Growing Rugby in WA

[fulvio sammut]

I smell an agenda, and that's not BS.

[pieter blackie]

Dear Phantom,
At the WAJRU AGM a couple of years ago the outgoing WAJRU committee put a motion to wind up the WAJRU and transfer all its responsibilities to RugbyWA. Apart from doing that without consulting RWA and getting their agreement to taking on the Juniors, this would have left Junior Rugby in turmoil.
The official you refer to was speaking against the wind up motion and said that Junior Rugby would be better served by having its own Committee rather than relying on the RWA Board who did not have the same capacity to focus on matters of serious importance to the parents and clubs of Junior players.
To portray that as RWA not wanting to have anything to with Junior Rugby is simply silly and a distortion of the facts.
Furthermore in the lead up to that AGM RWA had been approached by concerned people who were demanding to know why RWA was trying to put the Juniors out of business and take their money. It needed to be made clear that nothing could be further from the truth!! RWA was committed to a strong and viable WAJRU going forward. Thankfully the motion was defeated and WAJRU was able to elect an excellent President and Committee who are doing a fantastic job.
WAJRU pays RWA for the running of the competition, but RWA provides a number of services such as development, junior elite coaching support, financial and accounting services etc... free of charge to the Juniors. WAJRU pays RWA $150K the costs of services provided by RWA is in excess of $300K.

Political BS
I am on the WAJRU( Western Australian Junior Rugby Union) executive committee since the end of 2010 I was at the AGM mentioned and Phantom is pretty much on the money. It was minuted in the meeting that this mentioned board member( with a stinking attitude) said that it was not RUGBYWA's core business to look after Junior rugby and that there would be no resources available for utilisation by the Junior Competition. (And by the way this board member's attitude still stinks in 2012)
Currently the WAJRU has a service agreement that was signed only after junior registration day in 2012 because RUGBYWA could not come to an amount on time. Considering that the fee in 2010 was only $73000 - the agreed amount for 2012 in the end was $150000, this was $30000 more than what the WAJRU budgeted on for 2012. And maybe while we are busy with money we might as well add the extra out of nowhere $30000 for State side touring kit that RUGBYWA used to fund in the past but that has now become the responsibility of the WAJRU. The WAJRU also had to pay $50000 for 10 sets of new goal posts at Britannia due to the old scaffolding type goalpost falling apart and causing a possible safety hazards
These figures are no state secret as anybody can request copies of these meeting minutes

It might cost $300 000 to run the junior rugby but keep in mind that there are funding from the ARU, the department of sport and recreation and from sponsors which the WAJRU has no input to or does not see.

I have said to much already I am not going to go into more details except to say that currently all the boxes are not being ticked when it comes to the services delivered to the WAJRU.
Keep in mind that the WAJRU are the governing body for Junior Rugby in Western Australia and has a obligation to all junior rugby members and parents to get them the best possible service for the money they pay!!!

The WAJRU will be more than happy to discuss this in more detail but you will have to drop the alias and attend a meeting but I doubt I will see you there

[Ecky]

Even at U20s, the retention rate is poor as there are limited opportunities for the lads to crack the current first grade teams.

Is that the reason for poor retention rate?

Is there not a similar poor retention rate in pretty much any sport from, say U/17 up to the "open" comp?

Does finishing school, finding jobs, beer, girls, freedom etc not have a significant bearing on whether a young chap's attentions stray from playing sport on a weekend?

[GIGS20]

Is that the reason for poor retention rate?

Is there not a similar poor retention rate in pretty much any sport from, say U/17 up to the "open" comp?

Does finishing school, finding jobs, beer, girls, freedom etc not have a significant bearing on whether a young chap's attentions stray from playing sport on a weekend?

Sport is difficult, beer doesn't mind if you're unfit and you can get around a helluva lot faster in an SS commodore than a pair of nikes

[Political BS]

Dear Pieter,
Thanks for your enthusiastic response.
You probably don't recall that State Junior kit was paid for by the WAJRU up until 2006 or 2007. Payment was always the responsibility of WAJRU. It certainly was paid for by WAJRU when I was a member the WAJRU Executive and when I was a Junior Club President and when I was manager of several WAJRU State teams. Payment by RWA has only taken place in recent years since the advent of the Force when RWA had funds and was able to help.
New people such as yourself who are relatively new on the WAJRU Executive would have no recollection of how State junior kit was paid for. And that is what happens with WAJRU because people tend to serve for only a few years while their kids go through the Junior system.
As to exactly what was said at the meeting, I suppose its a bit like your freedom fighter is my terrorist. If you as a current member of WAJRU want to say that someone from RWA speaking against a motion to wind up WAJRU is a bad person and write up some minutes which say that well... so be it. I was sitting about 3-5 metres from the guy who said what he said and my opinion is completely different to yours so I geuss we will just have to disagree about that. I think what he said went a long way toward the overwhelming defeat of the wind up motion.
Good on you for stepping up onto the WAJRU in 2010. Your support was really needed then when the majority of the WAJRU Committee stood down. Your hard work now is even more appreciated. It is a fantastic thing to be involved with. I hope you will stick with it and achieve great outcomes.

[phantom]

Dear Phantom,
At the WAJRU AGM a couple of years ago the outgoing WAJRU committee put a motion to wind up the WAJRU and transfer all its responsibilities to RugbyWA. Apart from doing that without consulting RWA and getting their agreement to taking on the Juniors, this would have left Junior Rugby in turmoil.
The official you refer to was speaking against the wind up motion and said that Junior Rugby would be better served by having its own Committee rather than relying on the RWA Board who did not have the same capacity to focus on matters of serious importance to the parents and clubs of Junior players.
To portray that as RWA not wanting to have anything to with Junior Rugby is simply silly and a distortion of the facts.
Furthermore in the lead up to that AGM RWA had been approached by concerned people who were demanding to know why RWA was trying to put the Juniors out of business and take their money. It needed to be made clear that nothing could be further from the truth!! RWA was committed to a strong and viable WAJRU going forward. Thankfully the motion was defeated and WAJRU was able to elect an excellent President and Committee who are doing a fantastic job.
WAJRU pays RWA for the running of the competition, but RWA provides a number of services such as development, junior elite coaching support, financial and accounting services etc... free of charge to the Juniors. WAJRU pays RWA $150K the costs of services provided by RWA is in excess of $300K.

Depends through who's eyes you are looking at this If you look through the eyes of a junior club then you would agree and say we have gone backwards in the past 12 months compared to 2011 season RugbyWA has a new Community manager and a new competition coordinator in 2012 and with them trying to achieve the very high standard that was set by their predecessors (by the way they are currently not on par)

[NTT]

So who on the WAJRU committee fucked up by not getting a permit for this years raffle tickets? forcing people to hand the money back to the people who had purchased them which means WAJRU has to find another way to pay expenses.

[fulvio sammut]

Pieter? Pieter! PIETER!!

[pieter blackie]

So who on the WAJRU committee fucked up by not getting a permit for this years raffle tickets? forcing people to hand the money back to the people who had purchased them which means WAJRU has to find another way to pay expenses.

RugbyWA not the WAJRU

[fulvio sammut]

NTT, did your refund pay off the mortgage?

[phantom]

RugbyWA not the WAJRU

to be more precise the the Community Rugby Manager at RugbyWA

[fulvio sammut]

It was all part of a money making racket. Here's how it works.

1 You print out 20000 raffle tickets without a permit.

2 You offer a huge prize (say $25000 or the presidency of NedlandsRUFC) as an inducement to buy, at $1 a ticket.

3 When you've nearly sold out, announce, through NTT, that the raffle is cancelled as some schmuck at RugbyWA forgot to get a permit, and offer to refund the ticket price. Of course, no one will bother to chase it up.

You net $19999 and you don't have to cough up the prize.

Simple.

[Ralto]

It was all part of a money making racket. Here's how it works.

1 You print out 20000 raffle tickets without a permit.

2 You offer a huge prize (say $25000 or the presidency of NedlandsRUFC) as an inducement to buy, at $1 a ticket.

3 When you've nearly sold out, announce, through NTT, that the raffle is cancelled as some schmuck at RugbyWA forgot to get a permit, and offer to refund the ticket price. Of course, no one will bother to chase it up.

You net $19999 and you don't have to cough up the prize.

Simple.

Is this a "hypothetical" explanation or ...surely not,... it couldn't be, tell me it aint so

[DinkyDi]

Is that the reason for poor retention rate?

Is there not a similar poor retention rate in pretty much any sport from, say U/17 up to the "open" comp?

Does finishing school, finding jobs, beer, girls, freedom etc not have a significant bearing on whether a young chap's attentions stray from playing sport on a weekend?

Fair call on the booze, girls and study etc, but I have seen a number of talented players first hand, that I used to coach, loose the desire to play when they are constantly overlooked for Prems. This was true of a number of State and Australian Schoolboy, U21 and U20 players who were told regularly that they might not be ready for 1sts so hang out in seconds and we will use you once the incumbents move on/get injured. This was regardless of skills and talent being of a higher standard than the entrenched players.

I am not saying it is the main reason for losses of players but one of them and with an expanded comp, we may keep some of these as opposed to them walking away. Anything we can do to maintain the player pool is a good thing.... isnt it?

[Hohepa]

There is approximately a 70% attrition rate across all codes of sport for the 17/18 year old - so the ideal would be that as many juniors as possible have the opportunity to play so that 30% may continue whether one club strikes it lucky with a whole team or there is a 'migration' of young adults to a particular club or team.