NSW AAGPS 2024
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Goosestep
Jim Clark (26)
The ambitious plan to play rugby league in GPS schools
The NRL is set to deliver a hammer blow to the Wallabies’ rugby union talent factory by muscling in on the city’s prestigious GPS private school sporting competition, with rugby league boss Andrew Abdo saying “the door is more open now than it’s ever been.”
It can be revealed senior bosses at the National Rugby League have already held meetings with some of Sydney’s most elite private boys schools in an official push to introduce rugby league as a GPS sport, for the first time in over 100 years. It is a move which would shatter Wallabies fans’ hearts in the historic rugby union heartland.
NRL CEO Andrew Abdo has told The Daily Telegraph the ARL “Commission is very focused on this, and they’ve given us the task of developing a strategy to do just that, and that is, build a relationship.”
The Daily Telegraph has obtained the numbers which have opened the door for the NRL to install rugby league programs into GPS schools, and other elite independent schools, for the first time in over a century
There are almost 330 students enrolled at GPS schools that are also registered to play rugby league from junior club level through to representative pathways at NRL clubs.
Almost another 80 students who attend elite independent schools in the CAS association, like Barker College and Knox College, are also participating in rugby league.
“The door is more open now than it’s ever been,” Abdo said.
The Australian Rugby League Commission and NRL have now made it a priority to end the ostracisation of the sport in elite private schools.
Abdo said the governing body has engaged in positive talks with GPS powerbrokers and stakeholders over the introduction of rugby league programs.
We’re having really promising conversations with schools that are historically very much a rugby union schools,” Abdo said.
“The Commission is very focused on this, and they’ve given us the task of developing a strategy to do just that, and that is, build a relationship.
“Build relationships with the Department of Education, with the school principals and with the relevant school associations.”
There has been a seismic shift in attitudes at GPS schools that have had a history of discouraging its students from playing rugby league, or being contracted to NRL clubs.
Now, the injection of rugby league talent at the rugby schoolboy level is seen as beneficial to the school’s pursuit of a First XV premiership.
The timing of the GPS rugby tournament no longer clashes with the Harold Matthews (under 17’s) competition, which has eased tensions towards rugby league at elite schools.
The NRL is taking a strategic approach and has raised the possibility of running league programs outside of the winter months to ensure students won’t have to choose between the rival codes.
“We’re thinking innovatively about the product offering and having the right product for the right school.
“For example, touch football versus league, tag versus tackle.
“We’re also thinking about competitions that might not run in the traditional sense of the winter season, so that kids don’t have to choose, but rather happen perhaps a shorter period at the end of the traditional winter period where there could be an inter school competition
“The bottom line, we are focused on this and are confident we can make it happen.”
While the 15-man game is struggling at the senior level, competition at the schools level is flourishing, with the help of league talent.
The introduction of league programs into prestigious private schools would be another blow to the player development prospects of Rugby Australia.
Already, the NRL’s elite junior development pathways are a huge draw for aspiring footballers across the country once their schooling days are over.
Those pathways will only increase when the NRL eventually expands to a 20-team competition.
NRL clubs are currently able to offer six development contracts worth $80,0000 with the potential to be upgraded into the top 30 rosters, where the minimum salary is $130,000.
But Abdo believes the NRL offers more than just financial incentives over its rival code.
“It’s about opening up talent pathways,” Abdo said.
“Aspiring elite athletes want great facilities like centres of excellence, which we are helping our clubs invest in.
They want great coaching and great mentors, and they want an opportunity to showcase their skills in an elite professional environment, week in, week out. Rugby league and the NRL can provide all those things.”
Some of the NRL’s next-generation stars like Brisbane’s Cameron Bukowski (Villanova College) and Israel Leota (Ipswich Grammar), Melbourne’s Stanley Huen (Ipswich Grammar), Penrith’s Jesse and Casey McLean (Newington College) and Rooster Blake Steep (Scots College) are products of the GPS system in Sydney and Brisbane.
At the senior level, this year’s State of Origin series featured Joseph-Aukuso Sua'ali'i (The King’s School ), Angus Crichton (Scots), Cameron Murray (Newington) and Connor Watson (Knox Grammar) for NSW, and Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow (Brisbane Grammar), Jaydn Su’A (Anglican Church Grammar), Pat Carrigan (Gregory Terrace) and Lindsay Collins (Padua) for Queensland.
South Sydney skipper Cameron Murray told this masthead he would not be surprised to see even more GPS students choose an NRL pathways given the quality of development available to young talent coming through the ranks.
“The public schools rugby league system is extraordinary and the resources rugby league kids have access to at private league schools and in the NRL junior reps is really unmatched,” Murray said.
“We might see more and more kids come through GPS schools into NRL but I still think the development you get at NRL is still the top tier in junior development.
NRL clubs and GPS schools have developed a symbiotic relationship at the junior representative level.
Clubs receive the benefit of a player in their system who had access to a quality education and richly resourced athletic programs.
While the schools have the advantage of a player that is also receiving elite skills coaching and physical conditioning at NRL club land.
“I always thought schoolboy rugby was the genuine pathway to playing union professionally, the GPS rugby programs are the highest quality. But obviously now more are also playing league.
“They are both pretty good ways or pathways to work on your craft.”
NRL’s push to have elite private schools play rugby league competition
The NRL is in talks with private school powerbrokers to bring rugby league to the sporting fields of elite NSW and Queensland private schools which have been exclusive to rugby union.The NRL is set to deliver a hammer blow to the Wallabies’ rugby union talent factory by muscling in on the city’s prestigious GPS private school sporting competition, with rugby league boss Andrew Abdo saying “the door is more open now than it’s ever been.”
It can be revealed senior bosses at the National Rugby League have already held meetings with some of Sydney’s most elite private boys schools in an official push to introduce rugby league as a GPS sport, for the first time in over 100 years. It is a move which would shatter Wallabies fans’ hearts in the historic rugby union heartland.
NRL CEO Andrew Abdo has told The Daily Telegraph the ARL “Commission is very focused on this, and they’ve given us the task of developing a strategy to do just that, and that is, build a relationship.”
The Daily Telegraph has obtained the numbers which have opened the door for the NRL to install rugby league programs into GPS schools, and other elite independent schools, for the first time in over a century
There are almost 330 students enrolled at GPS schools that are also registered to play rugby league from junior club level through to representative pathways at NRL clubs.
Almost another 80 students who attend elite independent schools in the CAS association, like Barker College and Knox College, are also participating in rugby league.
“The door is more open now than it’s ever been,” Abdo said.
The Australian Rugby League Commission and NRL have now made it a priority to end the ostracisation of the sport in elite private schools.
Abdo said the governing body has engaged in positive talks with GPS powerbrokers and stakeholders over the introduction of rugby league programs.
We’re having really promising conversations with schools that are historically very much a rugby union schools,” Abdo said.
“The Commission is very focused on this, and they’ve given us the task of developing a strategy to do just that, and that is, build a relationship.
“Build relationships with the Department of Education, with the school principals and with the relevant school associations.”
There has been a seismic shift in attitudes at GPS schools that have had a history of discouraging its students from playing rugby league, or being contracted to NRL clubs.
Now, the injection of rugby league talent at the rugby schoolboy level is seen as beneficial to the school’s pursuit of a First XV premiership.
The timing of the GPS rugby tournament no longer clashes with the Harold Matthews (under 17’s) competition, which has eased tensions towards rugby league at elite schools.
The NRL is taking a strategic approach and has raised the possibility of running league programs outside of the winter months to ensure students won’t have to choose between the rival codes.
“We’re thinking innovatively about the product offering and having the right product for the right school.
“For example, touch football versus league, tag versus tackle.
“We’re also thinking about competitions that might not run in the traditional sense of the winter season, so that kids don’t have to choose, but rather happen perhaps a shorter period at the end of the traditional winter period where there could be an inter school competition
“The bottom line, we are focused on this and are confident we can make it happen.”
While the 15-man game is struggling at the senior level, competition at the schools level is flourishing, with the help of league talent.
The introduction of league programs into prestigious private schools would be another blow to the player development prospects of Rugby Australia.
Already, the NRL’s elite junior development pathways are a huge draw for aspiring footballers across the country once their schooling days are over.
Those pathways will only increase when the NRL eventually expands to a 20-team competition.
NRL clubs are currently able to offer six development contracts worth $80,0000 with the potential to be upgraded into the top 30 rosters, where the minimum salary is $130,000.
But Abdo believes the NRL offers more than just financial incentives over its rival code.
“It’s about opening up talent pathways,” Abdo said.
“Aspiring elite athletes want great facilities like centres of excellence, which we are helping our clubs invest in.
They want great coaching and great mentors, and they want an opportunity to showcase their skills in an elite professional environment, week in, week out. Rugby league and the NRL can provide all those things.”
Some of the NRL’s next-generation stars like Brisbane’s Cameron Bukowski (Villanova College) and Israel Leota (Ipswich Grammar), Melbourne’s Stanley Huen (Ipswich Grammar), Penrith’s Jesse and Casey McLean (Newington College) and Rooster Blake Steep (Scots College) are products of the GPS system in Sydney and Brisbane.
At the senior level, this year’s State of Origin series featured Joseph-Aukuso Sua'ali'i (The King’s School ), Angus Crichton (Scots), Cameron Murray (Newington) and Connor Watson (Knox Grammar) for NSW, and Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow (Brisbane Grammar), Jaydn Su’A (Anglican Church Grammar), Pat Carrigan (Gregory Terrace) and Lindsay Collins (Padua) for Queensland.
South Sydney skipper Cameron Murray told this masthead he would not be surprised to see even more GPS students choose an NRL pathways given the quality of development available to young talent coming through the ranks.
“The public schools rugby league system is extraordinary and the resources rugby league kids have access to at private league schools and in the NRL junior reps is really unmatched,” Murray said.
“We might see more and more kids come through GPS schools into NRL but I still think the development you get at NRL is still the top tier in junior development.
NRL clubs and GPS schools have developed a symbiotic relationship at the junior representative level.
Clubs receive the benefit of a player in their system who had access to a quality education and richly resourced athletic programs.
While the schools have the advantage of a player that is also receiving elite skills coaching and physical conditioning at NRL club land.
“I always thought schoolboy rugby was the genuine pathway to playing union professionally, the GPS rugby programs are the highest quality. But obviously now more are also playing league.
“They are both pretty good ways or pathways to work on your craft.”
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Rudderless
Trevor Allan (34)
Agent
Billy Sheehan (19)
Shore hasn't had a resurrection of sport in general - but certainly it has in rugby. During the very tough years Shore had on the rugby field they were still very competitive any many other sports.
I'll nominate a couple of people / groups I think have contributed to the resurrection of rugby at Shore:
1. The Old Boys - many old boys became sick of seeing the school become the laughing stock of the GPS with diabolical results week in week out, year in year out. The Old Boys remember a school that was well rounded and competitive across the board and called for change.
2. The Headmaster. Shore has had a couple of changes of Head in the past 5 years or so. The new / current Head, I think, had the foresight to listen to what was important to all sections of the school community and did his best to encourage growth in the areas that needed improving.
3. David Mason-Jones - himself an old boy and former GPS and Shore 1st XV captain. Has been on the Shore administrative staff for at least 10 years I'd say. He witnessed first hand the troubles Shore was having on the rugby field and has been instrumental in rebuilding programs aimed at coach and player development over the past 3-4 years.
DropGoal
Larry Dwyer (12)
Boydy loves a bit of league
I don’t think it’s that restrictive, more like having a structure to work within and the boys are tought to play ‘eyes up’ as well, from the coaching I’ve seen (low down in the grades) the boys are taught how to improve the things they didn’t get right the last week. It’s been great to see the boys get better week on week and grow in confidence. It’s a great Rugby/life lesson.
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Mudgee Mudcrab
Peter Burge (5)
What a Win for Shore. Had the pleasure of meeting @Joker at Northbridge and must say he is an amazing supporter and man. Who knew that the forum was in good as hands as this guy. Also got to meet @gus titler after his 16a’s win. Another very good kid
rugbyAU
Dick Tooth (41)
Also bringing back Tim Wallace into a 1st xv coaching role and Angus Sinclair (full-time, professional coach overseeing the program)
rugbyAU
Dick Tooth (41)
are they both out
hituplover
Frank Nicholson (4)
Pleasure meeting the you too @Mudgee Mudcrab and @gus titler Good to see you both play as well. Congrats on a good season too.
The Chairman
Phil Hardcastle (33)
It will be a challenge for sure. That Scors backline looks incredibly scary. I think they can do it, but they for sure will have a massive fight on their hands and nothing less.
However, heres to supporting the Iggies this week.
twister29
Stan Wickham (3)
Kingdom back this week I believe. However I suspect movement between the centres and wing
thesolicitor
Allen Oxlade (6)
State of the art indoor sports facility in north Sydney had a big impact too
The Chairman
Phil Hardcastle (33)
anothernudge
Herbert Moran (7)
If anyone here who has been a member for at least five years will attest to my support for Shore. It has been said many times, "a strong Shore makes for a great competition." Here is an old meme I made many years ago.
runningrugbyrules
Fred Wood (13)
No one should EVER question strong Shore is great for GPS rugby, although bad for my team but 6 strong teams make a great competition
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