Continued decline in Sydney Junior Rugby

[Hugh Jarse]

While they have no pull over Schools rugby, they are happy to bask in the reflected glory of it.

See how they promote the numbers of participants in "Schools Rugby" in their annual participation figures. Watch how many ARU luminaries attend AAGPS and QLD GPS fixtures. State and Australian Schoolboys XV's are a key component of "The Pathway To Gold". Very few players are marked for "development" without having a State 1st or 2nd XV (or Combined States) entry on their rugby CV.

 

[Chris McCracken]

You are very correct. In fact, as the parent of a motivated player who doesn't have the opportunity to go to a "Rugby School", it's a serious effort to navigate the right pathways. I live in hope that JGC will help but I'm not sure it will.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

Slightly off topic of the decline in SJRU but a word of advice to parents of "motivated" players not attending Rugby Schools.

Junior Gold Cup Squad will help get your lad "noticed". To get "noticed" to make it to JGC squad, it is very helpful to attend the NSW JRU State Championships at U14 and U15 level.

Not attending these through injury, selection politics, or whatever, can make it very difficult (but not impossible) to get the lads name placed on a clipboard later (at U16 State Champs, U16 Schools Champs, JCG U17's, or Open Schoolboys champs).

To do so the Bolter needs to play significantly better than the incumbent "chosen ones" to get the Scouts to take notice. Human nature will generally favour the incumbent, with excuses like "he's might be injured", "He had an off day", "He's fatigued", "I know what he is capable of" etc being made to justify the line call going the incumbents way.

CHS U16, and CHS Open XV represent a great opportunity for "motivated" players from non-Rugby Schools to get "noticed" into one of the various academies, JGC squads, assisted enrollment to a Rugby Schools, or Colts programme for "development", and many kids have had their start on the treadmill that way.

I hope that the ARU will stick with the JGC as a key development tool, but with their finances the way they are at the moment, and the programme still in its infancy, one never knows.

Don't despair too much, cream will always rise to the top. The harder the journey to the top, the more rewarding it is when the top is finally achieved.

The view over the Megalong Valley is impressive, but the person who has climbed there from the valley floor appreciates it so much more than the person who drove to the signposted viewing platform via the Great Western Highway.

 

[Chris McCracken]

To be honest, I'd not even noticed that this thread was specifically about SJRU. Shows how much notice I took.

Nonetheless, thanks for the advice. I'm happy to say he's being noticed. But it is true that he has to work harder than most. At the moment he's doing that and getting results. I'll show him that final paragraph of yours. It's a good one.

 

[Runner]

I don't think the ARU have any real pull over school Rugby. The players don't even register with the ARU unless they're with a club.

The AFL works on a model similar to this (or at least it used to when my kids played). However, it was a lot cheaper overall, didn't have four layers of fees and the kids got gear to make it feel like they were part of something.

Thanks

 

[Fat Cat]

HJ
Don't despair too much, cream will always rise to the top. The harder the journey to the top, the more rewarding it is when the top is finally achieved.
If the cream keeps getting knocked back it goes to rugby league or worse stops playing all together.
Start the pathway post school and you fix the problems.

 

[Quick Hands]

While they have no pull over Schools rugby, they are happy to bask in the reflected glory of it.

See how they promote the numbers of participants in "Schools Rugby" in their annual participation figures. Watch how many ARU luminaries attend AAGPS and QLD GPS fixtures. State and Australian Schoolboys XV's are a key component of "The Pathway To Gold". Very few players are marked for "development" without having a State 1st or 2nd XV (or Combined States) entry on their rugby CV.

ALthough, as we discovered the NSW Schools Delegate alternates with the NSWJRU Delegate year about on the NSWRU. Not bad for an organisation over which the NSWRU says it has no control.

 

[Man on the hill]

ALthough, as we discovered the NSW Schools Delegate alternates with the NSWJRU Delegate year about on the NSWRU. Not bad for an organisation over which the NSWRU says it has no control.

Think you'll find it's referred to as the youth delegate and I thought it was a 2 year term.

I've been told that the new delegate is Geoff Ferris - the same Geoff Ferris who this site "outed" as being the brains behind the western barbarians at the recent Sydney U16 Invitational. You might recall the Western Baa Baas featured in 2 boil overs, including nailing the SJRU U16 side.

 

[Quick Hands]

^^^It may well be a two year alternating term and the youth delegate is the official title I believe.

And just to be clear, I wasn't criticising the person from NSW schools who was the youth delegate, I was just pointing to the seeming contradiction of NSWRU having no control over school rugby, while a representative of NSW schools sits on the NSWRU (albeit in alternating terms)

 

[nothismum]

Well that explains some of the odd last minute selections...

 

[Man on the hill]

^Snip I was just pointing to the seeming contradiction of NSWRU having no control over school rugby, while a representative of NSW schools sits on the NSWRU (albeit in alternating terms)

I think you picked it like a nose.

If NSWRU were relying on the schools delegate for a youth perspective (albeit, i believe the most recent delegate was via CHS not another system) then unfortunately he will still be largely ignorant of the day to day struggles that are clubland reality.

 

[S'UP]

I think you picked it like a nose.

If NSWRU were relying on the schools delegate for a youth perspective (albeit, i believe the most recent delegate was via CHS not another system) then unfortunately he will still be largely ignorant of the day to day struggles that are clubland reality.

I hope you are not refering to Geoff Ferris in that comment as being (ignorant of the day to day struggles that are a clubland reality), if you are you have never had any dealing with the man or know anything about him.

 

[Quick Hands]

I think you picked it like a nose.

If NSWRU were relying on the schools delegate for a youth perspective (albeit, i believe the most recent delegate was via CHS not another system) then unfortunately he will still be largely ignorant of the day to day struggles that are clubland reality.

But more than that, it's the principle that a delegate to the board comes from an organisation over which we're told the NSWRU have no authority.

I'll again make the point that for me it has nothing to do with the person who occupies the role, it's the principle.

 

[Kenny Powers]

Anyone got a copy of the latest revision of the SJRU Constitution?

While there is some underlined text on the SJRU Website purporting to be a link to the constitution, there is nothing to click onto when I visit the page. Perhaps it is because I an visiting via a Mac instead of a PC.

I am interested to understand the constitutional requirements and procedure for election of SJRU officials at the AGM.

Still no copy of the 2013 Annual Report on their Web site either. I guess that must have been distributed on a "need to know" basis.

Looks like one club one vote.

http://juniors.rugby.com.au/Portals/1/Images/Sydney Juniors - Constitution - 2014 - Final -.pdf
.

 

[mangled]

Yes it is one vote per Club and district

 

[forwards4ever]

I hope you are not refering to Geoff Ferris in that comment as being (ignorant of the day to day struggles that are a clubland reality), if you are you have never had any dealing with the man or know anything about him.

I so agree with you! No one has done more for Junior Rugby than Geoff. He's spent so many years working tirelessly for Dundas, Western Zone, SJRU and now NSWJRU. Absolutely knows all about day to day struggles in clubland!!

 

[scrum-doctor]

( I so agree with you! No one has done more for Junior Rugby than Geoff. He's spent so many years working tirelessly for Dundas, Western Zone, SJRU and now NSWJRU. Absolutely knows all about day to day struggles in clubland!! )


Cannot agree with this more. When speaking to Geoff Ferris his vision is for a mixed graded club and school comp. But we know this will never happen, I can't see Joeys handling a loss too Rooty Hill too well.

It is about time we get different styles of rugby competing against each other. Therefore there wouldn't be any surprises when these GPS, CAS & ISA children that only play school football enter into the colts system and start playing at Emu park with 2 families and a dog watching instead of the 2000 at the grudge matches on the pristine ovals of these schools.

Keep fighting the good fight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[S'UP]

Here is an idea. I believe the ARU runs rugby in this country, so they give or sell licenses to organisations, eg NSWRU, QLDRU, they then offer secondary licenses to SJRU, NSW Schools etc, then they manage from the top down, if schools do their own thing, they take the license away. This doesn't stop schools playing rugby it just removes their pathway and access to ARU resources, I could be wrong but I'd be surprised if boys didn't want to play club and school if there wasn't a pathway. If an Australian schoolboys side wasn't sanctioned by the ARU do you think they would get a game against a NZ schoolboys side, I think not.
I could be completely wrong here, but if you want to fix something you need to be willing to make the hard decisions and then things change.

 

[HighPlainsDrifter]

I can remember John O'Neill addressing schoolboys team & parents at a post match function ... the biggest issue he talked about was Rugby's financial state , the sickening aspect was the unbeknown to us he was pocketing north of $2mill that year . The sins of the past have come back to haunt us . Why don't the junior clubs , Shute Shield teams etc call a summit and breakdown what portion of the levy they need to 1. survive & 2. to grow the game at grass roots ....then approach the ARU board with their proposal ... It's a shame its come to this but maybe the ARU's eventual portion should be agreed subject to the ARU meeting it's KPI's ....360 degree reviews are quite confronting but can yield results as well as pain , If grassroots Rugby was a child and the ARU was the parent you'd be calling in DOCS !

 

[Fat Cat]

All

I’m might be just a dumb tradie but with the ARU just about insolvent don’t you think it’s time to change the way these so called educated administrators go about running the show ?

The broadcasting money pumped into AFL, NRL, Soccer would indicate audience wise that the AFL is 10 x more popular than Rugby, NRL 8 x times more popular, and Soccer nearly twice as popular.

The ARU has always had a top down mentality and it’s not working. Rugby has always been run by, and catered for the old school tie crowd. The image of the game and its accessibility to all in this country is the Australian rugby unions biggest handbrake. There seems to be a reluctance throughout the majority of administrations from juniors through to seniors, in Australia to address this. There is a reluctance from Australian journalists to talk about this.

How do you grow the numbers and increase the audience ? The first thing you do is actively change people’s perception of the game.

For years now the Australian Schools Rugby Team has been stacked with boys from GPS, CAS, and ISA schools systems. What message do you think this sends to the general public ?

The ARU has made an effort to address accessibility but at a cost of $660 per player via the Junior Gold Cup which is now going into its second year. Is this accessible to all ? Is it successful ? Are parents and their kids able to, or wanting to, be part of this program though out the entire summer ?

We need a cost effective, integrated approach but the most important thing is to start at the bottom. Junior club rugby and schools. You will not please everybody. The solutions will be different for different states. There is no quick fix.


Rugby is a great product, it’s great to watch, it caters for an array of body shapes and sizes, and it’s played worldwide. We are living in the past in a new and professional era. If we want the game to grow and prosper in this country something needs to happen now. I guarantee if we fix the base and make the game accessible to all, the top will be strong. Please help to get the game that I love back on it’s feet. Don’t think that you can’t make a difference. Speak up and put your bloody hand up.

Go the Wallabies !

Please read and listen to the below articles’ and interviews with Greg Growden and feel free to forward this email on.



The Australian Rugby Union (ARU) has warned its stakeholders of the serious threat that it could be insolvent by 2015.



ESPN scrum has been told by numerous high-ranking sources that a presentation at the ARU annual general meeting several months ago pointed out how Australian rugby was in financial strife. The presentation explained that an "unsustainable business model based on periodic windfalls" and diminishing revenue was "leading to insolvency in 2015". The ARU listed one of its key challenges for the next year as avoiding insolvency in 2015.



Earlier this month, a senior ARU official told colleagues of the fear that by April next year; the ARU "could run out of cash". A graph shown during the ARU AGM presentation indicated that revenue had recently decreased at a dramatic rate, after the board suffered combined losses in 2011-2012 of $19 million. Following a $143 million revenue figure in 2013, it was predicted to drop to around $100 million this year, with another substantial revenue slump predicted for 2015.

read more below

www.espnscrum.com/australia/rugby/story/243671.html



Greg Growden interview on ''The Devlin Show'' Radio Sports NZ

www.radiosport.co.nz/audio/1884332411-the-drs-podcast--october-14--2014

In an interview with Fairfax New Zealand's Marc Hinton, Pulver made the strange comment: "The AFL and NRL enjoy, respectively, $250 million and $200 million of broadcasting revenue a year. We've also got what we call soccer, which has landed in a bit of a sweet spot as Australia goes increasingly multicultural."

"Bit of a sweet spot" and "increasingly multicultural"? What nonsense. Australian soccer, or football, has been on a solid footing for decades.

On Saturday morning in an interview with the Telegraph's Iain Payten, Pulver went further. He declared the Wallabies a superior product to the Socceroos - a statement that will alienate him from the millions who follow the world's number one sporting code. He believes that rugby deserves far more than its $25 million per annum broadcasting deal with Fox Sports, and should match or even better the $40 million per year deal football enjoys with Fox Sports and SBS.


Read more at http://www.espnscrum.com/australia/rugby/story/220921.html#rToRcDTTz8uy402Q.99