Sydney Subbies 2016

[cheekymonkey]

Drummoyne or Lindfield look to be the clubs up for relegation at this very very early stage of the season.

 

[Tommy Tudehope]

Kings should be left in Div 3 for Now, Should have to field from 2nd Grade down and Forfeit 1st Grade and this will save player safety

Probably a better option than relegation.

 

[Pfitzy]

in no way shape or form is that over exaggerated being a nightmare, put yourself in an administrators shoes from a club or subbies. Having been on a committee I can tell you for free that players at out club when they see a bye are gone on holidays or doing something else.

You drop them down you set a Dangerous precedence of allowing clubs to pick and choose during the middle of the season what division they should be

Subbies don't get a single ounce of pity from me - they pick and choose their favourites already, so Tim and his mates in the top divisions can cry me a river.


As for being in the middle of a shit storm - you may not have heard this story yet, so if everyone else will indulge me:

I've served on the committee of a small club, where I basically did every frigging job from marking the ground to Registrar to web guy, media work, dealing with Council to sourcing new goalposts to apologising to Brothers' First Grade when our Firsts didn't show up one day, and the elected Executive of our club were nowhere to be seen. I was on the field as all this shit went down, so had to apologise while I was trying to get feeling back in my legs from Tony Daly giving me hell at scrum time.

I had the same experience on my birthday that same season, having driven all the way to Carss Park, to find 8 other members of our 4th Division club there, which means we couldn't even start ANY game, let alone First Grade. St George were fucking unhappy about that, let me tell you.

This was a season where we'd already thrown away Third Grade because we had 60% of our previous playing stocks walk, including almost all of our Second Grade premiership team. We turned up with 1 or 2 Grades every week, or sometimes forfeited a whole week, and none of our opponents enjoyed that whatsoever.

We had the lowest fees of any club - probably in Sydney, for ANY sport. So it wasn't the money chasing them away. Not that they paid their fees. And the reason isn't actually important, anyway.

So, yeah, I pretty much get administrative fuckups, and having to hold everything together with duct tape. Yep, without doubt there was a culture issue that the Executive and committee didn't address, and that was genuinely part of the problem. But we were stuck in Division 4, getting a hammering every week, and I walked because there was no end in sight.


The club committee at Kings definitely has a responsibility, but not everything is in black and white at the start of a season. I've had years where 100 blokes signed up and only 40 showed up to play in Round 1, so its more art than science.

If Subbies don't have a plan for these kinds of contingencies that actually makes sense, then as an organisation, they're failing, and the 5-year timeline someone put up above is probably accurate for many clubs in Division 4 downwards.

Most of the guys at KOBs are probably dreading Saturday week, going over to Epping to get towelled yet again. It'll be a long road back, and no-one tends to stick their hand up in these circumstances.

It breaks my heart to see a club go through this. Particularly while Subbies let top division clubs like Drummoyne rack up a red card count even Martin Johnson would wince at, and get away with throwing money around year after year.

Having been on a committee I can tell you for free that players at out club when they see a bye are gone on holidays or doing something else.

OK that may be a fair point, and it sucks if they've booked accommodation etc. or promise the wife a week off. Particularly if its snow season.


But here's your alternative: let's tell the First Grade players of every other club to suck it up, and they'll just have to have a break part way through the season, perhaps at a critical point in their season, where momentum is with them.

Yeah, nah.

People in any one of those other clubs will put that idea in the fuck-it bucket and prep every grade to shift down. Nothing like helping your 2s, 3s, and 4s with some huge bonus point wins to get the for/against ticking along, right? Might come in handy come finals time.

And, of course, Kings still get the shit beaten out of them physically, psychologically, and on the scoreboard.

So what has that plan achieved in helping KOBS, exactly? Taken a shit on player safety and wiped its arse with club morale, in summary.

I get where you coming from but seriously some of your comments are what the problem is with the mentality of some people on this forum

Yeah - I'm the one with the problem.

 

[SackRobbie]

Clubs dropping Divisions mid season is never going to happen. It would be impossible.

 

[Pfitzy]

Good thing we're only 3 rounds in, then, and not mid-year at all.

It would be impossible.

Me getting stuck in a Scarlett Johansson / Beyonce baby oil sandwich is impossible.

Moving Kings down a Division is merely disruptive, but its better than watching yet another club die, because people can't admit and then fix their mistakes.

How many complaints have we had on this thread about Subbies sticking to a system that no longer works, and now we have people saying things are too hard to change?

Jesus wept...

 

[SubbiesVeteran]

What makes you think also if Kings Drop down that they can suddenly be more competitive and be able to field 3 teams

They are struggling to field 2 teams let alone 3, like I've said before they chose to not say anything and stick it out in Div 3 this year so they need to now live the consequences

It's about some of these clubs to some responsibility for their own decisions instead of blaming Subbies or others for their mistakes

 

[Pfitzy]

I'm not saying they will necessarily be any more competitive.

But allowing them to skip First Grade in their existing division is open season on their player base. No club is going to give a lonely fuck about KOBs' problems, if it means they can wallop them in the lower grades and dine out on a better ladder position doing it.

Are you saying they should also skip Second Grade when that becomes impossible due to loss in player numbers from the pressure of getting smashed every week?

Fuck me sideways what a competition that would be - every other club licking their lips at the prospect of giving their Firsts a run at what's left of KOBs Third and Fourth Grade. We might see some competition records!

I am told from a good source, that they fronted Subbies and said 3rd Div was totally a thing. Maybe their committee are completely fucking delusional narcissists with a bet on not winning a game all year.

Based on the results KOBs were getting end of last year, with the knowledge that their 4s were probably going to retire en masse once they got that elusive title, I reckon it was a fair bet they'd drop to 4th Div and I was honestly surprised they didn't.

So they definitely have to shoulder part of the blame. Letting it go there is the domain of the small-minded, petty kind of bureaucrat that now let's Subbies run the way it does. Its a microcosm of all that is fucked with Australian Rugby, while we're on the topic.

But the shit has hit the fan, and you want to keep right on punishing them. OK, fine - let's chuck another club under the bus because the enshrined prejudice that is Subbies is the last word.

Unless you're a First Division club with an appalling disciplinary record and/or an ongoing player payments scheme that laughs in the face of "amateur" rugby.

Fuck's sake. It's like talking to a climate change denier.

 

[Seagull Butler]

But allowing them to skip First Grade in their existing division is open season on their player base. No club is going to have a lonely fuck about KOBs' problems, if it means they can wallop them in the lower grades and dine out on a better ladder position doing it.

The only way I could see a club forfeiting ones each week without the opposition simply playing ones in twos, would be to make it a forfeit only scoreline for the rest of the year (i.e 28-0 even if you won 50-0). Then the opposition again simply wouldn't care so their key 2's/3's/4's players wouldn't play that weekend as they already have the points, and firsts maybe wouldn't play for fear of injury.

But would a season of "friendly's"keep a club alive or would it be even worse?

 

[Nath]

What happened to wonderboy?

Use 6th div guys always used to get a chuckle out of his tips when it was as clear as day he'd never seen any of us play.

 

[Heavyd]

The reality is KOBS will not see out the season. Eventually injuries will deplete whats left of their player base and citing player safety they will have to withdraw. All of the games played will subsequently become 28-0.

 

[Pfitzy]

The reality is KOBS will not see out the season. Eventually injuries will deplete whats left of their player base and citing player safety they will have to withdraw. All of the games played will subsequently become 28-0.

More than likely.

So at least show them a bit of love, let them drop down, and maybe they can use that as a lever to get some emergency players in to see things out and rebuild.

If Subbies treat them like a pariah, you can bet everyone else will, too.

 

[SackRobbie]

Anyone played Old Iggies? How are they going since they dropped 2 Divisions?

 

[Prodigy]

Anyone played Old Iggies? How are they going since they dropped 2 Divisions?

Runout has it that numbers are an issue. Epping haven't played them yet, but that's what I've been told.

 

[cheekymonkey]

What about if KOBs pull out of 3 div and just run two teams in halligans. They could get regular games against the few div 1 clubs with 5th grade sides like Colleagues and Mosman.
That way it's less of an administration issue compared to entering div 4 midseason.

 

[Pfitzy]

Would work if they can get games near each other. Might be tough to keep the club camaraderie otherwise

 

[Big 8]

Can someone enlighten this group as to when Subbies advertise the Coaching and management group for the NSW Sub districts team each year.........or do they ?

 

[thetraitor]

Waverley vs Hunters Hill and Newport vs Forest this weekend. Results will be interesting and will show who are the real Div 2 contenders.

 

[Heavyd]

Waverley vs Hunters Hill and Newport vs Forest this weekend. Results will be interesting and will show who are the real Div 2 contenders.

Looks like those teams will dominate with maybe Blue Mountains threatening one of them for a spot in semis.

On another note lets hope the stadnard of refereeing picks up as the number 1 issue driving players away in lower grades is the farcical decisions week in week out.

 

[rugbyking2]

On another note lets hope the stadnard of refereeing picks up as the number 1 issue driving players away in lower grades is the farcical decisions week in week out.

What seems to be the issue? I've seen a few games this year and it often comes down to older blokes out of touch with the game. However, watched a 4th div game with a young fella reffing, looked no older than 17 or 18 and did a good job against much older and experienced men.

 

[fkj]

Looks like those teams will dominate with maybe Blue Mountains threatening one of them for a spot in semis.

On another note lets hope the stadnard of refereeing picks up as the number 1 issue driving players away in lower grades is the farcical decisions week in week out.

If the refs weren't copping the bullshit they do week in, week out, there might be more refs around to choose from, and the standard might improve...