Sydney University is worth its weight in rugby gold

Sluggy....missed your response .....make it very clear nowhere did I say clubs were pressing for Uni's exclusion in the mid 1990s......it was us who were put up for exclusion ........You may be interested that the points system to prevent stockpiling of players was passed 11 to 1 by the club Presidents. Do not tell Simon even his club President said Yes. Sydney Uni was the only no vote. Sydney Uni bus in 3 first graders from Mt Druitt.....and then complain about the lack of competition at Penrith.....they have consistently pushed the line that the NSWRU should not subsidise or provide coaching assistance that this should be a club responsibility.Parramatta pays their best player $7000. We cannot attract good coaches without payment and we do not have the funds. This is the one thing Parramatta and Penrith have consistently pushed for especially at the Colts level.It is not Uni 's existence per se that we object to but that its administration has consistently opposed measures to develop the game in our area by intent or ignorance. Its representations against NSWRU providing coaching assistance to Colts teams in our area was not in the interests of the game. No matter what you say this was not mere self interest but against the interests of rugby. Do you not know the positions put by your club. We have one problem with how the Foundation operates . Uni's paid players are employees and any scholarships for players must should FBT.................we are very interested in whether it is paid.....if at all ...... and indeed who pays it . We might be able to do a little more before we go home. What really is poor is that Petersham and Canterbury were in the Southern Districts competition. Now what a future awaits the rest of that area. You seem to miss our point. We want Sydney Uni in a national competition . They will be able to play themselves. Your club has made it plain to us where it wants Penrith and Parramatta and we recipricate in kind.Its opposition to coaching assistance for our Colts would never have interfered with Uni's long term existence . I do not hate Uni but its recent manufactured identity as a national club has seen it make representations to NSWRU and Presidents that hurt the game where it needs help the most. Someone rings up the ARU and gets several development officers on the peninsular because rugby was in trouble and we still have one development officer for over 2 million people from Campbelltown/ Liverpool/ Fairfield/ Parramatta/ Blacktown/ Penrith/ Castle Hill/Rouse Hill/ Windsor/Mt Druitt/Rooty Hill and one of the largest concentrations of boys who still play contact sport. This has not nor has ever been Uni's fault ............but it needs to think more at times about the consequences of its submissions..........I actually understand its opposition to the points system....to NSWRU providing some subsidy for Colts coaching expertise West and South... never.

"Sydney University was in the West except for the law school." Until recently it was in Phillip St. There certainly is a lot of anti-Sydney Uni sentiment on show here. The same as there was 20 years ago... when self was sent to a colts meeting at Crane Place and was told by one club's rep that his club's lack of colts players was all somehow SUFC's fault because "you've got them all". When I pointed out that both clubs appeared to have 3 colts teams, and the 3rds colts coach was regularly seen trawling the residential colleges to find some players early on Saturday morning, I was met with a look of suspicion. "Hating" SUFC seems to be a time honoured tradition in NSW rugby, and as to the bitterness I detect above, Westy, which clubs were pressing for Sydney Uni to be axed in the 1990s? hat sort of politicing is par for the course. Live by the sword, die by the sword. Or as the late Jack Gibson said outside Thommo's one famous evening to a chap who had just belted him with an iron bar, "if you can't do any better than that you'd better go home". And to answer World's biggest's question, SUFC have established affiliations with Canterbury and Petersham JRFCs, from whom a district side is selcted for the district and state championships. SUFC 12 years team were Grand Finalists in 2007.

Uni are the unofficial 5th Super Team in Australia. They are a very professional outfit, have the best coaches / resources & have a heap of coin to safeguard there long term future. They have the best link to Corporate Australia plus a stangelhold on the best young talent coming out of School ( scholarships ). They are a mile ahead of eveyone. What do they do for Junior Rugby ??.

Spiro Take Westy to the lunch as well.

Spiro..............I cannot believe you wrote this...".Deans learned from him(Alex Wyllie)the value of team as part of the community, and loyalty to the grassroots " .and you are really talking about Sydney Uni football club!.......must be a very small community... and Jesus only knows where their grassroots are! You must have had a few nightcaps like I am doing. Your always welcome to come out and sell the raffle tickets for our meat trays . Am I taking the high ground on the soapbox Yes but financially we are on a knife edge NSWRU is at least concerned with our survival out west Sydney Uni does not give a stuff. Be careful here Spiro...we have only got by recently because of some within NSWRU...and you saviour is killing them in the press. Spiro I am at a complete loss at how you can write such a piece. This club's conduct over the last 2 decades has been to shore up its own position and resolutely vote for our extinction. Check and ask . The ARC was not the answer but they knew they would not do well in arealigned competition. It is not their conduct in whiteanting the ARC. They stand for the perception of exclusion elitism and class barriers . Every thing that has blighted the game in Australia. It is not true but they are the ones who maintain this facade. Our present situation was a direct result of their stupidity in 1907/8.

Cosmos forever......use to work for a bloke that told me he had been to Liverpool on the way to the snow. He was a great bloke who put his money where his mouth was with Randwick and the Roosters. Invited him to a few games out west . He had a ball. The boys out at penrith even brought their own lounges and kegs to the game.. For him the west started at George Street in the city. Sydney University was in the West except for the law school. Funny out west we understand and respect Randwick... do not like them though.......rugby was in the west in 1908..............within 25 years we lost it and some blowin Kiwi nice bloke and all albeit one of the best coaches in the world knows very little about our past. Spiro really this is one of the greatest suck up articles i have read . I am sure you will be invited back next year. Was this to say thankyou. Sydney university football club is an extension of the private school system that sustains it and it will be sad to see that Grammar and High will not get to play any more for Sydney Uni I have a bad habit of being to melodramatic. However we are in a real dogfight for Western Sydney Clubs' futures both financially and from acore group.. We have got Southern Districts on board and now even Norths who know their day is also on the cards. It was the bravery of the current management of an instiutution I do not give to many plaudits to NSWRU that implemented new points system and assured all 12 clubs of their position next year against entrenched opposition from the only club with no juniors to support.You watch these bastards make a dog's breakfast of it with their system of discounts .No discount if its one of your juniors...a specimen Uni has not got....... only if they come through your colts. Good one Sydney Uni . Robbie got the last trivia question wrong..........which Premier rugby club in Sydney does not have to run a junior district club competition? His answer was they all do.Poor Robbie he has a lot to learn.

No doubt the luncheon at Sydney University was a fine affair with good food & good company. But the coronation of Australia's oldest tertiary institution as the guardian of Australian Rugby represents all that is wrong with the game in this country. Victorian era stewardship & Dickensian practices have ensured Rugby remains a side dish on the Australian sporting landscape. You did not grow up in Australia Spiro and it shows.

But Westy, it's so terribly far to drive to get to those places, and the houses are so new... And frankly, I don't even think anyone past Glebe Point Road can even tell if Paul Sheehan is being ironic in his articles or not. I think they might not even read the SMH... why would anyone want them in OUR rugby competition. ;)

Spiro......I do not need the violin out for the poor underprivileged . What I do need is your stance on the resolution put and backed by Sydney University to remove 4 clubs including Penrith/Parramatta/and Southern Districts with a last minute bribe to Parramatta that they would continue if they supported it. I have never sought to blame our predicament on any one except our own club's past mis management. But I do not appreciate a club that has acted to hurt the game in Sydney's west. This is the real politick of this club for the past decade. Their jibes to us by some of their supporters that we need more cream in our chocolate eclairs was not appreciated either. I know my word only..........but more than one complaint has been made to NSWRU relating to these type of complaints.

No doubt Uni are a powerhouse in Club Rugby, the benchmark in Australia so fair play to them. One question, what do Uni do for junior rugby ??

Spiro The forum has spoken and backed Sheek. Suggest you have that lunch with him.

The place for Sydney University is in subbies. Concerning the whole points system that the NSWRU, I note there has been some opposition by certain clubs...I wouldn't be surprised to see that University was one of those clubs. If this is true, then I think NSWRU is going to drag these clubs kicking and screaming along with them. One of the reasons the ARC was so costly was the amount that the ARU had to pay to the existing clubs, and I know some of these clubs actively undermined the ARC by staging big games on the same day and time as ARC games in Sydney. I think certain clubs have a higher opinion of themselves than it should be, and it is this that is really hurting Sydney rugby.

Sydney University is a learning institution that has rugby teams; it doesn't belong in a club competition any more than a team from Qantas or McDonalds does.

How long will SU Rugby survive without Student Union support? ("Howard Govt. reform") Or will the University divert funds from teaching or research to prop it up?

I wish Western Sydney was in the Brumbies Union. Our only hope is to get out of this we do not belong here nor want to be here. Be under no misapprehension this was the team that pushed the resolution that actively pursued the annihilation of Penrith/Parramatta and Southern DisrtrictsI at NSWRU . That I have to read some crock of elitist shit that rewards this self interested behaviour that reflects their history and has actively fed this perception. Is it some joke that more skilful coaching resources are being poured into some second rate rugby school called Grammar than into junior district rugby in my area.Tell Deans he can have a beer at Granville the sad thing is he will not be there. I have got articles by Spiro and Sheehan lamenting about the state of some schools who are obviously very ambivalent about rugby. . We have been kept a float by grants from Parramatta Rugby "League" who also until recently let us use offices and some of their flats. this has now ended and we are expected to celebrate Sydney Uni rugby . Sydney University has always been about itself never Australian Rugby nor the growth of the game..........

Sheek Bravo ........... well said ........... post of the month so far.

im not sure about sydney uni all i no is my dad played in the 2nds for tem in the 80s and vicks young tah carter and waugh layes there

I should clarify I'm aware of the great work Sydney University does for society, as an institution. I'm especially aware of the work prominent SU professors do for the Topo (Rodriguez) Foundation into the research & education of mental illness, especially bi-polar. However, this thread is related to rugby matters. My argument here is, rather than being seen as the saviour of rugby, SU directly or indirectly, is responsible for continuing to fester the image of an exclusive & elitist sport. It was the rugby administrators back in the early 1900s, SU educated, who through their instranscience, almost allowed rugby union to sink without trace. No wonder they fought so hard to keep rugby afloat in the 1920s. Afterall, they contributed to the code's dire predicament. Brutal, but true!

great response sheek.

Spiro, Great article as usual, but I respectfully disagree with you. I would love to meet you one day for lunch, & argue/discuss the merits of Sydney University over lunch, beers & red wine! When I think of Sydney University Football (Rugby) Club, I see a club preventing a suburban or district club from competing in Sydney's premier rugby district competition. When I think of Sydney University, I think of a club given favoured status & treated differently from everyone else, when the district competition was implemented in 1900. Why was SU treated differently/separately? You say we should all thank God SU remained amateur throughout the 1920s, & wasn't persuaded to the dark side of rugby league. Yet it was the administrators of rugby union back in the early 1900s, mostly educated at SU, part of elite society, who through their steadfast obstinance, accelerated the split of rugby league. Who knows, had the administrators of 1907-08 stood up against the elitism of their British counterparts, & relented on two issues, rugby league may never have taken root in Australia, & we may have been spared 2 rugby codes for the past 100 years. Was it so unreasonable for working class rugby players to seek medical insurance against injury while playing rugby? Was it so unreasonable for working class rugby players to seek reasonable remuneration while away from work, touring interstate or overseas playing rugby? I don't mean to sound Marxist, although I probably come across that way, but the administrators of the early 1900s were most likely SU educated, part of the establishment, elitist in their thinking, & actively contributed to the divide that followed. Here's my beef - SU can stay in the premier rugby district comp, only when it's obvious everything is being done to lift the game in Penrith, Southern Districts, West Harbour & Parramatta, etc. But it's not happening. Thanks to the 'old boy's network', SU remains strong while these vital growth areas are allowed to remain stagnant. Consequently, in my eyes, Sydney University represents everything wrong with Australian rugby. Sydney University continues to represent an exclusive, elitist, unrepresentative part of Australian society. SU's exclusiveness & elitism is the mirror image of the ARU & Australian rugby. The north shore caviar set.