meant to go into founding this competition, I haven't heard any news for months.

 

[bayrep]

I actualy think Aus would have a good following at a national level. I know I look forward to the NPC as you get to see teams like King country, Bay of plenty, Buller play and see some young talent coming through in the different regions. I am sure Aus would get a good following not huge granted but give it time.

What seems to be the stumbling block on getting this going ??

 

[Timbo]

I have no idea. There were big plans for it after the WC, they'd even picked the locations for the teams and announced it was to be launched within 'a few years'. I haven't heard a thing about it since last year.

There's definitely a market for it, I enjoy the club rugby season when it rolls around, but you miss being able to watch a game played on more than a suburban level.

 

[Timbo]

The most recent article I could find was this on rugbyheaven, from the end of last year:

NSW push for nationwide club contest

By James MacSmith
Monday, December 20, 2004



In a big boost for the prospects of a national club competition, the NSWRU is mooting its club premiership be expanded countrywide.

NSWRU chief executive Fraser Neill will float the proposal with the ARU early next year.

The idea of a national domestic competition is not new but the NSWRU is serious about pushing its Tooheys New Cup competition to become the premier national series sooner rather than later.

"The time is right to do this now," Neill said.

"I've spoken to [ARU chief executive] Gary Flowers and he has said it is high on the ARU's agenda for early next year.

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I could see that happening, especially when you consider this:

Shute takes a country long shot

By Ben Kimber
Saturday, April 9, 2005



The NSW Rugby Union will expand Sydney's Shute Shield from next season with four regional teams to join the existing club competition in the first half of the year.

As revealed last year by the Herald, the 12 Sydney clubs will split into two pools - north and south - with teams representing the Illawarra, Central West, Central Coast and Newcastle-Hunter regions joining to form an eight-team round-robin for each half of the draw.

The top team from each pool will advance to a Shute Shield grand final to be played the week after the final of the Super 14 competition in late May.

NSWRU chief executive Fraser Neill said yesterday the move was designed to broaden NSW rugby's player base and to encourage greater involvement of the country rugby community.

"A key part of this is to make the pathway and accessibility to the next level for players much clearer and . . . easier," Neill said. "Where previously players from the country had to . . . move to the city to measure themselves against the current first-grade players, they can now stay home and play against these guys to see where they are before they make that decision."

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This has many of the hallmarks of when the NSWRL began to expand the Sydney premiership in the early 80's. For mine, it makes sense to expand the Sydney competition outward, alot of the clubs are cashed up and already have good facilities at their disposal, turning the whole thing into a nationwide premiership would be difficult, but hey, Rome wasn't built in day.

Here's to watching Randwick winning a national premiership someday :mrgreen:

 

[bayrep]

That makes it sound like NSW's are trying to expand their comp in the face of a national comp. I could see conflicts happening if the other unions push for a national comp which may clash with the Sydney expanded comp.

 

[Timbo]

Sydney's tried this before.

Early in the 90's the Sydney comp. was expanded to include Newcastle and Canberra. Unfortunately, both teams were punted after a very brief time, mainly because teams disliked the travel. In the interim since, Canberra joined the Brisbane comp, whilst suprisingly, the Newcastle grade comp. has strengthened greatly, in some places, it outmuscled league.

As of last season, Canberra was re-instated to Sydney Premier Rugby (aka first grade) because once again, travel (this time to and from Brisbane) was a huge issue (despite the fact that Canberra were the 03 Brisbane grade champions!).

I think the expansion of the Shute Shield is great, first step to a national comp. and all, BUT these days the Shute Shield is a glorified reserve grade competition (in fact, once Super 12 finishes, the Shute Shield actually becomes the reserve grade comp. and first grade contests the for a faceless commercial trophy) so it's only a token measure to get this underway, as the Newcastle and Illawarra teams will be excluded from 'Premier Rugby'.

As for conflicts with the state unions? I'm not to sure about that. I imagine were it ever to be expanded to a national competition, they'd probably fold some of the existing first grade clubs into the second division suburban comp, and keep maybe the 4 strongest ones, and do the same with Brisbane's first grade, which would include the Gold Coast team in the Brisbane comp, so then you have maybe 8 teams out of Sydney, Brisbane, The Gold Coast, two more from Newcastle and The Illawarra, Then you have Melbourne and Perth, who's suburban competitions are really only strong enough to justify the one team as is. Then put a team in from either Adelaide or North Queensland (the original directive was for Adelaide to be included after the competition got started, as of the major cities, it has the weakest club comp.) and you have a 12 team competition, with a fair bit of tradition in Sydney and Brisbane to back it.

 

[Timbo]

Actually it occurs to me that were the NSWRU's plans of national expansion to ever eventuate, the biggest problem they may have wouldn't be from the other state unions, but from the local clubs to see who'd go to the national competition. Could be a real powderkeg there.

 

[Timbo]

Update.

I heard on the WSFM sport program on Sunday morning that the ARU, having seen how well the NPC and Currie Cup are supported, and how profitable they are, have decided to fastrack a National Club Competition, and that it could be in place as early as the end of next years Super 14.

I can't find a thing about it on the net, but I imagine if there was even a grain of truth to that story, we'll hear about it soon enough.

 

[rugged]

Update.

I heard on the WSFM sport program on Sunday morning that the ARU, having seen how well the NPC and Currie Cup are supported, and how profitable they are, have decided to fastrack a National Club Competition, and that it could be in place as early as the end of next years Super 14.

I can't find a thing about it on the net, but I imagine if there was even a grain of truth to that story, we'll hear about it soon enough.

As much as I think a national club rugby comp is a good thing, I hope they don't expect the support that NZ and SA have. Rugby is the top sport in those countries but isn't in Oz.

 

[Resident Warrior]

Update.

I heard on the WSFM sport program on Sunday morning that the ARU, having seen how well the NPC and Currie Cup are supported, and how profitable they are, have decided to fastrack a National Club Competition, and that it could be in place as early as the end of next years Super 14.

I can't find a thing about it on the net, but I imagine if there was even a grain of truth to that story, we'll hear about it soon enough.

I hope what you say is true it's about time Domestic Rugby got a decent comp in Australia!!!

 

[Woods99]

I have thought about a national club competition a lot. I think it would have to be based around existing clubs to make it work. If there were, say, four clubs from the Sydney competition, Canberra, NSW Country, Victoria, three from Brisbande that would probably be a good start. Perth would be difficult to include, unless they were based on the East coast for the duration of the competition. Travel costs would be prohibitive, otherwise.

The four Sydney entrants would be Randwick, Eastwood, Norths, and Wests. Each of those entrants would be bolstered by players from nearby clubs, so that they would be, in effect, composite teams, and they would play in modified jersies, but based on the main club colours. It is important to preserve the club element in all this.
Games should only be played at top-class stadia, with good television production facilities. Randwick at the SFS, Norths obviously at North Sydney oval, Wests at Concord and Eastwood at Parramatta stadium.

 

[rugged]

So does anyone know what the fringe Force players are going to do for club rugby?

 

[Timbo]

So does anyone know what the fringe Force players are going to do for club rugby?

All Force players have been told they have to play in the Perth club competition.

 

[Timbo]

BUUUMP

This is an ooooold thread, but it was worthy of bump-age in light of yestardays news.

Don't know if anyone caught it in the paper, but, basically it said that the farcical APC will be a one year deal only, and from season 2007 there will be an Australian Club Comp along the lines of the NPC and Currie Cup.

One thing scared me-It suggested instead of elevating existing clubs from Sydney or Brisbane, or creating wholly new entities, that it may involve the merger of existing clubs. Speaking as a Randwick fan, our most hated enemies are Easts, and geography would dictate them being our merger partner. That'd sour me greatly.

But still, this is a long time coming and about bloody time at that!

 

[Jackal Dog]

Maybe Timbo but not all clubs are as well off as Randwick, Woodies and Uni, Penrith and Parra are really struggling and I can't see them having to much success unless they merge.

 

[Timbo]

Oh I know that.

I'm saying that the strongest clubs-Say 5 from Sydney and 4 from Brisbane-should be elevated and 7 new teams created to make a 16 team competition, then relegate the remainder to a 2nd division.

I'd have this:

Elevated from Sydney:

1-Randwick
2-Eastwood
3-West Harbour
4-Northern Suburbs
5-Sydney Uni*

Elevated from Brisbane

1-Brothers
2-Sunnybank
3-Souths
4-Gold Coast

New Entities

1-Perth
2-Adelaide
3-Melbourne
4-Newcastle
5-Wollongong
6-Canberra
7-North Queensland

*You'd have to wonder about the viability of a University team in a national professional competion? If it proved infeasable, I'd go with Southern Districts.

That'd be my model anyway.

 

[aussies1st]

Anything would be fine as long as it's not just the Super teams like usual and this year.

 

[Timbo]

Australia’s Rugby leaders to examine competition structure
May 09, 2006 - 6:04pm
Story by: ARU
Tim Donnelly
Australia's most experienced and respected Rugby leaders, including players, coaches and administrators, will meet for a three-day workshop in Sydney in late May to formulate the best means of enhancing player development and strengthening the competitiveness of its domestic and international teams.
Seventy Rugby stakeholders from all levels of the game will thoroughly examine Rugby's current competition structure and discuss options for a new, elite level of competition for current and emerging Super 14 players.
The 70 stakeholders include representatives from:


- The Rugby Unions in Australia engaged in professional Rugby - the ARU, NSWRU, QRU, ACTRU and RugbyWA
- The Rugby Union Players Association (RUPA)
- Victorian Rugby Union and South Australian Rugby Union
- Each of the NSW and Queensland Premier Rugby Clubs, as well as the Vikings, including coaching staff
- Current contracted players
- Current non-contracted players
- NSW and Queensland Country Rugby Unions
- Independent invitees, with strong understanding of elite rugby in Australia and its competitor Unions
Australia has been the most successful team at Rugby World Cups and has been consistently ranked in the top four or five teams in the world over the past 10 years.
However to remain competitive in an increasingly competitive environment that includes other domestic sports and the traditional Rugby nations, Australian Rugby feels it is important to review the domestic competition structure.
Recent research by the ARU's High Performance Unit has found that Australia's professional rugby players play fewer "elite standard" games than other Rugby nations.
When the Tooheys New Super 14 season finishes, there are no games of "elite semi-professional" standard for the current professional players who are not selected in the Wallabies squad, or for the talented young players emerging through the Australian Under 21 and Under 19 teams.
Meanwhile, New Zealand's National Provincial Competition (NPC) and South Africa's Currie Cup provide a high level of match intensity and skill development that create a deep pool of talented and seasoned players. These competitions also provide fans with top quality entertainment while also being taken into account in determining the division of SANZAR broadcasting funds.
The Australian Provincial Competition, to be held in September and October this year, was agreed to last year by the Super 14 provinces and the ARU on the basis that this consultative workshop with all stakeholders took place.
The workshop will run from 29 to 31 May and is being run by external facilitators Capgemini who have a solid track record in using their Accelerated Solutions Environment to achieve creative, collaborative solutions to complex problems.
Number of international standard matches on offer in 2006

Tier 1
Tier 2
Tier 3
TOTAL

Australia
12
13
6
31

NZ
12
13
9
34

SA
12
13
14
39

England
10
12
22
44

France
10
12
26
48

Note that for the purposes of this analysis:
Tier 1 = international Test matches
Tier 2 = international level provincial matches (Super 14, Heineken Cup and European Challenge Cup)
Tier 3 = elite semi-professional level domestic matches (NPC, Currie Cup, APC, Guinness Premiership and Top 14).
For further information contact:
- Gary Flowers Australian Rugby Union
- Fraser Neill NSW Rugby Union
- Theo Psaros Queensland Rugby Union
- Andrew Fagan ACT & Southern NSW Rugby Union
- Peter O'Meara RugbyWA
Tony Dempsey Rugby Union Players' Association