Continued decline in Sydney Junior Rugby

[Man on the hill]

BTW Anyone know if any JRU Coach has ever been cited for being in breach of the Code of Conduct?

Doubt it - but they will sit & scratch their head and wonder why when they struggle for numbers the next season.

 

[Quick Hands]

Doubt it - but they will sit & scratch their head and wonder why when they struggle for numbers the next season.

Hence Gordon colts struggle to attract players despite winning plenty of junior State championships.

 

[Dingasden]

Any thoughts on the impact that the U18s Colts comp will have on the Sunday Opens (18s) Comp?

There were 10 Opens teams this year. Numbers have gradually declined in the last 5 years or so including consolidation of 17s & 18s comps a few years ago & I believe this comp could possibly fold next year with many players moving to colts. Players (& their families) will generally not want to back up from Saturday colts for Sunday opens.
I have suggested an alternative to SJRU as follows:
1) Move Opens to Saturday - Reason: no point catering for school players at this age & it just may help attract some curious league players to rugby.
2) change to a 10-a-side game. Reason: increase chance of forming team, less forfeits, can still have 5 man scrums & line outs, closer to true rugby than 7s.
3) 15 min halves in a weekly 3-way games (3 teams) giving 60 mins of rugby a week
4) Games played early morning or later in arvo so as not to clash with 18s colts. Any colts players not getting a run or wanting more rugby can then back up for club rugby. This also focuses on clear pathway to senior club rugby.
This concept gives players wanting to play colts an opportunity to continue playing for their local club. Players will not play Sat colts AND Sunday club rugby - it is too much out of a player & families weekend at this age when studies are more important & non-rugby time is valued.
The introduction of an u18s colts comp is a good concept but I believe it could cause the loss of a lot of club rugby players who do not want to play colts or will not fit into the limited quota offered by one 18s colts team in their district.
If you have any thoughts or suggestions to help stem the loss of 16 & 17 years olds from club rugby or support my concept above (or something similar) please email Kerry Brady & the rest of the SJRU committee. I've received no reply to mine.
Cheers


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[Hugh Jarse]

Despite being mooted as a fait accompli by some, the Sydney Colts Under 18 competition in lieu of Colts 3 may not be a goer for 2015.

Two current year 12 boys that I know have been to two different clubs for their 2015 information nights. Both kids have said that there was no mention of an Under 18 competition being run in lieu of Colts 3 in 2015.

Notwithstanding, the powers that be need to do something to recruit and retain players in the upper age groups.

Those keen to propose strawman concepts should not only follow @Dingasden's suggestion of emailing SJRU committee, but should also address their emails to their affiliated Junior Village Club and District Committees.

Unfortunately there can be some pompous procedural bureaucrats at SJRU who only "acknowledge" information that has been passed to them through "proper" channels. That is, if it isn't a communication from a Village Club President then it is only "for information" not "for action". That's how things worked when I was actively involved in Club and District administration a couple of years back. I hope it is still not the modus operandi but I fear that it may be the case, particularly if your suggestion is "outside the box" or does not support the agenda that they support.

 

[Dingasden]

The latest I have heard is that 18s is going ahead but not to replace 3rd grade colts despite the wishes of one high power club. Only time will tell.


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[Hugh Jarse]

^^ That would be a better suggestion IMHO, but the detail needs to be worked out and implemented in conjunction with SJRU, CCC, CHS, and Colts Clubs. Last thing we need is to have SJRU and Colts fighting over the same pool of players.

 

[mangled]

The idea put on the table at nswru was to have U18s in addition to all three colts.... a rushed decision came out to replace 3rd grade.. this was never the intention when put forward so hopefully commonsense will prevail and nswru will "amend" the decision

 

[Quick Hands]

^^ That would be a better suggestion IMHO, but the detail needs to be worked out and implemented in conjunction with SJRU, CCC, CHS, and Colts Clubs. Last thing we need is to have SJRU and Colts fighting over the same pool of players.

My understanding of the original proposal was that SJRU open competition would be replaced by teams aligned with district colts clubs, not as an additional competition.

There ain't enough players to fight over anyway - and SJRU certainly isn't the organisation to grow the player pool.

I like the idea that it would be in addition to, not in lieu of Colts 3.

 

[Quick Hands]

Unfortunately there can be some pompous procedural bureaucrats at SJRU who only "acknowledge" information that has been passed to them through "proper" channels. That is, if it isn't a communication from a Village Club President then it is only "for information" not "for action". That's how things worked when I was actively involved in Club and District administration a couple of years back. I hope it is still not the modus operandi but I fear that it may be the case, particularly if your suggestion is "outside the box" or does not support the agenda that they support.

Yes, unfortunately they operate much like Hitler's bunker in 1945 - moving Panzer divisions that don't exist around on a big table.

 

[Man on the hill]

Unfortunately there can be some pompous procedural bureaucrats at SJRU who only "acknowledge" information that has been passed to them through "proper" channels. That is, if it isn't a communication from a Village Club President then it is only "for information" not "for action". That's how things worked when I was actively involved in Club and District administration a couple of years back. I hope it is still not the modus operandi but I fear that it may be the case, particularly if your suggestion is "outside the box" or does not support the agenda that they support.

Terrific attitude displayed in that one.

There’s just not enough money on the planet to fund the sort of organisation you need to satisfy the every opinion is valid model.

Consider this – 370 or so competition teams in U10s – opens. Each team will have between 12 and 23+ players – let’s be conservative and call it an even 15 ! Let’s discount that back for multiple children involved, say 30%. That’s 3,885 potential brain farts to contend with – and yes many of them might have isolated merit.

& that's before dealing with the mundane day to day gripes relating to gradings, rescheduling, appeals, judiciary & I'm sure the list goes on.


Perhaps, if an individual can’t muster support for an idea at club level, then maybe that’s where the idea should be left to die. If the club supports it then the president takes up the cudgels and bats it up and gathers support for it by lobbying other clubs!

 

[Runner]

If your a young person watching rugby and rugby league at the moment you might say I want this over that.

Compare the Shute Shield and Wallabies to the NRL grand final. Kids like a spectacle and heros. I feel it is a deeper illness that rugby has.

 

[S'UP]

If your a young person watching rugby and rugby league at the moment you might say I want this over that.

Compare the Shute Shield and Wallabies to the NRL grand final. Kids like a spectacle and heros. I feel it is a deeper illness that rugby has.

This may sound dumb but most people in Rugby are good people, the NRL has people doing things wrong all the time and their code is in the papers and on the TV all the time due to that, the best coverage rugby has got in the last year has been in the last week and a half we had KB (Kurtley Beale) and the plane incident and then the loss to the Pumas. So even when the game is crap the NRL are in the news, the rugby can be great but the ARU get nothing because there is nothing to talk about or create discussion. Maybe Rugby needs a few more bad boys.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

Think we just got one @S'up.

 

[First phase]

yes KB (Kurtley Beale)=EM&DP=JGC=SNAFU

 

[S'UP]

Think we just got one @S'up.

Look at the publicity the ARU is getting, in the news cycle for a week now. Go KB (Kurtley Beale)

 

[Runner]

I don't think my point was about bad boys but about the publicity of the game at all level to attract and keep you players.

I don;t have the detailed knowledge that has been expressed about in past blogs by contributors about the in's and out's of administrative structures and teams, but I have noticed
1. less schools playing rugby
2. the growth of AFL even among the rugby schools such as Waverly
3. little publicity even of significant junior events like the various shields in variuos age groups e.g. Waratah shield. Not much spreading of the word there
4. the spectacles that are the NRL, AFL, GFinals compared to Union.

KB (Kurtley Beale) has some thing he will be judged upon and could move to RL if he feels unfairly penalized. He has already had incidemnts in the past.
RL has issues
AFL has these issues.

Those are distractions from what attracts kids.

 

[Inside Shoulder]

Isn't the most important thing in attracting kids their parents view of the game?

 

[S'UP]

I don't think my point was about bad boys but about the publicity of the game at all level to attract and keep you players.

I don;t have the detailed knowledge that has been expressed about in past blogs by contributors about the in's and out's of administrative structures and teams, but I have noticed
1. less schools playing rugby
2. the growth of AFL even among the rugby schools such as Waverly
3. little publicity even of significant junior events like the various shields in variuos age groups e.g. Waratah shield. Not much spreading of the word there
4. the spectacles that are the NRL, AFL, GFinals compared to Union.

KB (Kurtley Beale) has some thing he will be judged upon and could move to RL if he feels unfairly penalized. He has already had incidemnts in the past.
RL has issues
AFL has these issues.

Those are distractions from what attracts kids.

I agree 100%, my comments were a little tongue in cheek about KB (Kurtley Beale). Unfortunately all the razzle dazzle come from money, I'm guessing a bit with my numbers here but the ARU gets 300m from TV rights over 5 years, the NRL and AFL get about 1.2 billion and Soccer has a man backing it who has very deep pockets. There is no Rugby really on free to air and lets be honest the majority of test matches are great for the purist but not much fun for the sometimes watcher. Super Rugby is great to watch (most of the time) but its on Fox not free to air. With money comes development the AFL has 30 development officers in Western Sydney the ARU has 2. When the AFL can come to your school and say we'll redevelop your oval for free if you start playing AFL, thats hard to top, they also go to council and say we'll redevelop your oval as long as it is only used for AFL in this environment where councils, schools, etc are short of money it is hard to say no.
Maybe the ARU could ask some of it's more wealthy followers to donate some money towards the cause, very much like what the ARU are expecting the local clubs to do by putting a $200 fee on them all, that is just a donation to help rugby survive.
But what I do know is that if the ARU continues to think school rugby is going to provide the majority of the talent they need going forward it's going to be a very short journey, when I go to one of the premier rugby schools in Sydney to watch rugby and get the joy of standing in the middle of a marked out AFL field that cannot be good.

 

[SARugbyFan]

No doubt the AFL do a lot of things very well S'UP'. You also have the NRL in Australia attracting and contracting 'rugby' talent at a much earlier age. I'm told by many that both codes attract the same boys who continue to play both right through their senior school years. This is not an issue in SA nor is it a problem to the same degree in NZ.

 

[Quick Hands]

Some information from the recent SJRU meeting:

U15s to U17s having a metropolitan championship, with the top teams playing the country leaders for the State title

No finals for 11s State championships - 2 days of pool matches only

All Districts are expected to field an U18s team to play prior to 3rd Colts at Premiership venues on a Saturday.