Running Heartland alongside club rugby would kill club rugby in some regions. Here in Wairarapa clubs are struggling to pull together teams each season. Taking 23 players out each week would make that worse. Also likely to reduce the crowds for both products.
Coming at this from the angle of a (nearly) lost rugby fan. The game has just lost its appeal for me. There's a few factors at play but perhaps the biggest one is how rule heavy and unintelligible it is. the rules change every year and are so subjective, and there's so many stoppages. My 9 year old son plays and the games have so many stoppages. The kids can't understand what's going on and if he wanted to drift over to football or basketball I would understand. I couldn't tell you who's in the ABs anymore and I'm not lying awake at night worrying whether they'll win the RWC or not. This is not who I used to be - I played rugby into my 20s, religiously attended NPC games through the 80s and 90s and wallowed when we got knocked out of RWCs. Against all this I didn't renew my Sky Sports subscription some time ago. Maybe I was just lucky to be introduced to rugby at a time I look back on now as possibly a golden age, as it was going professional but before professionalism stole its soul? Rugby had some cultural issues to address for sure - although a First XV player at my school I felt the culture wasn't entirely healthy and not aligned with my values - but I cringe at some of the over correction going on at the NZRU and Sky broadcasting, it pushes me further away. I also look at Super Rugby now and there's nothing "super" about it at all. NZ is now playing with a bunch lightweights, and from a pure player development and standards perspective we'd probably be better off reverting to a domestic competition now that South Africa has dropped out. Over the years the constant adding of teams to the competition in the name of "expanding the game" has been truly naive from a business perspective and to me, as a business person, fundamental to the watering down and eventual collapse of the SANZAR model.
The way I look at it, under our current model and, thinking about the economics of pro-sport in a country of 5m, super rugby entities (and all of their academy’s) need to exist to serve the needs of another entity i.e The All Blacks; why do we have some much angst about it that (and need to tinker with formats?) Personally I’d leave it alone while we can produce a good All Black team. The programme has seen a bountiful haul of success over the 29 seasons of SR in one guise or another so I think it works. Maybe a product of my age (50’s) and maybe I need to get out of the way but if the money the AB’s can make (through legacy and on-going on-field success) means we can fund a comp to prepare players, why mess with it? Getting some SA and other NH coaches into our system would be good though, exposing our players/coaches to different ideas that way would be cheaper than trying to revamp what to me are just glorified professional trials from Feb to June.
“Hey Siri, who would be the worst team to play when you’re coming off two poor losses in a row, including being held to zero points at home?”
- Not quite. The last three times the Panthers have lost to the Tigers (going back to 2017), they've gone on to lose their next match. So statistically right now they're actually probably the best.
Good to see this summary. Admit when I saw 'lets have a draft' I was thinking it was from the point of view of the 'hype' that comes with the NFL one which left me cold as I'm yet to see NZ sport deliver hype well...it's just not in our DNA. The thought of watching Mark Robinson announce teams and try to be charismatic... BUT I see the readers are smarter than that and the key draft concept of trying to level the talent playing field is a good idea.
The lack of a good app is really interesting and I think reflects the lack of awareness around engagement the administration has. To me they still live in a world where everyone loves rugby and they just need to 'manage it'. I'd love to see them brave enough to survey their viewership so they really see it front and center that it is only getting older the number of people who have any care factor at all. Then maybe they would act.
Have been reading about 'fan owned' football clubs. Many around the world in all levels of leagues, but including the Premiership - seems like a good way to get people to care.
Running Heartland alongside club rugby would kill club rugby in some regions. Here in Wairarapa clubs are struggling to pull together teams each season. Taking 23 players out each week would make that worse. Also likely to reduce the crowds for both products.
Coming at this from the angle of a (nearly) lost rugby fan. The game has just lost its appeal for me. There's a few factors at play but perhaps the biggest one is how rule heavy and unintelligible it is. the rules change every year and are so subjective, and there's so many stoppages. My 9 year old son plays and the games have so many stoppages. The kids can't understand what's going on and if he wanted to drift over to football or basketball I would understand. I couldn't tell you who's in the ABs anymore and I'm not lying awake at night worrying whether they'll win the RWC or not. This is not who I used to be - I played rugby into my 20s, religiously attended NPC games through the 80s and 90s and wallowed when we got knocked out of RWCs. Against all this I didn't renew my Sky Sports subscription some time ago. Maybe I was just lucky to be introduced to rugby at a time I look back on now as possibly a golden age, as it was going professional but before professionalism stole its soul? Rugby had some cultural issues to address for sure - although a First XV player at my school I felt the culture wasn't entirely healthy and not aligned with my values - but I cringe at some of the over correction going on at the NZRU and Sky broadcasting, it pushes me further away. I also look at Super Rugby now and there's nothing "super" about it at all. NZ is now playing with a bunch lightweights, and from a pure player development and standards perspective we'd probably be better off reverting to a domestic competition now that South Africa has dropped out. Over the years the constant adding of teams to the competition in the name of "expanding the game" has been truly naive from a business perspective and to me, as a business person, fundamental to the watering down and eventual collapse of the SANZAR model.
The way I look at it, under our current model and, thinking about the economics of pro-sport in a country of 5m, super rugby entities (and all of their academy’s) need to exist to serve the needs of another entity i.e The All Blacks; why do we have some much angst about it that (and need to tinker with formats?) Personally I’d leave it alone while we can produce a good All Black team. The programme has seen a bountiful haul of success over the 29 seasons of SR in one guise or another so I think it works. Maybe a product of my age (50’s) and maybe I need to get out of the way but if the money the AB’s can make (through legacy and on-going on-field success) means we can fund a comp to prepare players, why mess with it? Getting some SA and other NH coaches into our system would be good though, exposing our players/coaches to different ideas that way would be cheaper than trying to revamp what to me are just glorified professional trials from Feb to June.
“Hey Siri, who would be the worst team to play when you’re coming off two poor losses in a row, including being held to zero points at home?”
- Not quite. The last three times the Panthers have lost to the Tigers (going back to 2017), they've gone on to lose their next match. So statistically right now they're actually probably the best.
Good to see this summary. Admit when I saw 'lets have a draft' I was thinking it was from the point of view of the 'hype' that comes with the NFL one which left me cold as I'm yet to see NZ sport deliver hype well...it's just not in our DNA. The thought of watching Mark Robinson announce teams and try to be charismatic... BUT I see the readers are smarter than that and the key draft concept of trying to level the talent playing field is a good idea.
The lack of a good app is really interesting and I think reflects the lack of awareness around engagement the administration has. To me they still live in a world where everyone loves rugby and they just need to 'manage it'. I'd love to see them brave enough to survey their viewership so they really see it front and center that it is only getting older the number of people who have any care factor at all. Then maybe they would act.
Have been reading about 'fan owned' football clubs. Many around the world in all levels of leagues, but including the Premiership - seems like a good way to get people to care.