Shute Shield 2018

[Quick Hands]

Full results from 5 May

Uni 87 def Gordon 10
Eastwood 43 def Randwick 19
Wests 20 drew with Norths 20
Warringah 38 def Souths 24
Easts 41 def Parramatta 7
Manly BYE

 

[Quick Hands]

I see that the Woodies scored the last five tries of the game against the Wicks. WTF????

They seem to have awoken from their early season slumber

 

[wamberal]

They seem to have awoken from their early season slumber

Or the Wicks have fallen into a hole. Mrs Wamberal claims not to have been surprised, given the showing that the GGs put up a couple of ago, on the replay. (We do not get the live coverage any more, poor us).

 

[Quick Hands]

Or the Wicks have fallen into a hole. Mrs Wamberal claims not to have been surprised, given the showing that the GGs put up a couple of ago, on the replay. (We do not get the live coverage any more, poor us).

Don't you get 7two?

Last year they were broacasting the SS game on the Gold Coast on 7two.

 

[I like to watch]

Or the Wicks have fallen into a hole. Mrs Wamberal claims not to have been surprised, given the showing that the GGs put up a couple of ago, on the replay. (We do not get the live coverage any more, poor us).

I think Mrs Wamb is a good judge.
I wouldn't back the Wicks with stolen money

She could have got 2.80 on Woods today
Free money

 

[lily]

When are Gordon getting punted? They have sucked for at least a decade.

 

[the coach]

Or the Wicks have fallen into a hole. Mrs Wamberal claims not to have been surprised, given the showing that the GGs put up a couple of ago, on the replay. (We do not get the live coverage any more, poor us).

30 players who played 1st grade in 2017 injured or moved on
> 40 players injured across the grades
new coaching staff

 

[The Honey Badger]

Full results from 5 May

Uni 87 def Gordon 10
Eastwood 43 def Randwick 19
Wests 20 drew with Norths 20
Warringah 38 def Souths 24
Easts 41 def Parramatta 7
Manly BYE

You would have to think Wests are looking pretty good. Will be in the mix come finals time.

Sent from my MHA-L09 using Tapatalk

 

[Inside Shoulder]

I love Shute shield and it may be all we have soon but I am greatly concerned st what is becoming a 2 division comp.
Penrith have fallen and the 2 blues cannot field a 3rds colts.
West Harbour colts are poor.
Our toehold in even inner western Sydney is tenuous and worrying.
It’s proably better we talk Abou this now rather than waiting for the next domino to fall.

 

[Pfitzy]

I love Shute shield and it may be all we have soon but I am greatly concerned st what is becoming a 2 division comp.

You just noticed this was a problem?

There are actually three distinct divisions in Shute Shield from what I've observed as an outsider:

A) Those with precisely zero hope of winning the title - Emus, Two Blues, and usually Gordon + Pirates
B) Those who are plucky mid-table finishers and can aim to disrupt the odd side - Gordon and Pirates sometimes fit here, but usually your Southern Districts and Norths have ended up here in the last decade, along with the Rats.
C) The usual suspects fighting it out for the title: Uni, Easts, Randwick, Eastwood, Manly. And not all of them every year.

Those aren't concrete rules, mind, as we've seen recently with Rats and Norths.

But they're hardly competing with the big boys over the course of years. Get a good team together, kick some arse, move forward.

I actually think the recent competitiveness of teams against Uni is due to their ongoing oversupply of rep players finally bringing them down.

I love Shute shield and it may be all we have soon

Well we're utterly fucked at that point. Utterly.

Our toehold in even inner western Sydney is tenuous and worrying.
It’s proably better we talk Abou this now ten years ago rather than waiting for the next domino to fall.

Fixed. Lets get to the time machine before its too late

While Shute Shield clubs simultaneously consider themselves "the grassroots" and "elite", we'll continue to have fish heads running the game who can't even fucking identify where the problems lie.

Welcome to the death spiral.

 

[Pfitzy]

Further: while Shute Shield sees itself as of paramount importance, you're not going to address these issues in any meaningful way.

It is the issue with rugby everywhere around here - once you've got a bit of success or a working system, you build a wall and try to hold everyone else off with a pike. Even other rugby people.

And the real issue with that is there's no incentive to work together to achieve something better. And the people at HQ don't have the money, nor any fucks to give, to make things better because they're squandering it on players who can't deliver results, and a shiny new building that they don't fucking deserve.

 

[Inside Shoulder]

You just noticed this was a problem?

There are actually three distinct divisions in Shute Shield from what I've observed as an outsider:

A) Those with precisely zero hope of winning the title - Emus, Two Blues, and usually Gordon + Pirates
B) Those who are plucky mid-table finishers and can aim to disrupt the odd side - Gordon and Pirates sometimes fit here, but usually your Southern Districts and Norths have ended up here in the last decade, along with the Rats.
C) The usual suspects fighting it out for the title: Uni, Easts, Randwick, Eastwood, Manly. And not all of them every year.

Those aren't concrete rules, mind, as we've seen recently with Rats and Norths.

But they're hardly competing with the big boys over the course of years. Get a good team together, kick some arse, move forward.

I actually think the recent competitiveness of teams against Uni is due to their ongoing oversupply of rep players finally bringing them down.






Well we're utterly fucked at that point. Utterly.





Fixed. Lets get to the time machine before its too late

While Shute Shield clubs simultaneously consider themselves "the grassroots" and "elite", we'll continue to have fish heads running the game who can't even fucking identify where the problems lie.

Welcome to the death spiral.

I haven’t been regularly associated with Shute shield, week in week out including away games for 25 years.
I had read about Penrith in these pages but I thought Parra were relatively ok, also by reading these pages.
But after a few rounds, and not having previously questioned either the two blues or the pirates long term prospects.
Now I am.
Frankly, too much ink was spilt over too long agonising over Penrith, while these teams slid.
Who in SS thinks they’re elite?

 

[Quick Hands]

You would have to think Wests are looking pretty good. Will be in the mix come finals time.

Sent from my MHA-L09 using Tapatalk

Always in the mix, always unpredictable, usually just miss out. Would be nice to see them there though.

 

[wamberal]

Eastwood will survive, because of the good Colonel's generosity all those years ago.

University will survive because, well, just because. Don't ask too many questions, okay?

Easts and Randwick should be okay, I guess, lots of young bucks live in their catchments. Norths, pretty good licensed club? Manly, Warringah, Southern. Good supporter bases.




Gordon have struggled for a long time, even though according to a ground announcement I heard one afternoon at Chatswood Oval "they have the largest number of junior players on the books in the whole nation".

The Pirates? I know they can beat us when they get serious. Parramatta? Tough row to hoe.


I like Quick Hands idea of planting an organisation at Blacktown, and subsidising it, a home for young aspirants from the west.

 

[Quick Hands]

I haven’t been regularly associated with Shute shield, week in week out including away games for 25 years.
I had read about Penrith in these pages but I thought Parra were relatively ok, also by reading these pages.
But after a few rounds, and not having previously questioned either the two blues or the pirates long term prospects.
Now I am.
Frankly, too much ink was spilt over too long agonising over Penrith, while these teams slid.
Who in SS thinks they’re elite?

One of the biggest problems for Parramatta is that they often put in a couple of years hard work putting a good young team together at either colts or grade and they have trouble holding them. I'm not close enough to say why, but I've noticed a significant leakage to Eastwood over the years. They share a common and illogically defined boundary and I suspect that Eastwood just seems a more attractive option for some players, I can only speculate as to why.

Not sure what the issue is at Wests - I always thought that they made a mistake changing their name from Western Suburbs to West Harbour, I mean WTF does West Harbour mean to anyone outside rugby.

 

[Pfitzy]

Eastwood will survive, because of the good Colonel's generosity all those years ago.

And with the upcoming move, do they become the team for Northwestern Sydney?

Or will they lose a big part of the existing base because of it?

Gordon have struggled for a long time, even though according to a ground announcement I heard one afternoon at Chatswood Oval "they have the largest number of junior players on the books in the whole nation".

Not sure how they decide that BUT their Colts look like doing OK this year.

I like Quick Hands idea of planting an organisation at Blacktown, and subsidising it, a home for young aspirants from the west.

Yeah. There is a train station at Blacktown with a limited stops service every hour. Makes getting to training in the eastern suburbs much easier.

Gotta laugh, or you just end up crying...

 

[Pfitzy]

One of the biggest problems for Parramatta is that they often put in a couple of years hard work putting a good young team together at either colts or grade and they have trouble holding them. I'm not close enough to say why, but I've noticed a significant leakage to Eastwood over the years. They share a common and illogically defined boundary and I suspect that Eastwood just seems a more attractive option for some players, I can only speculate as to why.

1) Money
2) The opportunity to actually win something
3) Sometimes the PI guys in particular move around together - might be as simple as Player A has a car, and transports Players B through D. No club knocks back lower grade players if they're getting a prospect.

On the Two Blues thing: we played against Merrylands a few weeks ago, and none of their backline would look out of place in lower grades Premier Rugby. Serious talent there, some of it wearing league shorts.

 

[wamberal]

And with the upcoming move, do they become the team for Northwestern Sydney?

Or will they lose a big part of the existing base ?

Apparently the vast majority of their supporter base lives to the north west of Eastwood. That whole area is now demographically totally changed. From my experience, the people who live in the area now are not particularly interested in sport, certainly not organised sport, and they want their kids to put all their time and effort into academic achievement.

Gotta laugh, or you just end up crying.

This is just a discussion, mate, an idea cannot kill you, and it should not even make you cry!

 

[wamberal]

1) Money
2) The opportunity to actually win something
3) Sometimes the PI guys in particular move around together - might be as simple as Player A has a car, and transports Players B through D. No club knocks back lower grade players if they're getting a prospect.

On the Two Blues thing: we played against Merrylands a few weeks ago, and none of their backline would look out of place in lower grades Premier Rugby. Serious talent there, some of it wearing league shorts.

Eastwood in its current location was always going to be a magnet for players from further west. It is a bit chicken and egg, I think, success breeding success. Oh, and the coaching of John Manenti, he has been a great coach and head coach.


But the facilities are not bad, the licensed club on the premises, all pretty attractive I would have thought.


Now we will go through a couple of years of turmoil, maybe more. I assume that we will move to a temporary location, on the way to something bigger and better.

 

[Pfitzy]

This is just a discussion, mate, an idea cannot kill you, and it should not even make you cry!

It was more about the general state of things.

Honestly, why the fuck would you support rugby when this shit keeps happening? There's nothing noble about hitching your cart to a blind horse with 3 broken legs.

The crowning achievement of Australian Rugby this week will be my club getting Three Grades out for Old Boys Day.