The Case for Adelaide.....

[Bring back John Fifita]

Now who in their right mind wouldn’t want the Adelaide Rams back in the comp.. when it’s the opportunity to resurrect the best magazine moniker of all human history...

The Adelaide RamPages...

 

[Rugged Rigid Robust Roy]

We all agree. The NRL need to do more with Melbourne and even Adelaide and Perth elite schools.

The no 1 objective of the NRL should be to get Rugby League played in the elite schools in Melbourne. The NRL has to sell their souls to do this. Have Can Munster or Billy Slater or Josh Ado Carr or the Bromwich bros or Christian Welch or the Cheese or even Cooper Johns or any of the premiership players as a roving ambassador to schools and have a division of the NRL dedicated to this

That is how the AFL is winning the code war.

Slowly AFL is being played in elite schools in both Sydney and Brisbane and the next generation will have the option. Once the Brisbane Lions and Sydney AFL teams are filled with local talent; the local market will grow and AFL will be an extremely viable option in Sydney and Brisbane.

AFL is kicking the NRL in the arse in expansion.

And the NRL has a reigning premier which it could use to sell the game in the second biggest city in Australia yet it refuses to and V Landys idea is not to spend another penny in AFL dominated states??? He should be taking the AFL on - Head to Head!!!! in the AFL heartland...with the premiership team …

Cameron Munster and Josh Ado Carr and the current superstars should be made to visit a different Melbourne Primary School every day to grow the product and bring it to the people and there should be money poured in to create an elite pathway for the game to be played at Brighton Grammar, Caulfield Grammar, Geelong Grammar De La Salle, St Kevins, St Benes, Assumption and all the great Melbourne institutional schools that help shape the agenda of the city. A bit like how PC and Cancel Culture has swept up the school intuitions so now the teaches teach it like gospel.

 

[mongoose]

Touch is the ace up the sleeve for Rugby League in which AFL doesn't have an equivalent. Touch is also very popular amongst women. I don't know how much the NRL or touch head bodies are pushing the sport in the southern states but it would be madness if they weren't. It's safe and extremely easy to set up and play.

 

[Rugged Rigid Robust Roy]

The NRL should get a program around touch footy with Cam Munster and Josh Ado Carr and get it played on the main schools that give the kids' buy in to the game at the most basic level.

AFL have Auskick which kills it with the 8 and 9 year olds.

 

[magpie_man]

Now who in their right mind wouldn’t want the Adelaide Rams back in the comp.. when it’s the opportunity to resurrect the best magazine moniker of all human history...

The Adelaide RamPages...

Hard to argue with that assertion; brilliant!

 

[Bring back John Fifita]

Touch is the ace up the sleeve for Rugby League in which AFL doesn't have an equivalent. Touch is also very popular amongst women. I don't know how much the NRL or touch head bodies are pushing the sport in the southern states but it would be madness if they weren't. It's safe and extremely easy to set up and play.

Absolutely brilliant point that.

I can tell you that my partners kids here in Adelaide went to an inter-school touch footy comp last year. Never played it before, absolutely loved it. But...

When they wanted to play more (having only played matches over a day and getting to grips with the rules etc).... there was no avenue to join a team, association or anything. So it ended there.

It's a really great inroad to get folk playing a version of rugby league (which - lets face it - isn't viable for the majority of the public). Thus interest is grown....seeds planted, keep it watered..... The game could grow in a place like Adelaide I'm certain of it.

I guy I know actually worked for Oztag and established competitions in London, which grew to a huge participation level over time. And got people into a game which they only associated with a small pocket of northern England. Oztag is possibly another angle. Bill Harrigan runs it here in Australia, Perry Haddock founded it.

Great post @mongoose

Edit/Addendum..

I just did a search and found this - they do have a presence here. But the kids werent made aware of it at the carnival.

Play - Touch Football Australia

 

[Perth Red]

Touch is very popular in WA and Vic but there seems little correlation between touch and rugby league despite the nrl spending millions to affiliate with it. I bet most kids okaying touch outside nsw and qlnd don’t know they are playing a form of RL!

 

[Get Rid of The Donkeys]

Schools choose what sports to make available to students. Its not a curriculum issue! School Sports Victoria supports both Touch and NRLVic as you can see ontheir web. If RL isnt being played in schools then you might want to ask the NRL and NRL Vic what they are doing about it! In fact a good question to ask is why with Union being so broke and nowhere near the high profile top tier team RL has, does RFL only have half the players of Union in Victoria and Rebels have 8 home grown players whilst storm have zero? Lets be honest the game is very poor at growing grass roots.

www.ssv.vic.edu.au

A weak storm does the game no favours at all. The winter footy code that cracks the expansion markets best will be the dominant force in this country, at the moment the Storm are the only thing keeping RL in the race!

RL isn't played at these schools because of systemic bias. The GPS system is in bed with the rah rahs and won't give RL a chance until they're forced by law. Until we get politicians to stop this bias then it'll continue.

The Storm cannot stay on top forever. There has to be a wooden spooner each year and there's no reason why one team should be kept at the top when there are 15 other clubs that are every bit as important to the game. If the only way the Storm can survive is by winning year after year at the expense of everyone else then the game is f**ked. We need to create bottom up growth in Victoria to make sure the game doesn't wither away when the Storm eventually slides down the ladder.

 

[Get Rid of The Donkeys]

Simply not worth the money. It will do nothing for the code in Adelaide, take that $3mill and put it into SANRL, start up a schools program like WA has, get the local league functioning again, get regular NRL and NRL events there, lobby Govt for stadium, build the infrastructure and personnel of NRLSA. Thats what Adelaide actually needs! A Queensland cup team full of blow ins is a total waste of time and money as it would be in Perth unless its part of a time managed start up for an NRL club.

The best way of growing the game in non-heartland areas is by sending skilled RL players and coaches to them so they can strengthen the grassroots game. Having semi-pro players from Queensland playing in Adelaide, training with the local players and running clinics, will improve the quality of RL in SA and provide a pathway to the NRL.

 

[mongoose]

RL isn't played at these schools because of systemic bias. The GPS system is in bed with the rah rahs and won't give RL a chance until they're forced by law. Until we get politicians to stop this bias then it'll continue.

The Storm cannot stay on top forever. There has to be a wooden spooner each year and there's no reason why one team should be kept at the top when there are 15 other clubs that are every bit as important to the game. If the only way the Storm can survive is by winning year after year at the expense of everyone else then the game is f**ked. We need to create bottom up growth in Victoria to make sure the game doesn't wither away when the Storm eventually slides down the ladder.

League doesn't need private schools, at least not for players. They only benefit League would get from it is more connections with the big end of town.

I mean who is currently playing Union in this country that the NRL would even want? no one!

 

[MugaB]

League doesn't need private schools, at least not for players. They only benefit League would get from it is more connections with the big end of town.

I mean who is currently playing Union in this country that the NRL would even want? no one!

Joseph Sualli almost went there, well done NRL

 

[Rugged Rigid Robust Roy]

The NRL should get a program around touch footy with Cam Munster and Josh Ado Carr and get it played on the main schools that give the kids' buy in to the game at the most basic level.

AFL have Auskick which kills it with the 8 and 9 year olds.

 

[Perth Red]

The best way of growing the game in non-heartland areas is by sending skilled RL players and coaches to them so they can strengthen the grassroots game. Having semi-pro players from Queensland playing in Adelaide, training with the local players and running clinics, will improve the quality of RL in SA and provide a pathway to the NRL.

No it isnt, its getting as many kids playing and exposed to the game as possible and having somewhere for them to play regularly, and an NRL club to dream of playing for one day.

 

[Perth Red]

The NRL should get a program around touch footy with Cam Munster and Josh Ado Carr and get it played on the main schools that give the kids' buy in to the game at the most basic level.

AFL have Auskick which kills it with the 8 and 9 year olds.

They do (kind of in their affiliation with TFA), touch footy is massive in all states.
www.nrl.com/news/2019/10/24/nrl--tfa-launch-free-participation-program-to-get-inactive-teens-playing-non-contact-footy-together/

They've also recently brought in a new kids after school program similar to auskick, though knowing NRL they probably havent put as much money to it as they should have done and should be cheaper than $99!

www.nrl.com/news/2019/07/23/league-stars/

 

[RedVee]

No it isnt, its getting as many kids playing and exposed to the game as possible and having somewhere for them to play regularly, and an NRL club to dream of playing for one day.

And to support if they don’t happen to make the NRL as a player

 

[The Great Dane]

People who espouse "bottom up expansion" are either delusional or are trying to use it an excuse to avoid expansion all together.

In 95% of cases you are going to need a professional team with broad exposure to drive local interest in the sport in a new market, otherwise you simply aren't going to be able to compete with the non-stop coverage of the dominant pro-team/s.

In other words, in Adelaide's case, there's no way that community clubs can be expected to compete with the Crows and Power for eye balls, and the only way you are going to begin to draw some attention away from the AFL clubs is if you put a well funded NRL team into the market.

 

[Rugged Rigid Robust Roy]

Up down and Down up...

If you get those two right, you can do anything in business

In Melbourne they have got Down up right; but they haven't capitalised Up down...

most of that is that the NRL seems embarrassed by trying to expand. No real vision from V Landys.

Adelaide can learn from that.

 

[Get Rid of The Donkeys]

League doesn't need private schools, at least not for players. They only benefit League would get from it is more connections with the big end of town.

I mean who is currently playing Union in this country that the NRL would even want? no one!

A few NRL players come from RU schools. Ay least getting them to spend their money on our game when they're out of school, instead of ruggers, will increase attendances and bring extra revenue into the NRL that can be used to develop the game at grassroots level.

 

[Get Rid of The Donkeys]

No it isnt, its getting as many kids playing and exposed to the game as possible and having somewhere for them to play regularly, and an NRL club to dream of playing for one day.

Good luck getting kids to play the game when there's no stars running clinics at their schools. AwFuL runs all sorts of clinics across NSW and QLD. They were doing it back in the 90s. An NRL team in these areas will definitely help, but you still need to get the team's players to engage with the community to draw interest.

 

[Get Rid of The Donkeys]

People who espouse "bottom up expansion" are either delusional or are trying to use it an excuse to avoid expansion all together.

In 95% of cases you are going to need a professional team with broad exposure to drive local interest in the sport in a new market, otherwise you simply aren't going to be able to compete with the non-stop coverage of the dominant pro-team/s.

In other words, in Adelaide's case, there's no way that community clubs can be expected to compete with the Crows and Power for eye balls, and the only way you are going to begin to draw some attention away from the AFL clubs is if you put a well funded NRL team into the market.

How did the Toronto Wolfpack and London Broncos go?

Perth doesn't have an NRL team yet the game is growing over there from the bottom up, to the point it is a genuine expansion option and deserves to be the 17th or 18th club.

Melbourne on the other hand has barely grown the game, despite having an NRL team that never loses. I have no doubt that a team in Perth will grow the game far faster than one in Adelaide or Melbourne because Perth has developed a grassroots following to tap into for players and supporters.