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To Spartan,
I can assure you that the options you canvass are being very seriously considered.
RugbyWA will certainly and I personally take responsibility for where we are at, now we can look back and see where we tripped up. I can honestly look myself in the mirror and say - under the circumstances, with what we knew, with the verbal information we were given and indeed shared, would I have acted differently, would we have made a different decision ? - NO. To us it was going to be an ALLIANCE.
To provide some feedback - we need to make decisions with our heads going forward. With the exception of the Insurance payment, all other monies attached to subscriptions, players/member fees come back to WA. Essentially there are 3 broad components. Insurance, WA rugby registration/ competition management and finally club fees.
Currently all pathways to National competitions and representation go through the ARU. From Wallabies, down through Women's, sevens, Schoolboys, Under 19's etc. We can be cynical and agree that any talent here will be ignored unless that talent heads East, we do know after 2021 Super Rugby as we know it will be replaced.
SA Rugby is a mess - Bakkies has scraped the surface, Argentina don't enjoy the travel, Sunwolves struggling for results, N.Z. complaining about lack of competition. Andrew's vision is a way forward.
We do know Pulver is gone, I understand a few others too and I suspect following the Senate report and referrals to other agencies the board will change. Will the new board and CEO change things??? My cynicism says unlikely but I do hold out some hope, so if we secede now, will we miss out on future changes? Are we being hasty? Can we be sustainable?
Unlike the ARU, we need to do some research. There is nothing stopping us now from generating some funds to send OUR WA Gold teams to tournaments in Asia. We can still select a WA GOLD side to play in Asian comps, we can still organise festivals - e.g. Schools festivals, where we can invite Schools from East, Asia and South Africa to play our Schools ( Aranmore, Scotch, Hale, CBC etc.) over a long weekend.
We can still maintain our Future Force and have players and coaches be part of an high performance structure, let's get ready for 2021.
We all hope the Senate Inquiry will bring some accountability to those in the ERU who deserve to be held to account for the duplicitous actions that led to the death of the Force.
However, it is also important we remember to focus on the future. Super Rugby looks likely to die in 2020, with the end of their golden goose broadcast deal. A big challenge for any of us interested in WA rugby is how do we maintain the passionate sea of blue support, in the intervening period, so we are ready to rebirth the Force successfully when SR dies.
Some will naturally keep their interest up through an involvement with club rugby but a lot of less connected and more casual Force supporters won't - I know some of my friends fit into this category.
If we want a reborn Force to prosper we need to be ready to seize the moment when it arrives and have the fan base ready to make it a success. Hopefully Twiggy's comp will give us this chance, but we may need more. Many TWFers will automatically maintain their interest (and the rage) but others won't - I reckon we should all put our thinking caps on and help WA rugby be ready. It is crucial we are ready when we get the chance to rise again and that the support base is there to see the Force relaunched.
So the biggest question for me at the moment is how do we keep the less diehard WA rugby supporters enagaged and ready?
RugbyWA and Twiggy's mob will no doubt do strategic planning around the 2020 scenario, what do we do to help?
Very good points and I appreciate the response. I am glad secession is being raised as an option as I think once the Inquiry hands down its finding and if nothing comes of it then it is an option that needs to be seriously considered. At this point in time the ARU have made it very clear that they are cutting Western Australian rugby off at the knees. They have never really helped or nurtured what they had here, hopefully the Inquiry brings the Force back into superugby and leads to multiple arrests, but we must have a backup plan.
One thing that bothers me is if Super Rugby is done in 2020, why the hell could the ARU have not just found funding options until that time and re-evaluate. Why cut a team and then presumably bring them back for this new comp. 3 years out in the wilderness for what?
While we sit back and watch a stunted competition the other franchises get to watch their sides play Super Rugby then waltz into whatever format 2020 takes. Maybe the IPRC should have a 3 year waiting list to get it so the other Australian franchises need to bleed like we have.
Mac, you are 100% correct. We definitely need to seize the day before people drift away. Rest assured that RWA and some of the sea of blue are working on a vision, strategy and plan right now that we will launch before the year is out. And it will be awesome!
Rugby in WA is going to go from strength to strength despite the ARU's best efforts to deploy a scorched earth policy over here. We will be the best placed of every state in Australia to grab the box seat when SuperRugby takes its final sickly breath. We are so going to kick ass!
West is best and we are damn well going to make sure the rest of the country knows that!! Meanwhile, Twiggy's mob are working the international tables to make sure WA is at the centre of that too.
Proudly Western Australian; Proudly supporting Western Australian rugby
[QUOTE=Hansie;444017]To Spartan,
To provide some feedback - we need to make decisions with our heads going forward. With the exception of the Insurance payment, all other monies attached to subscriptions, players/member fees come back to WA. Essentially there are 3 broad components. Insurance, WA rugby registration/ competition management and finally club fees. )))))))))
Hansie This has really nothing to do with me as I don't play or have children who do and I might be a little cynical here but ,,,, Why does the money have to come back.. Can't Rugby WA collect it all and forward the funds.. I just don't trust that mob over east...
What also needs to be mentioned is that Sanzaar are looking at cutting more teams and the Lions and Sharks wanting to play in Europe as that will hit them hard. They're the teams the competition needs to retain any semblance of credibility.
As for the IPRC I mentioned in my submission that the ARU has done nothing to help the Force set this up and to keep Twiggy onside as Aus Rugby will need this comp if or when Super Rugby goes to pot.
'I may be a Senator but I am not stupid'
https://omny.fm/shows/the-alan-jones-breakfast-show/cameron-clyne
Link to Senate Report http://www.aph.gov.au/senate_ca
https://www.change.org/p/rugby-australia-petition-for-cameron-clyne-to-resign-as-chairman-of-the-rugby-australia-board
In case I missed it, did the Senate Inquiry ever receive the fabled ARU ‘spreadsheet’ or the morphed ‘score Card’?
Watching the offsiders on ABC today. Noticed journo Georgina say how the welcome to country acknowledged all the fans up and down the east coast. Shows the genuine east coast mentality of media and rugby in this country!!
She did qualify in the end of the program that the administration has left the sport in a mess.
'I may be a Senator but I am not stupid'
https://omny.fm/shows/the-alan-jones-breakfast-show/cameron-clyne
Link to Senate Report http://www.aph.gov.au/senate_ca
https://www.change.org/p/rugby-australia-petition-for-cameron-clyne-to-resign-as-chairman-of-the-rugby-australia-board