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Qld Premier Rugby 2024

Oracle83

Bill McLean (32)
Such a rough look that Brothers is cramming 6 grades into their limited field space while Norths is down to 3 grades on a massive ground. Unsure how you turn things around when you're in a bad spiral like that.
Yep they need to amalgamate but in their defence Norths 2nd grade not to be underestimated, only the one win but just -29 for and against going into round 8.

Harrison Goggin in 2nd row has scored 6 tries in 2 matches playing 2nd row one to watch.

Fact they lost 3 prem grade props to injury in one game in early rounds that are all still away and never had prop depth of other clubs so that will hurt top grades.
 

LevitatingSocks

Darby Loudon (17)
Does anyone see Norths ever amounting to anything considering the powerhouse that is brothers on the Northside.
My first instinct is to say no because of proximity. But from Wests to UQ is just as short of a drive as Norths to Brothers. Same with Easts to Souths. So it's not purely an issue of competition in the same area.

They produce talented juniors and colts all the time, so I don't think it's a coaching issue either.

A friend at Brothers talks up how much free stuff players at Brothers get and internship opportunities, so maybe it's money?
 

MoneyBill685

Ted Fahey (11)
of course Norths can be successful.

Wests rugby is of similair proximity to powerhouse UQ (what brothers is to norths) & wests has found success.

I don’t think Norths issues are geographic related.
How though? I cant see how they ever going to be anything but the team that has at most 1 or 2 wins a season.

They just have nothing to attract decent players to play there. Apart from the burgers as someone else said.

If their juniors are good, once they are adults and talented enough, they aren't going to stay at a bottom of the table club to develop more and possibly get higher honours. Its just the way it is.

Just an endless cycle the way i see it.
 
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Wilson

Phil Kearns (64)
How though? I cant see how they ever going to be anything but the team that has at most 1 or 2 wins a season.

They just have nothing to attract decent players to play there. Apart from the burgers as someone else said.

If their juniors are good, once they are adults and talented enough, they aren't going to stay at a bottom of the table club to develop more and possibly get higher honours. Its just the way it is.

Just an endless cycle the way i see it.
Part of the answer for them has to be looking to the sunny coast. There has been a real lift in top class players coming out of Sunshine Coast Grammar recently and there are clearly good things going on up there. There's a lot more to it than that, but if they can establish themselves as the first port of call for guys making their way down to Brisbane it will give them a point of difference to work with. The first step there might be engaging someone like Blake Enever, who is heavily involved in coaching up on the Sunshine Coast.
 

Sir Charles

Fred Wood (13)
Surely you have to credit West success to the Rebels program and the new facility they have, when it was an old shit box on the hill people were not racing down to Sylvan Rd to suit up for the doggies, beside the old faithful of course.

Norths will aways have their die-hard club families that will turn up every week, just not sure if they will ever compete at the business end of the season.
 

Sir Charles

Fred Wood (13)
Interesting table at the moment, not much between 3rd and 6th place - with the Rebels making Top8 this year you would assume keys players will not make an early appearance this year. Be interesting to see how this plays out.
 

JRugby2

Syd Malcolm (24)
Part of the answer for them has to be looking to the sunny coast. There has been a real lift in top class players coming out of Sunshine Coast Grammar recently and there are clearly good things going on up there. There's a lot more to it than that, but if they can establish themselves as the first port of call for guys making their way down to Brisbane it will give them a point of difference to work with. The first step there might be engaging someone like Blake Enever, who is heavily involved in coaching up on the Sunshine Coast.
Just quietly - how good would it be to get a handful of QPR games up the coast again with some kind of formal partnership. Northern Suburbs Stingbads has a great ring to it.
 

PhilClinton

Mark Loane (55)
I don’t think Norths issues are geographic related.
It is the same old every year for Norths.

They must be onto something like their 6th group of premier grade coaches within this decade.

Whilst their issue might not be geography, they arent exactly in a great spot to naturally attract talent. It's really a death spiral for them because with each losing season they are more of a joke to the fresh batches of players looking for a club.

Credit to the guys at the club who are sticking it out. The club must be up there for the longest premiership drought in 1st grade across rugby clubs in QLD.
 

LevitatingSocks

Darby Loudon (17)
It is the same old every year for Norths.

They must be onto something like their 6th group of premier grade coaches within this decade.

Whilst their issue might not be geography, they arent exactly in a great spot to naturally attract talent. It's really a death spiral for them because with each losing season they are more of a joke to the fresh batches of players looking for a club.

Credit to the guys at the club who are sticking it out. The club must be up there for the longest premiership drought in 1st grade across rugby clubs in QLD.
Tapping into the Sunny Coast talent pool is a good idea, but I'm not sure it helps their perception problem if they turn into a transitory proving ground for talent that isn't already playing Colts 1 or Prems elsewhere.

Take away clubs affiliated with a university like UQ and Bond because that's a draw in itself. What separates Wests, Brothers, Easts, Souths, and Sunnybank from Norths besides a greater amount of wins?
 

Dan54

David Wilson (68)
Is really the area got much to do with where players go anyway? When I was tied up with Logan rugby , found we lost players to clubs all over the place. Although a few would obviously go to Sunnybank, we had a few going to (and these are just what I recall of best players), Norths, Wests and Gold Coast all had players that were living in Logan as well as Suunybank, as I said.
 

Bulldog

Nev Cottrell (35)
I thought they were onto something when they tapped into the off contract Rugby league players market a few years back when Matt Lodge played a couple of reserve grade games for them.
Seriously it is a very sad state of affairs at Norths which I think could even get worse before it gets better.
 
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PhilClinton

Mark Loane (55)
I think the only way it gets worse for them is if the club folds. Aside from that, I can't really see it improving either, just stuck in this perpetual losing streak.

I don't know how old many on this forum are, but Norths 1st and 2nd grade have been getting cricket scores put on them since at least the early 2000s and it hasn't stopped. In fact, their 2nd grade was getting easily 70-90pts scored against them for a fair chunk of that period and they actually seem to have improved (or other clubs 2nd grade depth has dropped off).

The club had a good run in the lower grades during the 2010s for a while. They managed to lure a number of ex-1st graders from a few clubs to play in their 3rd/4th grade teams with the promise of lower membership fees and the ability to pretty much run their own sides. I think they won a few premierships in that period, but once that was over, all of those players returned to their old clubs again.
 

The Whisperer

Alfred Walker (16)
Seriously it is a very sad state of affairs at Norths which I think could even get worse before it gets better.
I used to think the same, and I know there’s been a coaching merry go round at the place since before time but for once I actually have some resemblance of confidence that they have the right people in charge of top teams. having spoken to a few rugby people I trust, I think Dan Richie being 1st grade coach and Bart Richie being Colts coach is the best decision they could have made. Genuine Norths people (who dabbled at Wests for a bit) who have actual coaching experience.

Time will tell I guess
 

Man from snowy river

Stan Wickham (3)
We’ll round 8 and here are my tips
Sunnybank played very well last week and I think McNamara could bring them a home will against Uni in a bit of an upset. SB by 7
Easts have been good the last 3 weeks but I there winning run will come to an end against West. West were awful last week against Brothers but the reshuffle of the backline will get them home by 10.
Souths will beat Bond. HMP will have a big one and Raboiliku will carve them up the middle. Bond just haven’t fired this year. They missed their chance last year. Souths by 14.
Brothers have made some changes but still will be way to strong for poor old Norths. Tarabay and James have been outstanding steering the ship around this year. With Christian running a muck last week. Brothers by plenty.
 

Confucius Say

Colin Windon (37)
Uni appear to have a few personnel changes but should win.
Easts look settled and Wests don’t so Tigers
Souths with no confidence
Brothers with confidence
 

Serge

Fred Wood (13)
Interesting weekend coming up to finish the round with the top four teams in mtach ups with other teams in the top four.
 

rapt

Frank Nicholson (4)
I thought they were onto something when they tapped into the off contract Rugby league players market a few years back when Matt Lodge played a couple of reserve grade games for them.
Seriously it is a very sad state of affairs at Norths which I think could even get worse before it gets better.
I had stepped in to help manage the ressies that night at Norths when Matt Lodge played as the normal manager was unavailable. Had walked past him going gees he looked familiar then saw his name scribbled on the paper team list. Fox Sports turning up and all that attention scared him off, he was actually quite a nice bloke and suprised me, had a couple of beers with him post game and was going to run out in prems that weekend whilst he was off contract, just wanted to play footy to keep fit and not worry about anything but the fun in it.

I think the only way it gets worse for them is if the club folds. Aside from that, I can't really see it improving either, just stuck in this perpetual losing streak.

I don't know how old many on this forum are, but Norths 1st and 2nd grade have been getting cricket scores put on them since at least the early 2000s and it hasn't stopped. In fact, their 2nd grade was getting easily 70-90pts scored against them for a fair chunk of that period and they actually seem to have improved (or other clubs 2nd grade depth has dropped off).

The club had a good run in the lower grades during the 2010s for a while. They managed to lure a number of ex-1st graders from a few clubs to play in their 3rd/4th grade teams with the promise of lower membership fees and the ability to pretty much run their own sides. I think they won a few premierships in that period, but once that was over, all of those players returned to their old clubs again.
Theres always alot of bashing of the old Norths, as someone who had previously been involved with the grades there it didn’t come as a shock when their 4th grade was pulled out as the past few years the lower grades numbers have been declining rapidly and to be honest you’d end up having players who are 5th grade quality at best going into 3rd grade and even going up into 2nds.

From my understanding knowing a few of the guys who played in it, there was a few issues years ago when they were having some success in the lower grades and the club supposedly gave those guys zero mention/consideration and it burned alot of life long club players.

Club needs a mentality switch, which I think they are trying to implement but have tried for quite a few years without much luck, the academy they have set up is a good start in trying to secure those young juniors/colts long term but that will only help in the prems scene long term, once their colts reach grades age generally they stop playing footy rather than go into the grades unless they are a 1/2’s prospect, and players with injuries would rather walk away than return in a lower grade.

Put it this way, in 3rd grade, from what I’ve seen there is less than 10 players who played in the last 4 years in either 3rd/4th grade. Writing was on the wall last year when Norths had to forfiet a 3rd grade game vs Brothers which is usually a game you have no issues at least getting a few weeklies in to play.

Its a bit of a tough cycle there, you need to get better results to keep players/attract better players, but need better players to get better results.
 

The Engine Room

Ward Prentice (10)
I had stepped in to help manage the ressies that night at Norths when Matt Lodge played as the normal manager was unavailable. Had walked past him going gees he looked familiar then saw his name scribbled on the paper team list. Fox Sports turning up and all that attention scared him off, he was actually quite a nice bloke and suprised me, had a couple of beers with him post game and was going to run out in prems that weekend whilst he was off contract, just wanted to play footy to keep fit and not worry about anything but the fun in it.


Theres always alot of bashing of the old Norths, as someone who had previously been involved with the grades there it didn’t come as a shock when their 4th grade was pulled out as the past few years the lower grades numbers have been declining rapidly and to be honest you’d end up having players who are 5th grade quality at best going into 3rd grade and even going up into 2nds.

From my understanding knowing a few of the guys who played in it, there was a few issues years ago when they were having some success in the lower grades and the club supposedly gave those guys zero mention/consideration and it burned alot of life long club players.

Club needs a mentality switch, which I think they are trying to implement but have tried for quite a few years without much luck, the academy they have set up is a good start in trying to secure those young juniors/colts long term but that will only help in the prems scene long term, once their colts reach grades age generally they stop playing footy rather than go into the grades unless they are a 1/2’s prospect, and players with injuries would rather walk away than return in a lower grade.

Put it this way, in 3rd grade, from what I’ve seen there is less than 10 players who played in the last 4 years in either 3rd/4th grade. Writing was on the wall last year when Norths had to forfiet a 3rd grade game vs Brothers which is usually a game you have no issues at least getting a few weeklies in to play.

Its a bit of a tough cycle there, you need to get better results to keep players/attract better players, but need better players to get better results.
Norths lower grades (3/4) should be playing sub-districts - Wyatt. Normanby Cup comps. It's as simple as that.
 
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