Go Wests Magpies, but not forever

Ask and Mexican from Victoria - they're still "South Melbourne" and "Fitzroy"

Junior Don't u start asking people what planet their from! Where r u from??? When talks about merging the magpies and tigers in first grade, u took to the stage at the club and shed a tear stating" I want to see my son wear the black amd gold for the tigers and by merging this will be his only chance"! Then you told him to sign with the roosters. So much for being loyal to the tigers!

For those who don't know, NSW Cup teams have been announced for next year. Wests Tigers will be fielding a JV team and there will be no Wests Magpies team in the comp. Very sad news. On a side note the Central Coast will be represented next year with the Wyong Roos (no NRL club affiliation) and it's looking like Albury will field a team in 2014 feeding in to the Melbourne Storm. So there are some positives coming up for the NSW Cup.

Clem Parker of Maroobra, thank God there is someone out there that knows the truth. or most of it anyway, Add to that, that the majority of the Wests Ashfield board who the last couple of years have an agenda of helping Balmain and the Wests Tigers and Sheens to control the whole group. Wests Magpies have been strong in their own right, it has only been when Sheens took 8 players to Balmain that we have struggled. How many players has Balmain provided to the Wests Tigers? count them on one hand people, and you can have some fingers amputated. Yet the Magpies have provided many champions, not only to the Wests Tigers, but to other teams as well. Even Beau Ryan was brought to the Magpies from St George many years ago, we gave him a chance and look at the heights he reached. Lets have a look at things from a different angle as well. How many Magpies has Sheens got rid off the last 6 years? Hodgson, Lafranchi, Gallant, Hoffman, Degoise, Collis, Ryan, Gibbs, Everingham, Flanagan, Willie Manu, Inu, Hayne, Folau, Lafai. Even Fifita was playing for the Magpies when he was dropped. I have probably forgotten some players, but as you can see there is some talent there. Other clubs would love to have 2 feeder clubs to pick players from, yet not only do we want to get rid of one, but the stronger one.....how poor is that, get rid off Sheens, and now, because he is purposely getting rid of our talent knowing he is on the way out. Can someone stand up to these idiots and fast..

The Mighty Magpies will be back in 2013 in the NSW Cup and competitive. Watch this space. In Mick we trust!

Just wanted to say that I went down to the match and had a fantastic time, what a great atmosphere, it was only the 3rd NSW cup match that I had ever been to but it was fantastic. I have booked in with my friends who were their with me to attend the Bears vs the Jets match that will be held at North Sydney Oval on Friday the 10th of August and I would love to meet anyone from the Roar involved in this Blog if you are there. The day was a testament to why we cannot lose such important cultural pieces of history like Wests. Wests is an invaluable part of Sydney's heritage and indeed it's future, as is the NSW cup, that is the reason that yet again I will be down at North Sydney Oval with my home made flag to watch the repeat of the 1943 Grand Final when the Jets take on the Bears. If you read this and you are their for that game please do not be a stranger, come over and say G'day.

What a wonderful blog this is. Talking about two fine clubs and one fine venue, without one bit of trolling from some woManly unemployable bogan. Go the Bears. Go the Maggies.

The real story about the demise of the Wests Magpies is wholly centered around Tim Sheens and the structure of the joint venture. Balmain are 10 million dollars in debt and in a dire position. Sheens knows how coaches get sacked, he knows its the directors who decide upon a coaches position. By giving 50% of the Wests Tigers directors everything they need, he guarentees his survival year after year. 50% of the Wests Tigers directors are Balmain directors. Sheens is basically the SOLE reason as to why the Balmain Football Club shares the same office at Concord as the Joint Venture company. He is the SOLE reason why all NRL contracted and 2nd tier players are allocated to Balmain-Ryde Eastwood. He knows Balmain cant afford players, an office or anything like that, so he gives it to them for free. ALL NRL and NYC players have to play for Balmain Ryde Eastwood. Sheens will never get sacked as coach, no matter how disgraceful his results continue to be because the Balmain directors rely 100% on what he gives them. Parramatta have made the Semi's 9 times in the last 15 years and have sacked 5 coaches !!!! Tim Sheens has made the semi's 3 times in the last 15 years and is unsackable. It is a disgrace. He is destroying the Wests Magpies to maintain his $500,000 dollar a year job. He and Stephen Humphreys will go down in history as the two persons who will destroy the Western Suburbs Magpies.

Well the Mrs and I had fantastic day on the hill at NSO. Met up with a few of "The Roar" regulars (or irregulars as the case may be). It was great to see the friendly banter between Tigers, Jets, Magpies and Bears supporters with no angst but plenty of passion. Feeling a wee bit sorry today - it must have been that one beer at the bowlo after the game :)

Good win by the Bears yesterday. Hopefully the 'Pies and Tigers can sort out their teething issues and we can see the Magpies back next year (as a more competitive outfit). Would be a shame to lose such a significant institution.

The ARLC needs to step in and help clubs like Western Suburbs Magpies. Money from the TV deal should be spent on helping the Western Suburbs Panthers and Toowoomba Clydesdales get back into the Queensland Cup. I'd go one step further and revert the Souths Logan Mapgies back to the Southern Suburbs Mapgies and bring back the Logan Scorpions. We need to have all areas of greater Brisbane and greater Sydney represented at all levels of the game.

I am an Eels fan and a lover of rugby league history and the fact is that would have had a very hard time forming a club if it were not for the support of Wests. How can we allow this to happen to our own clubs, I only just finished gluing a piece of red and black material together in support of the bears and now this. As the Eels play in Brisbane this weekend I am going to head to North Sydney Oval for the double header with my terrible home made bears flag and if there r Wests souvenirs available count me in. Wests are an institution and they are not even given the right to play against another side to be relegated, hang on Wests you have always been renounced for being a rough and dirty pricj but no one could ever fault the fact that WESTS loved rugby league and would never do anything in their own self interest to ever hinder the good of the game. Perhaps Brisbane could take a page from the book of Wests and not just try to crush and stifle the game in their own self interest. Some things are sacred though and Wests should be one. See you at the game.

The treatment of Wests and the Macarthur is a dead set discrace!!!! I just hope Karma comes when Balmain go insolvent!!! Hang on maggies!!!

You shouldn't believe all the propaganda that comes out of Concord, matty119. That money Mr Humphreys claims will be saved by having a joint NSW Cup is very misleading and there are doubts it won't go towards junior development. And anyway, what is wrong with preserving the Magpies name at the second tier level?

Balmain decided the join forces with Ryde-Eastwood and are now known as BRET. They decided on that, not Wests Tigers. If the Balmain people wanted to do that, so be it, Western Suburbs people want the Magpies to live and not have to merge with anyone. Why isn't there any media comments on the demise of BRET in the NSW Cup? Perhaps because the media simply see Wests Tigers as an extention of Balmain.

Well the jumper fits (just). The schedule has been cleared and even the Mrs has dragged out her Balmain jumper for the early game. Look out Rugby League, we are on our way for the first time in quite a few years....

Because by eliminating Ryde-Eastwood from the equation you are throwing half a million dollars a season down the drain. If you let them run the joint-venture second tier team, then you could pool the money put into it by Balmain and Wests and put that into junior development for WT.

The Western Suburbs Football Club approached St George and Canberra in the last couple of years regarding a possible arrangement for the NSW Cup. In my opinion, if there is a Wests Tigers merged State Cup team, it has to be called Wests Tigers, or run by someone other than Balmain or Wests. People will say there is the loss of the Magpie, but what about the loss of Balmain?

well said, MM. When I see the crowds that were at these games (from the 70s & 80s - not that long ago) & the potential marketability for clubs like the Maggies & the Tigers ... I shake my head. Balmain Tigers, & even Newtown Jets were immensely markeatble, I believe. AFL knows that League administrators are inept, and are cashed-up enough to make massive dents in the League strongholds.

Tim, Rugby League got expansion and the mergers wrong, with the case of Western Suburbs and North Sydney glaring examples of a lack of vision by the game's administrators. Since the mid 80's the NSWRL and then the ARL were aware there were too many teams in Sydney and encouraged teams to leave their traditional areas. Both Western Suburbs and North Sydney left Ashfield and North Sydney respectively and placed themselves in developing markets. As anyone would know, you need capital and resources when setting up in a new market and you always struggle in the early years. This was where rugby league got it wrong. Two clubs made the courageous step to leave their comfort zones, but due to the early stages of these developments, were penalised in the crude criteria of the NRL in 1999. If anyone had the slightest amount of vision for the game in 1999, Wests and Norths should have been excluded from the criteria, provided some financial support from the tv deal and importantly, guaranteed a spot in the NRL. This would have sent a clear message to the stubborn Sydney clubs who refused to move from old markets. The competition would be more efficient with a stronger foundation for growth. However today we still have self interest driving the game (Manly moving back to Brookvale a classic example) and too many teams in the inner Sydney area. The chickens are now coming home to roost with the AFL seeing a gap in rugby league exposure in the greater west.