Save Our Sides Protest Rally - SUN 05FEB11

[Blackandwhite]

You misunderstand my argument. I never said St Geo-Ill weren't successful, just they're hardly what I call a 50/50 JV - it's St George with a pair of red socks.

Apart from Canterbury all those places are very similar distances. But seriously who gets an NYC offer and knocks it back because it's a 5-10 minutes longer drive. And let's say they have no car. Long train trip to the Gong or Penrith… You guys have some decent arguments but this isn't one of them. Besides by that logic we'd miss out on all the Balmain guys who'd presumably go to the Roosters or Souths etc

I must be in a good mood.
Good point your right some of these kids don't have cars.

And your also right it is St.George with red socks but Illawarra seem OK with that because they have a NSW cup team and their juniors only have to ride their pushbikes to training.

I wouldn't care if we were called Balmain and played in Black and Gold.

I want our juniors both Balmain and Wests to have a greater presence in our NRL team. All I am saying its easier for the kids living in the Balmain district. I know for some of the Wests kids the travel from Macarthur is very difficult particularly the Group 6 boys. But if they are dedicated like someone else said they will make it, unfortunately most aren't.

As I am getting old can someone refresh my memory but who from a Group 6 club has played NRL for Wests Tigers.

 

[happy_tiger]

Are you involved in Wests JRL Blackandwhite???
Ive asked you several times on the other forum, you dont like to answer?

I had to ask Galahs 4 times what connection he had with Magpies NSW State Cup team before he revealed he was connected to to them.

Mate I don't know what you are trying to prove?

I hold no title with the Wests Magpies, I just help out where I can. So what?

What do you do to help your team out? Nothing? Flap your gums?

Yeah I'm with Galahs It proves nothing either way whether he is or is not involved

Whether you agree or disagree with Galahs you have to admire his passion for what he believes in and what he is trying to achieve

It should be a sad day for all fans when a foundation club with over a century of tradition dies

As I have stated previously have been through it all before with my QRL \ BRL side that I supported and fortunately played for and its not a nice feeling

But the future marches on and we still have the Wests Tigers to love and support

 

[Tommy_Tiger]

Wests Tigers from Concord !!! Lets let go of Wests and Balmain !! That's it one first team , one Toyota team , one Nsw team under Wests tigers , one jersey flegg team, one h / mats team !! That's it no more bs !!!
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[galahs]

Wests Tigers from Concord !!! Lets let go of Wests and Balmain !! That's it one first team , one Toyota team , one Nsw team under Wests tigers , one jersey flegg team, one h / mats team !! That's it no more bs !!!
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And we base them all at Campbelltown!!! :sign:

 

[galahs]

I like all the talk about doing what is best for Wests Tigers.

So what happens when the day arrives when the best thing for the Wests Tigers is that we play more games at Campbelltown in a season than at Leichhardt???
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What if the best thing for Wests Tigers is that we stop playing at Leichhardt Oval all together.
hey, we could make more money elsewhere. It would be better for the club financially.

Oh no you can't do that! Leichhardt is the spiritual home of the Tigers. It has a proud history.

You can't be beggers and choosers.

Oh wait, you can when the Magpies heritage is at stake.

 

[Chris]

I like all the talk about doing what is best for Wests Tigers.

So what happens when the day arrives when the best thing for the Wests Tigers is that we play more games at Campbelltown in a season than at Leichhardt???
\
\
What if the best thing for Wests Tigers is that we stop playing at Leichhardt Oval all together.
hey, we could make more money elsewhere. It would be better for the club financially.

Oh no you can't do that! Leichhardt is the spiritual home of the Tigers. It has a proud history.

You can't be beggers and choosers.

Oh wait, you can when the Magpies heritage is at stake.

Don't get me wrong Galah's, I admire your passion and applaud you for not just sitting on your backside and cry about what is happening to the Magpies. I think that you should be commended for organising this rally so you and other Magpie fans can be heard.

The problem I have with the rally is that from the first post in this thread you listed some demands you and the other organisers want from the Wests Tigers which are primarily directed at the juniors in the Macarthur area and the state of the junior leagues in that area.

The fact of the matter is that WSDRLFC is solely responsible for the juniors in that area and how the structure of the junior programs are run. The fact that the junior competition and the way it is administered in that area is a shambles and the blame for that is directed solely towards WSDRLFC. The organisation as a whole,showed very little interest as to what was happening to their junior leagues.

How do I know? Firstly, the fact that they employed a person, before the joint venture emerged, to run the day to day operations of the junior leagues. They left this person in charge of their juniors all the way through to the 2011 season. If the juniors are as bad as you and the other rally organisers claim, why was this person not held accountable by the WSDRLFC who pay this person's wages?

Furthermore, I was personally involved with helping to organise a function for a junior rugby league club in the WSDJRL to help raise funds so that this club can pay the expenses for kids to play for free in their club. When the club approached WSDRLFC for assistance, such as donations to auction off or some sort of representation. WSDRLFC supplied nothing! I personally supplied a signed jersey to auction off.

If you said from the first page of this thread that your rally was aimed at trying to keep the Magpies heritage alive, I would have applauded you then and wished you well. The fact that the orgaisers of this rally are blaming the Wests Tigers for the state the junior leagues in the Macarthur area is something I have a problem with. It's true, the Wests Tigers may have been able to do more but from personal knowledge and experiences, the club's heritage you are trying to save is just as much to blame, if not more, for the state of the junior leagues in the Macarthur area.

Personally, I think that having a Wests Tigers team in all 3 grades being fed by Wests and Balmain Matthews and SG Ball, with Wests Tigers funding both SG Ball and Matthews teams and junior competitions is the only way forward for the Wests Tigers, as a whole, to go.

 

[Tiger_Watto]

I like all the talk about doing what is best for Wests Tigers.

So what happens when the day arrives when the best thing for the Wests Tigers is that we play more games at Campbelltown in a season than at Leichhardt???
\
\
What if the best thing for Wests Tigers is that we stop playing at Leichhardt Oval all together.
hey, we could make more money elsewhere. It would be better for the club financially.

Oh no you can't do that! Leichhardt is the spiritual home of the Tigers. It has a proud history.

You can't be beggers and choosers.

Oh wait, you can when the Magpies heritage is at stake.

Sooking it up mate? You do realise this is a Wests Tigers Forum? Of course the majority are talking about what's best for the Wests Tigers… Talking about what's best for Wests Magpies is for your other Forum!

So, to start this thread off you wanted Equality from the Wests Tigers... "we are a 50/50 JV". Now your hoping and dreaming of taking it all to Campbelltown.

It's pretty obvious what your REAL agenda is. And to think we all thought you cared for the kids of the MacArthur region...

 

[Spartan117]

**<big>DT Article - How West was lost</big>**

Paul Kent The Daily Telegraph January 12, 2012 12:00AM
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/nrl/how-west-was-lost/story-e6frexnr-1226242159632

SHED a tear for the final demise of the Western Suburbs Magpies and make it heavy on the nostalgia, light on the reality. The truth is the Magpies have been dead since 1999 when the joint venture with Balmain Tigers was first announced, just no one wanted to identify the body.

The Tigers got the better of it then - the Tiger, the predominantly black and gold colours, the ethos - and Magpies officials have always felt more than a little aggrieved because of it. Now news has emerged that the Magpies' NSW Cup team is entering its final season this year, and possibly sooner, bringing to an end a run that goes all the way back to 1908 but seems much longer, on account there hasn't been a lap of honour for more than half of those years.

Since the joint venture the Magpies have been playing in NSW Cup as part of the partnership terms in what was a well-intentioned bid to retain the Western Suburbs and Balmain Tigers identities, but never really came close to doing that.

How many Magpies fans, threatening to now walk away after reading the news yesterday, ever went to see the Western Suburbs Magpies play?

There were more significant concerns yesterday.

The question was rightfully pondered about what the death of the Magpies might do for rugby league in the Greater Western Suburbs - the Campbelltown kind, not the Lidcombe kind - particularly in light of the Godzilla-like threat of that other team marketing itself to the ratepayers of Greater Western Sydney.

Outrage was considered as the first appropriate response before being quickly discarded.

Concern was next, replaced by confusion and ultimately frustration.

Once again, rugby league's incompetency is mostly one of its own doing, and the demise of the Magpies falls directly under that.

For a long while the Wests Tigers headed the partnership of the Wests Leagues Club at Ashfield (which funds the NSW Cup and SG Ball and Harold Matthews rep teams) and Wests Leagues Club at Campbelltown (which supports Wests' entire junior rugby league), which didn't run nearly so smoothly as it sounds.

At best, it was dysfunctional. Indeed, for all the anger shown towards the Wests Tigers' front office, it is hard to believe why they hung on this long. In trying to honour the joint-venture agreement, both NSW Cup clubs suffered, as well as the NRL team.

It continued until Tim Sheens realised more harm than good was being done and declared that rather than split his fringe first-graders between the Magpies and Balmain he would send them all to one club, where they stood a greater chance of helping each other improve. He chose Balmain Ryde Eastwood.

Yet funding them still cost towards $1 million a season. Given NRL clubs like Sydney Roosters, Parramatta, Penrith and Souths have made partnerships with Sydney A Grade clubs such as Wentworthville and Windsor to bring down costs, you can see the cost of honouring the joint-venture agreement made 13 years ago.

Most importantly, rugby league is not abandoning another heartland, as some believe. Not so long ago the Wests junior league merged with Group 6 in a joint A-grade competition that boasted 59 open-age teams.It was strong and vibrant, until internal politics, once again, brought it crashing down. Since then ARL chief executive Geoff Carr has employed troubleshooter Brian Canavan to investigate Group 6's concerns in the hope of getting them back to a combined competition next season.

Mostly, while the Magpies might soon be gone, the players won't be.

"From a development and pathway point of view the game is still developing and the pathways are still there," said NRL development and integration manager Andrew Hill.

It is the price of progress.

**Nobody misses Glebe anymore.**

 

[Spartan117]

**<big>DT Article - How West was lost</big>**

Paul Kent The Daily Telegraph January 12, 2012 12:00AM
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**It continued until Tim Sheens realised more harm than good was being done and declared that rather than split his fringe first-graders between the Magpies and Balmain he would send them all to one club, where they stood a greater chance of helping each other improve. He chose Balmain Ryde Eastwood.**

This is an outright lie!!!

 

[Guest]

**<big>DT Article - How West was lost</big>**

Paul Kent The Daily Telegraph January 12, 2012 12:00AM
\
\
**It continued until Tim Sheens realised more harm than good was being done and declared that rather than split his fringe first-graders between the Magpies and Balmain he would send them all to one club, where they stood a greater chance of helping each other improve. He chose Balmain Ryde Eastwood.**

This is an outright lie!!!

Would you expect anything less from the DT? I mean seriously, Paul Kent eats peas with a fork, one at a time.

 

[Guest]

I like all the talk about doing what is best for Wests Tigers.

So what happens when the day arrives when the best thing for the Wests Tigers is that we play more games at Campbelltown in a season than at Leichhardt???
\
\
What if the best thing for Wests Tigers is that we stop playing at Leichhardt Oval all together.
hey, we could make more money elsewhere. It would be better for the club financially.

Oh no you can't do that! Leichhardt is the spiritual home of the Tigers. It has a proud history.

You can't be beggers and choosers.

Oh wait, you can when the Magpies heritage is at stake.

Sooking it up mate? You do realise this is a Wests Tigers Forum? Of course the majority are talking about what's best for the Wests Tigers… Talking about what's best for Wests Magpies is for your other Forum!

So, to start this thread off you wanted Equality from the Wests Tigers... "we are a 50/50 JV". Now your hoping and dreaming of taking it all to Campbelltown.

It's pretty obvious what your REAL agenda is. And to think we all thought you cared for the kids of the MacArthur region...

Well said Watto, although having said that, if Leichardt got to the state where games could no longer be played there, and Campbelltown was the only option, I'd be ok with that - Because I support the Wests Tigers. Balmain and Wests are both dead, most people know it, some just refuse to accept it.

The only people begging here are a couple of Magpies fans who are apparently still living in 1999.

 

[Cultured_Bogan]

After reading the articles over the last couple of days, I'm sure the reaction that was intended has been achieved. Nothing but vitriol directed toward Wests Tigers and Balmain, and the Magpies have been hard done by. No one has seemed to demonise Wests Ashfield or Campbelltown though for cutting/not offering funding…

Emotion has clearly gotten in the way of the facts here.

 

[system]

I read the Kent article as counterpoint to yesterdays.

It seems like all the internal dirty laundry will be aired in public from now on.

I have seen a few clubs go this way in the past. Talking about what is "best for the game" but willing to tarnsh the reputation to meet those ends. It is generally what these sources tend to do and it devalues any genuine issues

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/nrl/magpies-demise-fast-approaching/story-e6frfgbo-1226242091827

 

[Goose]

I actually liked Paul Kent's argument, thought it was well reasoned and was saying what many on here are saying, Balmain and Wests finished up along time ago. Kids wont stop playing league.

I hope in 2013 they call the NSW cup team West Tigers, they should train at Concord with all the West Tigers team. As a Balmain fan, I wont be worried about the herritage being gone.

 

[happy_tiger]

To Watto ,Willow I am with you the Wests Tigers is the way forward and always has been since 99

But guys you got to understand the pain and anguish that the Magpies (and the Balmain fans to a degree) are feeling when they are about to see their club disappear

A foundation club that all fans should be sad that is about to disappear I think all fans should all show their respect to the Magpies and not bag fans that are extremely sad about what is going to happen and are trying to fight to find a way to save their club

Lets hope the Magpies can go out on a high this season and not a whimper Heres hoping for a Balmain v Wests GF

 

[tigers05]

I actually liked Paul Kent's argument, thought it was well reasoned and was saying what many on here are saying, Balmain and Wests finished up along time ago. Kids wont stop playing league.

I hope in 2013 they call the NSW cup team West Tigers, they should train at Concord with all the West Tigers team. As a Balmain fan, I wont be worried about the herritage being gone.

Totally and utterly agree Balmain and Wests are the past. It must be WESTS TIGERS all the way, unfortunately the rally is a futile exercise. No rally will achieve holding back what needs to happen and the future is looking bright for every WESTS TIGERS supporter.

 

[Gary_Bakerloo]

I like all the talk about doing what is best for Wests Tigers.

So what happens when the day arrives when the best thing for the Wests Tigers is that we play more games at Campbelltown in a season than at Leichhardt???
\
\
What if the best thing for Wests Tigers is that we stop playing at Leichhardt Oval all together.
hey, we could make more money elsewhere. It would be better for the club financially.

Oh no you can't do that! Leichhardt is the spiritual home of the Tigers. It has a proud history.

You can't be beggers and choosers.

Oh wait, you can when the Magpies heritage is at stake.

Sooking it up mate? You do realise this is a Wests Tigers Forum? Of course the majority are talking about what's best for the Wests Tigers… Talking about what's best for Wests Magpies is for your other Forum!

So, to start this thread off you wanted Equality from the Wests Tigers... "we are a 50/50 JV". Now your hoping and dreaming of taking it all to Campbelltown.

It's pretty obvious what your REAL agenda is. And to think we all thought you cared for the kids of the MacArthur region...

Well said Watto, although having said that, if Leichardt got to the state where games could no longer be played there, and Campbelltown was the only option, I'd be ok with that - Because I support the Wests Tigers. Balmain and Wests are both dead, most people know it, some just refuse to accept it.

The only people begging here are a couple of Magpies fans who are apparently still living in 1999.

Well said? All he did was twist Galah's post to allow a cheap shot and not answer the hypothetical question proposed. I note he did not answer the scenario put to him as you have in your post.

I have not got any indication from any of Galah's posts that he wants all games in Campbelltown as per the accusation in Watto's post. Galahs has only ever stated the conditions of the JV be upheld.

 

[tigers05]

To Watto ,Willow I am with you the Wests Tigers is the way forward and always has been since 99

But guys you got to understand the pain and anguish that the Magpies (and the Balmain fans to a degree) are feeling when they are about to see their club disappear

A foundation club that all fans should be sad that is about to disappear I think all fans should all show their respect to the Magpies and not bag fans that are extremely sad about what is going to happen and are trying to fight to find a way to save their club

Lets hope the Magpies can go out on a high this season and not a whimper Heres hoping for a Balmain v Wests GF

Happy- I felt the pain when I voted on the merger back in 99 one of the hardest emotional decisions I had to make that night, but it was the right thing to do. We now have a club that we all can say we are proud of and enjoy watching. Be proud of where you have come from but dont allow that emotion cloud where the future is. Somethings are worth fighting for and that fight was done in 99 we are now WESTS TIGERS and all decisions should be made to make that brand the best in the game.

 

[Gary_Bakerloo]

After reading the articles over the last couple of days, I'm sure the reaction that was intended has been achieved. Nothing but vitriol directed toward Wests Tigers and Balmain, and the Magpies have been hard done by. No one has seemed to demonise Wests Ashfield or Campbelltown though for cutting/not offering funding…

Emotion has clearly gotten in the way of the facts here.

Completely agree. In addition, why is the financial position of Balmain Leagues club not being discussed?

 

[Chris]

I'd be more than happy for the home games to be split 6-6 but Rugby League today is a business and unfortunately, the corporate dollar takes precedence over tradition. Sad but that's how it is nowadays.