COMMUNITIES TOGETHER
Our Joint Vision After 40 years, the opportunity has emerged for the sports of Rugby League and Touch Football to more formally unite and become one family again. The alliance of Rugby League and Touch Football is a momentous opportunity and a game changer in terms of sporting participation, promotion and pathway development. The opportunity to establish Australia s largest sporting community of 2 million participants, is as compelling as it is exciting.
Our Joint Vision Sport in Australia and the international stage is rapidly changing. It has evolved significantly as an industry, certainly from a commercial, entertainment and broadcast perspective. Notwithstanding how people connect, observe, interact, attend and participate in sport. To face these challenges in the midst of ever stronger competition and market forces, it makes commercial and operational sense to seek unification with similar models and frameworks; and to form alliances with genuine allies to confront and meet these challenges collaboratively and in unison. The National Rugby League (NRL) and Touch Football Australia (TFA) share very similar characteristics, demographics, recognise common virtues and attributes. Both sports also share like-challenges in terms of community engagement, participation, recruiting, retaining and connections to the broader business, education and general community. A mutually beneficial strategic alliance will enhance the strengths within each sport and negate the pervasive influence of other competitive sports, particularly in terms of grassroots/schools participation and development. It is proposed this will be undertaken through a joint game development framework and participation strategy, underpinned by the following fundamental principles: Australia s largest sporting community A place on the field for everyone A deeper level of engagement with the community Alignment: combined approach and effort
Our Mutual Objectives/Benefits The focus is to build a partnership predominantly on game development and alignment. Relationship Objectives NRL Strategic Objectives TFA Strategic Objectives 1. To increase the reach and profile of the NRL family to the broader Australian community. Reach and Profile Substantially raise the profile 2. To increase NRL and Touch Football participation providing full-year product offerings. Pathways and Participation Substantially increase participation 3. To establish common game development strategy to maximising resources. Community Financial Strength Quality experiences Grow the resources 4. To maintain each sports fundamental pathway, financial model and unique identity. Elite Clubs, Players and Competitions Thrive at the elite level
Working Together Australia s Largest Sporting Community Working together in the spirit of true partnership, the NRL and TFA will build a common approach and philosophy to come/work together and to introduce respective sports to each other s market. This is the opportunity for full-year involvement of participants and to provide multi-channel pathways to further encourage retention within, and recruitment to, the wider Rugby League family. The major benefits of the partnership have been identified as follows: Building organisational capacity Full-year offering in a competitive marketplace Major Benefits Building Australia s Largest Sporting Community Grow the game(s) increased reach, penetration and profile Maximise resources and opportunities
A place on the field for everyone Pathways Rugby League Touch Football Participation Rugby League Touch Football ENGAGEMENT Schools/ Recruitment Rugby League Family
National Partnership Local Solutions The strategic alliance has been established to create opportunities for Rugby League and Touch Football, with the focus on finding local solutions for successful implementation. For this to be a successful alliance, it is the responsibility of every Board Member, administrator, member/ constituent and fan, volunteer, coach, player, administrator and supporter of both Rugby League and Touch Football to buy-into the alliance and work together for mutual benefit. Each operational region will establish a Local NRL-TFA Partnership Plan. Included in the plan will be roles and responsibilities, timetable of activities, agreed outcomes and success indicators.