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http://www.rugbywa.com.au/article/ne...cture-launched
"The competition has increased its age range, expanding to include players aged 18-20 which allows players another year to develop in the Colts before moving on to the senior grades."
"This increased age range has seen the competition grow to field 13 teams this season with each Premier Grade club entering a side and a team each from Rockingham, Mandurah and Southern Lions."
Not sure what entering "a side and a team each means", or do they mean an under 20s team from these three clubs
Anyone help me - is this different from last year?
Refresh my memory, was the comp something like this before?
2015 Under 20s(sen) 17s (jun)
2014 Under 19s(sen) 17 (jun)
2013 Under 18s and 20s (sen), 17(jun)
I thought up till a few weeks ago we were blowing hard that there would be an 18s and 20s this year.
10 premier grade teams and 3 additional teams (Rockingham, Mandurah and Southern Lions). 13 teams all up.
I read it as:
each Premier Grade club entering a side
as well as a team each from Rockingham, Mandurah and Southern Lions
Comes from the journalist not wanting to use the same word twice in a sentence, I presume. That's what I got taught at school, although I rebelled against it, thinking that you could have done it if you had had a good reason.
Read it as: "This increased age range has seen the competition grow to field 13 teams this season with each of the 10 Premier Grade club entering a side and a side each from Rockingham, Mandurah and Southern Lions."
Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon
Wonder when ARKS will have the numbers for a Colts team ? It's been quite a while?
I did get a reply to this message, I don't do private messages, so I'm happy to share:
[QUOTE
Under 20's
Since 2013 we have had to contend with changing demographics ( Juniors growth in Southern and Northern Corridors been huge), also 2 years of half cohort leaving school. When govt changed school entry age 12 - 13 years ago we ended up with school leavers going from u18, to a mix of u18 and u19 and now we should be all u18 in final year of school.
The u18 idea floated earlier this year was just to test the numbers and enthusiasm of clubs to field an u18 in 2016. results showed only 3 clubs had the numbers. I daresay that down the track we will move to an u18 comp at some stage.
We have to create a pathway for colts in championship clubs to progress up to premiergrade and we will be working closely with the 3 clubs fielding Colts this year outside Premier club to grow the comp, retain and develop for the future.
hope this answers your questions and cheers for your constructive question and interest.
Hans
[QUOTE
My main interest around this topic, is after record registrations a few years ago, (no idea) what grade, it was just record registrations - we seem to still have problems deciding which grades we'll have. Changing the construction/designation of the teams doesn't change the fact there is a retention problem in the 17-20s age group. I would welcome Rugby WA ensuring each club has some form of retention plan in place. The local administration does not seem to have the soft skills for this - 20's manager (Tues 29th), I spoke to said words to the effect "F*%@# them, either they want to play or not, were not chasing them". Looking forward to round 2 (I'm away round 1),