Aussie Community Rugby
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an interesting development, we have had a HUGE influx of new players, mainly irish expats but several from all over.
Having +70 on a tuesday night in late jan for preseason training is way more than normal. most importantly in some key positions (front row, 9 and 10)
Lots of our old players haven't even come back yet, even talk about fielding a 4th team which im not sure we've done before
not going to help the Rebels but a good sign for the club scene here
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@Kiwiwomble Sydney Irish had a big influx here. Borders now open full time with no likelihood of closing so travel is back.
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Sydney Suburban update:
A few bigger clubs boasting about training numbers (75, 90 etc) while others are being a bit cagey with their social media videos about training nights.
We had mid 20s for the first two weeks then everyone had Valentine's Day đ so that dropped to 12. Expecting it to pick up this week and I've been cold-calling Colts U20 players from the nearest Premier Club to see if they want a game with us đ
Subbies has kicked off a campaign for Colts U21 and Women's via concerted social media campaign. A fairly simple "find your local club" link. Hopefully it works.
Our usual opponent for the annual preseason charity day has opted out this year âšī¸. Not surprising as last year they turned up with about 7 guys, had to borrow from the other club playing our second grade, and got absolutely mullered. They weren't much better the year before.
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@NTA thats shit, im sorry mate, thats the kind of thing that give you faith in the clubs future
we had our first colts team in a long time....but we barely had numbers, think we had to play 12/13 a side a couple of times and there were only 5 teams in Melbourne so not a huge comp
for us, we had one real top colt, good and big enough we played him in the ones a couple of times....but the rebels have taken him and hes just made the Aus U20 squad....so we miss out on the kind of player we could base a team around
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@Kiwiwomble cheers. I've been trying to get Colts running for about 3 years now and this feels like another failure.
Tried contacting Eastwood to get some kind of partnership going, as they're moving into our area once their new ground is built. They were bright and cheerful but haven't been returning calls since the initial engagement - I called their bluff and said I'd happily buy them dinner at our pub to have a chat. fluffybunnies.
I'm finding it hard to push through preseason at the moment. Hopefully the results are better this year*, but I've probably spent 200 hours this off-season trying to get things moving in a positive fashion, and I'm treading water like every other fucking year.
Why bother? "Because I love the game" isn't good enough. We (suburban) have asked NSWRU to step in with Premier Rugby and help align things better. They won't, because they're too afraid to get involved and probably won't be effective anyway. The game doesn't want help. It is fucking Groundhog Day.
*the one benefit of staying in 4th Division is the top 2 clubs have been promoted out so the competition might be a bit more even.
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@NTA i cant hit the upvote on that!
several questions...starting with why message you? can you help of is he just that dedicated to the club he wanted to let you know he wont make training?
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@Kiwiwomble unfortunately I'm seen as the fixer, being Club Secretary.
Trying to get him to send documents (photos), then compiling into a document for our friendly lawyer (coach is also a lawyer) while trying to fucking work and then go to the DIvisional meeting last night across town.
TBH I was seriously thinking about packing it all in on the drive home, and I'm not much different today. So tired.
I have two problems that I need to solve almost in parallel:
- I am a fucking neurotic dickhead for solving problems
- I don't know when to stop and protect myself as a result
Oh and the appeal had to be lodged by midnight....
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im always borderline about throwing it in when just doing actual club stuff like packing up the training ground (driving back at sunset this morning to try and find one of the new guys phone, no luck)...let alone that kind of stuff....but when those beautiful bastards win a game and sing the song i'll be back in
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@Kiwiwomble I also realise I'm like this every March ... then a bunch of players come out of the woodwork and things move ahead.
The rest of the Committee are all busy people. Senior positions in government, or someone who is the only position at their small company. I work from home most days and am good enough to make what I do look hard and time-consuming while being easy and rapid. But that is also a trap...
I'm also sick of being told to "build culture" by the traditional clubs, when they don't understand Western Sydney; a lot of these guys work 6 days a week or more, and just want to play footy. They don't want to help pack up or set up. They don't want to spend 2 hours a year helping run the raffle at the club. They just want to play footy. Full stop.
We tried having events to attract people. Only the Committee showed up with a couple of die hards. The presentation night tickets were $40, and we realised the team manager - who has his own financial and medical issues - was paying for tickets for 4 players and a partner - these are guys who earn good coin as labourers, and must think that their $150 rego is enough to cover bloody everything.
Fuck it. I'm going in circles and just venting for the sake of it.
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@NTA i hear ya
i think ive talked about this before but our club rooms is more than a km from our ground, we use a few of the Melbourne F1 pit lane garages as changing room....so at the start of the season im explaining to people all that stuff and that we'll be training somewhere else for 3 months until the F1 is all packed up and we can go home...and even then most people (including myself i admit) hardly ever make the trip back to the dungeon after a game for a beer....and then i go to other clubs and see the old mates in the club ties on the balcony or propping up the bar and think...thats what we need
its tough
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big weekend coming
for some unknown reason we have decided to do out annual camp (cant get accomodation so its a day trip) to play a rural vic club (albury steamers) on the same day as the pre seasons 10's tournament
a good sign of where we're at is not only can we send 30 to albury...but we're putting in two mens teams and one womens into the 10's tournament
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We're similar, with our first trial Saturday against a local club in the division above us. Missing a few guys because of cricket (!!) so interesting to see what happens. Just a trial - no injuries is my goal.
Don't have trial games for 23rd or Charity Day on 6th April. This is a fucking shame as going into the season without a month of contact work is rubbish.
Frees up my weekends tho
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@NTA your still doing contact in training though? not the same i know
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@Kiwiwomble yeah but it isn't full noise. Training accidents or internal trials are the fucking worst
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@NTA tell me about it, remember a trial game is where i ruptured three ligaments in my knee and ended the great comeback ....an epic 15 mins though, one of the coaches still mentions i should have got a penalty before the dude cleared me out
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First trial for us yesterday (and only trial, at this stage).
New tackle height ELV in place - LOT of penalties early but as the day wore on the players were adjusting.
The team that held the ball scored the most, because every few phases there would be a penalty for high tackle. A lot of tap n go. Some kicking for lineout.
There was a lot of muttering about the game being ruined but there's some brain rewiring that needs to happen in the players - fighting their instinct to go high and effect hot contact or choke tackles - and the people on the sideline who will end up with a product that will probably have some growing pains but ultimately be better.
First few weeks of competition will be interesting.
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....our women won the 10's comp...two means teams didnt win a game....the majority of our first grade were in albury...but a bit of awake up call
