I work with someone deep inside the Campbelltown setup (Let's call him Mr X). To lay some rumours to rest:
1) At the start of the year, a motion was raised to move to IDRU, and defeated.
2) They were told to run all grades or else, and they took "or else". Other clubs also took that route, but paid the fees to Subbies in order to just be listed as forfeit instead of having championship points taken off them.
3) Previously, when told to run 5th Grade or else, they picked up the disbanded Liverpool players from the year before. This gave Tim Richards the shits because Liverpool had some disciplinary issues apparently.
4) Ultimately they've had a shit year with injuries and internal politics to the point of firing multiple coaches, and now they're trying to pull it back out of the fire. Cultural change coming.
There appears to be no doubt that they'll be relegated, even with Beecroft's poor showing to date.
Mr X suggested that First Division should be for clubs who want to spend all the money on players in their little dick-swinging competition while the rest of the clubs got on with being clubs.
When I suggested promotion/relegation with Premier Rugby, Mr X said that Premier Rugby don't want any more east/north clubs, and would rather have a more competitive, properly SYDNEY-WIDE competition i.e. with more Western Sydney clubs. They don't want Drummoyne, for example, with West Harbour just up the street.
Mr X also said that there is more money floating around in Subbies than there is in Premier Rugby at the moment but unless the north shore in particular reorganised itself, clubs were going to be put under a lot of pressure.
We know that Parramatta and Penrith are perennial strugglers, but look at Gordon - they are coming apart at the seams results-wise, and they're really crowded in by other clubs.
Mr X is a big fan of the 3 Grade maximum, and uncoupling the Championship system from Colts.
Ok gents, I will attempt to shed some more light on the fall of Campbelltown.....
Over the course of a few years player numbers have dwindled. A number factors have contributed to this. Competition with other codes, especially Rugby League, Competition with paying clubs (yes Campbelltown did lose some players to other clubs in Subbies offering money), and natural attrition (retirements, injuries, blokes moving out of the area). I'm sure clubs all over Subbies have gone through this, so this is not a sob story by any means, just facts. The club, once very competitive, found it harder each year to compete, and has witnessed first hand the rapid change in the 1st div comp over the past three or so years.
Dwindling player numbers - Liverpool players looking for football asked to play at Campbelltown. And in particular to make up a lower grade team. This suited at the time as Campbelltown were going to struggle to fill 5ths. Unfortunately, those who made up that side had some discipline issues and forced Campbelltown to compromise it's own values. This extended further to players not paying there subs. To enforce the no pay no play, you need competition for positions. This was an issue, so, in order to fill the requirements of Subbies, certain blokes thought it was okay to free load on the others who did the right thing. Those players were asked to leave at the end of the season.
The move to IDRU - A handful of senior players put it to the rest of the playing group to vote on an investigation into the IDRU. The numbers were there and formally approached the board to carry out this investigation. After all the information was gathered, a meeting was called with the board, old boys network and playing group. At this meeting was some representatives from IDRU to answer any questions. At the end of this meeting, after a lot of group discussion a vote was taken. It was almost unanimously for Subbies.
Not meeting all the requirements for 1st Div - At no stage did Campbelltown go out to deceive Subbies. In fact, at the end of the 2013 season and all through summer in 2014, Campbelltown were transparent in the fact that it could not field all the grades required. Campbelltown did offer to voluntarily I've to a lower div., however, this was quashed by Subbies. Subbies did however, point out all the penalties the club would face in the event that any requirements were not met, knowing full well that Campbelltown could not meet these requirements.
2014 - Well pre season was okay, a lot of positives. However, by the time the first round was under way there were problems. Yes, the fact is that there were two new first grade coaches, who were asked to move on for a few reasons which I will not go into in this forum. And this has been a major disruption. Around 8 to 10'players chose to move to other clubs for their own personal reasons. On top of that is some career needing injuries early in the season, and their you have it, that's 2014 to date.
The point is Campbelltown can no longer compete in 1st div under the current format. The club did point this out prior to the 2014 season, but here we are.
I hope this clears a few things up for those who were wondering.
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