Vic Schools to overhall current season for a full H/A Fixture

[Melbourne Terrace]

So after talking to my former head of rugby, i've been told that the VSRU are finally planning to make some big changes to the vic schools season.

Brightons relegation to div 2 and the reluctance from the 2nd tier schools premier to go up has led to the agreement by the 6 remaining tier 1 schools to play each other twice in a season, meaning a 10 game minimum school season depending on if they decide to keep finals or not. considering that last season teams were only playing about 6 games for points, this is a massive improvement especially as most school players are not allowed to play club rugby during most of the season.

 

[en_force_er]

When I was at school in Victoria we played a 10 game season, so 10 games should be doable. Also, most of the Div 1 teams are APS who have a similar no finals structure in all of their sports so there should be no issue there.

I really think that if Marcellin got there act together in junior ranks with the numbers of rugby players they get, combined with the overall number of students at the school, they could have a decent program with 1st and 2nd Senior XVs. Also, surely if we could coax Hailebury into spending $$$ they could get a good team together too.

Sigh, oh well.

 

[Melbourne Terrace]

really? i've only known the competition since their was 8 teams in div 1 and everyone played each other once. i think the best thing about this is that with practice games, tours and finals a school player could be looking to play maybe 15 games a year which is comparable to a club season.

As for Marcellin, i'm really surprised they don't do better. their juniors always seem to do decent enough against the bigger schools but they just seem to fade away come senior years. I just finished at Trinity and we seem to have the problem of too many players dropping out by y10 because of incompetent teachers and coaching in charge to really challenge for titles more than once every 5 years.

Hailebury would have to be the only school where their touch team is far superior to their rugby team in vic.

 

[en_force_er]

really? i've only known the competition since their was 8 teams in div 1 and everyone played each other once. i think the best thing about this is that with practice games, tours and finals a school player could be looking to play maybe 15 games a year which is comparable to a club season.

As for Marcellin, i'm really surprised they don't do better. their juniors always seem to do decent enough against the bigger schools but they just seem to fade away come senior years. I just finished at Trinity and we seem to have the problem of too many players dropping out by y10 because of incompetent teachers and coaching in charge to really challenge for titles more than once every 5 years.

Hailebury would have to be the only school where their touch team is far superior to their rugby team in vic.

The comp had 8 teams up until 2008 where it had 10 (Hailebury and Carrey had proven so dominant in 2nd Div in 2007 it made sense). In 2009/10/11 the comp has had 7 teams which kind of makes finals silly (more teams make the finals than those that don't).

Marcellin is a big school by numbers, 200 per year level so they certainly have the capacity to support the sport. They have a no hiring outside coaches policy so from what I hear their teams are coached mostly by teachers who haven't had a massive rugby involvement. Hopefully this changes as this (and possibly some scholarships) would be the key to them becoming a major rugger school.

Based on the current programs in place from years 7-9 Trinity, Xavier, Scotch, Brighton, Melbourne and St.Kevs will all have great programs but after that the talent fall-off is steep.

I'd like to see a lot more schools playing rugby in Vic, even if that means 1 XV made-up of Year 11s/12s (and the bigger Year 10s) which is coached by literally anyone who is willing. We need more people playing the game even if it's as a passing interest.

 

[Melbourne Terrace]

Talk of the town is that the vru is pushing the schools union to get a third tier in for these new outer suburb schools looking to start up a team. Probably the best solution for these new guys so they don't get flogged each week and turn the kids of the game.

Thats unbelievable that Marcellin still have that coaching policy, you'd be lucky to have 2 rugby people at most at any given vic school! Trinity had something similar in a quota of outside coaches per sport which was fine with games like AFL or Football because most teachers were familiar with them, however it became such a problem at our school with rugby because of teachers not knowing how to coach, let alone coach rugby that the senior players a few years ago eventually demanded outside coach's and old boys to take up the majority of coaching roles or they would change sports! So far it seems to have paid off with juniors finally being able to concentrate on technical and set piece skills much earlier rather than being told to run useless laps.

As for scholarships, they've basically canned that idea after the disaster of the last two who ended up in a three way tug of war between the Melbourne Storm in which he was a contracted junior, the Vic State Union team and the school who demanded their release.

 

[en_force_er]

Talk of the town is that the vru is pushing the schools union to get a third tier in for these new outer suburb schools looking to start up a team. Probably the best solution for these new guys so they don't get flogged each week and turn the kids of the game.

Really? Where did you hear this I'd love to learn more about it.

I think the logical next step is a Wednesday/Thursday night comp. There are plenty of schools with a lot of club players who would already be half way to having a rugby team but the kids can't be expected to play 2 games on any given Saturday.

On top of this the schools that play in comps like associated catholic colleges could have rugby teams but it's ridiculous to expect rugger to run on a Saturday when every other sports runs on a Wednesday.

Think how well some of the schools listed to this link who have big student numbers and big pedigrees for producing good athletes could add to Victoria's rugger tapestry. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Associated_Catholic_Colleges

Thats unbelievable that Marcellin still have that coaching policy, you'd be lucky to have 2 rugby people at most at any given vic school! Trinity had something similar in a quota of outside coaches per sport which was fine with games like AFL or Football because most teachers were familiar with them, however it became such a problem at our school with rugby because of teachers not knowing how to coach, let alone coach rugby that the senior players a few years ago eventually demanded outside coach's and old boys to take up the majority of coaching roles or they would change sports! So far it seems to have paid off with juniors finally being able to concentrate on technical and set piece skills much earlier rather than being told to run useless laps.

Absolutely but you can understand why they wouldn't be willing to throw money to a relatively small sport like rugby when sports like AFL which are bigger and more serious don't ask for it.

Best chance I would think to turn this around is if they had a very keen parents group sort out funding and source coaches but you simply can't ask that of people.

As for scholarships, they've basically canned that idea after the disaster of the last two who ended up in a three way tug of war between the Melbourne Storm in which he was a contracted junior, the Vic State Union team and the school who demanded their release.

Yeah that was funny but there have been plenty of scholarships that have worked out well for everyone across the VRU, it's just the schools responsibility to run them right.