Quick Hands
David Wilson (68)
No problems, my misunderstanding. I absolutely agree that grading will never get it right all the time.
I've spoken to the President about the travel thing as well.
Continued decline in Sydney Junior Rugby
- Thread starter Quick Hands
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No problems, my misunderstanding. I absolutely agree that grading will never get it right all the time.
I've spoken to the President about the travel thing as well.
James Kelly
Bob McCowan (2)
Its sad to see the sport slowly decline like this. Honestly though, the grass isn't always greener. I've got friends with kids playing AFL with similar club stories. All the big dollars are spent at the top end with very little thought of development through the junior ages.
S'UP
Bill Watson (15)
Unfortunately some clubs grade their teams to win competitions, i.e. you have a good team of 10's so you allocate them to 10E's at the start of the seaons they win their games comfortably and at the regrading they get put up to 10D's. When they are really a 10B side. It doesn't help anyone but it does inflate some egos.
Quick Hands
David Wilson (68)
Yes I know a team who put themselves in the 10Cs at the start of the year. They beat an A team in a trial match and then won all their C matches 50 plus and then went up to the B comp where they continue to win. Sad that adults get some satisfaction from this.
Brainstrust
Watty Friend (18)
I think the credible solution is for senior clubs is to take over the 16's and up. There is always someone else to blame, eg private schools offering scholarships, which has been happening to some extent but really is being massively over blown. There are many other interests to occupy little johny on the weekend outside if contact sport, and that is affecting many codes, not just rugby. There are areas in league struggling for junior numbers. I think SJRU should engage the senior clubs to take the 16's up. It would reduce the amount of teams needed to be fielded, but importantly it would help the senior clubs lock away their junior talent for the colts years ahead. Rules to force players to participate such as removing the grandfather clause have and will only force players out of the club/ district rep pathway totally back into school only rugby, and those left don't have much of a comp after that anyway. I can't see any other realistic alternative. The ARU can't resource anything at that level ( JGC alone) and the sjru are constantly being manipulated by minority contributors. Time to cut it loose.
S'UP
Bill Watson (15)
It is my understanding that senior clubs have been asked to run the Under 18 (or 17/opens) that SJRU currently run, i believe there has been some push back from the seniors as they struggle to run the colts program (coaches, admin, etc ,etc) how would they run the U18's which is just another layer to their structure.
I guess there would be 1st and 2nd grade colts and then the U18's, which would be better than 1st, 2nds and 3rds with half the boys missing out each week due to numbers. The good thing to come out of it all is that they are looking at it.
I am curious as to how we believe this would solve all of the current issues with the Under 16s/Opens. If (and I presume) Premier senior clubs were to run an Under 16's or Under 18s competition presumably it would be run on a Saturday. This would exclude more private school boys than the current competition does. e.g. Hills and Dural have many Oakhill boys playing on a Sunday.
Presumably as well there would only be 1 team per district. Currently there are 19 Under 16's teams, but only 12 premier clubs. What happens to the other 100 odd excess players? If a district has 4 current SJRU teams and that goes into 1 district team what happens then. Presumably the top 25 odd players will get a spot in the top team and the remainder sit out a year or two until they are old enough to play subbies colts?
Would there even be a non-school rep program if this occurred? If it did would kids not playing for a Premier Club e.g. schools, be eligible for this program?
Also would probably just have the same debate as there is now in Colts whereby clubs "poach" players by form of payment or scholarship from other districts. Would this still happen , just instead of a Colts would Under 16s kids now be stockpiled at certain clubs??
S'UP
Bill Watson (15)
the 16's are not included in this it is only the current 17/opens SJRU competition and there are not many boys playing school and the SJRU opens competition but there are a large number of boys playing 3rd grade colts who could be playing in the proposed U18's comp, instead of playing against 20 year olds in the colts competition. I guess there is nothing to prevent the disricts having 2 U18's sides if the demand is there.
Quick Hands
David Wilson (68)
Some clubs are incredibly shortsighted. I remember being involved with colts when the proposal to do away with 4th grade colts came up. The clubs voted 7-5 to retain the competition, but it was deleted as a requirement to participate in Premier rugby. The result was that the next season 7 teams entered which meant a bye almost every second week and the following year Colts 4 was done away with. I did notice a few years later that the 5 clubs who voted against Colts 4 and essentially made it unviable were the 5 clubs who struggled in colts (Warringah, Gordon, Parramatta, Penrith and Souths).
Colts 3 used to be an under 19 competition and Colts 4 should be resurrected as an under 17 competition.
Brainstrust
Watty Friend (18)
Maybe u16's us a year too early, but I think the sentiment is to try and solve the current situation. You will not get 16's to 18's players that have left back from school to play village club rugby. Maybe the 16's is a tough year, but the real drop off is in the next age groups up. If those boys who can and want to continue playing the club pathway would then have a viable opportunity, and 12 clubs just may be viable. I agree with a later comment that premier clubs are doing it tough just to get their own current programs working, but many are just constantly complaining about how they can't lock away district juniors, and this is one solution. I think we need to ensure we keep those in the club system that are already playing in it, and to be honest this is probably the best or only solution that makes sense to me. ARU increased or any meaningful funding for juniors, not going to happen. Boys choosing club over school, not going to happen at the opens level. So I would love to hear some realistic suggestions that can be implemented to fix it.
BeastieBoy
Herbert Moran (7)
The problem is they often have school sport on a Saturday and we are competing with other codes on a Sunday. However the other problem is that they have insufficient recovery time if they play on a Saturday. Let's be original. Let's play our competition on a Wednesday night.
In the lineout
Allen Oxlade (6)
Well, what do you know.....Chatswood U16A have another LOF against them...
Inside Shoulder
Nathan Sharpe (72)
What happens to their rep players who cannot get the requisite games in?
Rugby Addict
Herbert Moran (7)
I think you will find they had a bye - another game played!
SSUN
U16A
10
1 Bye Chatswood Stags 0 v Bye 0 2014-07-20 00:00
That means they woud need to play one more game to qualify for Sydney - maybe they actually know what they are doing?
Hugh Jarse
Rocky Elsom (76)
Doctor's Certificate.
Inside Shoulder
Nathan Sharpe (72)
for a game that never took place?
In the lineout
Allen Oxlade (6)
Just a joke....
They deferred the game prior to school holidays which was the one I below to qualify for further reps. Then never played it. Then they have a bye in place.
Really??, are the SJRU going to do anything about this (I know, of course not). No wonder our junior rugby is going down the sh!tter from 15's and up. The talent pool will continue to dry up and Australian Rugby will suffer long term.
They deferred the game prior to school holidays which was the one I below to qualify for further reps. Then never played it. Then they have a bye in place.
Really??, are the SJRU going to do anything about this (I know, of course not). No wonder our junior rugby is going down the sh!tter from 15's and up. The talent pool will continue to dry up and Australian Rugby will suffer long term.
In the lineout
Allen Oxlade (6)
Yeah
Yeah I know, totally abusing the system and laughing at the SjRU
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