Aussie Community Rugby
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I love being a club AR, particularly when circumstances promote an air of bias.
As I'm a qualified ref, I wear my ref's kit to try and stifle any claims of "just being a touchie". Occasionally one of the refs will notice me if I call a knock on or forward pass in addition to the foul play stuff. Mostly they don't pay attention unless it's foul play,
I don't always get it right, but I'm doing my best.
The opposition yesterday knocked on a couple of times. I called it as the ref was unsighted. It was early in the game and the opposition (some of whom I know from their previous stints at our club) had a chuckle. During this entire period, either our guys didn't knock it on or the ref picked it up as he was closer.
Later in the game we're pounding their line and our centre passes out the back of his hand to the winger right in front of me to score. Momentum carried it forward - he was running at full pace - but it was backwards out of the hands. I made no signal as the ref was in line with it and had a clear view. He awarded it and asked if I was happy. I said "yep" as I jogged past.
A couple of opposition players blow up and one guy in particular was borderline accusing me of cheating. I stared at him, waiting for him to say anything else, and he muttered away. The same guy who made a show of getting back 10 late at every penalty or lineout.
Game was a 17-all draw. We fucked their scrum and the ref eventually realised they were walking around the side. Then changed his mind.
But it just shits me that you're trying to help and some dumb fuck wants to put himself in red card position because he thinks he knows better.
It didn't help that our guys were getting stuck into their AR as well, who is a clubbie just doing his best.
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Hey @Kiwiwomble are these jerseys from the Melbourne comp?
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definitely not the Dewer Shield, dont recognised them from the other comps either but not an expert, whats up?
edit: some on line sleuthing, that might be Masterton Marist v Featherston back in NZ
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@Kiwiwomble new guy registered for the club. Moved from Melbourne recently.
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@Kiwiwomble said in Aussie Community Rugby:
definitely not the Dewer Shield, dont recognised them from the other comps either but not an expert, whats up?
edit: some on line sleuthing, that might be Masterton Marist v Featherston back in NZ
Maybe not, last time I saw Featherston play they wore black shorts.
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perfect day on sat
our "ladies Day" so had a marquee set up, sold tickets as a big fund raiser. first time we had all 4 mens teams and our ladies team playing not only at the same place...but at home and all playing the same opposition....the joint top of the table rich club from Toorak
clean sweep, 5 from 5, all the old mates were coming out saying no one can remember ever clean sweeping unicorns
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Been a trying season for our division with many sides dropping their 2nd grade here and there.
We've been short of numbers on a few occasions but never a forfeit. When opponents keep doing it to our home games it starts to fucking suck. Second grade this year:
R1 @ home we played with 12 and nearly won
R2 away we played with not many more than that and lost in sideways rain
R3 away we registered a crushing win over the likely wooden spooners
R4 at home we got run over but barely had any subs
R5 at home the opposition forfeited
R6 away (local) was a decent game - lost by a point and only had a couple of subs
R7 at home the opposition forfeited
R8 away (vs R1 opponent) we had 14 and got smashedR9 at home this Saturday we're having our major charity day, and the opposition just called me and said they had 22 confirmed. "Could we play 10s for second grade?"
Well, officially you need 11 for a match. But it's an event day so I'm unlikely to enforce that now, am I? They'd forfeit tomorrow and I'll lose a game and potentially income for us and the charity.
FFS
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@NTA damn thats rough, as you say very hard to keep momentum or the club community going if yours not actually playing games
we've been very lucky re number this year for a chance but we've definitely seen others struggling, we learnt our oppositions for tomorrow (Melbourne Uni) forfeited their 3rd grade last week and only had a couple of subs for second grade
We have a rule in melbourne where your only allowed 3 fresh subs on the bench, the other 5 have to have played in a lower grade game to try and even things between teams, im actually surprised we've kept as many players as we have, thought more would have gone to other clubs knowing they'd probably get a start in 2nd grade
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@Kiwiwomble said in Aussie Community Rugby:
thought more would have gone to other clubs knowing they'd probably get a start in 2nd grade
Depends on the individual. Maybe those guys are staying because they like Thirds - training and games are easier.
A club here in Sydney asked to be promoted to 2nd Division, after a fairly good 2023 with 2 Grades + Colts. The Board accepted as we needed to fill a hole. The club assured us they'd be able to add Third Grade to fill the requirements.
Fast forward to a month ago, and they dropped out of Third Grade officially. Someone I know there said a lot of blokes wanted to stay in Third division and stomp weaker clubs.
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@NTA said in Aussie Community Rugby:
a lot of blokes wanted to stay in Third division and stomp weaker clubs.
Which is funny because the two best clubs from 4th Division were promoted and are top 2 spots on the table in First Grade. I don't think the club I'm talking about would be happy with that
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@NTA youre right, a lot of them have to think when i ask if they'll play up a grade, a few weeks ago we had injury in front row during warm up, got someone from 3rd grade to back up....but he got a head knock in pretty much the final play of the game, he said he was fine but physio said no (justifiably by the size of the egg on his forehead), ran back to the sheds and asked around, a guy who had only been with us a few weeks got out of the shower, threw his muddy gear back on ran out to sit on the bench....thats what i want to see....i still owe him a beer
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@NTA said in Aussie Community Rugby:
@Kiwiwomble said in Aussie Community Rugby:
thought more would have gone to other clubs knowing they'd probably get a start in 2nd grade
Depends on the individual. Maybe those guys are staying because they like Thirds - training and games are easier.
A club here in Sydney asked to be promoted to 2nd Division, after a fairly good 2023 with 2 Grades + Colts. The Board accepted as we needed to fill a hole. The club assured us they'd be able to add Third Grade to fill the requirements.
Fast forward to a month ago, and they dropped out of Third Grade officially. Someone I know there said a lot of blokes wanted to stay in Third division and stomp weaker clubs.
Watching the John I Dent competition and it's amazing how young first grade is. Heaps of guys who are colt eligible are in the first two grades, meanwhile instead of being competitive and slowly going back through grades as they age, guys who were in first grade last year are dropping back to fourth so they no longer have to train as much etc.
The strength of the competition across the grades is seriously out of whack IMO.
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@antipodean yeah, two of our front row are technically colts (we couldn't field a colts team so they have been playing seniors) and the 3rd is only 23...and they are dominating more experienced front row....so good to watch
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@antipodean Hornsby are dominating our Division in Subbies, and have a very young team as well (one guy over 30, most under 25).
They came back from Central Coast because they couldn't compete in the arms race between the top 3 clubs with money.
Have you seen some of the carnage in SIRU? Riverina clubs are suffering.
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