Sydney Subbies 2025

[Pfitzy]

Colts is a tricky proposition - if you don't have them to start with, you don't have any history of program to drive it.

Corralling enough of them together every week is becoming more difficult. I've talked to club administrators who are in their late 20s and early 30s and they don't understand how these young blokes can't commit until the day of the game.

Exasperating.

 

[Here To Do]

Colts is a tricky proposition - if you don't have them to start with, you don't have any history of program to drive it.

Corralling enough of them together every week is becoming more difficult. I've talked to club administrators who are in their late 20s and early 30s and they don't understand how these young blokes can't commit until the day of the game.

Exasperating.

I think a lot of it comes down to getting clusters together - they sort of keep each other in check rather than the club having to chase as much.

With our Colts program, we had to start from scratch years ago. We had to find people who knew people whose son was playing at this school and had 3 mates he could bring down on Saturdays. We ended up, as a Div Four club, runners-up in the Radford with a bunch of guys who hadn't heard of Briars until they played for us.

The Super/Shute drain is one of the issues here - if you're a young man playing rugby at school, you're aiming for Wallabies or NRL. Tahs may be a fallback in which case you bugger off to Europe or Japan if you get the chance at more money, but I don't think many kids are aspiring to play for district teams, let alone suburban clubs.

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

I think the first job should be helping connect the resources that already exist.

The eastern suburbs heartland has this almost by default, relying mostly on networks and individuals to make connections; this has been the undoing of some clubs when particular individual(s) aren't on the scene any more.

If you could get Juniors and Schools working together, it would help Seniors a lot.

Get a model that works, tweak it for different socioeconomic areas, and set it in motion. Five year plan at best, but if you could get the leftovers from league and Premier Colts to start playing Subbies for their local club, you'd be on a good path to helping the west.

There are no Colts sides at present between St Pats and Blue Mountains, except for Hawkesbury Valley to the far north of the M4 spine.

I think the idea of establishing a model that works and applying it to certain areas but with tweaks here and there is good in theory but if look at the spread of clubs in the city's west which I would determine as any club west of Parramatta (including Merrylands) there are not many resources to connect with as it stands.

So anyone coming into a HoR role in the region would need to understand that they have to work with clubs to essentially build the community around them.

 

[Pfitzy]

The Super/Shute drain is one of the issues here - if you're a young man playing rugby at school, you're aiming for Wallabies or NRL. Tahs may be a fallback in which case you bugger off to Europe or Japan if you get the chance at more money, but I don't think many kids are aspiring to play for district teams, let alone suburban clubs.

I think it plays a part - a bigger issue is school leavers not staying in the game IMHO.

How many schools in Sydney have rugby?
How many have multiple opens XVs playing?
That's the numbers game - knowing how many kids played rugby and are leaving school - so we can figure out how many are candidates for Colts.

Premier Clubs will not need to refresh their entire Colts program every year as someone are still U20. It will vary but if you put down 30 players per club, in Sydney that's 330 to get you started. I know a lot of clubs are bringing country kids in as well to help bolster their numbers, so it might be less.

As a Subbies club, I know I'm not getting the superstars so First XV guys and a lot of Second XV as well.

And quite frankly the 3rd XV prop at Oakhill who likes the idea of a beer and a game with his mates is probably more valuable to me Local, social, and committed. If I got 6-8 guys per year coming through, they could run in Subbies Colts (U21) for 3 years while also supporting senior grades. The issue is getting the first squad of 25-30 together...

Depending on who is aging out, Subbies clubs in the top 4 divisions would need between 6-10 players each I reckon, which is another 200-320 players.

So for Premier Rugby + Subbies Rugby, we need about 550-650 kids every year, so up to 43 XVs.

Back to the questions: how many schools in Sydney have rugby? How many XVs will be leaving school?
AND
How many of them are staying in Sydney? How many kids can we find from other sources like League or Aussie Rules?

 

[Strewthcobber]

The challenge with 18-20 year olds is always going to be mobility, they are going to move closer to uni, to the bright lights etc.

Trying to build a club in the burbs unless you are near a major centre is really hard.

Having said that, I know more are living with parents then there used to be.

 

[Pfitzy]

Trying to build a club in the burbs unless you are near a major centre is really hard.

Mate the Metro line is practically the spine of these suburbs

Plenty of time to have a beer at the Etta after the game, head into the city for a big night, then sober up a bit on the way home.