- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Rugby has a western Sydney problem. Western Sydney does not have a problem with rugby.
As the Penrith Emus oldies gathered at the Penrith Paceway last Saturday night to celebrate the club’s 50th anniversary, an article by Jamie Pandaram was loaded onto The Daily Telegraph website saying the Emus may become extinct.
The furore started a few weeks earlier when the Emus had one of the worst days ever for a sporting outfit. They were hammered 454-0 across the four grades. An almighty thrashing.
The laughter echoed across the internet and around rugby circles. What I wanted to know was how rugby can let an asset wither on the vine to such an extent without fixing it?
No, I’m not talking about the broader Shute Shield. (Boom. Tish.) I’m talking about a club built by rugby-men at the foot of the mountain over decades. I know someone who played in three grades on that infamous weekend.
Where was the introspection? Yes, there were reflexive calls for a ‘review’, but where was the anguish that part of our rugby community was hurting? It should be roundly embarrassing for rugby in this state, not merely a hilarious weekend result, or a pox on the Penrith Emus.
So as the old fellas gathered to toast to the good times there were plans building meaning it might all be about to end. The Parramatta Two Blues were going to be shuttered as well and then a club would be formed in Blacktown. Then Campbelltown would be elevated from Illawarra subbies to club rugby status and Eastwood would eventually move to Castle Hill.
This would all cost around $1.4 million (and we’ll come back to this particular funding later).
This desperado plan comes on the back of a season where the Waratahs best crowds were still Stadium Australia, as they were last season when they won a championship. But it was announced those games will no longer be part of the Super Rugby home fixture list.
The club will retain the Two Blues moniker but the Emus cease. Based alone on the fact the Emus have a Blacktown footprint, running pick-ups through Mount Druitt, that is odd.
Are you sensing a comprehensive, well organised plan to capitalise on the vast western Sydney market? A plan to develop the next Kurtley Beale out of Mount Druitt (or from the Darug people as he put it – read this great Phil Lutton piece if you haven’t already)? A vision to keep the future up-and-coming Taqele Naiyaravoro at the Two Blues instead of wasting time in league first?
I’m not seeing it. But this isn’t a story of rugby being beaten up by other sports and not having any slice of the pie. It’s a story of rugby neglecting half of Sydney.
Penrith won the Under-17s State Championships in June. Congratulations Penrith.
That’s not a complete fluke either. Western Sydney and Penrith representative rugby teams have improved over the years.
About 10 years ago rep teams from western Sydney broke through and started winning games – I would know because I was in one. And there is a dedicated few still working hard to attract and develop good players.
Which brings us to the crux of the issue: where are all those good players?
Jerome McKenzie scored a hatful of tries for the Emus last year, then for the Rams in the National Rugby Championship. He was on the cusp of a Waratahs spot before injury. Now he is an Easts player.
Dave Dennis played colts at Penrith. He plays for Sydney University.
That pattern is not new.
Kurtley Beale, despite being from Mount Druitt, has never played a game for the Emus. But ask yourself – is Kurtley Beale more useful in Penrith or at Randwick?
The Shute Shield competition is not a professional one, but a professional situation has evolved where the richer clubs are able to bring in the best players that have been developed elsewhere. At least at Super Rugby level there is a salary cap.
Something has to be done to fix this in the Shute Shield. We knew that years ago, when we seriously discussed a points system, and we still know it now. Until this is addressed a Campbelltown club will just fail anyway. So will a forced Blacktown one.
“Now is the perfect time – something has to be done now.”
That’s what Dave Dennis told Iain Payten last weekend. He wasn’t calling for the shutting of two old clubs in favour of shoe-horning in another. Dennis and Wycliff Palu were talking about setting up a sort of youth academy in western Sydney. Off their own backs.
Dennis said western Sydney was getting bigger and bigger and doing something later wasn’t an option because the game would die out there. “Everyone is screaming for it,” was the way he put it.
I’m listening, Dave. This is stuff I can get behind.
Palu spoke about setting up pathways, developing young men and building rugby’s roots into the “big Island community out there”.
Preach it, Cliff.
This is the kind of discussion, action and intention rugby should be pouring into western Sydney. Not closing clubs to sweep embarrassment under the rug. Put that $1.4 million it would take to merge two clubs and help build the Dave and Cliffy School of Rugby in western Sydney base. A young man’s rugby academy with footholds around Penrith and Parramatta is just what rugby needs.
Start with the Penrith Under-17s that just won the state comp and see where that gets you. The huge Islander community in Sydney is a natural target because of their affinity with the game. A second step would be pairing with Beale when he’s ready to act on his desire to see rugby integrate the Aboriginal community into rugby.
Investment in young men; around a game. Sounds like the kind of ethos rugby is supposed to stand for to me.
Instead of closing clubs and playing fewer games rugby should be strengthening western Sydney clubs and playing more games.
Players leave Penrith and Parramatta for a clearer pathway and often to a club that can provide a work or university link – the obvious example being Sydney University. A step at the Penrith and Parramatta level should be to build links with Western Sydney.
Start ambassadorship programs, sports science links and NSW Rugby – if it is serious about growing the game – should help the two clubs investigate scholarships. Don’t be shy, UWS is a growing institution that seems to be open to new things under vice chancellor Barney Glover.
One link rugby already has to UWS is through the Greater Sydney Rams, one of the big bright lights for rugby in the region. They have UWS on board as a sponsor. They’ve also signed ex-Wallabies assistant coach Jim Williams to coach their squad, with the express view of connecting the club to the Islander and Indigenous community. Kudos guys.
NSW Rugby and the ARU must look in the mirror and decide to fix its problems in western Sydney. Begin to take it seriously.
Balance the Shute Shield club player requirements to give poorer clubs a chance to keep players. Build a western Sydney rugby academy. Formally work to build links between the Emus and Two Blues and the University of Western Sydney.
I hope, years from now, I’ll still be able to wander down to an Emus game and have one of those sloppy, spicy Emu Burgers (So dirty, yet so good). And while I’m at it check out some promising rugby youth, without the prospect of it disappearing into the city’s eastern enclaves the next year. Let’s not be the ones to watch the Emus go extinct when we didn’t have to.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.