The Shute Shield is arguably the traditional successor of rugby in NSW however a lack of funding could bid a stark future for the competition.
The premier grade rugby trophy is made up of 12 clubs across Sydney, and to this day remains the biggest local feeder for the Super Rugby.
Every Saturday, footballers fight for their club with the goal of not only success, but also furthering that sense of camaraderie you gain week in week out, playing next to people from all walks of life.
It’s rare blessing. A gathering that blends all four points of the compass into a competition, which not only fosters rugby in Australia, but tackles social divide and prejudice all at the same time.
From colts up through to grade, footy players of all sizes, ability and age can band together and contest against their counterparts in what is the Shute Shield Rugby Competition.
To your average footy head, the Super Rugby and the Wallabies is what you would think drives rugby in Australia but this not entirely true.
It is The Shute Shield, which has and will hopefully continue to be primary third tier comp in Australia, a tournament that has marked the beginning and end for some of our greats.
The competition which began in 1874 boasts the development of players like George Gregan, John Eales and David Campese to name a few out of a pool of champions.
However the impression the Shute Shield will have on Australian rugby in times to come has taken a step into the dark with a number of clubs struggling financially, leaving some on the brink of failure.
With the majority of the clubs continuing to make losses it paints a bleak future for the proud suburbs, and Australia desperately needs to make some changes to avoid saying goodbye to our biggest nursery of rugby talent.
But who is to blame?
According to the ARU’s 2012 annual report the heavyweights of Australian rugby have lost over $26 million in the last two years alone and it is no surprise that teams are selling their clubhouses to get by.
The main problem is expenditure and how funding from corporate overheads is allocated with clubs spending an average of $110,00 on player payments each year. Most clubs are underestimating player expenditure because they are fearful of being stripped by ARU funding.
The latest plea from the ARU is an excess of $500,000 dollars, which aims to keep departing Wallabies like Berrick Barnes and Drew Mitchell in the Shute Shield and lure them away from the charisma of Japan and France.
The unlimited wealth of resources and facilities of clubs like Sydney University makes it next to impossible for clubs like Penrith and Gordon to compete on paper let alone on the field as the two sides battle it out for the wooden spoon.
It’s not extraordinary that ‘the students’ have won the Club Championship for the last eight years leaving the financially burdened clubs kicking in the dust.
It is these sorts of fiscal divides that will bring about the end of some clubs and ruin a comp that has provided a pathway to elite rugby for many years.
Certain clubs no longer have the ability to attract players at the junior and senior level and provide them with the sort of luxuries you would expect when joining a rugby club. I couldn’t even get my hands on a pair of shorts that weren’t five sizes too big this year, let alone a hat.
I don’t have an answer to the Shute Shield’s cash crisis, but something needs to be done to save the competition, which has made rugby what it is in Australia today.
Ian
Guest
The ARU already struggles with marketing to mainstream Australia, marketing to the many different ethic groups in the country is another kettle of fish altogether. Their marketing has improved in the last 10 years since I started following Rugby though. Asian immigrants are not very sport orientated either, a small percentage follow EPL though. Rugby is moderately popular in Japan, but we do not have many Japanese immigrants in Australia, mostly Chinese, Indian and Vietnamese, in the 3 suburbs you mentioned earlier specifically Chinese. Like with any migrant families from very different cultures, it takes one or two generations to connect fully their new society, especially when living mostly around people from their former homelands. We have a few Asians playing for my club (which is in the Eastwood catchment), they fit in very well. I do not believe you can specifically market a sport to an ethnic group inside a society (although there are mainly sports that market perfectly to bogans in this country :) ). Instead it is better to market to children and parents in general regardless of race, they will like/play what their friends do. On a related note the ARU is investing in a new world class Rugby development centre at TG Millner. http://www.rugby.com.au/News/NewsArticle/tabid/1699/ArticleID/10048/Default.aspx
Ian
Guest
Doesn't just happen in Rugby, snobby people everywhere mate, at least in Rugby you get to put them in their place.
Midfielder
Guest
Charlie Do you have any ideas about how to connect rugby to a wider demographic...
Charlie Drayton
Roar Guru
Couldn't agree more. We need to expand the game in Australia and draw attention to the sport on a much wider scale. Recent poles are saying school kids are more likely to play football these days? Something needs to change to get Union back on top above league and the round balled game.
Charlie Drayton
Roar Guru
It's impossible to compete when uni stack their team.
Jimbo
Guest
Yr bang on matey IMO. Over here in Greece, people just love soccer,........and wait for it, basket ball. The Florida State team is here in Crete at the moment playing against the national team of Greece and the place went bananas for it. The rational here is easy to comprehend, if you are under 6/4 you play football, if you are over you play basketball. ARU, mainly due to some pretty shitty management by some very ordinary people at the NSWRU have simply ignored the world around them and stuck to their comfy little piece of turf. My question is how can you expect to consistently beat teams like NZ with a gene pool the size the ARU has to choose from? It isn't just the players or lack there of, it's the mindset of the union itself. We must bring in talent from broader areas. If I hadn't gone to a posh uni, I would never even known what union was, we certainly didn't play union in Blacktown that's for shore.
Midfielder
Guest
Jimbo Adding to it woes, that the lack of investment in new population centres is that many of Rugby's previous heartland areas are lost due in the main to a population demographic change... Eastwood / Epping Chatswood are now mainly Asian centres ... Rugby has not tried hard to connect to this group ...
Jimbo
Guest
Well put together Midfielder, agree with the sins of the past comment. IMO, rugger is an old school tie game, whilst I remember and love my days at the UofS, I have to say for every one friend I made, it was often offset by another bloke who wouldn't talk to me because I went to the wrong school. Social elitism in sport is epitomised in rugby IMO, in NZ you simply play because thats what you do after, during and before school. In some (not all) cases, places like the UofS used to have an underlying snobbery that cut the games nose off to spite it's face.
Midfielder
Guest
Sorta on topic ... Craig Foster in today's smh has an article about the rise of Football in private schools ...http://www.smh.com.au/sport/football/beautiful-game-comes-top-of-the-class-in-school-system-20130817-2s3cw.html In part the article says ... """ Some figures: in the independent girls school sport association, where football was introduced in 2004, there has been a 76 per cent increase in participation, in less than a decade, to 193 teams. In the Combined Associated Schools - that includes Cranbrook, Knox, Trinity and Waverley College - football now outnumbers rugby union by 161 teams to 135.""" With AFL 18 teams looking for anything thats looks any good into their ranks... Football keeping players they bled to other codes before ... League as always looking for talent... add to this the general lack of junior rugby park teams in new population areas... remember the Super teams have the best... Arguably rugby is today paying for the sins of the past and there is simply not the quality any-more in large numbers...
Ian
Guest
Players should not be payed in premier rugby, this includes the exchange of goods and free uni entry etc. They should receive certain privileges though, like free playing gear, Physio, Chiro and profession networking from their club. To make this free medical service easier, clubs should affiliate with universities (this will also give students experience dealing with athletes). To play in Shute Shield is like studying Rugby, you shouldn't get a free ride, unless you are good enough to get a 'scholarship' to an elite ARU training squad (National Talent Squad, Rugby 7's, Super Rugby extended training squads). The message to aspiring Rugby players should be get a part time job and work hard in Premier Rugby, if you're good enough someone will sign you to a higher level (either in Australia or overseas).
Tane Mahuta
Guest
Go Uni!
Atawhai Drive
Guest
Scarcely credible score in the Shute Shield today: Sydney University 78, Randwick 0.
Double Agent
Guest
Absolutely there should be no player payments is SS. One of the problems with the club comp is the incompetence of most of the coaches involved. Player selections are often ludicrous. Schoolboy 'heroes' who aren't actually worth a cracker get a dream run into top grades. The drills are mostly aimed at 12yos. Heaps of players give it away by the time they are 21 or 22. I watched a club game in Dunedin earlier this year. The backs were ok but the forwards left the SS for dead. They actually work hard. In Sydney bludger forwards who make two good runs a game and spend most of their time standing in the backs are guaranteed a spot in first grade!
GWS
Guest
Shute shield does not exist in western Sydney
GWS
Guest
Your first sentence outlined rugbys problem in oz.
Jimbo
Guest
I disagree peeeko,...Uni were on a come back in the late nineties with former Raties like Bignold, Catchy & Hornibrook on the charge, new sponsors and a mentor system that was just starting to fire. The late nineties were an awesome time to be at Uni and I loved it. We were led by President Wennerbom and playing there was fantastic as I am sure it still is now a days. I am no longer involved, living overseas but I think of the late nineties at the UofS as some of the greatest times of my life. Agree,...save the Shute!
kunming tiger
Guest
Melbourne Rebels and the Western force are professional Rugby franchises that have a vested interest in developing Rugby in their respective regions. Their primary responsiblity is to themselves , their contracted players are employees whose primary obligation is to their employer. A professional franchise is not obilgated morally or legally to release playing resources to a club competition in another city. Once a player leaves his former club and signs on as a professional he leaves that behind. As a player your loyalty is to yourself first, to make best use of your opportunites. The Shute sheild is simpy a pathway, a steepimg stone to playing at a higher level, why would a player would want to go back to playing at a lower level unless he was directed to do so by his employer doesn't make a lot of sense. As for the development pathway the proposed "Super B" comp using the extended playing squad members and select locals makes more sense. If the Shute Sheild is not sustainable in it's current format then change the format, the problem with the Shute Sheild and the solution to that problem can only be found in Sydney. If few people care in Sydney and fewer people outside of Sydney care enough about the comp to watch it. Maybe it's a sign of the times we live in , things change and some things can't be unchanged. If we need to move on we will . Finally what is the definition of a Micky Mouse Rugby competition? A competition that is not national in scope, not televised nationally as such and not watched live by anyone. A competition where most of the participants are unpaid or poorly paid and incapable of playing up at the next level up. They simply exist as a means of identifying outstanding talent or to give players returning from injury game time. An alternative must be found asap.
Working Class Rugger
Roar Guru
I think those calling for the destruction of the Shute Shield are doing so without even considering the potential damage losing the primary Rugby nursery in the country would incur. It needs to remain. But I do agree. Something has to done to strengthen and rejuvenate the competition. But not only the Shute but the other competitions across the country need to look to restructure their competitions and/or seasons to effectively resolve the current woes being experienced. In regards to the Shute Shield. It needs to go back to a purely amateur set up. Many clubs assist players with employment and now educational opportunities but what has been an increasingly disconcerting trend over the last 15 or so seasons has been the arms race regarding the payment of players. It was a confronting experience when I attended my first Colts orientation day at Randwick to hear players and their parents wanting to discuss what the club could offer them apart from the opportunity to play. I found this crazy as what I wanted more than anything else was to wear the famous green jersey. It's a trend that has been slowing strangling the competition with many clubs barely keeping their heads above water. Aside from adopting the amateur status across the board, the Shield needs to assess it tiers of competition. At present their are a clear 4 maybe 5 teams that are truly competitive. With Uni dominating all before them. My suggestion would be the creation of a 2 tiered NSW Rugby Cup set up with the 1st Tier (!st Division) being an 8 team Shute Shield and the 2nd Tier (2nd Division) would involve the bottom four of the current 12 alongside the reintroduction of both the Central Coast and Illawarra plus if workable Newcastle/Hunter. Alongside the three a subbies club of the likes of Campbelltown should form the 8th in that competition if one of the three local country regions cannot compete then a team like Balmain would be an obvious option. Each division would play a 14 week home and away season with a two week finals to determine a champion for each division. After the finals the winner of the 2nd Div plays the bottom placed team of the 1st Div for a spot in the Shute Shield for the next season. This would occur during the SR season finishing just prior to the SR finals providing plenty of time for the net phase. Some may question the ability for the clubs beneath to grow and become competitive but by basing them on a mix of regions and clubs you provide 2 or three regions with good bases and a club with an entire area of Sydney in which the grow and develop. After the club seasons, we move on to a semi-pro representative season based on regional/"provincial" lines. The best from each competition from across the country will get to play alongside the returning SR players during the RC. Essentially providing us with our very own NPC. Two teams from Sydney, at least one from Brisbane (most likely two), one from Canberra, Melbourne and Perth. Based home and away and we have a good 12 week competition to identify talent. The very same concept would be done at the Colts level. At the end of every season open trials will be held for anyone wishing to trial regardless of which division or club in which they play for.
Jock M
Guest
What a failure profesionalism has turned out to be. Law changes have robbed the game of its soul and value as a spectacle and the guys at the top have run off with all of the money.
jeznez
Roar Guru
now that you say it I recall that being the case