Southern Inland Rugby 2020

[yourmatesam]

Tooo many Byes I reckon

Have they announced the Rep coach yet - we've got a few players interested and want to know the Program this year

Have you thought of getting in touch with the Community Rugby Manager mate?

 

[yourmatesam]

SIRU will be well represented in the Aussie Men's Sevens team with Dylan Pietsch and Stu Dunbar both picked this weekend. A great effort.

 

[paul bristow]

You’re new to this zone I believe Athol. Rep is the elephant in the room in SIRU.

 

[Bubba]

Back end of february and that means trials are not that far away ! Any news on whos going where and against who ?

 

[paul bristow]

Leeton attempted to field a 2nd grade last season Reasoning but it didn’t work. A 3rd grade might attract a new demographic to the club. The problem with our rep set up Athol is that we are with the Brumbies. Outside of Canberra itself Siru doesn’t have any real worthwhile competition. The Waratahs have the vast majority of the state and don’t want to do rep with us. So we seem to be continually looking for something worthwhile rep wise to do. As usual rugby in Australia shooting itself in the foot.

 

[Bubba]

They still should be playing 2nd Grade - when Clubs get a choice to what Grade they want to play - Trouble is just around the corner

I would have thought Leeton fielding only one grade again would be more trouble than them having 2 grades ? When you force clubs to play above what they may honestly be able to support , thats asking for long term trouble. For the relative short term i dont see a massive issue with this decision. It's easy to take pot shots from the interwebs, buts it bloody hard to keep a club afloat at times. If we have to bend the 'rules' a little to keep rugby alive somewhere then thats what we have to do. Griffith did it a few years back, no one died , did they ?

 

[Bubba]

City is off to Hall in Canberra this weekend. Its a bit of a 3 way set up with Uni/Norths , Hall and ourselves all with 2 grades. We are off to Boorowa at the end of the month as well. There is a vague plan to have an internal trial on the 21st after a planned game fell through due to grounds.

There is 2 byes per week in 2's this year. 6 teams in 3's , 7 in 2's and 9 in 1's and Womens was always going to make for a logistical mess !

 

[paul bristow]

Siru as a zone has a lack of media representation. We are aware of the lack of coverage provided by the DA. Should something like a new Facebook page be initiated (not run by Siru itself ) to provide club news, comment on games, opinions, results, predictions etc.

 

[Maulalltheway]

Sorry PB - It won't happen
SIRU Basically expects all the Clubs to promote the game for them via their local news outlets
The only things that get advertised big time are Girls Comps & Camps
Nothing wrong with the Females participating but it has been over the top for the past 3 or 4 years
Nothing on the Website about the Comp other than the Draw
Apparently the DA & SIRU fell out of love with each other in recent years
I know ABC Radio covers the Zone's fixtures each Saturday morning but that's about it for promotion of the Competition
in the old days Newspapers chased stories now the organisations have to present them to the Newspapers

Right. Few points from me. Simply my opinion. Apart from the stats which are facts.

Last 20 DA articles are focused on the following.
Development officer once,
Draw twice,
Super W reps once,
Girls rugby twice,
Mens Rugby 14 times.

Last 50 posts on the facebook page
Schools, Junior and Junior rep 14 times
SIRU News 8 times
Brumbies news 8 times
Super W 5 times
Mens footy 4 times
Girls camp 4 times
Coaching and ref development 3 times
Development officer ad and appointment 2 times
Aus 7s 1 time
Player development (Via a sponsor) 1 time.

id say that your comment that girls comps and camps being over the top is inaccurate.

Website is average at best, agree.

From what ive heard the DA tries to contact clubs, not often do they get return calls and regularly get fed BS stories and inaccuracies. So i disagree with the papers not chasing stories.

SIRU Facebook haven't re-posted a single article from the DA since December 5 (i looked back that far) whilst DA reported 10 articles in that period.

Perhaps you'd be willing to establish something to bring it up to scratch?

 

[paul bristow]

Interesting & impressive research Mauler. Can you present some idea or ideas of a way of bringing it up to scratch.

 

[Maulalltheway]

Interesting & impressive research Mauler. Can you present some idea or ideas of a way of bringing it up to scratch.

Right. Where to start.

Website. This is a hard one. When you’ve essentially got 2 people employed in the zone full time, one administering the comp and one growing junior participation it’s not surprising that website management isn’t viewed as super important. Significantly more time consuming than Facebook to maintain. I’d put the eggs in the Facebook, Twitter and Instagram areas. Link them together and plug away here.

The clubs needs to be better here. I’m not saying that they’re all bad all the time but when BS stories get passed to the DA along with phone calls not being returned what can we expect. The coverage on the DA isn’t what it used to be but the communication certainly isn’t to that level either.

Someone needs to broker peace between the DA and the SIRU office. I’m sure they will both say everything is fine but when the SIRU Facebook page isn’t re posting DA articles there is clearly a problem in this space.

One thing I’d like to see is the return of the old SIRU tipping comp from 10 years ago or so. I’m pretty sure Marty Hogan has something to do with the running of this. Was a bit of fun and gave another point of interest in the zone.

There’s no silver bullet. Print media is battling. Only have to look at the collapse of AAP this week as proof in point. The social media space, while terribly in accurate, negative and petty with minimal fact importance in lots of instances is where online news, not just rugby, is heading. People feel more invested in the socials because they can get their opinion out significantly quicker than by writing a letter to the editor. This is also a negative occasionally as heat of the moment comments are made, and subsequently deleted, but you get my drift.

I suppose to really answer the question we needs to first understand who we’re targeting. I mean this space is brilliant for previews and reviews as anyone who watched it can write about it. I’d suggest most clubs would be covered by someone or another in the forums here. The negative is that only the current supporters will ever head here, zero extra reach. That and the infighting in the forums would also provide little interest to those outside the forum.

Honestly PB I’m not sure you can point at Any one problem and I’m certainly sure there isn’t a panacea for this issue either. It will take parties putting to bed some history and wanting to actually see it occur prior to it improving.

So yeah. Probably confused the issue further.

 

[Bandar]

for every 1 Rugby Story there are 5 or 6 Aussie Rules stories

For every Rugby Club there are 5-6 Aussie Rules Clubs

I reckon the papers print what people want to read - I know we are all passionate about rugby but we are the vast minority of the public.

 

[Bubba]

For every Rugby Club there are 5-6 Aussie Rules Clubs

Yep, 8 rugby clubs in a zone that spreads 300km east to west and 150 north south roughly. 9 Aussie rules club based in or within a 40km radius of Wagga* alone. Another 9 clubs I can think of within a 100km radius of Wagga . Personally, I am a rugby man , I couldn't care less about Aussie Rules , but I should imagine I would very much be in a minority in most towns in the Riverina. Thats a fact.

And heres the kicker (pardon the pun), the AFL Riverina embraces the media in all shapes and forms. They dont plant rubbish stories , they constantly tell everyone how great their game is. AFL gets promotion. I'm not sure we do.

*Tigers, EWK, Nth Wagga, Turvey Park, Collingullie, Mangoplah,Marrar,Coolamon, The Rock

 

[Bubba]

For every Rugby Club there are 5-6 Aussie Rules Clubs

Yep, 8 rugby clubs in a zone that spreads 300km east to west and 150 north south roughly. 9 Aussie rules club based in or within a 40km radius of Wagga* alone. Another 9 clubs I can think of within a 100km radius of Wagga . Personally, I am a rugby man , I couldn't care less about Aussie Rules , but I should imagine I would very much be in a minority in most towns in the Riverina. Thats a fact.

And heres the kicker (pardon the pun), the AFL Riverina embraces the media in all shapes and forms. They dont plant rubbish stories , they constantly tell everyone how great their game is. AFL gets promotion. I'm not sure we do.

*Tigers, EWK, Nth Wagga, Turvey Park, Collingullie, Mangoplah,Marrar,Coolamon, The Rock

CSU Bushpigs . 10 clubs within a 40km radius of Wagga

 

[namtrak]

. 9 Aussie rules club based in or within a 40km radius of Wagga* alone.

9 Aussie Rules clubs within 40km. That’s cute Try 6 competitions and 40+ clubs in a 40km radius.....

Anyway, I agree with the general media analysis. I think it is directly SIRUs responsibility to get our message out there. Social Media presents well when you’re listing numbers at an AGM, but it is essentially a circle jerk - you are already preaching to the converted. I know for a fact that the traditional media outlets right across the Riverina are all screaming out for content. Wouldn’t take much for SIRU to get on the front foot and get stuff across the 5 regional papers, 2 TV stations and 6 radio stations on a regular basis. They won’t publish it all, but at least it’s pretending we are trying to build the relationships.

 

[paul bristow]

It’s good thing re ref pay. Need to do something. The whole media issue Athol re DA is pretty well explained by Mauler’s post on the subject. I just think Siru & the clubs have to get together to work out a way of maintaining the public’s interest in our sport. ie game reports, happenings at clubs, predictions, opinions etc. I think Mauler mentioned a tipping comp that was held in the past. That would be interesting.

 

[Bubba]

Any trial game news from around the zone ?
City went to Hall and had a pretty solid day out with excellent player numbers making the trip. Hall were very hospitable and despite the lack of amenities, it was well worth the drive. Especially for the lads who met the St George womens rugby league side at Yass KFC afterwards !

Uni Norths lower grades and Hall put up pretty good showings but City managed to win all 4 trials (2 x 1sts 2 x 2nds). We have a bit of break and then are off to Boorowa in 2 weeks now.
The womens 10's have a trial v Cootamundra at Parramore (Equex) this saturday morning (10am) if anyone needs a rugby dose. Sadly ground availabilty has forced that time upon us.

Its been at least 2 weeks since a rugby article in the DA by the way.

 

[yourmatesam]

Someone told us at Training the other night that Referees are going to be paid this season as well as get travel money - Is this Good or Bad ?

My take on this is it's a double-edged sword. I understand that it's the way of the future, but I don't agree with it and I also doubt it will do much to attract people to referee. Money is not a motivator for any referee - bar Juniors where you might get a keen 14-16 year old who would rather referee the local Under 8-10's than work at Maccas.

I reckon people referee because they are community minded and want to give back to the game. The key is to provide systems and structures that support that desire, it's much more about culture than money.

By paying referees, there will be an expectation that a certain level or standard of performance is required for the payment. Don't get me wrong, I know that there has always been a payment system in place for referees but that was focused on payment for travel, not per game or performance.

It's a complicated problem to resolve and becomes more complicated when you consider rankings, importance of games (and who decides that importance), referee qualifications, availability, variety of games, etc etc etc. Should the 1st Grade referee be paid the same as the 3rd Grade referee? What about the guy that does Match of the Round? A bonus for that game? Finals? It's a nightmare to come up with a system that works at the Community level of the game.

 

[yourmatesam]

I heard good things out of the Wagga City trials in Hall, it seems there are some positive vibes coming out of the Lollies early this year and great to hear that they were able to get through the games injury free.

Ag College recruited every single person wearing blue jeans at CSU for Clubs Day, whether they want to play rugby or not...

All roads lead to Borambola for Reddies this weekend as they play a trial against Yass Rams. There seems to be quite an International flavour to the competition this season with Reddies and Albury leading the way in the multi-cultural stakes this season.

Language barriers could prove to be an issue for some clubs this season as they try to learn Fijian, French and Spanish. I hear one club has recruited a local school teacher to manage the language barriers for them this season - and he'll be on the field too.

Flash cards might be a good investment?

 

[yourmatesam]

you are spot on with your comments Sam

maybe SIRU could just increase the kilometre rate for each referee thet travels out of their home town

the referee situation (numbers) is going to be interesting this season with Hay joining the 1st Grade Comp

The last DA article on Rugby was the Aussie 7s side earlier in the week

Thanks mate, increasing the km rate is probably the easiest option, but I do understand that it probably doesn't work for all situations.

There is certainly no easy answer but I think the key lies in the support not the payment. The "reward" from a referee's perspective is probably more linked to recognition and good culture not cash.

I reckon Hay and Deni will be ok for their games this year, the difficulty will be if there are weeks when Deni/Hay/Griffith/Leeton/Albury/Tumut are at home on multiple weekends. ie Rd 6 - Hay, Albury and Leeton all have home games that weekend. Rd 7 sees Hay and Leeton with home games again. Rd 13 Hay, Albury and Griffith are all at home. Rd 16 Griffith, Tumut and Albury at home.

It only takes one unavailability or injury to totally change the referee appointments and those rounds above will be difficult to manage. Potentially seeing CTA guys doing 1st Grade. The difficult thing there too is that if you call for additional support from ACTRRA or CWRRA, those guys may not be available, there's a cost to getting them here and they'll typically want to be in either Wagga or Tumut (possibly Griffith for CWRRA) which may or may not solve the problem. You could end up with too many referees in one place and not enough where you need them.