Aussie Pro Rugby
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@NTA you should sign him then...
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@mariner4life well played.
Fucker.
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For some time there has been an assumption that the Brumbies are locked on to win the Australian Conference.
That assumption has to be called into question now that the Brumbies, Reds and Waratahs are all flying high with 3 wins. Even the Force are in with a shot as they are only one win behind the leaders.
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@NTA said in Aussie Rugby in general:
@jegga I was talking about any whining.
e.g. going back to the Tialata choking McCaw. There was some great stuff in that, looking from the sidelines.
Yeah mate that was a classic, Tialatas mum would have given him the jandel for that.
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@Crucial dunno, I think of the rabble that is running about Aus at the moment, they will be able to cobble together a pretty good 23, only thing it, they will all be low on confidence, meaning Cheika will have a bigger job trying to get them into being a tight playing unit, let alone if they get a few injuries.
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Still, its not ALL bad - I've played against this bloke a couple of times, and while its usually Third Grade, he's not shy of going hard at it.
BRUCE ‘Crazy’ Leigh has played more games in the brutal sport of rugby than most can believe.
The energetic 65-year-old notched up his 800th game with the Canterbury Berries today. The club believes his big number is unheard of for a single club in any contact sport in Australia or possibly even the world.
As a 21-year-old, Leigh was a winger when he first laced up his boots for the Berries in 1973. He has played in every season since.
“I never started playing rugby to break any records,” Leigh, of Heckenberg, said.
“When I was 21, if someone had told me I was going to play 800 games I’d say ‘yeah, right. I don’t think so’.”
As he got older, he moved to prop, allowing him to play at a slower pace. Although that meant colliding with heavier players more often, Leigh said he never minded that.
“I’ve never worried about tackling bigger blokes,” he said. “My nickname’s ‘Crazy’ because I used to go out onto the field and just tackle the biggest bloke as hard as I possibly could.”
Over his 44 years of playing rugby for Canterbury, Leigh said the game had gotten “much softer” but he still enjoyed it. He said as long as his passion for rugby remained, he would continue to run out onto the field.
“In the dressing sheds just before the game I started getting butterflies in my stomach,” he said. “I always said I’ll keep playing until that goes away.”
Leigh said he never considered moving on from Canterbury as his fellow players and the club quickly became like family.
“Once I put the jersey on, these guys are my brothers,” he said.
Leigh helped his team pick up a 26-0 win over the Sydney Harlequins.
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@Catogrande they've got a great little ground in Suburban Sydney that they've owned for decades (quite jealous)
We play them at our (shitty, Council-run) ground this weekend. Unfortunately we don't have a Third Grade at the moment so we're unlikely to see Crazy run out.
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@Catogrande oh an apparently there is a guy who had 900 games running around a few years ago (playing prop) but that was two different clubs, so it barely counts
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@NTA said in Aussie Rugby in general:
@Catogrande oh an apparently there is a guy who had 900 games running around a few years ago (playing prop) but that was two different clubs, so it barely counts
Pfft!
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Sorry to change the subject ... but ... (I only made it to 45 with some 7 years out from about 28 to 35) had a physio appt today with a bloke I used to prop with here in the Bay (about a complaint that led to aforementioned hiatus ... prolapsed disc) and we chatted about footy funnily enough.
You may have mentioned previously but he mentioned "individual registration" is killing country clubs. May not be doing you guys much good either?
Basically, where previously clubs paid rego and then it was up to them to get the dollars back from the players it's now down to individuals to register. You can pay $35 (or so) per game but not economically viable if you pay more than 3 or 4 games.
Tough on country clubs when you have so many casual players.
Idea is that ARU takes a cut. Is bullshit really. Money should be flowing the other way. To the clubs not from them
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@booboo said in Aussie Rugby in general:
Sorry to change the subject ... but ... (I only made it to 45 with some 7 years out from about 28 to 35) had a physio appt today with a bloke I used to prop with here in the Bay (about a complaint that led to aforementioned hiatus ... prolapsed disc) and we chatted about footy funnily enough.
You may have mentioned previously but he mentioned "individual registration" is killing country clubs. May not be doing you guys much good either?
Basically, where previously clubs paid rego and then it was up to them to get the dollars back from the players it's now down to individuals to register. You can pay $35 (or so) per game but not economically viable if you pay more than 3 or 4 games.
Tough on country clubs when you have so many casual players.
Idea is that ARU takes a cut. Is bullshit really. Money should be flowing the other way. To the clubs not from them
That literally sounds like a complete shite idea.
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@booboo in our competition (NSW Suburban Rugby i.e. Sydney Park footy) it is still the case where you pay rego for each Grade you enter. It breaks down like this:
- $1950 for insurance
- $550 for registration of Grade ($500 for Colts)
- $775 for the ARU Participation fee ($1000 from 2018)
We try to get all the rego up front to cover gear costs etc and help pay these fees. That doesn't include the club registration fee of $660 per year. And I'm in a 3-Grade division.
Paying $35 per game is fucking ludicrous, quite frankly. I've asked my guys facing hardship to chip in $20 per game until they can find the grand total of $220 (that doesn't include those guys I've been forced to let back in for free to help save the club). Highest rego I've seen is $390 for a First Division club.
But your mate is right: those individual rego fees are a royal pain in the arse. They try to sell it as allowing players to pay online, and therefore take the responsibility of cash handling etc out of the club's hands. But the problem is it means the ARU are getting WAY over the odds for people who, as you say, are casual players.
For break-even entry including playing kit, its about 28 players per grade fully paid up. Currently sitting on the equivalent of 24 across two grades. That is: 17 fully paid up, and another 30 with something down.
My new plan is to hit the local South African supermarket with flyers containing Afrikaans phrases. Find some big fuckoff voortrekkers to bolster the ranks so I can tell the non-paying among us to fuck off. There are a fair few Saffers in the area and that is an untapped resource IMHO.
