The "Next Step" for Club Rugby in WA

[the magic]

Ok mate, its just a idea!! ill do my best!

Would a country side have the cash and the numbers, hell yeah either kalgoorlie or southwest would differntly have the cash and theres a few clubs in the southwest and out kal way.
Would a merger club work - they work out in the country not sure about in the the city i picked these two side as they are close togther and both both small clubs theres no use putting say lions with paly or simalar that would achieve nothing the big club just swallows up the small one.
3rds 4ths and u18s - there people who get paided to this shit i am sure you sort something out easy enough.
YES- It would be hard to stop players leaving a relegated club. I think a rep team for players just in this comp is a start , loyalty , a little cash would go a long way and more loyalty
Hope that answers it for you

[Ecky]

A scrawny ectomorph who was built like ecky was manning the barbecue, cooking up some greasy double cheeseburgers.

Hey - settle down! Who are you -Charles Atlas?

[Burgs]

Get Kalgoorlie sponsored by Westrac and you might be getting somewhere!

[bunter]

A bit late with a reply, but as for the "bad blood" between Rocky and Mandurah, it is certainly not Rocky's intention that there should be.

Rocky has operated for over 35 years and before the move to Lark Hill in 2008, approached Mandurah twice in preceding years to get heads together with a view to collectively shaping the future of rugby in the Peel area.

Both approaches were rejected.

Mandurah are a club in their own right, and with the backing of a supportive and progressive City Council, they have operated successfully for over 10 years.
They have a strong and growing Junior club, great supporters, and with their projected move to new grounds and facilities shortly, they wish to remain as the Mandurah Pirates.

Rockingham respects that stance, and with many players between the two clubs having played alongside each other, there is always good rivalry when the two clubs meet.
Of course for any players who wish to play at a higher level than Mandurah offers, Rockingham would welcome their involvement in the club.

However any uninformed suggestion of "bad blood" between the clubs is a bit over the top.
Rockingham's goal is to be supportive of any club that offers rugby to players, both junior and senior, and the relationship between the two clubs is amicable, and no different to the situation that many of the other clubs in the WA Rugby Competition are in.

[Burgs]

Bunter, a hypothetical, if a RWA rejig occurred to have a reduced stand alone Premier division and the rest of the Clubs playing on the same level, would Rocky and Mandurah be able to cope with fielding two "1st Division" teams and a combined "Premier" team?
That is a regional Rep team if you like.
I appreciate that the Clubs are at two different levels of player groups currently.

[bunter]

Possible Burgs, but probably a way down the track.

Rockingham are still limited by a lack of depth of quality Premier players, RWA sending our better ones away, injuries to players in the academy where we believe they should be getting better care, and the general downturn of work in the area, meaning some players are off chasing work.
We have fantastic facilities, great junior players and the will to remain at the top level.

At present we seem to be struggling to put a competitive "same 15" on the paddock each week.

It is also interesting to note that quite a number of U20 sides have been withdrawn from the comp after this was going to be the best thing for rugby here in WA.

[rick boyd]

What does the club coaches, players and reporters think ( any interested sponsor OUT THERE as well)

ella10
Fulvio
Rick
gooney
pruc

to mention a few

tell us your views

Rugby unions, such as RugbyWA, are associations governed by a constitution and elected into office by the rugby clubs which they represent, which are themselves governed by committees elected by their members, both playing and non-playing. Rugby unions are not franchises, businesses or privately owned companies as are some overseas sports bodies.

The duty of RugbyWA is to promote and foster rugby union in Western Australia and while they have an obligation to professionally guide the competition, as democratic bodies they are ultimately answerable to their members clubs.

If you want to ask what is best for club rugby in WA, ask what the grass roots rugby people want. And it is human nature, I would advise, that people form tribal alliances with their clubs first and WA rugby second.

You can't tell the rugby people at ARKs or Curtin or Bunbury that they have to give up their identity and all the club allegiances and relationships they have worked so hard for over many years, and be submerged into a bigger club for the "good of rugby".

And you can't tell the people at Wests and Rockingham that because they're having a bad year they should drop down to the next tier, which makes it enormously difficult to attract and retain the quality of player needed to get back up again, slashes their profits and makes it much harder to attract sponsors. Wests were premiers four years in a row a couple of years back and no doubt they'll be up there again. And last year, you would have been dumping Paly down to third grade -- and now look at them!

To some degree, there has to be allowance for rugby people to associate with the clubs they want to and for the peak body to facilitate their enjoyment of the game of rugby. The competition was made for the people, the people weren't made for the competition. By all means offer them alternative choices, and even incentives to make those choices, but the democratic process should still have the final say.

[KalaFan]

calm yourself

[Burgs]

And so the future according to Rick is?

[Action Hardcore]

In the words of an intriguing man, "if this vans a rockin, don't come a knockin"

[Working Class]

The Ten current Premier clubs should remain as is. They should effectively form the 'districts'. The addition of a South West side out of Bunbury and a goldfields side out of kalgoorlie should be the next evolution of Perth club rugby. The creation of these new regions could be a catalyst for further growth of the game giving the regions and surrounding areas a representative to take on city sides on a regular basis.

The remaining clubs in the Perth area should form the second divison. With ambitious clubs using this format to build toward promotion. There is no reason why the current Premier comp could not grow to 12 to 14 teams in the future.

---------- Post added at 16:18 ---------- Previous post was at 16:10 ----------

Does a independent clubs Association exist? If not then one should be assembled.
Involving all Premier Clubs, Second Tier Clubs and representatives from WA Country.

The assembly would be charged with mapping the preferable future format of of the Competition. But another important roll would be developing a strategy independent of Rugby WA to grow the game both in the club scene but also in schools. Growth in new areas of perth should be a priority alongside the country.

Growth in region such as the Gascoyne and Pilbara is occuring but very slowly. Next year the Pilbara are planning to send a side to the Country championships. Such a Assembly could provide logistically support in establishing a club competition in the North west.

[lara93]

chill

[rick boyd]

And so the future according to Rick is?

Whatever the rugby clubs want it to be, after considering what RugbyWA advises.

It may interest you to know that the Palmyra club did everything in their power to stop the Southern Lions (then Leeming) club from being recognised by Rugby WA as a senior club, because they felt it would damage their player base in the southern suburbs.

RugbyWA could have said to the Lions, sorry no, any of you wanting to play senior rugby can play for Palmyra or not at all. You can guarantee that none of them wanted to play for Palmyra, so where does that leave fostering the code of rugby union?

If a group of people want to play rugby together, they should be encouraged to do so.

My personal view on the WA comp is that as long as the ten senior clubs can field even slightly competitive teams and have junior clubs feeding their development, they should not be forced out of the senior competition. If a club gets thrashed by cricket scores for a couple of seasons, struggles to field a third grade and has no juniors then they might be encouraged to the next tier until they rebuild.

If a second tier club consistently wins, has a couple of fourth grade sides that might be able to make the jump to second and third grade, has a thriving juniors club and, most importantly, an active and competent administrative infrastructure, and are eager to go up, RugbyWA should help them to do so, even if it means a larger and possibly unbalanced senior competition.

But that is a massive jump and has to be carefully managed.

[auzzie mack]

"the step in club rugby" seems to be a mighty big one from what i ve read so far.
Although getting the south west and the goldfields involed in the perth comp is a very popular option and in my opinon the south west would love and support a full time rugby club in the region as would the goldfields the only thing that would stop them is the distance.

Cutting the premier comp to 8 would create a higher quailty rubgy comp but cutting 2 premier clubs to 2nd tier rugby and retaining there players is the achillies heel of this idea.

Merger clubs here in perth will be tough but not out of the question if the two clubs 'get along' i was a part of a merger club many years ago in country NSW it is true clubs that merge do have to be about the same size or they wont work what we did was use on set of club rooms for seniors and the other for jnrs which worked well but the clubs have got to both want it.
But that was Country NSW and this Perth!!

[Working Class]

How I see it the current clubs in the Premier Comp would use a clubs association in a attempt to develop WA and Perth on independent junior's feeding upward into the senior grade sides. The structure as is won't allow for District team of the likes of Sydney. But work should be done to seed more junior clubs be it clubs or schools playing regular Suburban Rugby. So in the future there could be a similar districts structure to the WAFL but with the inclusion of the South West ( incorporating the Great Southern) and the Goldfields ( along with Esperance).

The trick to the future success to WA rugby to to grow the game both within Perth and its surrounding areas but the country aswell.