Declining participation and ARU plans for the future

[BAR]

My kids do Little Athletics in Summer. The season is just finishing. The following is from an email sent by Athletics NSW:

I am involved in a major Little Athletics centre and when I raised my concerns about this ‘alliance’ with Little As NSW(because in my opinion it conflicts with the Little As ethos that athletic skills are the basis of ALL sports and a focus on one other code is not consistent with that) the response in a nutshell was that AFL had come to them. While I think it also didn’t hurt that there are a number of AFL supporters in the Little As senior ranks it does highlight how effectively AFL is commercialising it’s product at the junior level.

 

[wamberal]

We have had this conversation before. New Zealand is better than us at rugby now because they have been better at rugby for the whole of recorded history. An understanding and appreciation of the game exists just about everywhere, from side to side, from top to down, and back again.


As my Keewee neighbour says, every mother in New Zealand understands the Laws of the Game. Probably a slight exaggeration, but not by much.


I do not know what we can do, although I must say that I had hoped that Mick Byrne's input might have started to become apparent this season.

They are in a different league from us, or anybody else for that matter. The Highlanders showed this last night, down to 14, just before half time, get possession back a few metres from their own line.


What would any coach say (including their own, according to an interview with Mark Hammett, their own assistant coach, after the game)? "Hold the ball, let the clock wind down, put it into touch".


Anybody who watched the game knows what happened next. Probably the most audacious, and bravest, piece of team play that one would ever see.


This sort of rugby cannot be coached, it is built in from many years of playing the game very competitively, from the earliest days of junior footy.

 

[The Honey Badger]

https://www.instagram.com/p/By6-ixfFHSX/?igshid=ioxu15410yx0


A positive news story from the Bush.

Not sure the best thread, but thought it worth reposting

 

[Show-n-go]

Apologies if this is the wrong thread to put this in

Facebook has blown up tonight with the below story attached, extremely poorly handled and shows the flip side of bringing in these “weight class divisions” in footy. The comments section is filled with countless parents supporting the family involved and saying they want nothing to do with Australian Rugby/some saying they don’t want anything to do with rugby in general after this.

Very sad to see the kid treated like this

 

[Show-n-go]

 

[Show-n-go]

 

[zer0]

Pretty galling stuff, tbh.


It's spelt "Leonidas", you f*cken hoi polloi.

 

[Kenny Powers]

Whilst I agree this has been handled poorly and should have been addressed earlier and not in the presence of the boy involved.

I think there are a couple of things to consider

* Super Rugby your smallest player is around 80kg in Damien McKenzie and the largest effective players are 120kg (yes a couple above this but generally not great players). So that is 50% more than your smallest player. Junior rugby I regularly see 40kg smallest up against 80kg in the 12/13 grades.
* have seen numerous kids quit or their parents stop them from playing because of this. Yes its rugby its a tough sport but it shouldn't cross the line between stupid and tough.
* Boxing wouldn't sanction a fight between a 50kg and 100kg fighter, as that would triple jump the line between tough and stupid even for them.
* If a kid has to go easy or play below his ability because of smaller kids then they are not being challenged and not developing their skills. An official putting their faith in a player 'going easy' would be negligent.
* NZ use a weight based system and produce higher skilled players than Australia, rather than let early developers dominate teams in the junior years. New Zealand produce better skilled players and players with better rugby IQ's.

 

[Derpus]

Jees if you dont get bowled over by a kid 6 times your weight, standing on the wing of the under 12 Ds in sub zero temperatures have you ever even played rugby?

 

[ruggy]

From a teacher's perspective who loves rugby.. we have to get into the public school system. League, AFL and cricket are doing it nicely. Let's make rugby great again.

 

[papabear]

She lost me when she railed against oztag.

I think we all grew up getting hammered by big big kids, but if we can do things better we should, not just doing them the same way we have always done them.

 

[Rebelsfan]

Now its on the news:
https://www.news.com.au/sport/sport...d/news-story/234642b9b4520ce24bb65ba5a46e1b68

 

[Show-n-go]

regardless of whether you see it as right or wrong rugby union is copping it from the general public. The vast majority of people online are supporting the family and it’s not a good look for our code and I think has done waaaaaay more damage than a couple of north shore parents pulling little Johnny out of rugby because of big scary islanders boys

 

[Rugbynutter39]

From a teacher's perspective who loves rugby.. we have to get into the public school system. League, AFL and cricket are doing it nicely. Let's make rugby great again.

Agree but tough challenge - I think current focus to be fair by RA is on this but hard to do when you are light years behind AFL and behind NRL. But just because difficult does not mean given importance we focus hard on making it happen.

 

[Rugbynutter39]

Jees if you dont get bowled over by a kid 6 times your weight, standing on the wing of the under 12 Ds in sub zero temperatures have you ever even played rugby?

Yep happened in my day but I do get some of this as some PI kids are almost lethal. Has to be common sense and handled well but I think some sort of middle ground needs to be found. Moreso as compared to my days as young player social media is prominent and makes mothers worried about their sons reading about the risks to their little Johnny.

 

[Kenny Powers]

One element that has been forgotten in the debate is insurance.

Insurance is a significant component of the registration fees players pay.

It is there in the event of a catastrophic injury or lifelong disability.

The provision of any insurance requires you operate with certain policies and procedures. I can't imagine an insurer being too happy with the weight / physical development differential that was evident in this situation.

Operating outside of this would expose officials and directors to personal liability.

If you disagree time to pony up; take on a director role, void your insurance coverage and put your house and assets on the line in the event of a catastrophic injury caused by allowing such obvious physical mismatches.

 

[half]

I actually think its exceptionally good news.

To me junior rugby at park / tram level looks bad not terrible. The Mum comes across as a tad pushy.

The good news is the story is out their you little kids will be looked after and not put in harms way and this action is taken by senior rugby management.

As I said IMO a great article for rugby.

 

[Rebelsfan]

I actually think its exceptionally good news.

To me junior rugby at park / tram level looks bad not terrible. The Mum comes across as a tad pushy.

The good news is the story is out their you little kids will be looked after and not put in harms way and this action is taken by senior rugby management.

As I said IMO a great article for rugby.

I think you are missing the very valid point from the mother, that the size of the boy and his ability to play in a particular level should have been brought up when he was being registered, not when he fronted up to play. Clearly the boy didn't understand and was upset. Clearly the mother is upset and IMO, rightly so.
Good news, as you say, by senior rugby management to take action, but its the way it was poorly implemented that has upset them.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

Anything like this happening or likely to happen over your way?

https://i.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/p...veal-radical-changes-at-school-and-club-level

A long-running U-13 provincial rep tournament has recently been scrapped, cue outrage from certain old-school rugby types but the research does seem to support the decision.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=12287603

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=12287895

 

[Braveheart81]

I think you are missing the very valid point from the mother, that the size of the boy and his ability to play in a particular level should have been brought up when he was being registered, not when he fronted up to play. Clearly the boy didn't understand and was upset. Clearly the mother is upset and IMO, rightly so.
Good news, as you say, by senior rugby management to take action, but its the way it was poorly implemented that has upset them.

Apparently there is more to this story.

This is third hand but allegedly the kid and his club had asked to allow him to play in older age groups, SJRU agreed but said he can't then go back down to his old age group.

Suggestion that he kept jumping back down age groups and that the parents and club had been emailed etc. telling them it can't continue to happen.

If that is true then getting withdrawn from playing on the day of a game wasn't exactly the situation. They'd already been made aware that he shouldn't be playing and this was just the first time it was actually enforced by having someone turn up to stop it.