OPINION:
If Super Rugby is ever going to win back its credibility and re-engage its lost fan base, then it needs to focus on substance ahead of style.
A self-styled Super Round such as the one taking place this weekend in Melbourne isn't a bad idea per se, but it feels as if there is more in it for the promoters than there will be for anyone else.
With a bit of Government funding, broadcast, sponsorship and gate revenue, the promoters will likely be doing pretty well out of this weekend and all 12 teams will bank a cheque they are happy with.
But it's not clear what having every game played in one venue does for the fan experience.
And herein lies the crux of Super Rugby's issue: that at some stage in the last decade or so it stopped thinking or caring about Joe and Josephine Bloggs and built a madly conceived, disjointed competition that never knew who it was trying to please.
Decisions were ad hoc and made with one of two objectives in mind: to make money or to appease whoever was lobbying the loudest.
Fans wanted a Pasifika entrant, but instead they got the Rebels and Sunwolves who were high performance disasters but supposed commercial heavyweights.
Fans wanted a round-robin format, simple and true, but instead they got a convoluted, difficult to fathom conference system and over time, the Australians would win a concession, or the broadcasters, or the South Africans and like a Gaudi building, there were bits added here and there.
But unlike a Gaudi building, the whole thing never came together and the final product was never harmonious and spectacular the way his greatest works are and instead, Super Rugby became a confused mess that didn't work for the players, the broadcasters and certainly not the fans.
Never the fans. Nothing has been done with them in mind since 2006 when Super Rugby took its first wrong turn and expanded from 12 to 14 teams.
Since then, fans have been the voice no one round the board table has wanted to hear. They have been the silent victims of an administration that for too long mistook its naked ambition to globalise as a viable, strategic vision.
For too long those in charge assumed that fans wanted what they wanted: that there would be raw excitement on the streets of Whangarei at the thought of the Jaguares being part of it all.
No one ever asked fans if they wanted to watch games on cold winter nights rather than warmer, drier afternoons and again, no one has managed to explain why taking every team to Melbourne this weekend deepens the sense of fan connection.
The Super Round feels like another idea that benefits everyone other than those who actually matter and is yet one more example of administrators being out of touch with their constituency – telling them rather than asking them what they want.
And the folly of alienating fans has left Super Rugby with a mountain to climb if it is to re-establish itself as a financially viable, highly watchable entertainment product in the next decade.
The road to recovery will be long and hard because destroying a brand is easy, rebuilding it is arduous and no one should be under any illusions as to the size of mountain Super Rugby must climb to win back its place as the world's best provincial competition.
There were reports last week that TV audiences this year are half of what they were in 2019.
Gimmicks won't win back the masses. Super weekends can wait until the competition has built a foundation of high value content being the norm.
First and foremost, that's what fans want – good rugby, from good teams, the sort we saw in Christchurch between the Crusaders and Blues.
There was nothing gimmicky about that and one truth about rugby – any sport for that matter – is that fans will be hooked if the drama and spectacle are both high.
Marketing dollars and clever campaigns can't sell a dud product and so for the next year, decision-making has to be focused on strengthening the playing ability of all 12 teams.
That starts with New Zealand Rugby doing two things: firstly, scrapping the mandated, restricted playing protocols for All Blacks and secondly, not agreeing to any more Japanese sabbaticals for leading players.
This whole business of pre-agreeing workloads for leading players made sense when the competition was longer and came with a giant carbon footprint that took players all over the planet.
But now we have 12 teams travelling no further than Perth and instead of dictating to Super Rugby coaches how and when they can use their international players, maybe it's time to trust them how to suit the needs of their team while respecting the welfare of their talent.
The cost of protecting the All Blacks has seen Super Rugby pay an unaffordable price and the balance needs to be redressed.
Granting long-serving All Blacks the chance to skip Super Rugby to play a season in Japan is a variation of the same theme and fans find it hard to commit to a competition when so many of the best players appear to be determined to escape it.
There are other ideas to consider too, such as changing the All Blacks' selection policy to allow all those playing in Super Rugby Pacific to be eligible.
Beauden Barrett and Brodie Retallick were eligible to play for the All Blacks last year after skipping Super Rugby and playing in Japan.
But why stop there? Why not encourage those who feel they want an overseas experience to play in Australia and still be eligible for the All Blacks?
Such a scheme wouldn't meet Robert Muldoon's theory of raising the playing IQ of both nations, but it would certainly benefit the Australians to have a few seasoned Kiwis in their mix.
If fans are placed at the heart of all decision-making then administrators will realise they have to consider all sorts of ways to encourage a more fluid labour market and in time a less restrictive commercial framework in New Zealand to allow the teams here to build more distinctive brands.
There is no easy or quick fix for Super Rugby. What lies ahead is a battle to regain the hearts and minds of an audience that needs to be told that it is important.
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