Why is the Shute Shield left out?

The always forward thinking Woodies have put on their Facebook site that they will be will be broadcasting their first away game this week. 1st & 2nd grade will be live from Pittwater park. http://www.justin.tv/woodstv Brilliant work Eastwood!

So does Manly.

GJM, if that's the AFL strategy, they're sending mixed messages by recruiting Israel Folau! In saying that I think the Giants will do well. Similar to what the Storm and the Rebels have done in Melbourne.

Woods woods woods 15 ina row tomoz

Are you following ABC Shute Shield and Eastwood on Facebook? Both have great content.

Putting all the issues about other competion structures aside the article was about the lack of exposure the Shute Shield recieves in the media. I can only heartily agree, as a country rugby supporter unable to get to Sydney club matches on a regular basis it is impossible to stay abreast of the current competion across all teams. The coverage in SMH when it occurs is a couple of lines on a game and the scores only of the other games (refer recent coverage of Danny Cipriani playing for Warringah whilst the clash between Eastwood and Sydney Uni with a dozen Super Rugby players involved consisted of the result). I am currently finding a more detailed coverage in the Daily Telegraph, how times change. Recent crowds at Sydney club matches have be quite respectable but the lack of coverage continues.

There's already a Pampas XV playing in South Africa.

WAFL is broadcast on free to air.

I played league until secondary school when I started playing rugby and continued to play into my late 20's - I loved the game and now have two young boys below 5yo. I went to my local subbies ground the other day and watched the U/10's play. My local team consisted mainly of anglo kids but the opposition were mainly Islanders. The size difference was staggering and I can understand why parents wouldn't let their young kids play rugby if they could see these two teams. I know someone who had a dinner with someone high up in AFL the other week. My mate said that there was no way AFL would win the war of Sydney's west and the AFL person said 'I bet you $100mil we will win... '. Thats what they are investing and they are focussing on parents concerned about the size differences between Islander kids in league and rugby and parents pushing their kids to AFL as a result. Previously I would have said 'harden up'... but watching them.. I'd have concerns to let my boys play and where is the enjoyment for kids if they are going to get smashed by opponents who honestly looked about 4 - 5 years older?

GJM Was asked to go and trail with the Woodies in 1973 ... but I lived in Fairfield an at the time saw myself as a RL person... played semi professional RL for the Guildford Owls in the Parramatta comp ... was hoping to break into one of the top league sides... I did play for a season in a RU business comp in Sydney I played for the CBC bank... I played wing in RU in the main and half in RL... sometimes I played half in RU as well when the half was out... It was the bank that wanted me to trial at Eastwood but alas I never took up the invitation...

Midfielder - did you play at the Woods?

Yeah I missed a few out Johnno - the Beasties and Norths both play on a cricket pitch as well, there are plenty out there.

You have to admit that there were a few years there where club rugby was very hard to watch on TV! I think you could go and watch 1st and 2nd's subbies and see a similar quality of football. This year has been an outstanding level of quality and it's great to see. Club rugby is so important to the future of rugby in the country - most kids get their start at rep footy at U/12's with these clubs and it's their initiation into how great the game is and how important a club is to their development. One last thing - Go you mighty Woods!

Brief disclaimer for what may seem like a wierd post; on pain killers for a shoulder op just completed and they are very good! To have a third tier competition operating then to have all the other things such as 'star player' retention I have the following as a suggestion. The ARU implement a Wallaby bonds system (annual) allowing Aussie rugby fans an extra way to support Aussie rugby. These bonds could be valued at $5+ with each bond being eligible for monthly draws for things such as travel and game tickets, dinner with certain players or even simple recognition. I know we have club memberships but allowing for bonds is a different approach and will allow supporters from all over to support players and intiatives. Now this may be impractical but it is something I feel can help grow the game I love. I suggested a similar thing when the great debate on whether to refurbish Eden Park or build a new water front stadium and for me it was a no brainer, have people by 'bricks' in varying values so there names could be written on the new waterfront stadium. Followed by a bond payment for five years to allow a good amount of the stadium to be paid for. Sounds simplistic, even a bit kooky but when you think about it cashing in feel good factors such as the super 15 win and the build up to the rwc is a smart way to bring in much needed funds? off to lay down now. good dreams.

Great idea Jonno. Add in the top 35 Argentinians to plays in the Aus conference as either Pampas XV (playing in Central Coast) or spread out across 6 teams (include Central Coast). The Kings are in SA, while a Pacific islands team could play in the NZ conference. Play local 10 local matches, then top 3 from each playing and bottom 3 from each. e.g. Reds would play - Crusaders, Blues, Highlanders, Stormers, Sharks and Bulls. While Rebels would play - Pacific islands, Hurricanes, Chiefs, Kings, Cheetahs and Lions. This gives 16 matches followed by the same finals series. Play the regular season over 18 weeks giving each team a 2 bye weeks. Eventually the expansion could lead up to 30-36 teams, playing in a similar style to NFL. The teams would become franchises privately owned and then there would be a draft a la NFL so players could be playing in different countires.

Also the Sydney uni cricket pitch is awful. I watched sydney uNI v randwick this year on tv, and it was a sight to behold. Absoloutlye disgusting as such thick mud. ai would like your running uphill if you had run through it. and the ball would drop dead in the middle of the pitch. And dangerous to probably like all the other cricket pitches. totally unacceptable. But i don't blame the clubs I blame the ARU for not giving sydney clubs money to maintain the grounds or local councils to.

Bakkies that was certainly a cricket pitch down the sideline at Coogee - its always been there. Same thing at Manly - my pet hate which became a personal favourite is Chatswood where it is right in the middle of the playing surface. Can remember playing up there once and the Gordon number 8 was carving us up with big powerful runs. I was a young number 7 and popped my head out of the breakdown to see this bloke coming at me with a full head of steam, There was nothing for it but to go at him and try and make the tackle happily our hooker was next to me and he had the same idea, the two of us hit at the same time, drove him straight onto his backside on the rock hard cricket pitch. It was like concrete that day - poor bugger never made another run. Can't remember the result but I'll always remember that tackle!

I''ll add some moor appoints about having an ARC or a shute shield basically just some kind of national comp over a super 15 as the one and ply top pro format in Australia. If SANZAR want to keep this conference mentality going, we actually need to expand by 3 teams at the same time next time we expand. Here is why. Imagine a 16 team competition with 3 conferences… It wil be unfair and not interesting, if not downright silly when the next round of expansions come along. Eastern Cape is going to get a ticket into Super Rugby; it seems that much is assured. But ideally for a 16 team competition we need 4 groups of 4, or 2 groups of eight. What do we do? We can’t go NFL style and just name them north, south, east and west. Our geographical spread just doesn’t work like that (neither does South afirca's as a matter of fact). We could go college football system in the USA and just make arbitrary names such as the ‘Sun Belt Conference’ or ‘Mountain West Conference’ – we could actually use that to divide into two conferences. Make one all the teams WEST of the Great Dividing Range on the eastern seaboard of Australia in one conference, and everyone to the east on the other. That sort of works passably though not greatly.. The bye will also be a problem for of our competition for sometime. It decreases the value of the product significantly. Hopefully before long we have a Western Sydney, Eastern Cape and a South Auckland or Pacific Island team to join the 3 conferences in time to make this work. As a package a 3 conference 18 team tournament would be fantastic. It means that if we need to we could rotate through 1 bye week for each team and the season would fill the calendar. At this point I can only imagine 1 significant draw-back of that idea – useless games. More teams in a competition means, more likelihood of games that don’t matter at the end of the season. Teams will know sooner whether they will make the finals series or start ‘building for next year’ a few rounds early. That happens in many leagues around the world including the AFL and the NRL. But that is problem that can easily be resolved with strategic scheduling. Les sis more type theories, generate higher tv ratings per match, and larger crowd attendances and interest in the sport of rugby union. The best way to find a solution to meaningless games is to truly turn the Super Rugby tournament into a champion’s league style tournament that needs qualification from a home competition. That will hopefully be in the back of the minds of the men running SANZAR and holding fort in each union. It solves the problem of useless games because you need to play to your full potential until the end of the season to gain a place at the big boys table. No team is going to waste time on the field with that at stake. With a team in Western Sydney and possibly the Gold Coast, Australia would be in a position to have a full tournament each year within it’s self that can submit the top 4 teams to a Super 12 Champions League competition along with New Zealand and South Africa. And also we start to integrate the countries Japan of Argentina I hope there Union decides to go pro in the next 5 years would be great for the sport of rugby UNion and south american rugby in general, or the game takes of in Brazil, chile, or uruguay to the point where Argenina's stubbornness is amateurism won't impact southern hemphispheres rugby development as much.

As far as the idea to merge teams like Eastwood, Gordon, Manly etc into one I guess Northern Sydney team.. the ARC the idea was somewhat the same. The problem is for eg. you can tell Eastwood fans 'Ok, Eastwood is gone but you should go for Northern Sydney' but in the end it still isn't Eastwood, it's a new and totally different team. There probably is a way for the concept to work but I would hate to be the one who has to try and make it succesful. Anyway you may have bigger things to think about. Eastwood have Manly this week, though the way they are going I doubt you're too worried. But what is that saying "Every win is a step closer to a loss" obvious but reality.

Especially as some of the points you make ensure that your posts are a worthwhile read.