Sydney Subbies 2018

[Pfitzy]

I hope Chatswood can stay in Div 5 as it's always good battle between us.

Hells yeah. We might also have a few issues if too many injuries pop up. Preseason has been disrupted to shit, and training this week is going to get fisted by Easter by the looks.

Chatswood
Convicts
Dukes
Lane Cove
Renegades
3 others... probably some capable of fielding a second grade occasionally!

Might get this 5th Div thing back with a bit more effort.

 

[Bernie]

Division 4 draw up on Subbies website. Looks like Menai are sticking with Division 5.

 

[Pfitzy]

Division 4 draw up on Subbies website. Looks like Menai are sticking with Division 5.

Confirmed with Tim this afternoon as I was chasing the draw and structure for Div 5. Div 4 clubs will be unhappy, especially those with the bye either side of Wet Weather or compulsory breaks.

So likely we'll have Division 5 as the two grade clubs: Dukes, Convicts, Covies, Renegades
Throwing in the 4 Ms: Menai, Merrylands, Maccabi, Manly Savers.

I think its a bit of a joke that Menai can stomp everyone but STILL not field 2 Grades.

That makes Div 6: Dundas, Dee Why, Collaroy, North Cronulla, Burraneer, Engadine, Chatswood, Wakehurst.

 

[Ozzie Bob]

Pfitzy

Do we have a new club in North Cronulla?

Good to see another club in that part of Sydney!

Confirmed with Tim this afternoon as I was chasing the draw and structure for Div 5. Div 4 clubs will be unhappy, especially those with the bye either side of Wet Weather or compulsory breaks.

So likely we'll have Division 5 as the two grade clubs: Dukes, Convicts, Covies, Renegades
Throwing in the 4 Ms: Menai, Merrylands, Maccabi, Manly Savers.

I think its a bit of a joke that Menai can stomp everyone but STILL not field 2 Grades.

That makes Div 6: Dundas, Dee Why, Collaroy, North Cronulla, Burraneer, Engadine, Chatswood, Wakehurst.

 

[Pfitzy]

Pfitzy

Do we have a new club in North Cronulla?

Good to see another club in that part of Sydney!

The reborn North Cronulla Sea Lice! https://www.facebook.com/NorthCronullaSealice/

Good on them for getting a club up and running again. I've seen a fair few shut down in the last dozen years, and hope these guys can keep pushing it in a very pro-league area.

We need more clubs with > 1 Grade to keep the comp viable. I had 7 at training tonight, and fortunately most were tight five so we trained up a new young bloke as a prop.

1 training session until season starts. Draw out this week. Hope it comes together

 

[The Real Big Bopper]

How do people feel that the early start to the season has affected preparations/planning etc?

Cricket still being played in the weeks where we've tried to trial, long weekend leading into rd1 affecting numbers at training and a season that finishes in August (if you make the semi finals) has left me scratching my head.

Our numbers seem good but it's a different bunch of faces each week at training. I won't feel confident about running 4 full grades plus colts until I see 75+ guys in jerseys come Sat the 7th.



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[Pfitzy]

Putting it up against Easter sucks - this happened last year, and after getting preseason rained out, killed a lot of our momentum.

My training numbers are affected by guys who simply don't want to train. "I'll move my shifts, prez!" but they never fucking do.

Quite frankly, I need more white collar guys who can get out of work before 6PM of a Wednesday.

Its kind of a relief to have the optional Second Grade system as I can't guarantee numbers week to week. This week at the suggestion of our Registrar, I've used the Poll function in Facebook to get training numbers, and so far so good.

 

[laura.ainslie]

The early start & Easter break is really hard. Battling the long weekend definitely affects the player momentum.

 

[footy_footy]

Looks like there are going to be some definite issues with colts numbers (more of the trend i guess.). Hearing several clubs in Div 2 and 3 are in trouble, as are Waverley. UNSW meanwhile apparently had over 40 colts at their trial with St. Pats on the weekend.

Colts is a strange one. I have seen on facebook Beecroft and Balmain offering free rego for colts and Waverley are still struggling to recover after last years discipline problems, where they gave out free shirts and rego. You mention UNSW had a cast of thousands at Hudson Park on Saturday and I know for a fact St Pats have in excess of 30 colts committed/registered for 2018. The usual suspects of Colleagues, Petersham, Mosman, Lindfield and Lane Cove will likely have enough colts to sink a ship.

There's no shortage of young players playing the game, the problem is trying to distribute them across Sydney. I know West Harbour are struggling to get 3 colts teams off the ground, whilst St Pats have their best colts numbers in years just up Parramatta road. If someone knew how to fix this problem they could well save subbies and Australian rugby!

 

[Gary Owen III]

Attn - U18 age-eligible Colts in Subbies

New South Wales Juniors Rep program for 2018 has been expanded - Now a full and meaningful Rep program for the junior club rugby players of NSW that are playing juniors or colts.

NSW Country / Sydney U18 Rep Program

•Sydney Opens (U18) Rep Trials (22nd April, 4.00pm, Blackman Oval, Lane Cove)
•NSW Country Opens (U18) Championships (5th-6th May, Ourimbah)
•Sydney U18 v NSW Country U18 (11th June, Concord Oval, Concord)
•Sydney U18 v Combined High Schools U18 (17th June, Warnervale, Central Coast)
•NSW Country U18 v Combined High Schools U18 (17th June, Warnervale, Central Coast)

From here a NSWJRU I and NSWJRU II team will be selected for the next two games.
*Note - players that may have missed out on the Sydney/NSW Country U18s yet compete in the Opens at the NSWJRU State Championships are still eligible for selection into one of the NSWJRU teams.

NSWJRU U18 Rep Program
•NSWJRU I v ACT U18s (24th June, ACT venue)
•NSWJRU II v ACT U17s (24th June, ACT venue)
•NSWJRU I U18 v GPS III Blue (28th June, Boronia Park Hunters Hill)
•NSWJRU II U18 v GPS III White (28th June, Boronia Park Hunters Hill)

From here a final NSWJRU I will be selected and it will compete in the Rugby Au U18 Division 2 Nationals on the Gold Coast. Schedule for these games are

Div 2 Nationals
•Sunday 8th July - Game Day 1
•Tuesday 10th July - Game Day 2
•Thursday 12th July - Game Day 3

 

[Heavyd]

How do people feel that the early start to the season has affected preparations/planning etc?

Cricket still being played in the weeks where we've tried to trial, long weekend leading into rd1 affecting numbers at training and a season that finishes in August (if you make the semi finals) has left me scratching my head.

Our numbers seem good but it's a different bunch of faces each week at training. I won't feel confident about running 4 full grades plus colts until I see 75+ guys in jerseys come Sat the 7th.



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Some players can expect to play 2 games of footy round one or alternatively there may be lower grade forefeits come next Friday. I think daylight savings ending will help people reset to footy season but there will be many crossed fingers waiting for final numbers at training sessions. Certainly Easter is a massive momentum killer.

 

[Pfitzy]

There's no shortage of young players playing the game, the problem is trying to distribute them across Sydney.

Fixed; it isn't just Colts.

If Hills are running a Halligan Cup team every week, I'm ten minutes up the road. Why don't those guys want to play for us? Because big clubs, with established histories and volunteers, are easier for these players. You can't "fix" that, unfortunately. Someone who has been a Junior at Hills their whole life isn't going to suddenly go somewhere else, after all.

 

[Pfitzy]

Divisions 5 & 6 officially released - the solid element here is that all the finalists from Division 5 last year are still in the competition.

(Though I'm still quite shitty Menai are in this list, and no doubt all the Div 4 clubs feel the same).

Division 5
Alexandria Dukes
Lane Cove
Maccabi
Manly Savers
Menai
Merrylands
Rouse Hill
Sydney Convicts

Division 6
Burraneer
Chatswood
Collaroy
Dee Why
Dundas Valley
Engadine
North Cronulla
Wakehurst

 

[southsider]

Fixed; it isn't just Colts.

If Hills are running a Halligan Cup team every week, I'm ten minutes up the road. Why don't those guys want to play for us? Because big clubs, with established histories and volunteers, are easier for these players. You can't "fix" that, unfortunately. Someone who has been a Junior at Hills their whole life isn't going to suddenly go somewhere else, after all.

Going to ask the unpopular question here, why the fuck have two clubs 10 mins apart? Recipe for disaster

 

[footy_footy]

Going to ask the unpopular question here, why the fuck have two clubs 10 mins apart? Recipe for disaster

As Pfitzy said the geography isn't the major factor, established clubs with history, money, sponsors, facilities etc have an advantage over clubs no matter where they are located. People will travel to play with successful on/off field clubs. Think about Petersham, Balmain and Drummoyne. They are all roughly within a 10 Minute radius and are 3 of the strongest clubs in Subbies rugby for a variety of reasons. Whilst the problem of player concentration and distribution realistically cannot be solved, one can dream of the ideal subbies rugby competition!

 

[southsider]

As Pfitzy said the geography isn't the major factor, established clubs with history, money, sponsors, facilities etc have an advantage over clubs no matter where they are located. People will travel to play with successful on/off field clubs. Think about Petersham, Balmain and Drummoyne. They are all roughly within a 10 Minute radius and are 3 of the strongest clubs in Subbies rugby for a variety of reasons. Whilst the problem of player concentration and distribution realistically cannot be solved, one can dream of the ideal subbies rugby competition!

But you literally just reinforced my point, you put a new club close to an established old club........the problem geography - putting two clubs too close. Petersham, Balmain, Drummoyne are exceptions to the rule they’re all old clubs (level playing field) and all are in high density residential areas with access for white collar workers. Also Petersham is still 20 odd minutes away from Drummoyne without traffic - not the best example of clubs being “close”

 

[footy_footy]

But you literally just reinforced my point, you put a new club close to an established old club....the problem geography - putting two clubs too close. Petersham, Balmain, Drummoyne are exceptions to the rule they’re all old clubs (level playing field) and all are in high density residential areas with access for white collar workers. Also Petersham is still 20 odd minutes away from Drummoyne without traffic - not the best example of clubs being “close”

I maintain that Drummoyne, Balmain and Petersham are all geographically close, maybe not Eastern Suburbs and Colleagues close but they're all competing with each other for players. I guess what I'm trying to say in a general sense is that as a game and a competition we are missing out on what hypothetically could be a great rugby competition. In years gone by Division 1 ranged from Woollahra in the east to Blue Mountains or Campbelltown in the west. In the past few years St Pats have been the 'westie' team in Strathfield! Now with St Pats relegated It's almost a dead heat between Knox and Drummoyne as to where Colleagues will do their 'posh' bus tour this year when they venture to the notorious western Sydney suburb of West Pymble!

To cut a long story short I wish that the NSWRU and/or ARU would take the time to have a look at grassroots rugby and throw the likes of Rouse Hill a bit of support to help them compete against the established clubs instead of continually levy the shit out of subbies and junior clubs to pay the Waratahs wages. I'm not naive however and realise that this is only a pipe dream. Subbies can't afford to get the rep team off the ground this year!

In my previous post when I said 'fix' the problem. I know full and well it cannot be fixed. There is over a century of tradition, culture and politics which have made rugby union the game it is in Sydney. It just annoys me that because of this history subbies is operating absolutely no where near its potential.

 

[Cattledog]

Colts rugby in Sydney is only gonna get worse. Word on the street is Parramatta, Gordon, West Harbour & Penrith are all struggling for numbers. Junior rugby in Western Sydney has almost died & with no private rugby schools west of Kings to draw upon things indeed look dire. How the hell are subbies clubs supposed to attract colts if there aren't enough to fill western Sydney's SS Clubs?

And things ARE GOING TOO GET WORSE! FYI There are only 16! SIXTEEN! SJRU U16 teams in Sydney in 2018! So anyone thinking that things are gonna get better in the near future is in for a rude shock!

 

[Johnny Drama]

Rugby does nothing in terms of junior recruitment. League not much better. My wife works at a primary school in a part of town that traditionally has been strong for Rugby. There's been quite a few boys from the school represent NSW Primary Schools in the past. Year after year no one from RA or whatever they're called ever comes to visit. Or League. But AFL recruitment officers practically live there.

 

[Johnny Drama]

What I hate most about professionalism is all the bureaucracy that is needed to run anything. It's like the public service. It just gets bigger and bigger paying themselves more and more and contributing less and less.