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The decline of Australian rugby. Is there a way out?
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<blockquote data-quote="Zed" data-source="post: 1178500" data-attributes="member: 38503"><p>We've always struggled with lack of depth, we simply don't have the players. In the 90s we did OK as it was the amatuer era, but have struggled to deal with the professional era, lack of players and lack of $$. The early 2000s we recruited some of the best players in NRL, at one point almost all the back line were ex NRL players, Walker, Tuiqui, Rogers, Sailor, Barnes, once they went we really hit the doldrums and never left. We do have quality players coming through, but a lot get poached by League. Check out (if you can be bothered) the NRL GF highlights, Ezra Mam scores a hatrick. He's a 20 year old that was a union player, he would have been awesome in union. NRL scouts target a lot of the private schools, spot the talent and offer them decent contracts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Ezra Mam is worth close to $4 million, a significant amount more than his union counterparts. The other issues are kids leaving union in their droves. They're still playing contact sport, but AFL and league seem to be on the rise, compared to union. Super rugby needs a restructure too. 5 teams ranging from mediocre to really mediocre, we don't have the players for 3 teams, let alone 5. The Force recruited a 10 who was playing 2nd division rugby in bum fack Idaho, whilst the Crusaders have All Blacks with 20 caps to their name sitting on the bench. No-one is going to watch the games, maybe 4000 for a game vs 40'000 for NRL and 80'000 for an AFL game. So success at Super level is important. Go back to 2 teams. I still think we'd struggle to be honest, but it's a start. And we need money. Lots of it. Also think we should be able to recruit international players, I think each club is limited to one international player? Make it 5. </p><p></p><p>[MEDIA=youtube]1TtKBm6ikCo[/MEDIA]</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Zed, post: 1178500, member: 38503"] We've always struggled with lack of depth, we simply don't have the players. In the 90s we did OK as it was the amatuer era, but have struggled to deal with the professional era, lack of players and lack of $$. The early 2000s we recruited some of the best players in NRL, at one point almost all the back line were ex NRL players, Walker, Tuiqui, Rogers, Sailor, Barnes, once they went we really hit the doldrums and never left. We do have quality players coming through, but a lot get poached by League. Check out (if you can be bothered) the NRL GF highlights, Ezra Mam scores a hatrick. He's a 20 year old that was a union player, he would have been awesome in union. NRL scouts target a lot of the private schools, spot the talent and offer them decent contracts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Ezra Mam is worth close to $4 million, a significant amount more than his union counterparts. The other issues are kids leaving union in their droves. They're still playing contact sport, but AFL and league seem to be on the rise, compared to union. Super rugby needs a restructure too. 5 teams ranging from mediocre to really mediocre, we don't have the players for 3 teams, let alone 5. The Force recruited a 10 who was playing 2nd division rugby in bum fack Idaho, whilst the Crusaders have All Blacks with 20 caps to their name sitting on the bench. No-one is going to watch the games, maybe 4000 for a game vs 40'000 for NRL and 80'000 for an AFL game. So success at Super level is important. Go back to 2 teams. I still think we'd struggle to be honest, but it's a start. And we need money. Lots of it. Also think we should be able to recruit international players, I think each club is limited to one international player? Make it 5. [MEDIA=youtube]1TtKBm6ikCo[/MEDIA] [/QUOTE]
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