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Friday’s Ruck & Maul section of the Herald provided some disturbing rumours about the possible future for Australia’s much talked about, and desired, “third tier”, which has been club rugby since the ARC came and went in 2007.
Ruck & Maul is usually a bunch of unsourced rumours, or about unnamed persons, which is often a cause for frustration by readers (like myself). Growden has been about the traps for decades, and will almost certainly have a source of some type, but without that it is often hard to tell whether the rumours have any weight or not.
Sometimes they have turned about to be true, other times not. In some instances if you are in the know already, you know who he is talking about, so you wonder why he doesn’t just name the persons.
The rumour is that “some officials” (no suggestion as to whether NSWRU, SRU or who) are trying to form a 10-team “Super Club” comp, comprising “four teams from both Sydney and Brisbane, and one each from Canberra and Melbourne.”
My first thought was giving four teams to each of Sydney and Brisbane is a bit generous for Brisbane. With no disrespect, the Shute Shield currently provides something like 60 per cent of the Super Rugby players (at least that’s the number I have seen bandied about recently).
While the Melbourne and Canberra clubs would presumably simply provide feeders for the Super Rugby clubs, and almost act as a reserve grade side for each, the Brisbane and Sydney clubs would clearly be looking outside just the Reds and Tahs extended squads.
As such, with the numbers Sydney provides, and the sheer size of Sydney requiring arguably more than four clubs to not leave an area of Sydney out (and abandon it to other codes), I would suggest the split would be more appropriately five to three in Sydney’s favour (I await return fire from Brisbane Roarers as to why I am wrong).
Salving the egos of the Brisbane comp may be playing a part I suspect. My first riposte would be to tell me how many Brisbane teams would be competitive in the Shute Shield, and vice versa.
However, the real cause to my mind for consternation is the suggestion the four clubs from Sydney “may well be Manly, Sydney University, Southern Districts and a combined Eastern Suburbs-Randwick line-up.”
Left out of that are:
* The currently unbeaten Eastwood, winners of premierships in 1999, 2001 and 2002, and with strong juniors.
* Warringah, currently propping up the ladder, but traditionally a strong side with strong juniors. And who detest Manly, so their fans may have an issue supporting Manly as “their” side even if just down the road.
* Northern Suburbs and Gordon, always competitive and based in the North Shore rugby heartland. See Warraingah above for chances of supporting Manly, plus harder to easily get to games in Manly.
* Parramatta, West Harbour and Penrith. While Penrith and Parramatta have struggled in recent years, West Harbour are not in the same boat, and are a competitive side with a good ground and decent depth (leaving aside complaints they keep stealing Parra’s juniors).
So essentially Sydney west of Camperdown, north of the Georges River, is left without a team. This suggests the “old rugby” thinking, that the sport can survive based in the east and north of Sydney (actually, given two teams based in Camperdown and the east, mainly in the east it seems!), has prevailed.
This is everything that is wrong about that type of thinking, and is the thinking that dooms rugby to lose out to league and AFL. Without the west (hell, everything but the east) of Sydney, rugby will stagnate and wither.
Further, having uni in the comp, notwithstanding their great strengths, is sure to be a source of great resentment if this comp gets off the ground. Rest assured the fans of any team not getting a gig won’t be supporting them.
To my mind it would make more sense to have a combined North Shore/Northern Beaches side (and possibly separate sides), an eastern suburbs side involving Uni (Sydney Fleet anyone?), and a western Sydney side or two (Woodies/West Harbour and Penrith/Parra, or combined – Western Sydney Rams?).
To my mind Southos are the ones that have the weakest claim despite their various strengths, and this reeks of what Cronulla and Canterbury did in the Super League war, in jumping ship to ensure their survival. Are they one of the pushers for the comp? If so, then for this reason?
My thoughts has always been a Southos/Uni side playing out of Kogarah had merit as a side covering southern Sydney.
I’ll be interested to see what if anything comes of this plan, but god help rugby in Sydney if it gets off the ground in the format suggested.
I can see real problems if so, as I’d see the former three ARC teams making more sense as long as the Rays moved back to northern Sydney and the Fleet to the east.
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.