NO RAIN WANTED ON PERTH'S 100 YEAR PARADE

[rick boyd]

You seem to be under the impression that I'm some sort of investigative reporter. In the couple of hours a week that I'm paid to cover community rugby, I just repeat what the coaches tell me. Coaches of struggling teams usually point out their shortcomings -- lack of experience, number of injuries, lack of profile imports. Coaches of winning teams don't feel motivated to mention those factors even if they happen to be true. FYI a quick browse of the teams' stats reveals that Soaks have 3 first grade regulars 20 or under, Cott 2, Kalamunda 4, Nedlands 0, Paly 1, Perth 4, Rockingham 4, Uni have 2 according to the info I have -- I don't know where yours comes from -- Wanneroo 2 and Wests 1.

[Reds81]

Rick, I am certainly not knocking the work you do in covering community Rugby. More coverage is needed and the restriction of our clubs to pre and post on the web- no newspaper is a disgrace.

However, I presumed this site encourages robust debate. All I am saying is that many visitors to this site have also commented on on the continual reference to the 'young' Wests or 'home grown' Perth. Other clubs have done that for years. Nedlands and Soaks as a prime example.

In 2008, grand finalists Kala & Wanneroo did not field colts- Bizzare! Only in WA.

In addition, the club scene here has been done a disservice by RugbyWA by allowing/encouraging Force players, including homegrown to go East. I have asked before what representation do the clubs have in Rugby WA?

[rick boyd]

Rick, I am certainly not knocking the work you do in covering community Rugby. More coverage is needed and the restriction of our clubs to pre and post on the web- no newspaper is a disgrace.

However, I presumed his site encourages robust debate. All I am saying is that many visitors to this site have also commented on on the continual reference to the 'young' Wests or 'home grown' Perth. Other clubs have done that for years. Nedlands and Soaks as a prime example.

In 2008, grand finalists Kala & Wanneroo did not field colts- Bizzare! Only in WA.

In addition, the club scene here has been done a disservice by RugbyWA by allowing/encouraging Force players, including homegrown to go East. I have asked before what representation do the clubs have in Rugby WA?

OK, thanks for that. I have no objection to robust debate, on the contrary, I encourage it. In my opinion the past model of one-way information in the media will increasingly be outmoded as consumers expect more social networking from the media and claim the right to question journalists through blogs and wikis. And I don't mind that at all.

I am in complete agreement with you on the state of newspaper coverage. However both the West and the Sunday Times have made it clear they are interested only in professional sport. (Even that is a disgrace -- it is beyond me how they can justify 13 pages of Aussie Rules and one of rugby in a city of a million and half people with teams from three top line professional football codes. Perth is still an overgrown country town run by parochial hayseeds).

As for Force players going East, it is a tough debate with two sides to the coin. On the one hand, Force players are paid by a WA Super 14 franchise and are nominally members of local clubs. It would be nice to see them appearing in local colours, raising the standards and profile of the game here. On the other hand, those clubs who miss out complain about the competition being skewed by other clubs fielding professionals in an amateur competition, clubs back east who put all the time, money and effort into producing these players feel they have a right to some return on their investment rather than see them languish in the lower standard Perth competition, and it is not necessarily in the best interests of the Force to have their professional players exposed to the low local standard rather than being honed by the better standard back East.

Finally, all the honourable gentlemen on the RugbyWA board have local club backgrounds, and the board is technically answerable to the RugbyWA Council of delegates from all clubs (although only technically -- as I have said before, the constitution requires a two-thirds majority to overturn a board decision, and the board members themselves can vote at the council. It's almost impossible that this would happen). The RugbyWA board have to balance the best interests of local rugby with maintaining a professional rugby team in this state and they have my sympathy.

[The Oracle]

Totally agree with Reds81.

I thought Rick had stopped branding clubs with particular tags like "young". Rick, the young guys at Wests are the ex PB academy players that Wests poached. The rest of Wests squad are imports and regular club players. The kiwi, South African and Scots accents at Wests are not there just to give the club an international flavour.

We do however need to not be too critical of Rick. In my view he provides a terriffic and impartial account of local rugby. We can't expect him to know all of the ins and outs of club politics and player issues.

Uni is clearly the "young" team in Premier Grade.

[Darkness]

Why do we want lots of U20's playing in Premier Grade?

Surely we want our U20's to play U20's (except for the most developed / gifted players) and our Premier Grade to be predominantly comprised of say 21- 30 year old guys that have come thru the juniors.

I have no problem seeing seasoned, quality players playing Premier Grade whether they be local or imported.

Lets be realistic, without imports our WA competition would be half the competition that it is.

There's a lot of talk about Wanneroo, Palmyra, Kalamunda importing players but much of this is unfounded. Yes all clubs import players - they have to, to be competitive as do clubs in every rugby playing area in the world. The number of player movements between NZ provinces and between Sydney clubs each year is massive and make our competition look a bit traditional.

Whenever any local club has had success at Premier Grade and Reserve Grade level in recent years in Perth they have contained many imports and depth (eg Perth-Bayswater, Neddies and Wests). Even Hansie would not deny this. Half of Auckland plays for PB! You can't tell me that it is coincidental that these guys just decided to leave Ponsonby and head for Morley.

I am a Neddies supporter and I acknowledge that Neddies has imported lots of players over the years. The trick is to get a good blend and not to hamper the career paths of genuine potential Premier Grade youngsters. Most U20 players are miles away from playing Premier Grade and most never will.

Too many clubs bleat about imports and attempt to take the moral high ground when they are not doing so well.

About 4 years ago Rugby WA (in their wisdom) changed the U17/U19 competition structure to U18/U20 some 8 weeks before the first round and in doing so, fired a missile through some clubs (eg Rocky, Wanneroo and Pally) colts grades. These clubs have struggled to recover so it is unreasonable to expect that these clubs should not buy some players in to prop things up. Those three clubs had then to fall back on their U16 grades and wait till they achieved U20 level. Badly managed by RWA. Rocky sadly has not been able to recover and fields no U18 or U20 teams. Ash Sewell would I am sure validate these comments.

[pruc]

About 4 years ago Rugby WA (in their wisdom) changed the U17/U19 competition structure to U18/U20 some 8 weeks before the first round and in doing so, fired a missile through some clubs (eg Rocky, Wanneroo and Pally) colts grades. These clubs have struggled to recover so it is unreasonable to expect that these clubs should not buy some players in to prop things up. Those three clubs had then to fall back on their U16 grades and wait till they achieved U20 level. Badly managed by RWA. Rocky sadly has not been able to recover and fields no U18 or U20 teams. Ash Sewell would I am sure validate these comments.

very true. this year is the first year pally has fielded a 20s team and most of the players are still only 18/19

[Hansie]

I gotta meet this Darkness fella.....

Playing 1st grade is an honour and privelage. If you're good enough at 18 then you get to enjoy that privelage. However, it serves no purpose throwing young guys to "toughen them up" or to get experience or satisfy their egos, chances are they may get injured, or get thumped week in week out. Neddies have a bunch of guys in under 20 that have played Premier Grade this year. In the front row, we have been very careful who goes there and for how long, in back row - it's similar.

Neddies U 20 halfback has thrown up the Challenge and Neddies incumbent half back has had to work hard to regain his position, on the wings Neddies regularly have had U20 flyers have a go.

Imports are vital in key positions to provide leadership and groom some youngsters.