Teh Other Dave
Alan Cameron (40)
I said GPS and AIC. A lot of the kids that the GPS schools pick up on scholarship come from the AIC and private schools in outer Brisbane. As I already mentioned here and elsewhere, these schools have had Aussie Rules teams for over a decade. It hasn't had a material effect on rugby player numbers. Riverview has had Aussie Rules teams for decades, again, you'd hardly call it an Aussie Rules nursery, would you? Also, Aussie Rules is still very much a sideshow in Sydney. The local league in Sydney is significantly weaker than those of Brisbane or Canberra, both of whom have a fraction of Sydney's population.
The growth of soccer in private schools in Sydney and Brisbane is largely due to changing demographics - especially Sydney Grammar and High, who select candidates on an academic basis and do not consider their applicants' sporting prowess. And let's be honest, the upper echelons of Rugby had a chance to capture new audiences amongst these demographics after the 1999-2003 successes, but instead we turned inwards. It's more of an Eastern Suburbs/North Shore game than ever before.
Your remark about us needing a broader player base and not a handful of altititude trained elites has nought to do with Shore opening up an aerial ping pong team, and everything to do with the concentration of rugby development to a handful of Australia's wealthiest schools, with the gradual demise of some of our previous traditional rugby nurseries (especially schools like Saint Laurence's and, to a lesser extent, Marist Ashgrove in Brisbane). Again, largely due to rugby administration in Australia turning inwards rather than outwards.
TL;DR: your points highlight the problems with schoolboy rugby, but none of them address my direct quote, and have nothing to do with AFL. AFL is not the problem here.
The growth of soccer in private schools in Sydney and Brisbane is largely due to changing demographics - especially Sydney Grammar and High, who select candidates on an academic basis and do not consider their applicants' sporting prowess. And let's be honest, the upper echelons of Rugby had a chance to capture new audiences amongst these demographics after the 1999-2003 successes, but instead we turned inwards. It's more of an Eastern Suburbs/North Shore game than ever before.
Your remark about us needing a broader player base and not a handful of altititude trained elites has nought to do with Shore opening up an aerial ping pong team, and everything to do with the concentration of rugby development to a handful of Australia's wealthiest schools, with the gradual demise of some of our previous traditional rugby nurseries (especially schools like Saint Laurence's and, to a lesser extent, Marist Ashgrove in Brisbane). Again, largely due to rugby administration in Australia turning inwards rather than outwards.
TL;DR: your points highlight the problems with schoolboy rugby, but none of them address my direct quote, and have nothing to do with AFL. AFL is not the problem here.
(and I believe parental authorisation would also be required).
