wamberal
Phil Kearns (64)
Rugby league was, of course, widely played in the Catholic schools system, and also in State schools in rural areas.
Plus league had thriving weekend competitions which some of the best rugby kids played in. I played both codes after leaving school, league was far better organised and supported. That was at the beginning of the sixties.
BTW, rugby union was not in the dominant position that it enjoyed (such as it was) because of any top down initiatives. It was there because there was a good sprinkling of sports teachers who had a rugby background for one reason or another. I suspect that the various Teachers' Colleges might have been biased towards our game. Sheer dumb luck, in other words. Plus a bit of sectarian bias (Catholics played league, Prods played rugger, old chap: other than at the GPS and Associated Schools level, of course).
Our game was on FTA in those days, Saturday arvos. The league was on, and pretty sure the VFL was on in the 60s, maybe more into the 70s. So in one sense we were on an even footing. But I do not recall commercial tv jostling to televise our domestic comps.
As a spectator sport rugby league was always far more popular than ours, and of course the advent of the big poker machine palaces ensured that they could poach our best players, year after year after year. There was always a bit of chatter around the club about one of our players who was trialling (surreptitiously) for the pro game. Not many made it, of course.
The long years of amateurism, and of playing second fiddle to league, obviously had a big effect. We retreated to our places of strength, which is what armies do when they lose battles and territory. Our strength is, and was, the GPS citadel.
As a state school boy from what was a lower middle class area I do not like that very much. But that's where we are. Blaming the ARU or anybody else for the long sweep of history might be enjoyable, but it is not going to help us very much.
The huge post-war demographic changes that have given us today's nation are another topic. But it is hardly a surprise that people who migrate here from countries where soccer is the only sport are likely to play and support soccer, nor is it a surprise that some nationalities do not see professional sport as a career option for their kids. I suspect that lots of our former strong rugby areas are now filled with families who just do not care about any sport, or certainly are not interested in ours.
We need to work together, and play to our strengths. Such as they are.
