{"id":63983,"date":"2021-04-28T01:20:24","date_gmt":"2021-04-28T01:20:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=63983"},"modified":"2021-04-28T01:58:04","modified_gmt":"2021-04-28T01:58:04","slug":"nrl-clubs-explosive-claim-of-100m-waste","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=63983","title":{"rendered":"NRL club's explosive claim of $100m waste"},"content":{"rendered":"

In an exclusive for Wide World of Sports, The NRL Economist Ramy Haidar uncovers an explosive letter claiming $100 million has been squandered on participation, and reveals how Peter V'landys plans to deal with the issue.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Participation is a major area of concern for the NRL.<\/p>\n

According to Sport Australia's AusPlay survey released in October 2020, there are 159,000 adult (15+) and 132,500 (0-14) participants. The total of 291,500 is significantly behind the AFL's 898,000 participants.<\/p>\n

So why does the NRL have so few participants relative to its audience size?<\/p>\n

Some NRL clubs believe that previous programs and spending were burdened by bureaucracy. One such example is the South Sydney Rabbitohs<\/a>, whose CEO Blake Solly co-signed a July 15, 2020 letter<\/a> directed to the NSWRL.<\/p>\n

In it he claimed: "Clearly, something is deeply wrong with the status quo when the NRL Club reads in the shareholders annual report that $100 million has been invested in 'Development' or 'Grassroots' over a three-year period; however, its junior league partner, who should benefit most from this investment, derives minimal results from or has little evidence of this funding."<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The letter also offers a variety of positive initiatives the former general manager of the Super League would like to see introduced, including;<\/p>\n

–\u00a0Offering a competitive and a non-competitive stream in Mini and Mod League.<\/p>\n

–\u00a0Offering an aspirational and participation stream from 13s to Under-20s.<\/p>\n

–\u00a0Converting the Harold Mathews competition to a one-weekend round robin competition.<\/p>\n

–\u00a0Converting the Ron Massey Cup and Sydney Shield Competitions to a knockout tournament.<\/p>\n

–\u00a0Aiming for eight teams per competition in all junior leagues.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Privately, clubs are seeking a decentralisation of participation policy in order to leverage government grants. Alerted to these issues, ARLC chairman Peter V'landys requested a 'participation council' be formed to review the previous strategy.<\/p>\n

The committee, led by commissioner Kate Jones, includes NRL CEO Andrew Abdo, rugby league Immortal Mal Meninga, NSWRL CEO Dave Trodden, QRL managing director Rob Moore and club representative Solly.<\/p>\n

Clearly satisfied with V'landys' positive intervention, Solly explained: "It's very much in its infancy, but they're asking specific questions about how to get it right. Kate's influence is very encouraging."<\/p>\n

When asked why change is needed, Solly said: "It's not about ticking boxes and saying we have experience-based participation like the AFL's Auskick. Auskick is not true participation."<\/p>\n

Indeed, Auskick clinics count every student as a participant regardless of whether they were engaged or not. That masked tally is then used by the AFL to justify more funding and playing fields.<\/p>\n

In contrast, the NRL's council aims to genuinely grow club-based participation to achieve real growth. That is, committed players in registered teams.<\/p>\n

The greatest challenge to achieving this is identified in the NRL's own research report 'Investigating motives that influence Australia's Rugby League retention rates'<\/em>, which identifies one of the major factors affecting participation is weight differences.<\/p>\n

Both kids' and adults' fear of injury prevents them from playing, with weight difference a real concern. Growing participation will only occur when this concern is addressed.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: The NRL Economist Ramy Haidar is employed by NRL club the Manly Sea Eagles. You can follow him on Twitter<\/strong><\/em> @ramy_haidar<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In an exclusive for Wide World of Sports, The NRL Economist Ramy Haidar uncovers an explosive letter claiming $100 million has been squandered on participation, […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63983"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63983"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63985,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63983\/revisions\/63985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}