A plan to save rugby in Sydney's South West

Why dosn't the likes of Penrith, Sydney Uni, West Harbour, Norths and what ever other clubs whom only have 1 or 2 junior clubs invest in developing more so they can bring them through the junior program to keep the senior clubs alive. Or do they keep taking from other clubs to keep the kids confussed

Chris - The Tahs crowds reflect one set of supporters generally. If you think of the recent tahs games vs Cheetahs, Lions and Sharks, the crowd reflects the supporters of one team - i.e the Tahs. The AFL and NRL have travelling supporters to boost crowd figures. Going by the poor ( in terms of crowd drawing ability) draw, the Tahs average crowds this year will be down despite their rugby being a lot more enjoyable. Be interesting to see the Brumbies / Tahs crowd - I am hearing 40k but we'll see. Have no doubt that the Wallabies games will draw far more than last year. Parramatta colts seemed to perform ok against a revived Norths yesterday. Be interesting to see how the Two Blue colties go against some of the weaker clubs.

Good to hear! That was really just my perception from the few North Shore people I know. It's a bit scary though (disgraceful even) that the Swans crowds are better than the Waratahs. Realistically with less games and a much longer history in Sydney (after all RU was once the number one code in Sydney) the Waratahs crowds should be killing the Swans.

My understanding was the Eels provided 750K in cash and about another 250 K, in services like the use of rooms at the club etc.. It is a huge amount of money to find... not sure if it is needed ... but some decisions need to be made reasonably quickly ... the season is due to start.. BTW... Go the Woodies ...

I should know this as an Eels supporter, but why was the Leagues club giving the Union club $750K a year?

the money went towards paying 1st - 3rd graders $20 to turn up to training, match payments to COLTS players, and the rest dissapeared into gary ellas back pocket

Chres - agree with most of your sentiments though AFL has absolutely not become the favoured code on the North Shore. I should know I live there. AFL did have a novelty factor which ( unsurprisingly for Sydney!) has well and truly worn off. The TV ratings for the AFL in Sydney are and continue to be diabolical. Rugger on the North Shore if anything is more popular this year then any year previously going by the number of registered juniors and seniors in 2010. You are right though we need the Sydney Rams and have no doubt would be successful. I would support them.

West Sydney needs a Super Rugby team - and fast. It is embarrassing that after 125 years Sydney - Australia's so called home of Rugby - can only support one team. It's time for the Sydney Waratahs and the West Sydney Rams A.S.A.P. Every Empire in history has fallen because it over-extended itself and forgot about the home front. Rugby may now have teams in Melbourne and Perth but it is receding rapidly on the home front. Sydney's working class supports league and the North Shore yuppies (which traditionally supported RU in Sydney) have decided AFL is the "trendy" thing. Isn't is a bit scary that in a couple of years time Victorian Football and even Soccer will have more professional teams in Sydney than Rugby?

a good point Bay in that if you look at some or the TwoBlues' Annual Reports you'll see that Parra Leagues pumped in an absolute small fortune ( $750k I think or more) into the club per year. Was the money spent on ground upgrades, development officers, paying for young and up and coming coaches, promotion of the game in the area or a schools comp? looks very unlikely when you look at the $$ amount next to 'Player expenses". They were gifted an amount most clubs would die for and spent it on paying players. Very short sighted and a bad precedent. Even the auditor at the end of the Annual Report hade a side note stating that the club's reliance on a grant placed the club at serious risk - sure enough the grant goes and so does the club. Now I am a supporter of the TwoBlues and club rugby / subbies in general. If they can let the ego go for a while and appeal to the Sydney rugby community for financial support ( lunches, donations to a Foundation fund that provides annual income) and the media to promote strong attendance at their home games - I would be more than willing to dip in the pocket to help out. The club just needs a group of people with the foresight to utilise the rugby network, any funding and volunteers time to greater effect. Cmon Parra - see what the rugby community can do for you. Just need to ask.

The 2 Blues problems seem to come from 3 main issues which don't seem to have been raised or discussed: * Parramatta Leagues Club was funding them up until about 2 years ago (I think), which was very nice of our league cousins. However, with the problems in the club industry they cut that funding. Thus producing a huge hole in the 2 Blues funding (this is the danger of being dependent on such funding, as any NRL club will tell you). * As I understand it, their agreement to use Granville Park ran out or has problems, to they are looking for a new home ground. Which is part of the reason they are looking at Castle Hill. The Shute Shield draw for this year which was released a few weeks ago has the venue for every 2 Blues game as TBC. Worrying so close to the season. * The talk of moving to Castle Hill, which seems to have fallen over or be something to happen with the next few years, would almost certainly have p!ssed off every local player they had. Any player from Granville, etc would be wondering why they would drive to Castle Hill. it defeats the purpose of a "local" team. Especially if you aren't getting paid. I wonder if Merrylands or the other local subbies clubs have had an upswing tjhis season from the lower graders voting with their feet. And anyone decent who wanted to go would walk to Eastwood, West Harbour, etc. I cannot see how the 2 Blues can be strapped together in their current shape. 20 players, no home ground ... ? The Sydney clubs have their heads so far up their a$$ they are going to kill this game. While 2 Blues have caused some of this themselves, as Yikes says they have resisted the changes necessary to improve the game for so long. Hell's Bells, they didn't want Canberra in because they were "too good", but Uni dominating for 5 years is OK? Leave them in charge and it will just leave rugby stuck on the North Shore and Estern Suburbs. What are they doing to produce any other change?

Yikes, 20 players turning up to training isn't a problem, it's a disaster! How can they even field a team? No unpaid player is going to go there from another club if ordered, they'll be afraid of being uncompetitive.

As Parramatta is the population centre (or it use to be, its probably further west now) why is Silverwater Rd the boundary. Two Blues teams should be in the northern or southern zones???

It's not a scientific socio-economic exercise - just a practical boundary of where the development people work. The boundary between "north" and "south/east" is the harbour itself and the boundary between both of them and the "west" is (I recall) CumberlandHwy/Silverwater Rd etc.

i am perplexed though yikes, at what the ARU and NSWRU call the north, west, south and east. In a socio economic sense, the ryde eastwood area, which by what ive seen seems to be the west according to most in rugby, is much closer to the north than the west. and these days most would consider half of the inner west as the east or cbd area. if you further look at the type of people who play rugby being determined on an economic scale, you could also quite easily consider the hills district part of a northern division rather than the west. the south is also a perplexing boundary, as it can cut across at the bankstown area, or cut down to the shire area. so it could be an example of the boundaries being wrong.

On the contrary Hansie - the clubs are doing nothing at the moment (it's yet to be determined whether they will actually send some players Parra's way which is the only thing that will make them competitive). A few nice words to Greg Growden mean absolutely nothing. These clubs have been taking Parramatta juniors, colts and grade players for years. More to the point though, the clubs now publicly "supporting" Parra are the ones who voted not to reduce the points cap on players which was intended to share the talent around. The cap was designed with allowable limits last year that did not effect any club's playing roster (ie Syd Uni's first choice team would still fit under the cap) to get the clubs used to using it and ironing out the kinks with the full intention that this year the cap limits on 1st Grade, 2nd Grade and 1st Colts would be reduced and then reduced further in year 3. Sure enough, at the end of last year the clubs voted not to reduce the cap!! It is the inmates running the asylum and things will be even worse when this newly formed Sydney Rugby Union (run by the clubs) wholly takes control of the comp away from the only adult in the room, the NSWRU. The hide of these people to feed Growden quotes of support for Parra is galling. I can only hope that they all commit to sending some players Parra's way and prove me wrong about their intentions. Not that Parramatta really deserve any support - their current predicament is in the main a direct result of their own mismanagement over the years. But we still need 12 strong Premiership clubs and something must be done.

Well GM, the answer to your question is there are 2. There are also 2 in Sydney's north, and 2 in Sydney's south/east. 6 in total. Sydney's West is not being neglected by comparison.

A few weeks ago I bagged some of the Sydney clubs for campaigning against the ARC, and then not helping out Parramatta in a time of need, so it's only fair to acknowledge that those clubs are doing what they can to save Parramatta. I still think that club rugby alone won't provide the quality player base required for Australia to be consistently competitive, but good on the Sydney clubs for doing their bit for rugby in western Sydney.

I am wary of an extra bloody union to add tothe ARU, NSWRu and soon to be renewed SRU, but something has to change. Perhaps splitting the comp would do it, I don't know. those likening the Shute Shield sides to NRl clubs are kidding themselves. They are at best the equivalent of NSW Cup sides in league, or NSW Premier LEague sides like Marconi etc. And that's the good ones. The poor ones are barely above Division 1 subbies sides.

The reason rugby is a long way behind is it doesn't have the funding. The ARu revenues are half that of NRl at best, and 20% of AFL at best. League teams in NSW Cup are (i) usually a feeder teamer often supported by an NRL team that funds its expanded squad who play for it as their reserve side, and (ii) often have a licenced club able to support it. Many rugby clubs lack the licenced club.

RickG " People talk about Campbelltown and Camden being growth areas but there’s an enormous number of kids growing up in the greater north-west." Very ture. However, Campbelltown in particular are very underdeveloped in terms of Rugby. The Campbelltown Harlequins and the Camden Rams are the only clubs in the Macarthur region that has close to 300,000 people. The area could easily support its own District Competition.