NSW AAGPS Rugby 2013

[Brian Westlake]

What The ..! That's enough of that sort of talk Mr Eye! If everyone deleted their stupid comments we'd be way back to page 70 something!!!!

This is our whatever diety you choose to follows right to say something stupid!!!! Ask myself, Newbie is always a special for some stupid... Uncle Lee is prone too. Don't forget the Newington naysayers as well...

 

[Brian Westlake]

Oh no. This is perhaps the most important post in the entire thread. It goes to the very heart of GPS Rugby. These are not the words of an overzealous relative ramping the merits of their kin or even an enthusiastic student touting himself or his mate. . This man held up Bill as the winning captain. Surely such cred deserves more than the scholarship thread!!! Time for reflection would be a more appropriate remark IMHO.

I reflected.... I didn't like what I saw.

 

[GTPIH]

It actually started before Andrew was born. Kings even started way before Newington and Scots in 1944! My father once confessed that he was the first rugby scholarship recipient at Kings! Like many of the New boys experiencing the joys of 1st XV only (Morris et al), in the 3 years he was at TKS he was in top team for rugby and rowing and had the dubious honor of being GPS Heavy Weight boxing champion but his real claim to fame was his attendance at SGS before TKS!

Morris played 1st XI Cricket the past two seasons and Lussick has been in the GPS swimming team in 2012 and 2013

 

[Hugh Jarse]

./...snip.../.
And if we're listing parental achievements, I'm proud to admit that I continued the tradition of the 4th XV/XI gauntlet laid down by my own father.

I'll vicariously take credit for a Joeys workmate. His dad was 11thXV. He was 9th XV. His boy is currently in Year 4, but will be going to Joeys in due course. My mate reckons that if the family tradition conditions, his great great grandson will be in the Joeys Firsts.

 

[Inside Shoulder]

I, for one, felt somewhat embarrassed to read Kirk's piece and to realise that here was a Rhodes Scholar, All Black and until recently the only Kiwi to ever hold the WWE trophy aloft who was saying that, effectively, rugby in the GPS system had become too hyped and its real significance as a mere part of an education had been completely lost.
It reminded me why I started the thread when I did: the obsessions with GPS rugby victory (as opposed to success), not just on this forum, but in the school community and even the wider world to the extent it frames decisions about school attendance, is pretty f@cking ridiculous.
These are just kids. This is just a part, or should be, of their school life and childhoods.
Lets talk about their upcoming HSCs.



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[strokeside]

Agreed. It will be a real case of the Professionals vs the Amateurs

Really quite disturbing that this is what schoolboy rugby has come too.

 

[George Smith]

I, for one, felt somewhat embarrassed to read Kirk's piece and to realise that here was a Rhodes Scholar, All Black and until recently the only Kiwi to ever hold the WWE trophy aloft who was saying that, effectively, rugby in the GPS system had become too hyped and its real significance as a mere part of an education had been completely lost.
It reminded me why I started the thread when I did: the obsessions with GPS rugby victory (as opposed to success), not just on this forum, but in the school community and even the wider world to the extent it frames decisions about school attendance, is pretty f@cking ridiculous.
These are just kids. This is just a part, or should be, of their school life and childhoods.
Lets talk about their upcoming HSCs.



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

perhaps natural forces will come into play (with Julia's help) and the funding sources (donations etc) of some of these schools will dry-up or at least reduce to a trickle forcing these schools to rethink their expenditure payback.

 

[smokinjoe]

I note that the term "arms race" was first used on the Scholarship thread by smokinjoe on Jun 10 2011 and has been used on no less than 35 occasions since.

I have finally achieved my 15 minutes of fame!

I remember TAS drawing with Joeys when each school's team came from whatever students were enrolled.

I've seen the ACT comp almost ruined by recruitment leading to a concentration of talent and the GPS comp has already lost 2 major players due to the same approach with IMHO shore hanging in there. ISA is dominated by St Augustines has consequently lost St Andrews rugby down to a lower level competition.

Furthermore the concentration of talent, as players are recruited to elite GPS programmes, diminishes the junior club rugby scene and ultimately diminishes club rugby throughout the state (city and country). Australian Rugby is the ultimate losing end point as a result of a concentration of competitive players causing a weakened grass roots junior game.
The CAS comp has minimal scholarships and every team is competitive. The headmasters of schools who have recruited in the past have stopped and the competition is levelling out with no danger of a school having to drop down a level.

So from seeing TAS and Joeys draw, I now see diminished GPS and ISA competitions contrasted with a fairly evenly competitive CAS competition. Anyone at the recent CAS vs GPS matches will agree that both teams played good rugby and know who the players were who made the difference.

Recruitment is poison to any competitive rugby competition and by concentrating player talent, ultimately poison to the development of widely based grass roots rugby in Australia.

 

[strokeside]

perhaps natural forces will come into play (with Julia's help) and the funding sources (donations etc) of some of these schools will dry-up or at least reduce to a trickle forcing these schools to rethink their expenditure payback.

And fourms like this will play their part.

 

[SonnyDillWilliams]

I love it ... the "toyota cup twins" ...

and this is the only way Newington can be beat this year

Joeys have a month to work on a game plan ... but I wonder if this team has the cattle required ... and starting to question if Boyd no longer has it .... although would like to be proved wrong

anyway reckon something needs to be done out of left field

to me Scots has the best chance ... but they need to do something crazy like putting Crichton at outside centre

you just have to somehow shut them down, and that means having your best defenders on them

and play to the weaknesses of bigger human beings

anyway hope to see someone take a creative plan

PS on Captain Kirk ... interesting cat ... the bloke is the size of a "jockey", however he has done it all .... just goes to show what is the most important body part .... and one thing you can be sure on, he hasn't got a ghost writer

 

[smokinjoe]

"

I love it . the "toyota cup twins"
Have I been quoted again?

 

[Rugby from the backrow]

"

"

What is the "toyota cup"?

 

[Spieber]

Oh no. This is perhaps the most important post in the entire thread. It goes to the very heart of GPS Rugby. These are not the words of an overzealous relative ramping the merits of their kin or even an enthusiastic student touting himself or his mate. . This man held up Bill as the winning captain. Surely such cred deserves more than the scholarship thread!!! Time for reflection would be a more appropriate remark IMHO.

Sorry - I meant in addition to this thread - not as a tatatata thing. Agree - extremely important observations, which some of the pro arms race folk need to see in both threads.

 

[gpsoldboy]

Their firsts last year were pretty ordinary but their 2nds went well only losing the one game to Joeys. Not sure about their 2012 16a's. Mind you is it the case that they may have played the best two teams in the GPS comp first up in Scots and Newington? Still they're two big losses.

Kings couldn't match our speed or size when they came to play Scots in round 1 with their defence in the backs being very poor. I assume that it might have been the same case against Newington with their big backline?

 

[gpsoldboy]

Am I correct in recalling that Kings was the top team (along with Newington) in this Age group through 15s/16s? If so, what on Earth went wrong?

I recall a bit of fanfair on this thread about their 2011 16a's going through the year undefeated in all games and those players should all be in Year 12 now assuming that they are still at Kings?

 

[biggameplayer]

I recall a bit of fanfair on this thread about their 2011 16a's going through the year undefeated in all games and those players should all be in Year 12 now assuming that they are still at Kings?

The Kings U16A's of 2011 were a very good team, in an even competition. The year before that Joeys had taken the crown in the 15A's and Scots in 2009 in the 14A's. Whilst King's have lost a number of key players such as H. Jones and S. Carter, the reason for their recent results can be put down to the unsustainable practices of other teams. Newington were quite weak in this age group in the younger years...go figure. Scots, whilst a number of new faces have turned up, the majority have been developed from the 13A's onwards.

I know this is probably no the place to mention such a topic, but I have heard noises coming out of Stanmore that a number of parents are quite disgruntled with the current recruitment drive. In particular, the parents of boys who have attended Newington since prep school. These boys put on the hallowed black and white jersey week in, week out for years - training their arses off. Only in Year 11 to find out that their dream to play in the school's First XV has been all but shattered by a boy who is on a scholarship, who may never play the game of rugby union after school. I know there are many benefits of scholarships, but when they are the core of a marketing strategy - First XV premiership = $$$$ - it is hard to justify their existence.

 

[gpsoldboy]

The Kings U16A's of 2011 were a very good team, in an even competition. The year before that Joeys had taken the crown in the 15A's and Scots in 2009 in the 14A's. Whilst King's have lost a number of key players such as H. Jones and S. Carter, the reason for their recent results can be put down to the unsustainable practices of other teams. Newington were quite weak in this age group in the younger years.go figure. Scots, whilst a number of new faces have turned up, the majority have been developed from the 13A's onwards.

I know this is probably no the place to mention such a topic, but I have heard noises coming out of Stanmore that a number of parents are quite disgruntled with the current recruitment drive. In particular, the parents of boys who have attended Newington since prep school. These boys put on the hallowed black and white jersey week in, week out for years - training their arses off. Only in Year 11 to find out that their dream to play in the school's First XV has been all but shattered by a boy who is on a scholarship, who may never play the game of rugby union after school. I know there are many benefits of scholarships, but when they are the core of a marketing strategy - First XV premiership = $$$$ - it is hard to justify their existence.

So are you saying by implication that no new players have turned up at Kings in year 11 (or year 10) in recent years?

Also out of interest, how many of the players who have played in Kings 1sts this year started at Kings in the Kings prep school?

 

[strokeside]

Geeze Brian, if this was the RSVP site, you and I would be dating by now!

 

[George Smith]

The Kings U16A's of 2011 were a very good team, in an even competition. The year before that Joeys had taken the crown in the 15A's and Scots in 2009 in the 14A's. Whilst King's have lost a number of key players such as H. Jones and S. Carter, the reason for their recent results can be put down to the unsustainable practices of other teams. Newington were quite weak in this age group in the younger years.go figure. Scots, whilst a number of new faces have turned up, the majority have been developed from the 13A's onwards.

I know this is probably no the place to mention such a topic, but I have heard noises coming out of Stanmore that a number of parents are quite disgruntled with the current recruitment drive. In particular, the parents of boys who have attended Newington since prep school. These boys put on the hallowed black and white jersey week in, week out for years - training their arses off. Only in Year 11 to find out that their dream to play in the school's First XV has been all but shattered by a boy who is on a scholarship, who may never play the game of rugby union after school. I know there are many benefits of scholarships, but when they are the core of a marketing strategy - First XV premiership = $$$$ - it is hard to justify their existence.

At the end of the day prospective parents will see through the marketing hype and determine whether they really want to be part of all this. When this happens Newington will become an "institution in the old fashion sense" and not a "prestigious educational establishment". It certainly is tarnishing its school affiliation of a "Greater Public School".

 

[strokeside]

The Kings U16A's of 2011 were a very good team, in an even competition. The year before that Joeys had taken the crown in the 15A's and Scots in 2009 in the 14A's. Whilst King's have lost a number of key players such as H. Jones and S. Carter, the reason for their recent results can be put down to the unsustainable practices of other teams. Newington were quite weak in this age group in the younger years.go figure. Scots, whilst a number of new faces have turned up, the majority have been developed from the 13A's onwards. .

Very surprised that loosing just two players would have such a detrimental effect, surely Kings had the depth to cover for these two. This is not League where if you loose a key playmaker then the whole season can go to s*it.