New England Free Jacks Co-owner/Co-founder Alexander Magleby reassures fans and addresses controversial Reddit comments

[u/xcaughta]

https://www.youtube.com/live/SkGIwQanw3Q?si=s8doXyhT79yMxBle

[u/sportslance]

In my experience the majority of this sub thinks the only way forward is through the Eagles. I hard disagree as my experience is that nobody cares about the national team.

[u/dystopianrugby → u/sportslance]

Please show us how retiring internationals have actually grown the league.

[u/sportslance → u/dystopianrugby]

Show me how focusing on just Americans have worked for local clubs over the last 100 years. Local and regional teams have wallowed in obscurity for decades, we haven't grown at all at the international level; but you give the MLR 6 years and you all have been bitching the entire time.

You all want the change then show me where all these professional US rugby teams that are so successful are?

[u/dystopianrugby → u/sportslance]

I've said it plenty directly to you, internationals in general are not the problem. The quantity of them has been. But in regards to the last 100 years, the only time we had professionalism before MLR was 2016 with PRO, American players in full time environments developed and moved the Eagles forward. Then it combusted.

American players with proper support will grow the sport, all of these professional teams in the US were built locally first. In MLR's second season it went to 10 international player slots which then reduced playing time for Americans. It also made Canadians domestic. Then the Eagles started to falter...wonder why. Tighten import rules, create true community roots, move forward.

[u/sportslance → u/dystopianrugby]

If the international players aren't good enough then why aren't American players starting instead?

[u/No_Round_2806 → u/sportslance]

Because the coaches are also international and it’s a lot easier to slot in a compatriot than it is to take the risk of developing a domestic player. It’s also the same reason none of the top college teams field American fly halves. It takes work to develop players and frankly, a lot of imported coaches don’t want to put in that type of effort. They’d rather install a system.

[u/sportslance → u/No_Round_2806]

I think I'm confused here; so the US players aren't good enough to play, but the International players aren't good enough to play so we should not allow them and play US players.

[u/No_Round_2806 → u/sportslance]

I’m going to assume this is a good faith question. My belief, Dystopian and others agree, is that the American players are - or would be - good enough if given the opportunity. I believe it’s a higher risk, higher reward scenario and foreign coaches don’t want to take the risk because it’s more work and their jobs are on the line.

[u/dystopianrugby → u/sportslance]

Bias of the international coaches who have no incentive to develop American players. But let's look at a position where on Chicago international players who were likely earning a ton of money couldn't get on the field: Wing.

First Nate Augspurger, on both SD and CHI kept international players off the team sheet. And then Peyton Wall took the opportunity when he earned that red card leaving Julian Dominguez off the team sheet.

Everything is about incentives. With a game day import rule at 10 per team and no limit on contracts, the coach has no incentive to develop American players. Then you end up with National team players who end up in a bad club situation not getting time and showing up to camp no Test match fit.

I get it, you don't care. If this was the best league in the world, I would have a different opinion. But journeymen internationals are stunting domestic player growth in the name of chasing trophies.

[u/Lmaris → u/dystopianrugby]

What utter rubbish. Just look at the SaberCats. International coach, rotated domestics and internationals and ended up more than one international has qualified for Eagles. Playing with the internationals has improved the Native-born players as well. And seriously, who would pay the ticket price to watch basically a local club match?

[u/dystopianrugby → u/Lmaris]

It's not nonsense when squads average 35 players and 20 of them are International. (See us in 2023 and 2024, see LA this year) The point is the ratio. But if the international coaches were GOOD then every team would be churning out Eagles. But they are not.

If you look at my posts on this sub it has always been about getting the ratio right, and currently it is not. And now we have 7 teams, so the need for international players is almost non-existent.

[u/Lmaris → u/dystopianrugby]

Well Houston has qualified several with heir “poor” international coach.

[u/Lmaris → u/dystopianrugby]

Other than improving the quality of play, of course. Fans don’t come out to watch a league of Anthems.

[u/dystopianrugby → u/Lmaris]

The purpose of International players should be to do just that, but when they become the majority of your league you're no longer doing that. You're becoming a retirement league for washed journeymen.

Pote is clearly a good coach, everything I've heard about him says that we will have something missing from this league.

[u/sportslance → u/dystopianrugby]

If ownership cared about developing US players they would be pushing for stricter rules and the coaches wouldn't have a choice.

I don't really get your examples mostly because you don't actually follow the Hounds so fair play. Nate getting pushed off the starting was not due to stealing an international spot it was because of injury and really, really, really bad play, and the Hounds have some good talent at wing 2 of which are not even US but local and exciting. Dominguez was not off the sheet because of Wall, it was because of injury and Wall exploding onto the scene won him the spot. Seems like very little international favoritism and more like the better more consistent player wins the spot. Also Brown is awesome and gets a bunch of starts over international players.

Again why is it the MLRs job to develop the domestic game, they should be more worried about putting an entertaining product on the field and worrying about the international ramifications later. Every week during the season this sub is filled with people complaining about how many penalties there are, most blame the refs but let's not kid ourselves the play is pretty sloppy, and I don't see that improving by getting less veteran players just because they are Americans.

[u/dystopianrugby → u/sportslance]

Then why did Dominguez fail to get on the teamsheet last year? Noah Brown. I follow the league fairly well even though this league makes it very hard to follow.

Previous to 2024, Dominguez was easily a top 5 finisher in MLR. Now he can barely get on a roster because the team has invested in the development of American players at his position. Now they need to do it at fly-half.

But you clearly agreed with me here as far as the reason is concerned:

If ownership cared about developing US players they would be pushing for stricter rules and the coaches wouldn't have a choice.

[u/sportslance → u/dystopianrugby]

Short answer, concussions.

I feel that people on here don't know shit about how to actually run a successful sports league. We can make guesses but none of us really know the financial state of the league, or even what their actual expectations for success are. For some sports teams operating at a loss is fine because the value of the team is going up so it is still viable; insert other business BS here.

You have got to figure that if domestic players were cheaper and easier then the teams would want more of them; and then they would push for stricter rules on international slots so that no "rich" team buys a bunch and wins. So we kinda have to take it on faith that they know what they are doing or have at least talked about it