All Blacks coach Ian Foster speaks to media. Photo / Getty
All Blacks coach Ian Foster speaks to media. Photo / Getty
OPINION:
It seems to have caught a few people by surprise that the All Blacks have been as undetectable in Melbourne as a KGB agent.
They slipped in over the weekend and no one noticed or particularly cared. This is slightly unusual for the All Blacks, who typically set afew hearts racing when they turn up in foreign venues.
There's usually a level of local excitement that the All Blacks are in town – hopeful autograph hunters at the airport, groupies hanging outside the hotel, posters splattered around the place advertising the game and a few stories in the local paper paying due deference that rugby's star turn are gracing the city with their presence.
But Melbourne seems blissfully unaware that rugby royalty is in its midst. There is not a visual clue to be seen anywhere in the city that the Bledisloe Cup clash is being played at Marvel Stadium and not one column inch has been devoted to the 15-man code this week.
It might be a little galling for New Zealand Rugby to accept that the All Blacks don't register in a city obsessed with Aussie Rules football.
The fact the game is a sell-out could be used as an argument to say that the lack of visible promotion hardly matters: the power of the brand has overcome the lack of marketing spend to deliver the only thing that matters – strong ticket sales.
But that would be a mistake as according to the locals, the stadium will be full of mostly expat Kiwis – rugby heads who rarely get the chance to see their beloved All Blacks play in Melbourne.
And an even bigger mistake would be to not take the opportunity to consider how it is that Aussie Rules, a game played not so much in one country as one state within that country, has been able to build an incredible and loyal fan base, win heavy media coverage and induce the sort of financial investment rugby can only dream of.
The case study into Aussie Rules would deduce that the secret to the sport's success has been the power of its story-telling and ability to generate authentic narratives of rivalry, drama, scandal, heroism, inclusion and unity.
Where Aussie Rules, all sport in Australia for that matter, is light years ahead of rugby in New Zealand is in their attitudes and relationships with mainstream media.
Their whole professional ecosystem – players, administrators, coaches - don't naturally assume that their relationship with media should be adversarial by default.
It will be at times, but the underlying view is that media promote the game, deliver stories to the fans and sell the product in a way that engages the audience.
New Zealand's ecosystem continues to have a level of toxicity in it, where too many people don't value the media process, are suspicious and defensive and fear that unfiltered honesty will kill the sport.
Hence, players, coaches and administrators have been conditioned to be guarded, to speak in cliches and unmemorable soundbites and it doesn't foster any drama or reflect that top-end sport is emotionally raw.
Sam Cane speaks to the media. Photo / Photosport
The All Blacks have been mostly brilliant on the field for most of their existence, but so too have they been undeniably dull, bland and sterile off it.
How damaged New Zealand rugby's relationship with media is has been witnessed these past few months through this underlying sense that there are some within the halls of power who feel the fourth estate are partly to blame for the troubles the national team has endured this year.
That sort of thinking typifies the distrust that runs through the sport and that there remains this odd notion among rugby teams in New Zealand that they can control the media through withholding access or threatening to.
This default mode of shutting down and not confronting the truth does rugby a massive disservice.
Top-level sport runs on passion, the unexpected and a connection between the players and the fans that confirms they all feel the pain of defeat and share in the joy of victory.
Embracing the highs and lows and talking about them openly and honesty helps create a defined sense of tribalism, and few sports have tapped into that emotion better than Aussie Rules, as somehow they have engendered the most ferocious rivalries between clubs in neighbouring suburbs.
If New Zealand Rugby wants the All Blacks to be more visible the next time they come to Melbourne, then they need to embrace the Aussie Rules blueprint and get better at telling their story.
