Aussie Community Rugby
-
-
@NTA local gaelic football club is borrowing one of our two fields to train on....i was very surprised to see a good 100 women down there training last week....was wondering how we might be able to entice some of them over...how is your irish population?
-
@Kiwiwomble not great out here in the West of Sydney - they usually stick to the Eastern Suburbs.
There's meant to be a shitload of Saffers in the area but not sure where the fuck they are.
-
@NTA said in Aussie Rugby:
@NTA said in Aussie Rugby:
Looks like our women's program will fold, unfortunately.
Confirmed. Bummer.
And now we're probably back to one grade after one guy got the shits and went back to the club he left for us originally, taking players with him.
I'm ready to pack it all in and go referee every second Saturday. Would be less effort TBH and I'd get my weekends back.
-
@NTA said in Aussie Rugby:
@NTA said in Aussie Rugby:
@NTA said in Aussie Rugby:
Looks like our women's program will fold, unfortunately.
Confirmed. Bummer.
And now we're probably back to one grade after one guy got the shits and went back to the club he left for us originally, taking players with him.
I'm ready to pack it all in and go referee every second Saturday. Would be less effort TBH and I'd get my weekends back.
Mate I feel for you, I know when despite all your work etc, a personality or 2 can cause loss of players etc. You get to the point of thinking hell if they can all do it so much better maybe it's time to let them. Whatever your decision, whether sticking with what you do or otherwise, only thing I'd say, you have to make decision so that the game doesn't become too much of a burden and that the game loses it's appeal. One of reasons I gave it away after about 25-30 years of rugby admin etc, (and 20 odd playing as kid and man) just said maybe all the 'experts' that have got advice etc should do the mahi (work) and I will just enjoy the game. And I do!!!
-
@NTA said in Aussie Rugby:
@NTA said in Aussie Rugby:
@NTA said in Aussie Rugby:
Looks like our women's program will fold, unfortunately.
Confirmed. Bummer.
And now we're probably back to one grade after one guy got the shits and went back to the club he left for us originally, taking players with him.
I'm ready to pack it all in and go referee every second Saturday. Would be less effort TBH and I'd get my weekends back.
I feel your pain. Our club is in the middle of a (long) struggle for identity and it's harming recruitment and retention.
I've already made my mind up to step away after this year.
-
@antipodean said in Aussie Rugby:
I feel your pain. Our club is in the middle of a (long) struggle for identity and it's harming recruitment and retention.
I've already made my mind up to step away after this year.
I think a few of us are at that point. And if we go, it collapses. We've been pushing shit uphill for nearly 7 years to get the club stable, and nothing is working, and nobody wants to take over.
All the advice from the guy who came to see us from RA is great in theory, but one of his opening statements was "when I took over at <eastern suburbs club> they were struggling with only 3 Grades and Colts".
Everyone in our Divisional meeting - clubs with a struggling 2 Grades - chuckled with a mix of amusement and derision.
-
@NTA said in Aussie Rugby:
@antipodean said in Aussie Rugby:
I feel your pain. Our club is in the middle of a (long) struggle for identity and it's harming recruitment and retention.
I've already made my mind up to step away after this year.
I think a few of us are at that point. And if we go, it collapses. We've been pushing shit uphill for nearly 7 years to get the club stable, and nothing is working, and nobody wants to take over.
All the advice from the guy who came to see us from RA is great in theory, but one of his opening statements was "when I took over at <eastern suburbs club> they were struggling with only 3 Grades and Colts".
Everyone in our Divisional meeting - clubs with a struggling 2 Grades - chuckled with a mix of amusement and derision.
Yeah, they're remarkably ignorant to the problems clubs face outside of the established ones.
-
@antipodean said in Aussie Rugby:
Yeah, they're remarkably ignorant to the problems clubs face outside of the established ones.
Falling back onto my Data Nerd leanings, I went through the list of 2022 sign ups. The picture looks a little rosier than current training numbers suggest.
Probably 25 will come back from last year and be relatively full time (couple of RAAFies and a FIFO worker). There are another 6 part-timers like me who will fill gaps. I've got 15 on my "chase" list and we had 4 keen new starters and a dozen other contacts.
If I convert all those, and grab a couple of former players into the bargain, the part-timers like me can just sit back and actually run the club without waking up broken Sunday morning. We'd still have a competitive First Grade and a pool of old farts to have fun in 2s.
Still filthy that guy went back to his old club after getting the shits with them
but have to balance that with my Board Member hat that says "at least another Western Sydney club isn't dead yet" -
I'm hearing grim things about the Rugby scene here in Sydney, particularly the amateur ranks.
A club just up the road from us, Hawkesbury Ag College, with a history stretching back to 1891, folded after a rapid decline in the last few years. Covid hit them hard as they are part of Western Sydney Uni and recruit their Colts from the student population. However there were other factors, mostly a lack of volunteers - common story.
I've sent over 30 messages today to try and get their players to our club. Part of it is selfish to build our numbers. Part is it is to stop the bleeding for the whole code.
-
Further to this: First Division clubs who could previously field 5 Grades + Colts U21 are struggling to fill their Colts quota because nobody wants to get injured before their planned European vacations.
I was contacted by someone at a Premier club about the difficulties they have getting and keeping Colts U20 from across NSW. One phone call from a big club like Randwick or Sydney Uni and all the work he put in evaporated. He reckons he's spent 200 hours on 600 phone calls just to get a squad of 40 together when he should have 60 or more.
Meanwhile the bigger clubs in Premier Land are talking about putting on a 4th Colts U20 side because they're warehousing U20 players to the shitter. That's in addition to the 4-5 Grades they've got with spares.
Why these kids pay $400-500 to sit on the fourth grade bench is beyond me. Really beyond me.
-
@NTA said in Aussie Rugby:
I'm hearing grim things about the Rugby scene here in Sydney, particularly the amateur ranks.
A club just up the road from us, Hawkesbury Ag College, with a history stretching back to 1891, folded after a rapid decline in the last few years.
That's disappointing. I played against HAC in our traditional fixture which is the oldest college rivalry in Australian Rugby, dating back a century.
-
@antipodean said in Aussie Rugby:
@NTA said in Aussie Rugby:
I'm hearing grim things about the Rugby scene here in Sydney, particularly the amateur ranks.
A club just up the road from us, Hawkesbury Ag College, with a history stretching back to 1891, folded after a rapid decline in the last few years.
That's disappointing. I played against HAC in our traditional fixture which is the oldest college rivalry in Australian Rugby, dating back a century.
They were basically down to the bones of their arse in terms of volunteers before Covid hit. Then a couple of coaches strip-mined some clubs in the area to win a couple of titles a few years back and the culture bombed.
-
Two interesting phone calls today:
-
Premier club who needed a ground to run their Colts trial in a week. Advised they'd need to get it cleared with the Eels, but Internal NTA was telling them to fuck off. When the conversation turned to the fact they were having trouble selecting 3 teams from the 80 Colts they had at training every week, Internal NTA had to be sedated.
-
Competition organiser for our Union. Things were difficult in the COVID years, and our attempts as a Board to realign the Divisions into something stable for the future might just die on the hill of player apathy and volunteer burnout. It's grim.
-
-
-
-
@NTA said in Aussie Rugby:
@voodoo said in Aussie Rugby:
@NTA boo. Kudos for all the effort you put in mate
Cheers. It doesn't seem to be getting any easier...
In the "win" column this week: I found a Team Manager. Knows nothing about rugby but just wants to get involved.
i dont remember you signing me up
@NTA said in Aussie Rugby:
I'm hearing grim things about the Rugby scene here in Sydney, particularly the amateur ranks.
A club just up the road from us, Hawkesbury Ag College, with a history stretching back to 1891, folded after a rapid decline in the last few years. Covid hit them hard as they are part of Western Sydney Uni and recruit their Colts from the student population. However there were other factors, mostly a lack of volunteers - common story.
I've sent over 30 messages today to try and get their players to our club. Part of it is selfish to build our numbers. Part is it is to stop the bleeding for the whole code.
thats really shit, honestly wold have thought there might be some more support from RA with RWC money on the horizon, they need to keep interest up
side point, committee for our club told me last nigt they were getting managers and coaches jackets with our initials etc as a present.....the same one we all ordered a month back for ourselves....looks like im not paying for beer or sausage sizzle this season!
-
Some days - particularly the last month, I wonder why the fuck I'm working my arse off, running a rugby club. Recent incidents have made me (and other committee members) question our life choices.
But then, there are also days like yesterday against Sydney Irish.
They're a pretty strong group, back to 2 grades this year now that borders are open again. They humped us in reserve grade 31-7 as they were fitter than us and our lineout had no jumpers - another week where guys didn't show so we had to reshuffle trying before kick off. I started on the wing! Also our discipline was poor at critical points. Anyway flush the toilet on that.
First grade however was a fucking epic game. Irish had all the early running and our guys - mostly new to the club this year - were playing a bit of catch up. 31-7 not long after halftime.
Long story short, we get it back to 39-38 with a kick to come on the buzzer from wide out. The video tells the story...
-
@NTA Good stuff mate, real pleased for you, isn't it funny how a great game can make you forget a lot of the struggles!!
Always pleased to read of this kind of game when work seems worthwhile for a change, because as I know there are enough times when it feels like you banging head on concrete wall. -
