Southern Inland Rugby 2021

[paul bristow]

Given the draw scenarios posted by Reasoning we probably need to do another draw. Is this situation going to be different in the future? Leeton have been struggling for 2nds for a while now, Hay and Deni are never going to have 1sts.

 

[Bubba]

The club presidents all agreed to this draw as far as i know. I dont know the murky details of it all, but i should imagine someone was always going to be unhappy. There may be other factors in the background as well that we aren't aware of as well. Tough break for ag college but me personally , id rather have the bulk of my away games in the first half of the season.

 

[Athol]

Sounds like there are some "Murky details" involved with this year's Draw
With 2 Clubs now happy to play most of their Away Games in the 1st half of the Comp (Remember Aggies have only 2 Home Games in the first half) maybe SIRU Should in future let each Club when they want to be Away and for how long each year - ha ha
Rant over on the 2021 Draw - It's a Dog's Breakfast and may the best Breed win

Whilst it's great to see all Club Teams together at the 1 venue throughout the season it is a bit of a shame that the Home & Away sequence is badly out of Whack

I reckon City, Waraths, Griffith and Albury will make the top 4 this year in no particular order
Tumut might be a bit of a surprise packet but Leeton, CSU and WAC will find it tough to make the Finals
Any other predictions from anyone ?

 

[paul bristow]

I can’t see we’ve resolved anything with the draw that has been decided on this year. Hay & Deni are never going to have a 1st grade. I can understand everyone’s point of view that it’s been agreed on & accepted. Fine, let’s get on with it, but are we going to have 4 byes in 1st grade next year? Shouldn’t Hay & Deni have to fit into the competition not the competition fit into Hay & Deni?

 

[Bubba]

Any other Trials happening out there for the Clubs ?

Our plan at this stage is to take a 7's squad to parkes this weekend and have a hit out there. Then we have a 3 way trial with Albury and Hall Bushrangers out at Borambola on 13th . Having a spell for a week then taking a squad to Boorowa on the 27th .

Organising a trial isnt as easy as it used to be !

 

[yourmatesam]

What's the wrap up from the trials around the grounds peeps? I chatted to a few guys from City on Saturday night who were looking forward to playing Albury this weekend.

Hopefully all teams made it through the weekend injury free?

 

[yourmatesam]

I hope the Blacks do well, strong teams outside Wagga always adds to the competition.

 

[paul bristow]

Blacks club in a good place Sam. I haven’t heard of any new star players or anything like that but very good no.s at training. Can’t see any issues with having 4 strong grades this year. Well run club with a good ground to play on.

 

[yourmatesam]

Blacks club in a good place Sam. I haven’t heard of any new star players or anything like that but very good no.s at training. Can’t see any issues with having 4 strong grades this year. Well run club with a good ground to play on.

That's good to hear PB, good club culture always leads to a strong club.

The off field facilities outside Wagga really highlight how dated CRP is doesn't it.

 

[Bubba]

Good to hear about the Blacks resurgence .
City, Albury & Hall had a handy 3 way hit out on saturday. Very warm and muggy conditions !

I think Albury have something half decent building there. Got some new faces and some old , and they have some genuine pace out wide.

I havent heard much about other trials around the traps.

 

[Phantom]

Albury have gained some extra talent and are looking very sharp, pretty sure they were not at full strength but still played some exciting rugby.
Nice side step by you Bubba, City are looking equally good and will no doubt be there or there abouts at the money end of the season.
Big thanks to Hall Bushrangers for allowing the 7 (yes 7) senior men and 3 women Phantom players have a run with them.

 

[yourmatesam]

Trials are a difficult time of year, hopefully Leeton have some more numbers as the season proper kicks off.

Good to hear about Albury and City, hopefully they're around when the whips are cracking!

 

[yourmatesam]

So are we interpreting one of the Comments above that Leeton are really struggling with numbers ?

I think that's the only way to interpret that. That's how I read it.

Good luck to Reddies out at Tusker Stadium, the tacklers from T town always put on a good show.

 

[paul bristow]

The draw we have is questionable in the present circumstances. If Phantoms can’t field 1sts almost half of the teams in the 1st grade draw won’t be actually playing on any given weekend.

 

[Bubba]

Any word on trials around from the weekend ?

 

[yourmatesam]

That's ordinary news for the Phantoms. Fingers crossed they can work their way back into 2022.

 

[Bubba]

That's ordinary news for the Phantoms. Fingers crossed they can work their way back into 2022.

Not great for the phantoms at all. But i would say in all honesty that the writing has been on the wall for the last 3 or 4 years . 2017 they won it. 2018 they battled at times for players. 2019 they pulled out of 2's half way through the season . 2020 was propped up by Group 20 and out of towners. 2021 sees them slip back to 3's.

Its a massive shame because i would argue that Leeton has some of , if not the best facilities in the comp. It puts Connollys antiquated facilities to shame . I wish them luck in their come back but its a tough battle .

 

[yourmatesam]

Not great for the phantoms at all. But i would say in all honesty that the writing has been on the wall for the last 3 or 4 years . 2017 they won it. 2018 they battled at times for players. 2019 they pulled out of 2's half way through the season . 2020 was propped up by Group 20 and out of towners. 2021 sees them slip back to 3's.

Its a massive shame because i would argue that Leeton has some of , if not the best facilities in the comp. It puts Connollys antiquated facilities to shame . I wish them luck in their come back but its a tough battle .

GF hangovers are always difficult to deal with, hopefully they can pull it together in some fashion.

Leeton's facilities are definitely top three within the zone, CRP is not in that ballpark in any fashion in terms of off-field but I would argue that CRP is certainly the best surface in the competition.

My view on CRP has always been that we didn't need any more green space but the off-field areas were what needed attention. Having said that, SIRU needed to secure that parcel of land to avoid it being sold or developed in some other capacity and green space made sense - I would have liked to see that dedicated to junior fields rather than a second #1 pitch.

 

[paul bristow]

I don’t know what to think of the draw, Reasoning. What do you say. It’s what you get when you work from the bottom up instead of the top down. Here at Griffith in the 1st round we have the Sports Club ground booked & 2 out of our 4 teams (who have been training for quite a while now) will be sitting in the crowd watching. It’s definitely unusual. Leeton, Athol always struggled before they had an influx of disgruntled players from Griffith. That situation has obviously run its course and now they’ve lost the player & local support base they had before those players arrived. Leeton are a one team (2nd grade) plus girls team town. That’s what the community can support despite having had quite good juniors over the years. CRP is what it is. Pretty crap for a central venue. Hopefully it gets upgraded over time.

 

[Bubba]

First grade sides will play 14 comp games in 2021 . Which is only 4 more comp games than what was played in Covid Cup 2020 ! Which only had 4 teams !