Interview with new Force CEO

[Swee_82]

Gigs, while I wouldn't call Uni the silver spooners (they've become a powerhouse too recently to wear that tag for my money), I'd say you're about on the money with the rest of it.

[GIGS20]

Well I can't say I know Sydney club rugby at all....I was just attempting to alliterate a little to illustrate the point and used two names that I knew, I'm not sure that Warringah is one of the clubs that will miss out on the 4 even, but I can be pretty sure that the three names I do know that would be considered powerhouses would be pretty cashed up if not at the start of the comp, certainly after a couple of years!

I would suggest tribalism would be far better encouraged by having a regional competition, where clubs from neighboring areas send their best representatives to play in a combined team against other clubs. I'd suggest 4 clubs from Sydney isn't a bad number, but Surely you'd look for reps teams from major regions, (North South East and West spring to mind)

I can imagine that Perth providing two teams, one north, one south would provide for a pretty hotly contested derby!

[Swee_82]

Very true Gigs, even though Perth is my adopted home, I'd be the first in line to give it to the NOR types

Not sure what the answer is in Sydney- the ARC tried to create geographically based teams, which just saw really diluted support across all the areas, and no 'tribal' element of it- can't speak for everyone, but I know in my family which ARC team they went for was based on who was playing for who, hence my sister was supporting the Rams, while Mum was supporting the Rays (geographially speaking, they probably should have been supporting the Fleet).

[beige]

Not sure what the answer is in Sydney- the ARC tried to create geographically based teams, which just saw really diluted support across all the areas, and no 'tribal' element of it

And that made it hard to buy in to over here...

[AndyS]

Their key mistake IMO was not making the ARC teams regional wrt the players themselves - the teams should have basically functioned as "club select" sides for the grade sides in their area, rather than establishing stand-alone lists.

[GIGS20]

Beat me to it Andy, that is exactly what is needed to make such an idea work. I don't really have any idea of the geographic layout of Sydney clubs and therefore Geography mightn't be a good way to go, but I'd suggest that the idea of tying players to regions is a must. If Perth has a horror run of injuries and buys unsigned players from over east, they should be required to play for a Perth club for a certain period of time....this helps the tribalism to develop (since all Sydney Uni players are in the same team) and also supports the weaker clubs by enforcing a spread of the talent.

Possibly a conference system would be better in Sydney (I really don't know if Eastwood's clubhouse is three streets down from Randwicks.....Never been there, but the players MUST play for their upstraeam team!

[laura]

Can I just add my 2 cents worth...I think that the bloke doing the interview could have asked more 'Rugby-related' questions. The ones he asked were great but what song do sing out loud to how is this relevant to Rugby? Questions like that annoyed me.

Loved the rectangular stadium question & answer though!