Balmain Junior League - Sundays

[girvie]

I've been looking into Junior rugby league and have noticed that Balmain's Junior League games appear to be played on Sundays.

This is different to most other districts who play on Saturdays until Under-15s.

I was wondering if this is always the case with Balmain or when the switch was made and the reasons why?

Also interested to hear whether it has worked better having the games on Sundays? Are more kids playing now?

 

[Yossarian]

I've been looking into Junior rugby league and have noticed that Balmain's Junior League games appear to be played on Sundays.

This is different to most other districts who play on Saturdays until Under-15s.

I was wondering if this is always the case with Balmain or when the switch was made and the reasons why?

Also interested to hear whether it has worked better having the games on Sundays? Are more kids playing now?

We (North Sydney) used to play sunday from U/13s onward from memory. I'm guessing it's all to do with ground availability. Possibly the yawnion crowd use some of the same grounds on a Saturday?

 

[innsaneink]

My young blokes played Balmain JRL for 10 years now, its always been Sundays and worked well with him playing union which lots of his mates did too… until union started to split their comps into Sat & Sun's......maybe the union thing was part of the initial reason, dunno

In the time hes been there one new and one revived club has been added to the balmain comp....so its growing....though numbers drop rapidly from 13's on

Good luck with Lane Cove Girv.....well done!! :master:

 

[steve-o]

when i played in the north sydney comp, we started playing on sundays in under 15s, which worked well as union was on saturdays. as far as i know balmain comp has always been on sunday. i assumed it was because union was on saturdays, but i dont know for sure.

 

[Yossarian]

when i played in the north sydney comp, we started playing on sundays in under 15s, which worked well as union was on saturdays. as far as i know balmain comp has always been on sunday. i assumed it was because union was on saturdays, but i dont know for sure.

It was younger back in the 80s when I started playing in the Norths comp. I think U/12s was the last game on Saturday - we were in the 12s GF at North Sydney Oval and we were the final game.

I read something about Lane Cove making a comeback. I was also surprised to read West Pymble don't have a team anymore. In our comp we had Berowra, Asquith, Pennant Hills (as they were then), Brothers, and West Pymble. There were Hills Hawks and Crows Nest when I first started but they dropped out by the 13s.

 

[steve-o]

when i played in the north sydney comp, we started playing on sundays in under 15s, which worked well as union was on saturdays. as far as i know balmain comp has always been on sunday. i assumed it was because union was on saturdays, but i dont know for sure.

It was younger back in the 80s when I started playing in the Norths comp. I think U/12s was the last game on Saturday - we were in the 12s GF at North Sydney Oval and we were the final game.

I read something about Lane Cove making a comeback. I was also surprised to read West Pymble don't have a team anymore. In our comp we had Berowra, Asquith, Pennant Hills (as they were then), Brothers, and West Pymble. There were Hills Hawks and Crows Nest when I first started but they dropped out by the 13s.

Good to see there's another north Sydney junior on the wtf yoss! It's quite a small comp so there wouldn't be many of us. How good was it playing the grand finals on north Sydney oval! I love that place. We played there in 12s, 14s, 15s (all on Saturday, though 15s the rest of the season was on Sunday's) and then played 16s gf on the Sunday. We had penno (who I played for), Asquith, hills hawks, berowra, willoughy in the early yrs and brothers in the later yrs. Never had west Pymble or crows nest, they must've folded.

 

[Yossarian]

Yeah West Pymble played in Souths colours. They were okay in our grade. Crows Nest only were in our comp for one year and got absolutely smashed every game. Did you enjoy those trips up to Warrina Oval? Storey Park was the worst ground (IMO) in the comp. The cricket pitch area was a nightmare… Tunks Oval was probably the best regular season ground. Used to hate having to go over to play Hills Hawks. Always some ground in the middle of nowhere (at least in those days) with every chance they wouldn't be able to field a side.

Willoughby weren't even a factor in NS juniors back then. I'm guessing Crows Nest may have morphed into them.

 

[Yossarian]

Here's a nice history.

http://www.sportingpulse.com/assoc_page.cgi?c=7-1125-0-0-0&sID=13507

Northern Districts, Willoughby, Northbridge, North Sydney United were non-existent when I played. Hornsby and McMahons Point had senior teams but no juniors. Penno, Berowra, Asquith, and Brothers had teams pretty much across the board. Hills Hawks and West Pymble had teams in most grades. Crows Nest and Lane Cove had a team here or there

 

[steve-o]

i used to hate going to warrina street! theyd always get a good crowd out there n they used to heckle us once we got a bit older. and storey park was a shocker! rock hard in the middle. appreciated being an outside back whenever we played there! hah yeah hawks ground was always at dural park which is kinda in the middle of nowhere even nowadays. only played at tunks park a couple of times (including my first ever game) and yeah i agree that ground was quite good to play on. thanks for the linkm interesting read!

 

[innsaneink]

I've been looking into Junior rugby league and have noticed that Balmain's Junior League games appear to be played on Sundays.

This is different to most other districts who play on Saturdays until Under-15s.

I was wondering if this is always the case with Balmain or when the switch was made and the reasons why?

Also interested to hear whether it has worked better having the games on Sundays? Are more kids playing now?

Girvie, write to Chris Karas at http://www.weeklytimes.com.au/
If anyone would know its him…author of From fraser to farah

 

[girvie]

My young blokes played Balmain JRL for 10 years now, its always been Sundays and worked well with him playing union which lots of his mates did too… until union started to split their comps into Sat & Sun's......maybe the union thing was part of the initial reason, dunno

In the time hes been there one new and one revived club has been added to the balmain comp....so its growing....though numbers drop rapidly from 13's on

Good luck with Lane Cove Girv.....well done!! :master:

Thanks for this. I figured that it would partly be to avoid clashes with other sports. Good to see that the Balmain comp is growing.

As for Lane Cove Tigers, yes they are reforming and holding an information tomorrow (Thursday) at 7pm at Lane Cove Public School and also holding a Come and Try session on the school oval for boys and girls aged 5-12\. It's great to see that there is enough interest locally to reform the club. Anyone interested in being a part of it or who has a child wishing to play can send me a private message with the details.

Yossarian and Steve-O - There is also interest in re-establishing a side in the Ku-ring gai area - perhaps at West Pymble again. So the Norths district in on the improve - certainly helped by the growing Central Coast Bears bid. Did any of the guys who you played with or against go onto NRL/first grade?

 

[wtfl1981]

I played in BDJRL and i always played sundays and that was 20 years ago.
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Posted using RoarFEED

 

[steve-o]

My young blokes played Balmain JRL for 10 years now, its always been Sundays and worked well with him playing union which lots of his mates did too… until union started to split their comps into Sat & Sun's......maybe the union thing was part of the initial reason, dunno

In the time hes been there one new and one revived club has been added to the balmain comp....so its growing....though numbers drop rapidly from 13's on

Good luck with Lane Cove Girv.....well done!! :master:

Thanks for this. I figured that it would partly be to avoid clashes with other sports. Good to see that the Balmain comp is growing.

As for Lane Cove Tigers, yes they are reforming and holding an information tomorrow (Thursday) at 7pm at Lane Cove Public School and also holding a Come and Try session on the school oval for boys and girls aged 5-12\. It's great to see that there is enough interest locally to reform the club. Anyone interested in being a part of it or who has a child wishing to play can send me a private message with the details.

Yossarian and Steve-O - There is also interest in re-establishing a side in the Ku-ring gai area - perhaps at West Pymble again. So the Norths district in on the improve - certainly helped by the growing Central Coast Bears bid. Did any of the guys who you played with or against go onto NRL/first grade?

thatd be great if they could get a west pymble team up and running again, there realy isnt much league on the north shore. i played against will hopoate though that was only when we had a combined comp with manly. as for the north sydney juniors, no ones played first grade yet though a guy from asquith has played manly under 20s the last two yrs and is apparantly held in quite high regard so itll be interesting to see if he gets a run in the next couple of yrs or so

 

[girvie]

thatd be great if they could get a west pymble team up and running again, there realy isnt much league on the north shore. i played against will hopoate though that was only when we had a combined comp with manly. as for the north sydney juniors, no ones played first grade yet though a guy from asquith has played manly under 20s the last two yrs and is apparantly held in quite high regard so itll be interesting to see if he gets a run in the next couple of yrs or so

Sounds like you would have played with or against:

Jayson Lombardo Penno/Cronulla
Michael McDougall Penno/Manly
Magnus Stromquist Asquith/Manly
Sione Ala Asquith/Manly
Scott England Asquith/South Sydney
Jason Seage Asquith/Parramatta
Nabeel Siddiqui Willoughby/Manly

 

[flash]

I've been looking into Junior rugby league and have noticed that Balmain's Junior League games appear to be played on Sundays.

This is different to most other districts who play on Saturdays until Under-15s.

I was wondering if this is always the case with Balmain or when the switch was made and the reasons why?

Also interested to hear whether it has worked better having the games on Sundays? Are more kids playing now?

Don't know how this got to be the Teddy Bear JRL wrap but it is great to hear that old clubs are making come backs, to answer your question the Balmain JL has had steady growth over the last 5 years. Playing Sundays allows for a lot of the Soccer kids to play league particularly in the younger age groups. There are also quite a few who go to private schools who have School sport Saturdays so have the option to play League on a Sunday.
I started playing JL in Balmain in 1972 and can't remember it ever being played on a Saturday.

 

[barrytiger]

i know that a lot of the tongan boys werent allowed to play sundays because of there religion,so they went and played union which was a shame,i would of thought playing on saturdays would be more desireable especially for the older players who had to work mondays and they could go out partying on a saturday night

 

[barrytiger]

i know that a lot of the tongan boys werent allowed to play sundays because of there religion,so they went and played union which was a shame,i would of thought playing on saturdays would be more desireable especially for the older players who had to work mondays and they could go out partying on a saturday night

 

[steve-o]

thatd be great if they could get a west pymble team up and running again, there realy isnt much league on the north shore. i played against will hopoate though that was only when we had a combined comp with manly. as for the north sydney juniors, no ones played first grade yet though a guy from asquith has played manly under 20s the last two yrs and is apparantly held in quite high regard so itll be interesting to see if he gets a run in the next couple of yrs or so

Sounds like you would have played with or against:

Jayson Lombardo Penno/Cronulla
Michael McDougall Penno/Manly
Magnus Stromquist Asquith/Manly
Sione Ala Asquith/Manly
Scott England Asquith/South Sydney
Jason Seage Asquith/Parramatta
Nabeel Siddiqui Willoughby/Manly

Yes I did indeed play with jayson! He was an awesome player though I think I few shoulder injuries have held him back. Magnus was the guy from manly I was referring to, played many a game against him and Scott England from Asquith. Scotts apparently lost a fair bit of motivation and reckons he'll probably just play Asquith a grade rather than north Sydney nsw cup which is a shame really. Although I never played with or against nabeel, I go to uni with him and he's hoping to have a big year playing for manly 20s next yr, though he did get a back injury at the end this year which hopefully won't hold him back. Sioni I played against when he was playing for Asquith, manly cove and also st augustines (in union when I was playing for oakhill). Noticed he was playing manly nsw cup this year, hopefully he can go one better in 2012\. The other two players I don't recognize their names so I'm not sure whether or not I played against them.

 

[Citizen_Tiger]

I've been looking into Junior rugby league and have noticed that Balmain's Junior League games appear to be played on Sundays.

This is different to most other districts who play on Saturdays until Under-15s.

I was wondering if this is always the case with Balmain or when the switch was made and the reasons why?

Also interested to hear whether it has worked better having the games on Sundays? Are more kids playing now?

We (North Sydney) used to play sunday from U/13s onward from memory. I'm guessing it's all to do with ground availability. Possibly the yawnion crowd use some of the same grounds on a Saturday?

I dont think ground availability is an issue. The ony junior Rugby played on Saturdays are fixtures amongst the various GPS/CHS/CAS schools and perhaps a few age groups in Western Zone (Canterbury, Dural etc). The private schools mostly have their own grounds. Subbies and Shute Shield are played on Saturdays, normally at dedicated Rugby grounds, save for a few clubs like Balmain, who play at Wanderers home ground and Petersham, who use Camperdown Dragons field.

Similarly junior Clubs like Wahroonga, Lindfield, Narrabeen, Hunters Hill, Lane Cove, Mosman, Harbord, Newport, Manly, Killara/West Pymble, Wakehurst, Forest, Roseville, Chatswood, Hornsby, St Ives, Dee Why, Norths Pirates, Collaroy etc all have their own dedicated grounds, courtesy of high registrations, excellent sponsorship and fundraising and the resultant good relationships with the various councils. At Hunters Hill we have two ovals and have just started work on developing a third, using our own funds. We've tipped in some $500k plus over the last six or so years. Sorry dont mean it to sound like chest thumping, just making the point that Rugby rarely has to share grouns with anyone but cricket

 

[Yossarian]

Hornsby (union) and the Hornsby league team are (or were) both based at Waitara Oval. No idea if the league team is still functioning though… I've seen those Hunters Hill grounds many times driving past!