www.bigfooty.com
Can you post the link for that.
My understanding is that, in the mid North Coast Group 2 comp., Orara Valley snr RL club, Nambucca Roosters snr RL club, & Sawtell snr RL Club are unable to field First Grade teams in 2021- probably due to lack of nos.
www.newsofthearea.com.au
www.bigfooty.com
Hard to find good articles. I searched the facebook pages of those clubs to see if they were still playing. They are not. Sad for the community. Good for AR.1.
My understanding is that, in the mid North Coast Group 2 comp., Orara Valley snr RL club, Nambucca Roosters snr RL club, & Sawtell snr RL Club are unable to field First Grade teams in 2021- probably due to lack of nos.
Walshawk will probably provide the details you requested, re problems for Coffs Harbour-based RL clubs.
Sawtell, "...a mainstay of local rugby league...", announced 7.4 it is out in 2021, leaving Group 2 RL area with only "6 teams"..
Group 2 Rugby League release draw for 2021 season – News Of The Area
D./Tele. 3.4.21 Teasers "Third Team Drops Out Of Rugby League Competition"
Mid North Coast "Group2 drops bombshell...third team drops out of competition".
(Behind paywall- can anyone open, & post here please).
2. For a very recent history of the growth of AF on the mid North Coast, Todman has provided a good summary of the NCAFL.
North Coast AFL
The wiki page for the NCAFL looks a bit out of date. Have the two Coffs teams merged or something?
I just wish people would post links when they make a claim otherwise people can make all sort of claims without links1.
My understanding is that, in the mid North Coast Group 2 comp., Orara Valley snr RL club, Nambucca Roosters snr RL club, & Sawtell snr RL Club are unable to field First Grade teams in 2021- probably due to lack of nos.
Walshawk will probably provide the details you requested, re problems for Coffs Harbour-based RL clubs.
Sawtell, "...a mainstay of local rugby league...", announced 7.4 it is out in 2021, leaving Group 2 RL area with only "6 teams"..
Group 2 Rugby League release draw for 2021 season – News Of The Area
D./Tele. 3.4.21 Teasers "Third Team Drops Out Of Rugby League Competition"
Mid North Coast "Group2 drops bombshell...third team drops out of competition".
(Behind paywall- can anyone open, & post here please).
2. For a very recent history of the growth of AF on the mid North Coast, Todman has provided a good summary of the NCAFL.
North Coast AFL
The wiki page for the NCAFL looks a bit out of date. Have the two Coffs teams merged or something?
Indeed. When i make claims, like you i back them up with links
They should still post links to back up their claims and if they don't ask them them to post links to back up their claims, othewise delete that post with the claim
I agree. Some posters here struggle with the truth
websites.sportstg.com
websites.sportstg.com
All sports in Victoria are showing a decline in junior numbers1. There has been a significant decline in male contact RL nos. for many years on the NSW mid North Coast (& far North Coast- Northern Rivers to the Qld. border).
Queensland Times 1.4.16
Shortage of juniors calls future of league into question
by matthewelkerton and Matthew Elkerton
"RUGBY LEAGUE: Following Coffs Harbour's decision to forfeit its round one clash against Grafton Ghosts in Under 18s this Sunday, Ghosts' president Joe Kinnane has called into question the future of local league.
"It is a bloody disaster because we have Macksville and Orara the following weekends and neither of those clubs have an Under 18s unit," Kinnane said.
"Coffs Harbour suggested they may not have sufficient numbers in the 18s which is also a shame for their club."
Despite concerns Macksville could withdraw from the Under-18s, Sea Eagles secretary Bill Richardson this week assured The Daily Examiner that the club would contest all three grades in the round one local derby against Nambucca Heads Roosters at Coronation Park Macksville Sea Eagles this Sunday.
"Two weeks ago we were struggling, but we've had a big push in the last two weeks from within the club and at this stage have about 15 or 16 registered players, another two or three in the system awaiting clearances and hoping to push that number up further," Richardson said.
This means the Ghosts will play an under-18 competition match in round two, followed by another in round four against South Grafton Rebels.
Kinnane believes with any lack of on-field action, many of the junior ranks could head elsewhere for entertainment.
"They are going to get about two games in five weeks," Kinnane said.
"If they are not playing football they will find something else to do. It wouldn't matter if Wayne Bennett was coaching them. If they aren't playing, they will find other things to do."
But Kinnane feels the lack of juniors issue is systemic in Group 2 football, if not all of Country Rugby League.
"I think it is a problem with other clubs too," he said.
"It doesn't look really good for the future of football in these areas. I think it stems right back to the junior leagues. Grass roots is a problem that the Country Rugby League needs to look at (all emphases mine)".
2a. This RL Feature writer, a self-described "lifelong" RL fan, on 7.3.18 is absolutely scathing on the poor RL culture & "grog" problems of RL on the mid North Coast. This poor culture would be a major contributing factor to the significant decline in GR male contact RL nos.
‘As you sow, so shall you reap’. The slow demise of Group 2 Rugby League.
POSTED ON 7 MARCH 2018BY EDITOR
Bad fan behaviour, a ‘neanderthal’ mindset from senior CRL administrators and a lack of vision and support for the ‘grassroots’ has lead to the once proud Group 2 Rugby League competition on the Coffs Coast becoming a shadow of itself.
By Oscar Le Grouch
Geography will be the unlikely and short term saviour of local rugby league following the withdrawal of Bellingen and Woolgoolga from this year’s competition.
This reduces the league to seven teams and it could have been worse had Grafton Ghosts followed through on their off-season threat to return to their original NRRRL abode.
Ghosts cited violence, abuse, and other unsavoury conduct as reasons for wanting to leave but in the end found it better to play teams closer to them that go trekking up to the border every second week for a game.
Bad behaviour has frightened huge numbers of supporters away, along with dozens of young players from league families who now play mainly rugby union or AFL.
Group 2 continue to bury their heads in the sand about this despite constant hand wringing but to be fair, in some ways they are in a vicious circle.
Grog is the source of most bad behaviour at matches and ironically it’s grog which keeps many clubs alive and able to pay players.
There was a turning point in the public’s attitude to local rugby league when a brawl broke out at the 2007 grand final at Woolgoolga and a policewoman was kicked in the head after being knocked to the ground.
There was little sympathy for the woman from one club official.
“It was the fault of the coppers,” he said.
“Should have known not to send a $%#@$%@ sheila to a football game.”
And thereby hangs the crux of the matter.
The Neanderthal mindset of administrators and their lack of foresight is the root cause of the demise of the game in this area.
At club level, at Group 2 level too but most of all at Country Rugby League level.
Surely the organisation known as the CRL must rank as the worst administration of any sport anywhere in the world.
So bad is their reputation at this week’s NRL season launch, they didn’t even get an invite.
For decades as the game in the bush fell further and further behind, they have sat on their backsides and allowed it to happen.
Nobody dares to speak up for fear of missing out on the (in)famous maroon blazer after 20 years of not rocking the boat, or, a snout-in-the-trough appointment as “manager” of a rep team on a junket somewhere.
Sad.
And the Group bosses cannot escape blame because of their silence.
Take an occasion a few years back here in Coffs Harbour with a visit by former NRL boss David Gallop to announce that henceforth touch football (!?) would be the main stepping stone to a career in the big league.
Group 2 officials should have been screaming the house down at that but…not a peep of dissent.
What about those people at grass roots club level?
Hard to say as they rarely get an invite to these announcements, such is the disdain for the hard work done by the little people to keep the game alive.
To paraphrase immortal coach Jack Gibson, it’s amazing the game remains alive with the appalling administration that infects it.
As for Bellingen and Woolgoolga, lack of first grade players is the reason given for pulling out.
Once again the players are getting the blame for asking for too much money.
The committees never get the blame they deserve for saying ‘yes’ to demands when they should be saying ‘no’ but that is not the culture of rugby league.
Look around and you’ll find hundreds of ex-players who should be on the field but for a variety of reasons have turned their backs on the game.
Many of them were “signed” with lots of promises by NRL clubs but when that didn’t work out, returned to the bush with most never to lace up a boot again.
So sad.
League always follows the rival codes. It lacks imagination and never leads.
Everybody wishes the Magpies and Seahorses well so they may return in 2019 but unfortunately, the missed opportunities and lack of vision by rugby league administrators is unlikely to change and for a code once number one in the bush, it will continue to remain at the fourth (!Wow?) level as it now is in this region [mid North Coast].
As you sow, so shall you reap (emphases & words in bracket, mine)".
“CRL administrators have a lot to answer for”
Oscar le Grouch is a retired journalist now based on the Coffs Coast with many years experience in the profession. He is also a lifelong league/sports fan.
2b.See more about this story here: https://www.dailyexaminer.com.au/news/pulled-out-group-2-reduced-to-eight-club-competiti/3348342/
"Woolgoolga Secretary P. Dwyer said only fielding an U18 side in the snr comp. is a blow to the seaside town".
"It really comes down to the economics of playing country football. The reality is players expect to be paid large amounts of money each week to play".
Hmmm - I note you had to dig up an old article from a rural region (which I know very very well) with a declining population, just as the article specifically stated - "... It’s a population thing and we can’t do anything about it. ... the farms ... are getting bigger, they are not employing anyone anymore. ...".All sports in Victoria are showing a decline in junior numbers
Football was suffering from lack of junior 5 years agoCause for concern as junior numbers drop off
Football and cricket take a beating.www.araratadvertiser.com.au
websites.sportstg.com
Yes I agree and the position of our game in NSW looks promising and lets hope the NRL SPLITS into 2 conferences as being debated. It has not happened yet and already the knives are out from QLD NRL fans. A divided competitor is what we need in the future.Hmmm - I note you had to dig up an old article from a rural region (which I know very very well) with a declining population, just as the article specifically stated - "... It’s a population thing and we can’t do anything about it. ... the farms ... are getting bigger, they are not employing anyone anymore. ...".
Anyway the good news is that since that article, the club in question has actually thrived, winning their first premiership in 36 years -
Lions claim historic win in Mininera grand final | Photos, video
Great Western defeated Penshurst 13.11 to 12.12 in the Mininera League grand final.www.stawelltimes.com.au
Despite a total town population of less than 300, Great Western fields a seniors, reserves, under 16 and under 12 Australian Football teams and they are premiership favourites again this year.
GWFNC - Great Western Football Netball Club - GameDay
GWFNC - Great Western Football Netball Club - GameDay, fixtures, results, ladders, statistics, news and events for the Great Western FNC, on GameDay, the Home of Grassroots Sport
Meanwhile my local club, the Ascot Vale Panthers in inner suburban Melbourn literally had no junior team at all just 10 years ago - just a superules team. We now have multiple junior teams and bursting at the seams with so many players we can hardly accept many more - while the local soccer club just up the road which was thriving a few years back is now really struggling to attract sufficient players to keep going. Australian Football remains very much dominant in Victorian participation, with soccer having a definite drop off in the last couple of years, and the rugby codes still basically a non-factor here.
If current trends continue (and Il'll acknowledge there's no guarantee of this), Australian Football will most probably have more participants than either of the rugby codes in NSW and Qld in 20 years time
Hmmm - I note you had to dig up an old article from a rural region (which I know very very well) with a declining population, just as the article specifically stated - "... It’s a population thing and we can’t do anything about it. ... the farms ... are getting bigger, they are not employing anyone anymore. ...".
Anyway the good news is that since that article, the club in question has actually thrived, winning their first premiership in 36 years -
Lions claim historic win in Mininera grand final | Photos, video
Great Western defeated Penshurst 13.11 to 12.12 in the Mininera League grand final.
Despite a total town population of less than 300, Great Western fields a seniors, reserves, under 16 and under 12 Australian Football teams and they are premiership favourites again this year.
GWFNC - Great Western Football Netball Club - GameDay
GWFNC - Great Western Football Netball Club - GameDay, fixtures, results, ladders, statistics, news and events for the Great Western FNC, on GameDay, the Home of Grassroots Sport
Meanwhile my local club, the Ascot Vale Panthers in inner suburban Melbourn literally had no junior team at all just 10 years ago - just a superules team. We now have multiple junior teams and bursting at the seams with so many players we can hardly accept many more - while the local soccer club just up the road which was thriving a few years back is now really struggling to attract sufficient players to keep going. Australian Football remains very much dominant in Victorian participation, with soccer having a definite drop off in the last couple of years, and the rugby codes still basically a non-factor here.
If current trends continue (and Il'll acknowledge there's no guarantee of this), Australian Football will most probably have more participants than either of the rugby codes in NSW and Qld in 20 years time
Only posting links. Why are you struggling with them?
Please post the link to confirm that.
