Inside Shoulder
Nathan Sharpe (72)
Yes, On the surface it looks like parallels between Grammar and State High School in Sydney and Brisbane, but BGS's last premiership was 2012 and BSHS was 2009 and 2010 (shared). So it might be a bit early to pronounce the death of Queensland GPS. What goes around, come around.
I think Gregor's point goes something like this: "see. In Queensland they have blowout scores and there's nothing wrong with their comp".
Which is a pretty interesting point, when you think about it: Because there are blowout scores in QLD blowout scores in NSW are OK.
There was a possible realignment yesterday its causes will be and are being debated: see the Sun herald. I remain to be convinced about the reality of any realignment - we shall see.
I don't think you can underestimate the effect the controversy may have had on the TSC 1st XV players during the week. These are, for the most part, still kids. They don't necessarily think subtly enough to appreciate the difference between being critical of a process in a school and direct criticism of them personally or their team mates. When it gets mainstream media exposure - deserved or not - that is not something they are accustomed to dealing with and they are not necessarily equipped to evaluate what was passes for neutral comment from posturing, self aggrandisement or ignorance on the part of the commentators.
This is one of the reasons why most schools try to keep the spotlight off the individual: there used to be a rule but that seems to have gone by the wayside.
Right or wrong the last week in GPS rugby looked more like the NRL from a media perspective.
There is a lesson in that of wide implication: if you over emphasise the importance of sport to children, whether you do so for acceptable or unacceptable reasons, you want to be very careful about the unintended, peripheral consequences of doing so. Those include media attention, particularly if there is a negative story in it.
Are you/we/they ready for our kids to be exposed to that? 21-0 at half time suggests maybe not.