Biffo
Ken Catchpole (46)
From today's Courier-Mail
Andrew Slack
June 28, 2009 12:00am
RUGBY has been professional for almost 14 years. With each year, club rugby has slipped more and more off the radar.
Swamped by coverage of the Wallabies and Super 14, the casual follower probably could not even name you the clubs that make up the Brisbane and Sydney grade competitions.
Over the past decade or so, those hardened, old-school devotees of club rugby undoubtedly feel as if they have been treated as inferior by the higher echelons of rugby administration.
Even if there's some justification behind any bitterness, I offer one piece of advice: Get over it.
The reason is that regardless of the lack of help they might feel they have received, what they've got is still very, very good.
Over the past couple of weeks, circumstances have connected me with clubs like Frenchville Pioneers in Rockhampton and West Harbour in Sydney and it has reminded me of just what club footy has to offer.
Putting aside the warm, fuzzy stuff of camaraderie and modestly talented players getting their chance to blow off some weekend steam, the quality of play in first grade is, if not as technically correct as you might see at the representative level, often far more entertaining.
I'm not a domesticated type, but for reasons beyond my control I was doing the ironing while watching last week's Wallabies-Italy Test on the box.
In the entertainment stakes, the ironing won in a photo finish. Chores would never come first in a contest with an afternoon at a suburban ground watching some club rugby.
Former Wallabies flyhalf Stephen James argues that the strength of the standard of club rugby lies in its imperfections.
While he accepts that there is a difference in abilities at Super 14 level, 80 per cent of players are probably of similar standard and there's a lot of cancelling each other out.
With first grade club teams containing the odd smattering of representative players, legitimate A-graders and the occasional reserve grader being given a go for any number of reasons, there's a greater chance of mistakes being made.
While nobody enjoys a mistake-athon, forced and occasionally unforced errors mean opportunities, and that often equals entertainment.
The other thing that club rugby has over its big brother is the ability of spectators to be up close and personal.
As one club disciple said to me, "I love the sound of the collision and the smell of the blood!"
If that happens to be your go, it's hard to get it from Row H at Suncorp Stadium and impossible from Row H at ANZ Stadium.
You can't have 50,000 people standing on the sideline at a Bledisloe Cup Test, but the people charged with running the game at the highest level perhaps should take notice of how mistakes can enhance a contest.
The best way to do that is eliminate the replacement rules. Reserves should only be allowed on to the field for legitimate injuries.
If that were the case, you would have fatigue doing the same job in a Test match that differing abilities do at a club level.
The ability to play for 80 minutes has always supposed to be part of the fabric of rugby. In an era where the fulltime players have no excuse for not being as fit as possible, we are giving them a soft option.
The reality is the 22-man game team is here to stay, like it or not.
Despite its diminished profile, club rugby is also here to stay.
For those who usually confine themselves to the pristine viewing conditions of the big stadiums during the rep season, do yourself a favour.
Go out one afternoon to a club ground and see if the sound of collisions and the smell the blood is your go.
Andrew Slack
June 28, 2009 12:00am
RUGBY has been professional for almost 14 years. With each year, club rugby has slipped more and more off the radar.
Swamped by coverage of the Wallabies and Super 14, the casual follower probably could not even name you the clubs that make up the Brisbane and Sydney grade competitions.
Over the past decade or so, those hardened, old-school devotees of club rugby undoubtedly feel as if they have been treated as inferior by the higher echelons of rugby administration.
Even if there's some justification behind any bitterness, I offer one piece of advice: Get over it.
The reason is that regardless of the lack of help they might feel they have received, what they've got is still very, very good.
Over the past couple of weeks, circumstances have connected me with clubs like Frenchville Pioneers in Rockhampton and West Harbour in Sydney and it has reminded me of just what club footy has to offer.
Putting aside the warm, fuzzy stuff of camaraderie and modestly talented players getting their chance to blow off some weekend steam, the quality of play in first grade is, if not as technically correct as you might see at the representative level, often far more entertaining.
I'm not a domesticated type, but for reasons beyond my control I was doing the ironing while watching last week's Wallabies-Italy Test on the box.
In the entertainment stakes, the ironing won in a photo finish. Chores would never come first in a contest with an afternoon at a suburban ground watching some club rugby.
Former Wallabies flyhalf Stephen James argues that the strength of the standard of club rugby lies in its imperfections.
While he accepts that there is a difference in abilities at Super 14 level, 80 per cent of players are probably of similar standard and there's a lot of cancelling each other out.
With first grade club teams containing the odd smattering of representative players, legitimate A-graders and the occasional reserve grader being given a go for any number of reasons, there's a greater chance of mistakes being made.
While nobody enjoys a mistake-athon, forced and occasionally unforced errors mean opportunities, and that often equals entertainment.
The other thing that club rugby has over its big brother is the ability of spectators to be up close and personal.
As one club disciple said to me, "I love the sound of the collision and the smell of the blood!"
If that happens to be your go, it's hard to get it from Row H at Suncorp Stadium and impossible from Row H at ANZ Stadium.
You can't have 50,000 people standing on the sideline at a Bledisloe Cup Test, but the people charged with running the game at the highest level perhaps should take notice of how mistakes can enhance a contest.
The best way to do that is eliminate the replacement rules. Reserves should only be allowed on to the field for legitimate injuries.
If that were the case, you would have fatigue doing the same job in a Test match that differing abilities do at a club level.
The ability to play for 80 minutes has always supposed to be part of the fabric of rugby. In an era where the fulltime players have no excuse for not being as fit as possible, we are giving them a soft option.
The reality is the 22-man game team is here to stay, like it or not.
Despite its diminished profile, club rugby is also here to stay.
For those who usually confine themselves to the pristine viewing conditions of the big stadiums during the rep season, do yourself a favour.
Go out one afternoon to a club ground and see if the sound of collisions and the smell the blood is your go.
