Ryan: "We now need everybody to know what the Superleague is about. We need them to know every single player in every single franchise"
Thursday 13 August 2020 13:56, UK
Leeds Rhinos head coach Dan Ryan says the sport needs to be "bigger and bolder" to become a more lucrative business.
The Australian, who is the current head coach of both Northern Ireland and Leeds Rhinos, used England Roses as an example of how to become a successful business product.
Ryan wants to see the Vitality Netball Superleague becoming its own thriving industry and the real storylines to be told rather than "just reporting on results".
We need a streamlined model where all franchises operate in a very similar fashion so if a crisis does happen we're all in the same boat. Not one club thriving and one club drowning.
"The only programme which was invested in or funds distributed to ensure a return to play was the full-time England Roses programme," he told The Women's Sport Debate. "There's none of that happening at a Superleague level which brings me to my point which is we were never going to get off the ground this season - it was impossible to resume it.
"While we see the Roses as the premier product - which is as it should be - people now know who the England Roses are, which I think it absolutely sensational.
"However, we now need everybody to know what the Superleague is about. We need them to know every single player in every single franchise. We need to know who's signing with who, who's moving to what other club, who's coaching where. We need to get those stories out there and we need to get them out there more consistently and be bigger and bolder than just reporting on results; this team beat that team.
"We need to get the characters out there, the controversies out there, the rivalries out there because they exist. That's probably the most important thing the sport needs to do moving forward in the next couple of months.
"There's a lot happening in that space and if the sport is to thrive and become a business product they need to take those aggressive steps forward while funding needs to come from the top.
"We also, more importantly, need a streamlined model where all franchises operate in a very similar fashion so if a crisis does happen we're all in the same boat. Not one club thriving and one club drowning and then the whole competition is over, so there's a lot of work to do in that space, I think."
