Too busy to catch up with the latest HSBC Waratahs and NSW Rugby news? Want something to listen to on your iPod or other MP3 player, or from your computer whilst at work? Well you need Tah Talk!!
Tah Talk is a weekly audio podcast (an audio file you can download to your computer or MP3 player and listen to).
Tah Talk is hosted by HSBC Waratahs and NSW Rugby Media & Communications Manager Djuro Sen. Each week Djuro and the panel chat about the HSBC Waratahs, the Super 14, Tooheys New Shute Shield, issues in the game and interview special guests.
Got a question for the panel - email us at tahtalk@nswrugby.com.au
Testimonials
Hi Djuro and panellists of Tah Talk,
I enjoy Tah Talk immensely, always candid and nice to get some thorough rugby discussion outside of a 15 second grab on a TV news bulletin. I haven’t written in before and thought it was time. I’m a long time Waratah supporter, my old man and I have been going to the games for about 15 years now. Enjoyed last episode’s discussion on club rugby and its future in the rugby calendar. Been giving some thought myself, as a fan, to what I would like the ‘ideal’ season to be in the context of the current discussions around changing the Test rugby window internationally and this years ARC. I imagine a number of things are up for grabs in the next 12-24 months with, as I understand it, a new TV deal to be negotiated beginning in 2011. I would be interested to hear from your regular panellists (Link, Cashman, Kiss et al) on what they would ideally like to see as an Australian ruby calendar assuming all things are to be put on the table incl Super 14, club, ARC and test football. For what it is worth as a keen follower of the game (and an ex front rower with a brief and unremarkable career for the Forest sub division rugby club) what I would like to see:
- Firstly I would argue for the inclusion of a 5th Aus Super 14/15 side. I enjoyed a lot of what I saw in the ARC this year and if nothing else it demonstrated to me how many good young footballers there are that will not playing provincial rugby next year, a real shame. By example the half back stocks – Josh Holmes, Patrick Phibbs, Luke Burgess, Josh Valentine and Brett Sheehan all competing for just two starting spots in the Waratahs and Brumbies alone. I understand the inclusion of Perth two years ago had a one off impact of player stocks; NSW and to a lesser extent QLD/ACT bore the brunt of that player drain but with a better secondary competition (ARC) I would hope the impact would be lesser next time. Regardless I think it will be of significant benefit to the game in Australia. The logical place is Melbourne, I think rugby’s natural affinity with the corporate community would allow it to succeed financially far more quickly than what has been experienced with the Melbourne Storm and the great number of professional Sydney expats in Melbourne gives a natural fan base.
- With a 15 team Super competition and I would like to see all teams play each other once plus a secondary part of the comp where ‘local’ teams play each other again i.e., the five Aus teams get 4 additional games against the other Aus teams. Obviously each team does not play all teams twice but it doesn’t seem to hurt AFL or NRL. From my experience the local games are the best attended and most looked forward to, presumably the same with other provinces and I would assume the best revenue earners for the unions and TV operators through ratings boosts. You could start the season with local derbies to gather interest in the tournament, play the NZ and SA teams mid season and return to the local derbies for the run home to the finals. Hence we have 14 rounds plus another 4 rounds, add one bye and we have about a 19 week home and away comp. I think the 4 team finals series is good, larger finals series seem to me to reward mediocrity and fail to add sufficient incentive to perform at the pointy end of the competition for the whole season. I noted from the last Tah Talk comments about the lack of ‘winner takes all’ rugby in Aus compared to Europe, they play more games and more sudden death rugby. A finals series of 4 teams really means if you don’t win about 80% of your games you can look forward to next year. The current debate about player breaks perhaps encourages a later start to the season but I think a late Feb start to the season gives rugby a real jump start on the other codes. Purely on a selfish level, a night at the rugby in late summer/early autumn is a great thing.
- That takes us through to about late Jul once finals are finished. I am concerned for Test players the lack of game time at this time of year and would argue for less training camps and more games. Get Test rugby started within 2 weeks of the finals of Super 15, hopefully players will be match hardened and fitter by the end of a longer Super competition and a 2 week gap should be enough to work on combinations and strategy. I would also argue that an ARC type competition begin at the same time. For those players not involved in Tests I think they need to move into high quality competitive rugby ASAP not only for themselves but to continue to apply pressure to the Test team. Recent form suggests about 30 players make it into the Test squad, whilst I accept they all need to be there for the first two weeks of preparation my view is that if you don’t make the 22 in the first Test you are released back to play ARC. Adds quality to the tournament and keeps those players match fit. The ARC needs to be good enough that Test selectors view form in that tournament as an indication of your readiness for Test football.
- As for the ARC, I think the 8 team structure was about right. My only concern was the grounds the Sydney teams played out of. Western Rams playing at Parramatta was the right choice I thought but the choice of grounds for the Fleet and Rays struck me as odd. A team that theoretically draws on players form Nth Sydney, Manly and Warringah ignoring the logical ground for them to play at Nth Sydney and heading up the highway to Gosford seemed a mistake. Equally a team drawing on players from Randwick, Easts and Sydney Uni playing at Nth Sydney? Whilst I suspect Singo made it worth the ARU’s while to play a team in Gosford I think the future success of the tournament will have to rely on some sense of local support and tribalism. Must have felt odd for supporters of these teams to travel into unfamiliar territory and support players from their clubs. Having said that I would support a team continuing in Gosford, can’t remember where I read it but one journalist put forward a view that a Gosford team could not only promote the game on the Central Coast but could position itself as a centre of rugby for country NSW. A team that could have special programmes in place for young rugby players from non metro areas sympathetic to the needs of players from the country. On that basis maybe I am taking about a 9 team ARC. As a positive I particularly enjoyed watching the Rams backline, struck me as a bunch of prodigiously talented young blokes committed to attacking football and having a crack. Great to watch. I hope a Burgess/Beale/Turner combination gets to see plenty of game time this season and produces fruit. Praying for the other SANZAR decision makers to take on the bulk of the new rules for Super rugby.
- So with a Test period underpinned by a quality national tournament we go through to the proposed Nth/Sth hemisphere window of Sept/Oct which seems to be the preferred world cup timing going forward. In those non RWC years, the Nth hemisphere teams have to be fair dinkum. Perhaps tours only every second year give the various Nth Hemisphere teams more incentive. With the RWC and Lions programmes, they really only have 2 years out of the 4 anyway except France and Italy. With the ascendancy of Argentina maybe these three Latin style nations can bring a team to the Sth hemisphere once every four years as a foil to the Lions. Help encourage nations like Portugal and Spain in that same Latin vein.
- The obvious gap in this is any reference to club rugby. My support for an ARC tends to suggest a weaker future for NSW club rugby and I noted the venom in Alan Williamson’s tone when any mention was made of the ARC on your last programme. I can’t see that either the financial or playing resources can support a national comp that takes in all the teams in the QLD/NSW/ACT and other areas. Discussion of a promotion/relegation system forecasts continuing strength of the game in the East and Nth suburbs of Sydney, I believe the game has to be a broader church than that. Club rugby needs to continue to be resourced as it is clearly an important stepping stone from Amateur to professional rugby. Equally from the ARC games I attended, it looked as though the club faithful found it difficult to transfer their support to the new entities and go to the games. This goes to my point earlier about tribalism and local support. Whilst a big risk for the ARU, I thought a way of engaging club rugby more successfully might be to give the clubs ownership of the ARC teams allowing a genuine and tangible connection between club rugby and the professional ranks. Asking competing clubs like Randwick and Easts or Manly and Warringah to work together may be like attempting to herd cats but it would help to harness local support for the new teams. If, as a talented rugby player you can see a tangible path through club rugby, ARC and onto higher honours you may be more inclined to stick with and support your club. Also, by example, if you are a Randwick supporter a more co-operative and positive relationship between the clubs and this new competition may encourage you to support the Sydney Fleet team. One of the problems I sensed for the ARC was that some supporters of club rugby felt they were being disloyal if the supported the ARC; this is poison for any national competition.
Anyway to my mind a season with a more logical flow and better outcomes for fans. Look forward to any comment the Tah Talk panel could put forward on their preferred look to the rugby season.
Regards,
Brad Morisset
To: Tah Talk
Subject: An ode to Tah Talk
FROM: Paul Cook
G’day Djuro and the team,
2 things.
1. Just trying to find out what time kick-off is for this week's 'special' episode from the Cabana Bar. I work in Artarmon til 6.30pm so am hoping you guys aren’t starting til the evening! Look forward to the experience and maybe a chance to meet the team and set the world to rights rugby wise.
2. General feedback. I’ve been meaning to contact you for a while so I’ll probably just get through everything all at once! Given that the atmosphere and ethic of taking NSW Rugby forward and making it a success has generally evolved over the last few years into a positive and open one and one in which you encourage feedback, appraisal and also constructive criticism when necessary, I just wanted to take this opportunity to ‘pat you on the back’ and to air the opinion of a fairly recent but nonetheless passionate supporter.
For my sins, I am a ‘Pom’, originally from Northampton where I used to follow the mighty Saints (not so now after last year’s relegation) but after marrying a lovely Aussie and relocating to Sydney I had to redirect my sporting allegiance and searched the city’s footy codes for a suitable choice. Being English, my true, original betrothal was to football (it’s not soccer, ok!) with the game they play in heaven a close second but at the time of January 2004 when I arrived here all was not well in that code, the NSL had just dissolved and the A-League was a pipe dream awaiting realisation. Having obviously revelled in England’s magnificent World Cup triumph of 2003 - I won’t say too much - I was aware of a majority of the Wallaby players at that time and was a neutral fan of Tuqiri, Larkham, Waugh, Smith & Rogers in particular. After settling in, starting work etc, etc I started to take a real interest in the local sports scene and I remember vividly reading the match report of the big win 1st up by the Tahs away to the Crusaders in Christchurch at the onset of the new Super 12 competition. I followed the reports throughout the season until I finally took the plunge and went to my first and the teams last, home game against the Highlanders in May. Unfortunately, after a bit of biffo between Mr. Calm (Justin Harrison) and an opposing player, we snatched defeat from the jaws of victory with Matt Burke’s last competitive kick in Sydney arguing with the post and refusing him a fairytale departure.
However, I had seen enough to whet my appetite and with a new season looming and a lot of cautious optimism about the future campaign, I committed to a Blue Blood Membership, heckled and harangued a Sydney Swans diehard friend to take a punt with me and took my seat in the stands for the 2005 competition and what a year that was! The sleight of hand of Rogers, the raw physicality of Waugh, the grunt of Lyons, the technical superiority at the line-out of Harrison and Vickerman, the thrill of a full steam Tuqiri barrelling towards another victim and then, for me, the highlight of the year, the precision kicking game, instinctive running and intercept capability of point scoring machine Peter Hewat.
I know from your opinions expressed on Tah Talk Djuro that you agree with me when I say ‘How this guy hasn’t got a Wallaby cap to his credit is beyond me’. He should at least have been given a chance. He is much more confident, dangerous and a better decision maker with ball in hand than the current incumbent and in my opinion, vastly overrated Julian Huxley. Suffice to say I was less than happy to hear of Peter’s defection to my homeland next year, I wish him all the best and understand his reasoning behind it but it’s a bitter pill to swallow all the same.
Anyway, I digress. I have now been a Blue Blood member for 3 seasons and look forward wholeheartedly to next years improved performance and re-establishment of the Waratahs as Australia’s premier side and as a genuine title challenger. Because it WILL happen. And this is the crux of my incessant rambling. At some point last year, I discovered Tah Talk, probably around Episode 15 and from then on, long journeys home at the mercy of City Rail would never be the same again. It’s a must hear every week and I even went back and downloaded the previously missed episodes so I am happy to say I have listened to all 59. It is a programme to bridge the gap between franchise and supporters, a programme that enlightened a recently arrived and virginal knowledge wise fan to Sydney’s clubland with it’s Tooheys New Cup and Shute Shield comps, to the inner sanctum of the ARU and NSW Rugby with it’s political machinations, policies and roadmaps to the future, to the mindset of Messrs McKenzie, Kiss et al who are at the heart of the coalface and know more than most the tactical, physical and mental condition of the team week in and week out and the decision making that is required to maximise it’s potential for optimum results, to the learned, thoughtful and mostly unbiased opinions of Mark ‘Crusher’ Cashman and Greg Growden through to the personal insights of the ones that really matter and the ones that we care about the most, the players. It also introduced me to Mr. Jon B. Geddes. The man is a legend. Enough said.
It is a lot easier to ‘sing when you’re winning’ and to produce a programme of this ilk on the back of a successful franchise both on and off the pitch when everything is running smoothly and everyone has a smile on their face. However, as has been opined on a few occasions on the programme by various people, the true test comes when the chips are down, the smiles have melted to gloomy despondence and the naysayers and doom merchants both in the stadium and through the media start to take over. Last year was such a time. It would have been easy to hide, easy to go quiet for a few weeks, easy to pretend that all was well and not to face the music. But you didn’t. I remember listening to the episode produced, I think, a couple of days after the Auckland Blues debacle which was a true test of any fans mettle and you asked Les Kiss just what was going wrong and he proceeded to give an honest, bloody but unbowed appraisal of the teams standing at that time followed up in the coming weeks by some heartfelt soul searching from both Ewen McKenzie and Adam Freier who must have been hurting like hell inside and just desperately trying to turn the situation around. It was a tough time, I’m personally proud to say that I never left early at any home game and also down in Canberra even when you could see that it just plainly wasn’t going to happen for us. I don’t walk away from a fight, neither did you guys and I applaud you for your honesty, candour and lucid and logical responses to a trying situation. It is because of this standpoint that the programme took and the subsequent overhaul of methodology, practices and staff undertaken by NSW Rugby that convinces me of the professionalism, belief and dedication of all those involved at the Waratahs that they will become a success once again and will I am sure finally break their duck and take that elusive Super 14 title.
Congratulations on 60 episodes, keep up the excellent work and I look forward immensely to hearing Episode 100 which is scheduled for around the end of May if you maintain your current pace, brought to you from the Town Hall steps including interviews with triumphant Super 14 winning coach and captain respectively Ewen McKenzie and Phil Waugh. What a way to see in a century! Go the Tahs!
Regards
Paul Cook
Thanks for contacting us Paul. We love hearing from our listeners so feel free to send us your thoughts on the HSBC Waratahs, Premier Rugby, the Mazda Australian Rugby Championship or anything from the world of rugby - or if you simply want to say hi!
“Just also want to let you know how much I enjoy the podcast. Not only is it convenient but it's entertaining! Keep up the good work!!!” Gus Chan, Sydney.
“That was an awesome video podcast, great to see the faces behind the madness!! By the way, my dad received his MP3 player, I’m just hooking it up with the last 5 episodes of Tah Talk (He’s a big Rugby fan & loves Lote) & some of his Island music. He loves it, he never even had an old school tape walkman, so he’s just skipped 3 decades of technology in 1 hit!!! He sends his appreciation to you & the boyz!!!” Sione, from the Rugby Fobcast.
“Good to see NSWRU is leading the way in innovative marketing techniques in the Australian sport market. The podcast is keeping all of us rugby fans involved and educated about current issues within Australian & international rugby circles. It also reminds us how good a player the flying winger Kissy WAS.” Todd Atkins, Berkley Vale.
"Djuro & Kissy, Great work putting Tah Talk together, I listen to it while I’m working." Steve Talbot, former Waratah.
DISCLAIMER: The views expressed on Tah Talk do not necessarily reflect the opinions of NSW Rugby. Tah Talk is an opportunity for open and fair comment. We encourage your feedback on tahtalk@nswrugby.com.au