June 5, 2024 • 10 mins
Super Rugby Board Chair Kevin Malloy joined D'Arcy Waldegrave to discuss the possibility of revamping the finals series from 2025 onwards.
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sports Talk podcast with Dancy Wildergrave
from Newstalk ZEDB as well.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Welcome to News Talks. AB to Super Rugby Pacific's board
director Kevin Malloy, Good day to you, Kevin. I trust you.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Well, very well. Thanks Darcy.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Great to hear you. Guys had a pretty big meeting
on Friday, didn't you. The Super Rugby board got together.
You had a board meeting ahead of the quarter finals.
So I suppose first up, key discussion points and I'm
presuming the final setup now there is no rebels was
pretty important part of your discussion.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
Yes, it was the real focus of the meeting last
Friday in Sydney was to talk about a lot of
the implications.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
For the season twenty twenty five, what we're doing next year.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
Now that we have clarity that we've got eleven teams
in the drawer, we work through what the implications of
that that is for the competition, what that will mean
for finals rounds, what it's going to mean in terms
of bie weeks, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Did you come to any hard out conclusion. You're still
juggling a couple of ideas around because these talk around
which direction this should take.
Speaker 4 (01:15):
No, look, we came to no conclusions is that it's
a complicated.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
It's a complicated thing putting these draws together.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
There's all sorts of considerations, and now that we've gone
to eleven teams, that does add a degree of complication.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
We did get a couple of key principles.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
That we wanted to I guess some of the learning
we've had from this current season in terms of trying
to get more Sunday games, afternoon games, things that are
going to have greater fan appeal, as we say, get
bums on seats. So we talked about what that might
mean for the construct of the drawer.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
We talked about what we will.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
And won't be doing in the guards to super Around,
and we don't have a conversation around what the playoffs
might look like next season as well.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Well you started there with the super Round. I'm presuming
that's dead in the water. Is that the general consensus
is it going to be replaced or.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
Other concept isn't did in the water. I think everybody
feels like there is value in the super Round. I
think there's a general consensus that it's run its course.
In Melbourne, and it was great to be supported by
the Victoria State government for the period of time that
we were. But we're now looking at a different venue. Well,
there's a couple of different venue options, but certainly the
(02:31):
concept of super Round seems to work pretty well for us.
It's just a matter of where we do it and
when we do it in the season.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
What do you base that quite well for you on
the crowd's eyeballs on the TV, what actually works for
Super Rugby Pacific Kevin Well.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
Well, I think it's just it's something it allows us
to do something slightly different in the season. We get
all the teams together, there's some value and all the
teams being together, the coaches being together. We take it
as an opportunity internally as well to have a number
of meetings and we don't often get everybody together in
one place, so it's quite valuable from that respect. I
(03:07):
think if we can choose venues that are potentially or
a venue that is more fan friendly, shall we say,
it can have some value in that and timing as well.
Maybe we can do it at a time that ties
in worth a period during the course of the season
that will help us also make the whole super round
more fan friendly?
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Is this up for tender? Are there people running for
you with waving fist full loads of money at you?
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Kevin?
Speaker 4 (03:34):
The way it works is that we work with an
organization called TEG and they act on our behalf and
they talk to various state governments and various sort of
third parties around within the competition construct that might be
interested in hosting it.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Right, we're joined by Super Rugby Pacific Board director Kevin Monloy.
Let's look at this structure, the machinations behind how you
put this together. We know the draw is extraordinarily different.
What is the key principle behind the change that you've
discussed on? What do you want to achieve out of this?
Speaker 4 (04:09):
Well, as I said, we you know it is difficult
in that there's a number of things we have to
take into consideration with ground blackouts, you know what broadcasters
want to be doing, teams wanting home and away games,
various team requests, travel requirements.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
But again, we.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
Are looking to see if we can make the draw
and more fan friendly and what that would mean in
a practical sense is what we've learned this season. I
guess is you know that Saturday afternoon games and places
like Aukland. That Hurricanes Blues game we had a twenty
six thousand people. There makes a lot more sense to
be playing wherever we possibly can on a Saturday afternoon
(04:46):
or Sunday afternoon in a place like Auckland, rather than
in the middle of the winter on a Friday night. So
we're looking at that across the drawer. Again, there's a
number of considerations that go into that, but where we
can tweak it and make changes to make our fans
more engaged in it, then we're definitely going to try
(05:06):
and do that.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
The finals situation, this is interesting, it's interesting to everybody.
The top eight. Well, I had a fantastic last round,
didn't it so much buying so many teams still involved?
But maybe around that no real advantage for the winner
of the competition fled out like the Hurricanes. Is it
right and fair the current structure that so many teams
(05:27):
qualify for the final when you look at the minimal
amounts of points and wins that required for some teams
to actually get there, I'm sure there was robust discussing
around that. Did you come to any conclusions?
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Yeah, we did. Well, Look, it's interesting this year, isn't it?
Speaker 4 (05:40):
Just Speaking on what we've got this year with the
top eight, it's a double edged sword, you know, in
a positive sense. We went into round fifteen, the final round,
with every game apart from the Warata's reds basically having
something on it. So you know that obviously kept fans
engaged right up to the very final round.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
You know.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
The downside, I think we all understand is a credibility
of eight of twelve teams making the final is you know,
that's questionable. So it is a little bit of a
trade off and a double edged sword as we looked.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
To twenty five. Now, look, I'm going to give you
sort of I guess what is more.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
My opinion rather than anything the board has agreed at
the stage, but a sense of what we're talking about,
you know.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
Again, my opinion would.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
Be that we'd ideally have probably six teams and we'd
have a construct with the team that was first and
second would both give buys and then you would play
third versus six and four versus five and you'd work
it through from there, which seems to me to be
probably a sensible way of approaching it when you've got eleven.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Teams in the drawer.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Do you think that the teams in general, I'm sure
they're going to have buy in here, would appreciate that more,
or they like the fact that there's a run to
the end and they can still get in there.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
Well, I think the team's probably delight the fact that
this season still has something on it right to the
very end. But I think they do understand that, you know,
when you're down to eleven teams, and again for the
credibility of the competition, I think, again my opinion, what
makes sense for us to be at six teams in
the finals?
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Eleven teams there's a chance of a twelfth coming on board.
Of you wipe that out.
Speaker 4 (07:19):
We don't have a chance of getting it, of standing
up a twelfth team this late in the year and
in the competition unfortunately, So it's definitely going to be
an eleven team competition.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
What about when things change slightly with the nature of
the governance of Super Rugby, How does that look in
the future, because that's all been looked after by excuse
the word of commission, I believe in the not too
distant future.
Speaker 4 (07:41):
Kevin, Yeah, what is really changing is we've got our
board in place now so we do have a governance.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Structure for Super Rugby which is separate.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
The two unions, but clearly the two unions are represented
in the governance structure with the commission. As such, will
kick off properly, I guess when Jack Jack Mewsley, our
new CEO, gets his feet under the table, as starting
date is July twenty second, and then you know, we'll
look to have a small team of resource you know,
(08:12):
operations people or person a couple of marketing people, communications
people that would be supporting him and one hundred percent
focused on super Rumpy and what we need to do
to make this competition as strong as possible.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Fan Centric is a word Kevin malloy that bounces around
all the time in rugby overt recent times. What kind
of engagement of you had with the fan base in
order to determine what they are after?
Speaker 4 (08:38):
Well, there's there's quite a lot of marketing that goes
into what we're doing. Is also we monitor the feedback
we get on social media. We're pretty cognizant of what
fans are saying, what they do like, what they don't like.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
Do I say it?
Speaker 4 (08:51):
Even shows like Yours Darcy that we tune into and
never listen to and make sure that as best we
possibly can, we're getting feedback on what fans really want.
And it's it's easy to say fan centric, and if anything,
it can become a bit of a tiresome. But the
reality is, what do we do in a tangible sense
to make this competition more appealing, more eyeballs, more bums
(09:14):
on seats.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Timing wise, Kevin, when of these decisions likely to be
rubber stamped.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Well?
Speaker 4 (09:21):
As say, Jack starts on July twenty second. Our meeting
on Friday we started. One of the sessions we talked
about was some of the initiatives that we want to
be looking at for the next season. Again, once Jack
gets started, I think we'll get his teeth into these
and starting to implement them. As it is at the moment,
as I say we've got a governance structure, we need
(09:42):
Jack and a management team to start really making these
things happen. So, you know, I think really concrete conversations
around what we're doing and how we're doing it will
probably be August Septembers as we start to line up
everything for next season and.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Last but not least, And it kills me to say this,
as you well know, Kevin Malloy, the Crusader's storyline has
that actually been quite good for the.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
Comp I think any storyline that creates a narrative it's
people talking about the competition is probably a good one.
I know it's not a great storyline for Crusaders fans,
but yeah, look it has managed to keep a degree
of relevance for the competition. Everybody has got an opinion
on the Crusaders and how they've done. But you know, yes,
(10:26):
as you say, as a storyline, I think it's been
good for the competition this year.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
And on that we'll let you back on with a
busy day. Thank you so much, super specific board director
Kevin Malloy for your availability, your accessibility and your honesty.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
Thanks mate, no problem. Thanks Darcy.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
For more from Sports Talk, listen live to News Talks
it'd be from seven pm weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Sports Talk podcast with Dancy Wildergrave
from Newstalk ZEDB as well.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Welcome to News Talks. AB to Super Rugby Pacific's board
director Kevin Malloy, Good day to you, Kevin. I trust you.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Well, very well. Thanks Darcy.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Great to hear you. Guys had a pretty big meeting
on Friday, didn't you. The Super Rugby board got together.
You had a board meeting ahead of the quarter finals.
So I suppose first up, key discussion points and I'm
presuming the final setup now there is no rebels was
pretty important part of your discussion.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
Yes, it was the real focus of the meeting last
Friday in Sydney was to talk about a lot of
the implications.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
For the season twenty twenty five, what we're doing next year.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
Now that we have clarity that we've got eleven teams
in the drawer, we work through what the implications of
that that is for the competition, what that will mean
for finals rounds, what it's going to mean in terms
of bie weeks, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Did you come to any hard out conclusion. You're still
juggling a couple of ideas around because these talk around
which direction this should take.
Speaker 4 (01:15):
No, look, we came to no conclusions is that it's
a complicated.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
It's a complicated thing putting these draws together.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
There's all sorts of considerations, and now that we've gone
to eleven teams, that does add a degree of complication.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
We did get a couple of key principles.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
That we wanted to I guess some of the learning
we've had from this current season in terms of trying
to get more Sunday games, afternoon games, things that are
going to have greater fan appeal, as we say, get
bums on seats. So we talked about what that might
mean for the construct of the drawer.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
We talked about what we will.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
And won't be doing in the guards to super Around,
and we don't have a conversation around what the playoffs
might look like next season as well.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Well you started there with the super Round. I'm presuming
that's dead in the water. Is that the general consensus
is it going to be replaced or.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
Other concept isn't did in the water. I think everybody
feels like there is value in the super Round. I
think there's a general consensus that it's run its course.
In Melbourne, and it was great to be supported by
the Victoria State government for the period of time that
we were. But we're now looking at a different venue. Well,
there's a couple of different venue options, but certainly the
(02:31):
concept of super Round seems to work pretty well for us.
It's just a matter of where we do it and
when we do it in the season.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
What do you base that quite well for you on
the crowd's eyeballs on the TV, what actually works for
Super Rugby Pacific Kevin Well.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
Well, I think it's just it's something it allows us
to do something slightly different in the season. We get
all the teams together, there's some value and all the
teams being together, the coaches being together. We take it
as an opportunity internally as well to have a number
of meetings and we don't often get everybody together in
one place, so it's quite valuable from that respect. I
(03:07):
think if we can choose venues that are potentially or
a venue that is more fan friendly, shall we say,
it can have some value in that and timing as well.
Maybe we can do it at a time that ties
in worth a period during the course of the season
that will help us also make the whole super round
more fan friendly?
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Is this up for tender? Are there people running for
you with waving fist full loads of money at you?
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Kevin?
Speaker 4 (03:34):
The way it works is that we work with an
organization called TEG and they act on our behalf and
they talk to various state governments and various sort of
third parties around within the competition construct that might be
interested in hosting it.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Right, we're joined by Super Rugby Pacific Board director Kevin Monloy.
Let's look at this structure, the machinations behind how you
put this together. We know the draw is extraordinarily different.
What is the key principle behind the change that you've
discussed on? What do you want to achieve out of this?
Speaker 4 (04:09):
Well, as I said, we you know it is difficult
in that there's a number of things we have to
take into consideration with ground blackouts, you know what broadcasters
want to be doing, teams wanting home and away games,
various team requests, travel requirements.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
But again, we.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
Are looking to see if we can make the draw
and more fan friendly and what that would mean in
a practical sense is what we've learned this season. I
guess is you know that Saturday afternoon games and places
like Aukland. That Hurricanes Blues game we had a twenty
six thousand people. There makes a lot more sense to
be playing wherever we possibly can on a Saturday afternoon
(04:46):
or Sunday afternoon in a place like Auckland, rather than
in the middle of the winter on a Friday night. So
we're looking at that across the drawer. Again, there's a
number of considerations that go into that, but where we
can tweak it and make changes to make our fans
more engaged in it, then we're definitely going to try
(05:06):
and do that.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
The finals situation, this is interesting, it's interesting to everybody.
The top eight. Well, I had a fantastic last round,
didn't it so much buying so many teams still involved?
But maybe around that no real advantage for the winner
of the competition fled out like the Hurricanes. Is it
right and fair the current structure that so many teams
(05:27):
qualify for the final when you look at the minimal
amounts of points and wins that required for some teams
to actually get there, I'm sure there was robust discussing
around that. Did you come to any conclusions?
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Yeah, we did. Well, Look, it's interesting this year, isn't it?
Speaker 4 (05:40):
Just Speaking on what we've got this year with the
top eight, it's a double edged sword, you know, in
a positive sense. We went into round fifteen, the final round,
with every game apart from the Warata's reds basically having
something on it. So you know that obviously kept fans
engaged right up to the very final round.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
You know.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
The downside, I think we all understand is a credibility
of eight of twelve teams making the final is you know,
that's questionable. So it is a little bit of a
trade off and a double edged sword as we looked.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
To twenty five. Now, look, I'm going to give you
sort of I guess what is more.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
My opinion rather than anything the board has agreed at
the stage, but a sense of what we're talking about,
you know.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
Again, my opinion would.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
Be that we'd ideally have probably six teams and we'd
have a construct with the team that was first and
second would both give buys and then you would play
third versus six and four versus five and you'd work
it through from there, which seems to me to be
probably a sensible way of approaching it when you've got eleven.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Teams in the drawer.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Do you think that the teams in general, I'm sure
they're going to have buy in here, would appreciate that more,
or they like the fact that there's a run to
the end and they can still get in there.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
Well, I think the team's probably delight the fact that
this season still has something on it right to the
very end. But I think they do understand that, you know,
when you're down to eleven teams, and again for the
credibility of the competition, I think, again my opinion, what
makes sense for us to be at six teams in
the finals?
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Eleven teams there's a chance of a twelfth coming on board.
Of you wipe that out.
Speaker 4 (07:19):
We don't have a chance of getting it, of standing
up a twelfth team this late in the year and
in the competition unfortunately, So it's definitely going to be
an eleven team competition.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
What about when things change slightly with the nature of
the governance of Super Rugby, How does that look in
the future, because that's all been looked after by excuse
the word of commission, I believe in the not too
distant future.
Speaker 4 (07:41):
Kevin, Yeah, what is really changing is we've got our
board in place now so we do have a governance.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Structure for Super Rugby which is separate.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
The two unions, but clearly the two unions are represented
in the governance structure with the commission. As such, will
kick off properly, I guess when Jack Jack Mewsley, our
new CEO, gets his feet under the table, as starting
date is July twenty second, and then you know, we'll
look to have a small team of resource you know,
(08:12):
operations people or person a couple of marketing people, communications
people that would be supporting him and one hundred percent
focused on super Rumpy and what we need to do
to make this competition as strong as possible.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Fan Centric is a word Kevin malloy that bounces around
all the time in rugby overt recent times. What kind
of engagement of you had with the fan base in
order to determine what they are after?
Speaker 4 (08:38):
Well, there's there's quite a lot of marketing that goes
into what we're doing. Is also we monitor the feedback
we get on social media. We're pretty cognizant of what
fans are saying, what they do like, what they don't like.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
Do I say it?
Speaker 4 (08:51):
Even shows like Yours Darcy that we tune into and
never listen to and make sure that as best we
possibly can, we're getting feedback on what fans really want.
And it's it's easy to say fan centric, and if anything,
it can become a bit of a tiresome. But the
reality is, what do we do in a tangible sense
to make this competition more appealing, more eyeballs, more bums
(09:14):
on seats.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Timing wise, Kevin, when of these decisions likely to be
rubber stamped.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Well?
Speaker 4 (09:21):
As say, Jack starts on July twenty second. Our meeting
on Friday we started. One of the sessions we talked
about was some of the initiatives that we want to
be looking at for the next season. Again, once Jack
gets started, I think we'll get his teeth into these
and starting to implement them. As it is at the moment,
as I say we've got a governance structure, we need
(09:42):
Jack and a management team to start really making these
things happen. So, you know, I think really concrete conversations
around what we're doing and how we're doing it will
probably be August Septembers as we start to line up
everything for next season and.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Last but not least, And it kills me to say this,
as you well know, Kevin Malloy, the Crusader's storyline has
that actually been quite good for the.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
Comp I think any storyline that creates a narrative it's
people talking about the competition is probably a good one.
I know it's not a great storyline for Crusaders fans,
but yeah, look it has managed to keep a degree
of relevance for the competition. Everybody has got an opinion
on the Crusaders and how they've done. But you know, yes,
(10:26):
as you say, as a storyline, I think it's been
good for the competition this year.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
And on that we'll let you back on with a
busy day. Thank you so much, super specific board director
Kevin Malloy for your availability, your accessibility and your honesty.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
Thanks mate, no problem. Thanks Darcy.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
For more from Sports Talk, listen live to News Talks
it'd be from seven pm weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio.
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