Shute Shield Colts 2025

[teamsport]

Is there are reason why they couldn't be played another time? Norths managed to play third grade yesterday afternoon.

Rats have essentially been gifted a week off in the lead up to finals.

I apprecaite there is a struggle for numbers in 3rd colts, but forfeiting 1s/2s colts shouldn't be allowed for the Premier Colts competition in Australia.

Agreed the Shute Shield need to consider if it is appropriate for a club to do this and field sides in finals in other grades.

It is not Warringah's problem it is a Northern Suburbs problem and they shouldn't be allowed to get away with it. Poor leadership all round.

 

[Crashy]

Looking at the finalists, every club but Two Blues and Souths have at least 1 team present.

Two Blues won 16 out of 103 fixtures (15.5%) with none in Colts.
Souths won 21 out of 119 fixtures (17.6%) with bottom 2 finishes in every Grade except Colts 1 (third last) and Colts 2 (fourth last)

Hard gig this Premier Rugby.

I wonder if the emergence of smaller subbies clubs in the Shire district is impacting player strength / depth at Southern Districts.

North Cronulla Surf Club
Georges river
Oatley
not to mention Camden / Wollondilly a bit further out?

 

[Rudderless]

I wonder if the emergence of smaller subbies clubs in the Shire district is impacting player strength / depth at Southern Districts.

North Cronulla Surf Club
Georges river
Oatley
not to mention Camden / Wollondilly a bit further out?

Add to that list is Burraneer.

There was also Blakehurst (now defunct)

 

[Pfitzy]

Add to that list is Burraneer.

TWO Burraneers in fact. Burra Dolphins juniors currently fielding an U21 side in Subbies Div 2 in the Sydney Irish slot, playing at John Dwyer Oval.

The other being the Hammerheads who started up a few years back (breakaway from the original Dolphins) and are one grade of Seniors at AR Hurst, in Division 6 with the rest of these "Shire" clubs.

Do these Subbies clubs affect the strength of Souths?

IMHO not really. None of those clubs are more than 1 Grade (some of them barely), and only 1 Colts squad as stated above as a standalone entity. All of those teams sit in the bottom half of their current competition with win ratios lower than 50%.

Yes the numbers of players are decent when put together but we're not talking guys capable of playing First Grade Shute Shield, and First Grade is where Southern's problems start.

More prominent might be the re-establishment of Rockdale seniors in 2023, a lot of whom were Southern Districts players. A handful of them went to these smaller clubs when Rockdale fell over after one season, but several including potential coaching bodies ended up at UNSW - Subbies 2nd Division.