Rugby League in Macarthur is 'Dead'

[Geo]

NRL: Local administrator declares Rugby League in Macarthur region “dead”
November 6, 2015 8:06pm
Peter WayMacarthur Chronicle Campbelltown

WHAT was once the heartland of rugby league in Sydney has now been declared “dead” by East Campbelltown Eagles life member Daniel Draper.

He said in the past two years rugby league in the Macarthur region had lost more than 500 players.

“That’s enough players to fill 20 teams,” he said.

Draper blames a number of factors for the decline.

“Other sports are much more proactive than league in terms of being visible to junior clubs and schools,” he said.

“The Western Sydney Wanderers (A-League) and GWS Giants (AFL) come out here on a regular basis to do clinics and school visits, you hardly ever see the Wests Tigers out here.

“Wests Tigers have neglected the area, Western Suburbs Magpies have moved to Liverpool, and we have no facilities for rugby league in the area.

“Soccer is getting a great facility at Lynwood Park with synthetic pitches, an administration base and a great setup.

“Rugby league doesn’t have anything like that.

“Our players have to travel all the way to the other side of Liverpool at Warwick Farm to play representative football, that’s not fair to most of the Group 6 area.”

Former Campbelltown Mayor, Councillor Paul Lake, said rugby league’s governing body had let down the grassroots of the game.

**“If numbers are down it’s because the Wests Tigers have not been present in the local area for a long time,” he said.**

“If you had a team based in the area, that would certainly help.

“The NRL governing body have been concentrating more on the top flight of the game than the grassroots.

“Dave Smith (former NRL CEO) never had an interest in the game out our way.”

Draper said Campbelltown Council could and should do more for the game to bring back the Tigers and the Western Suburbs Magpies.

**“If you have the choice of paying to use Campbelltown Stadium or getting paid $100,000 to play at ANZ Stadium, I know where I’d play too,’’ he said.**

**“The Tigers are going base their operations at Liverpool if everything goes to plan, why can’t Campbelltown Council convince them to use its centre of excellence.”**

The Macarthur Chronicle is seeking comment from Western Suburbs Junior Rugby League officials but could not reach them today.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/macarthur/nrl-local-administrator-declares-rugby-league-in-macarthur-region-dead/story-fngr8h70-1227599439862?sv=4601e77836156bf035edd8f9f40fbcb0

 

[Sabre]

What a load of crap. Wests Tigers have had a greater presence in that region than anywhere else the past couple of seasons.
- The majority of fan/member events have been held there
- The majority of NSW Cup games have been played there
- They've had the better of the NRL games

This argument might have been valid a few years ago, but not now.

 

[king_sirro]

It's junior league in general. Numbers dropping dramatically everywhere. I don't see it changing either. There just isn't anything you can do to convince parents this is a good sport for their kids to play. Grubby parents ruining things on the sideline, teaching kids to play grubby, Sydney journos hell bent on putting the game down rather than supporting it, risk of neck injuries, big islander kids destroying small Caucasian kids….The reasons for your son not to play are endless. The reasons to play are the same reasons in other sports, so league doesn't provide anything positive to convince those on the edge to come and play. Anything positive they can get in other sports without the negative league stuff.

 

[tig_prmz]

it's not just mcarthur region

 

[foreveratiger]

It's junior league in general. Numbers dropping dramatically everywhere. I don't see it changing either. There just isn't anything you can do to convince parents this is a good sport for their kids to play. Grubby parents ruining things on the sideline, teaching kids to play grubby, Sydney journos hell bent on putting the game down rather than supporting it, risk of neck injuries, big islander kids destroying small Caucasian kids….The reasons for your son not to play are endless. The reasons to play are the same reasons in other sports, so league doesn't provide anything positive to convince those on the edge to come and play. Anything positive they can get in other sports without the negative league stuff.

Spot on , great post King Sirro.

 

[Tiger_Tim]

It's junior league in general. Numbers dropping dramatically everywhere. I don't see it changing either. There just isn't anything you can do to convince parents this is a good sport for their kids to play. Grubby parents ruining things on the sideline, teaching kids to play grubby, Sydney journos hell bent on putting the game down rather than supporting it, risk of neck injuries, big islander kids destroying small Caucasian kids….The reasons for your son not to play are endless. The reasons to play are the same reasons in other sports, so league doesn't provide anything positive to convince those on the edge to come and play. Anything positive they can get in other sports without the negative league stuff.

I hear you about the grubby parents. I was at an under 8 game and heard a mother tell her son to stand on another kids hands when he gets up in a tackle. I grew up playing league in the early 80's and stuff like that was common but not for under 8's. My missus was next to me and commented there was no way our son would play league with idiots like this around. Our family love the game but a minority are ruining it for the majority.

 

[shane2801]

It's funny this has been brought up. I believe the NRL is losing out to other sports Sydney wide. I live near Bella Vista and GWS came out to my sons school a couple of weeks ago offering a 4 week auskick clinic. Guess what, my son now wants to play AFL.

The NRL have gone missing and they can only blame themselves.

 

[shane2801]

It's junior league in general. Numbers dropping dramatically everywhere. I don't see it changing either. There just isn't anything you can do to convince parents this is a good sport for their kids to play. Grubby parents ruining things on the sideline, teaching kids to play grubby, Sydney journos hell bent on putting the game down rather than supporting it, risk of neck injuries, big islander kids destroying small Caucasian kids….The reasons for your son not to play are endless. The reasons to play are the same reasons in other sports, so league doesn't provide anything positive to convince those on the edge to come and play. Anything positive they can get in other sports without the negative league stuff.

You are right. Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't QLD go on weight instead of ages? This is the way to go. Living out western Sydney there is a large islander presence and some of the kids weigh over 95kg.

 

[king_sirro]

It's funny this has been brought up. I believe the NRL is losing out to other sports Sydney wide. I live near Bella Vista and GWS came out to my sons school a couple of weeks ago offering a 4 week auskick clinic. Guess what, my son now wants to play AFL.

The NRL have gone missing and they can only blame themselves.

I've heard fantastic things about Junior AFL. As a leaguey and parent it would be a punish to go watch it every weekend, but I have no doubt at all it would be the best thing for my kids to switch to AFL. I'm certain they would be happier in that environment, and that's all that matters.

 

[shane2801]

It's funny this has been brought up. I believe the NRL is losing out to other sports Sydney wide. I live near Bella Vista and GWS came out to my sons school a couple of weeks ago offering a 4 week auskick clinic. Guess what, my son now wants to play AFL.

The NRL have gone missing and they can only blame themselves.

I've heard fantastic things about Junior AFL. As a leaguey and parent it would be a punish to go watch it every weekend, but I have no doubt at all it would be the best thing for my kids to switch to AFL. I'm certain they would be happier in that environment, and that's all that matters.

I'm the same Sirro. While I don't mind AFL I would prefer my son playing Rugby League. As for the grubby parents, well, I'm a pretty reserved guy but if I heard someone yell out to their kid to step on my sons hands I'm not sure how I'd react making me not much better than them :smiley:

 

[Tiger_Watto]

Its simply natural attrition… If you look at the population growth within this region, its obvious the ethnicity of that growth aren't traditional RL followers.

Then you add the fact RL Programs arent as popular in Schools as they once were due to the level of contact etc, it was a smart ploy by the AFL to introduce Auskick within the schools programs.

Personally, Soccer will win the war out there!

 

[batboy]

I love the finger pointing when it comes to Rugby League in the Macarthur.
- Wests Tigers weren't here last week, We can't field a team - It's all their fault.

How does on earth Rugby League in a region like Wagga, Or Albury Survive?
They have no team.. At all…. Ever!!
Larger regional centres like Dubbo/Orange, Griffith... Still producing good kids In a strong little comp.

Maybe it's because they're not sitting on their hands waiting for someone to run their comp for them?

 

[innsaneink]

My son was playing in Balmain JRL un the u/10s the year following our premiership….I remember the sudden surge in numbers with most clubs in his grade and other grades going from single teams to two and three teams in a grade...but even back then when he was doing the kids to kangaroos school holiday things, thered be mainly BRET players show up, WTs have been pretty poor in this area for a long time
\
\
Juniors do suffer when there is no senior presence...so many of the old clubs I played with and against as a Wests jnr have folded since they moved from the inner west to Cambo

Ignorant parents also play a role, I dont know how many times I had my sons soccer playing friends parents think of and describe NRL when we were talking about junior rugby league

 

[Goose]

Rugby league in general is poor at junior development and grass roots in general.
They have always relied on kids just playing as it has been the winter sport of choice.
The other sports try harder and are now reaping rewards.

 

[Tim Sheens]

The league heirachy has neglected the game since Murdoch's SL came in and changed the landscape and is only getting worse.

 

[sheer64]

Don't know what the answer is but the game is dying where I live in the South Coast area. AFL and Soccer seem to be doing much better.

 

[cunno]

Plenty of reasons for the decline in junior rugby league could be behind the article;
- safer options selected by parents, Siro makes a good point about the size of kids from various ethnic backgrounds in fact there seems to be a dominance starting in junior rep teams up of boys from pacific island background whereas the opposite is the case in AFL and soccer from what I've see,
- more choice of sport to play and there seems to be less importance attached to playing league as there used to be
- with the greater choice of sport to play comes greater competition for players and with greater promotion of other codes, league has not kept pace,
- league tends to identify kids early with scouts and managers signing them up and developing them, if a player misses out their chances of making a career out of the game is a lot tougher, in other words league's process of concentrating on those who look to have promise comes at the detriment of the broader competition base with most interest and resources spent on rep development now this may happen in other codes but if it does it doesn't look to affect kids playing other codes in numbers (barring rugby)
- the nrl is focussed on top level league and with people like Smith at the top ( not for much longer) who only have a basic grasp of the top level then the chances of them looking broader to junior footy are small, it needs drive from the top
- there has been a fair bit of paper talk in recent times about nrl in the south west with the mayors of Liverpool and Campbelltown sprouting the virtues of their areas and the article in the Chronicle looks like another shot in the battle between both councils to have Wests Tigers choose their are as a base in the future
- the list could go on but one more, as far as I am aware, tackle rugby league hasn't been played in primary schools for years this too must have some impact.

 

[Tigermama]

It's junior league in general. Numbers dropping dramatically everywhere. I don't see it changing either. There just isn't anything you can do to convince parents this is a good sport for their kids to play. Grubby parents ruining things on the sideline, teaching kids to play grubby, Sydney journos hell bent on putting the game down rather than supporting it, risk of neck injuries, big islander kids destroying small Caucasian kids….The reasons for your son not to play are endless. The reasons to play are the same reasons in other sports, so league doesn't provide anything positive to convince those on the edge to come and play. Anything positive they can get in other sports without the negative league stuff.

Well said KS. There's no doubt, there's more children playing soccer, then any other sport nowadays. Just look in the school yard, to see it predominates.
Parents feel it's a safer sport, for their kids to play. And who could blame them?

 

[tiger_one]

There's no doubt, there's more children playing soccer, then any other sport nowadays. Just look in the school yard, to see it predominates.
Parents feel it's a safer sport, for their kids to play. And who could blame them?

Fancy encouraging kiddies to play a sport where they dive, but there's no water!! :wink:

 

[Tigermama]

There's no doubt, there's more children playing soccer, then any other sport nowadays. Just look in the school yard, to see it predominates.
Parents feel it's a safer sport, for their kids to play. And who could blame them?

Fancy encouraging kiddies to play a sport where they dive, but there's no water!! :wink:

:laughing: