All you need to know about rugby in the west compared to league is this ..
I understand both of your points. I wasn't actually meaning to create a club to play in the ACT comp, I was thinking more along the lines of splitting the (say) 8 westernmost clubs off to play each other in a regional zone comp that is governed by the Brumbies. Pfitzy could interject here, but I just wonder if a comp like that would work better to grow the game out that way than the current various subbies comps they all play in currently, which involve signifcant travel. Obviously it would make more sense for NSWRU to oversee that if it were to happen but WCR's use of the word 'neglect' is the pertinent point.
That's what squillions of poker machines will do for you.
And that’s the key difference between the two games. League loaded up on poker machines when they became legal in the 50s union didn’t
Just in case there was any doubt:
I reckon hijack the whole region if they are going to do it. They already have Penrith, Blue Mountains would probably be hardest to get on board as they won Kentwell this year, but I suspect they have been beneficiaries of Penrith playing in the ACT comp. There would be a bit of inequality between clubs but this could be worked around initially while the comp gets going and players work out which club they want to play for - for example, when I was playing in New England the strong clubs had 3 clubs plus colts, but not all could fill those teams so they did things like Glen Innes were in the 1st and 3rd grade comp, and Guyra had the 2nd grade fixture on those rounds and the home games alternated between the two and they could sit on each others’ benches. They would all need to defect to the ACTRU to do it though as NSWRU and NSWSRU would just say everything is great as it is.
I too had some involvement with Penrith and it is a tough gig. It used to be a mixture of ex-league players and some rugby players both of whom enjoyed playing the game. At my time it was difficult to get players in colts and lower grades to training and even on game day, I used to drive around picking them up and taking them to any away game.
So that was a smart decision… proofs in pudding …
I wish the ARU would just leave things alone, whatever they touch seems to turn to shit. The Brumbies are our best Super Rugby team by a long way and why would you want to close or relocate something that may struggle for money from time to time but has been consistently No1 in Australia?
RA should just release the KPMG report.
There was talk of the Panthers taking over the Emu's about 15 years ago but it came to nothing.
Brumbies org started as a rebellion to nswru in a way … highly doubt they’d be in favour of any sort of centralised body
I don't think anyone sees the states as particularly good in this situation, there's just no trust for rugby Australia, at least with no detail around what their plan actually is. I think everyone believes we need big change and that some form of centralisation is the answer, but no one is to keen to take RA on faith right now, not when executing this with same degree of competence they've displayed in the past would probably be the killing blow for the game.
Probably not the forum, but the old stand they left up, do they use it? I can't remember seeing people sitting in it when I have watched games on tv.
Honestly, Rugby has been a gravy train for far too long in this country. They were an embarrassment this year in Super Rugby
Not yet. Plan to knock it down and build a new one.