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ARC: not a bad start — by The CrowdJuly 31, 2007 at 12:49 pm · Filed under Roar of the crowd, Rugby Union
Gatesy writes:
I read my first anti-ARC article this morning, so it’s started.
When are the Sydney clubs going to realise that the landscape has shifted?
If people want to de-stabilse the competition, before it even kicks off, then how do we progress?
Maybe the format is not right but someone had to do something and it’s not a bad start. Those franchises can survive and can develop their identities and their brands, but it will take time
If Sydney doesn’t like having the 3 teams that it has, the solution is simple. Take 2 of them out of Sydney and put them somewhere else, such as Townsville, Adelaide, or somewhere. I’ m sure that there are a lot of new players, who
haven’t played at the Super 14 level who are very excited about this new competition. I bet they won’t thank the Sydney Rugby community if they were forced to move interstate to pursue their ambitions.
The plain fact of the matter is that the Sydney and Brisbane clubs have had ample opportunity to expand, go professional, set up Academies, play interstate games, or whatever is needed to lift club Rugby to a higher level. I don’t see that much has changed in the last ten years. It’s still “amateur hour” at most clubs, as far as I can see.
It’s also true that schoolboy Rugby seems to be the pathway to the higher levels these days and it is becoming increasingly harder for good club players to be seen and to make a mark. This may redress some of that.
This is not about parochialism or self interest of officials, it’s about broadening player depth…and it’s a situation that has come about because of “the paralysis of analysis”. Somebody finally stopped talking about it and put down a marker. It’s a start.
Let’s give it a chance to breathe, at least.