Shute Shield 2011

To be fair to Tilse, the uni second row was Dennis and Mumm. No prop would thrive in these circumstances.

One of the boys were saying that NSWRU want to cut the number of games in the sydney grade comp to 16 in 2012.
Anyone heard more about that??? Apparently most clubs are supporting it.
Also heard some clubs will be hosting Parramatta and Penrith at their training grounds, not main grounds due to losing money when hosting them as no-one comes to watch..

Here was one proposal;
16 rounds; after 11 rounds comp divided into 2 pools top 6 and bottom 6. After these next 5 rounds the top 4 from the top 6 pool going to the finals and the top 2 from the bottom pool going to the finals.
Next Proposal;
11 rounds then reseed the teams, based on your 1st grade sides results and play another 5 rounds.
Problems all round with a 16 round comp.

Such as?

Good luck tryiing to give every club 8 home games after 11 rounds. How do club's organise the last 5 games for sponsor, ladies and old boys days. What if you draw club's that don't attract a crowd. How do you set your budget? This is a crazy idea.

Do clubs get 8 home games in first 11 rounds now? As for last 5 games, wouldnt the clubs only be in the dark for a few days..sunday/monday until the draw comes out? Crowd attraction, this comment should apply to all clubs....

On the positives of the proposal, I think there will be more evenly matched games after the 'split'. You certainly wouldnt have the Eastwood v Wests situation from this year were the Pirates were spanked by 90 odd points. There's also a good chance that the crowds may infact grow for the last 5 rounds as everyone will be jostling to finish in top 4 or 7th or 8th.

The negatives, what happens to the teams that finish 5th and 6th? They miss out on semis all together do they? So semis would be made up of 1st,2nd,3rd,4th,7th,8th?? This is crazy. the teams that finish 7th and 8th would have a better chance of racking up comp points to finish in those positions. Then they'd get pumped in the semi's.
Why include teams down to 8th in a semi final series? In a 12 team comp, it is insane. It rewards mediocrity. May as well have a Cup and Plate semi series like they insanely do in juniors.....

Can someone please tell me why top 5 semi final series is not an option? Its the fairest and best semi final arrangement..though I am old and set in my ways..

What I meant was after 11 rounds half the clubs have played 6 home games and the other half have played 5 home games. It would be hard to then split the comp into 2 pools and give the teams that played 6 home games 2 more home games. Then give the clubs with 5 home games 3 more home matches.
When the split happens then the whole club, lower grades and colts, all play the same club. So bottom 6 in 1st grade all play each other in the last 5 matches. An example of the Colts comp would be matching Norths colts against Uni, Manly, Eastwood, Randwick and Easts. While Warringah, Penrith, Parra, WH, Gordon, Southern are all pooled together. How is this a positive with Penrith and Parra forfeiting matches?
Eastwood spanked Randwick by 60 points in a Semi Final and if Hola kicked better 80 points could have been possible. Spankings can happen any time.

Souths forfeited colts matches and Gordon forfeited lower grade matches as well through out the season.

Maybe theyre considering this split system similar to what happens in Brisbane comps.....

@knuckles

What happens in brisbane??

There's a Premier Grade and then also a 1st grade and lower grades set up.

got any detail on how that works Knuckles?

Just a renaming of the grades
1st grade became Premier Rugby, Colts1 became Premier Colts, 2nd grade is now 1st grade, Colts 2 became Colts 1 and so on
The difference between the Premier comp and Brisbane grade comp is the clubs that play. Premier Rugby has the Gold and Sunshine Coasts. They only field 2 teams in their clubs. Brisbane grade rugby has 8 Premier Rugby clubs and two local clubs Redlands and Logan City to make up the 10 teams. When your Premier rugby teams play the coast teams then the grade sides will play Redlands or Logan City. But when you play other Brisbane Premier teams the whole club plays that Brisbane club ie Uni vs Easts everyone is playing Uni vs Easts, Uni vs Gold Coast in Premier and Uni vs Redlands in Brisbane grade. Hope this helps.

The Premier rugby comp does have one loophole: 19yo Premier grade players can move between Grades & Colts at will, without affecting their eligibility for finals. In all other grades if you play say, 2nd grade all year, you can't be "dropped" to 3rd grade if they make it and 2nd grade doesn't.

So Con Foley, after playing all but one game in Premier grade (after being named Colts captain for they year) played in the Premier Colts GF after Prems lost to Bank. Speaking with Liam Gill, if the situations of both games (ie- Bank colts got up and grades went down) he was going to do the same thing. Basically it's consideed a different comp that way.

Thanks. Very useful. Not a bad little concept I must say. I guess it would also allow for additional regional teams to join the competition too