Was this much enthusiasm shown by NSWRU for Western Sydney rugby after the Emus were axed .
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Was this much enthusiasm shown by NSWRU for Western Sydney rugby after the Emus were axed .
Listen to first half of this GAGR podcast interview with Darren Coleman, who was going to be Western Sydney coach
http://www.greenandgoldrugby.com/the...arren-coleman/
- His "friends at the ARU"tipped him off that WSR in was not going to happen in Western Sydney
- the benefit he saw for Australian rugby of having the Western Sydney team
- NSW Waratahs "high performance unit" were heavily involved in Sydney Rays and NSW country NRC teams this year. (I had a little laugh!)
Siege mentality much?!
A terrible podcast (Nick is a terrible interviewer) but Darren Coleman was impressive and handled himself well.
I think the Waratah's High Performance Unit was involved with the NSW Country NRC team only with major inputs into player selection and managing player workloads.
2 Waratahs players (Will Miller and Jed Holloway) are being rested from the NSW Country game today to help prepare them for SR in 5 months time. :S
And here it is folks, the official "plan"!
Quote:
West side story: NSW Rugby’s bold plan for neglected Sydney region
Georgina Robinson
By Georgina Robinson
12 October 2018 — 6:56pm
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The Sydney Rugby Union has welcomed a new action plan for western Sydney that will see new combined club and schools competitions for under-18s start as early as next season.
NSW Rugby boss Andrew Hore this week presented a plan to the NSWRU board that outlined a raft of new measures slated to start in as little as a few months' time, including a western Sydney competition for the under-15s and under-18s age groups, an under-18s Shute Shield competition, a new western Sydney office and a coach development manager, as well as a fundraising effort to bankroll it all.
Better days: The Penrith Emus, pictured here after a Shute Shield match against Parramatta in 2015, were kicked out of the competition this season.
Better days: The Penrith Emus, pictured here after a Shute Shield match against Parramatta in 2015, were kicked out of the competition this season. CREDIT:DALLAS KILPONEN
Sydney Rugby Union president David Begg, who worked closely with Hore on the plan said it was sensible but potentially powerful.
"It involves every element of the game and there's genuine collaboration," Begg said.
"If there was an easy fix [in western Sydney], it would have happened by now, but there isn't. The way you develop any good rugby organisation is with local communities and it's done organically. That's what we're trying to do, give longevity and sucess to rugby in western Sydney."
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First cab off the rank is getting a new office or "hub" up and running early in the new year, a coach development officer on the pay roll and a combined club and schools competition for the under-15s to under-18s age brackets.
Also starting next year and not limited to the west will be an under-18s Shute Shield competition, which NSW and the SRU are hoping will give the premier rugby clubs access to more players.
NSW Rugby boss Andrew Hore wants less talk and more action on western Sydney.
NSW Rugby boss Andrew Hore wants less talk and more action on western Sydney. CREDIT:LOUIE DOUVIS
"We want accessibility for young people who are in public schools that don't play rugby or have left school to be able to play in a meaningful competition and be part of the pathway through the Shute Shield," Hore said.
"What we want to do now is support Shute Shield clubs and help them get into those schools and attract those players that maybe we would have lost in the past, particularly if you look at western Sydney."
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The document was a year in the making and started with a review of no less than three earlier strategic plans that were collecting dust in the NSW Rugby offices when Hore arrived from Ospreys in Wales two years ago.
Hore is calling his an "action plan" to emphasise that his administration is ready to "rip into things" and is not beholden to the "grumbling" of vested interests.
"I've been here for two years, this issue has been going for over 30 years in and around what is the plan [for western Sydney]. I wasn't in any hurry to bow down to people grumbling who were probably part of the problem in the past," he said.
"What we are going to do - and we've shown that we will rip into things and get on with stuff - is we want to start some new competitions out there in the clubs and schools and we have some funding available to do that."
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A key part of the plan is also harnessing the deep support for rugby among Pacific Islander communities in the west. The Pasifika Cup, contested by NSW Samoa, NSW Tonga, NSW Fiji and a Barbarians side has grown into one of the highlights of the National Rugby Championship schedule over the past two years. Each year hundreds turn up to trial for each team.
NSW Fiji and NSW Tonga pray together after their Pasifika Cup match at Woollahra Oval last month.
NSW Fiji and NSW Tonga pray together after their Pasifika Cup match at Woollahra Oval last month. CREDIT:JEREMY BRENNAN
"We're going to look at supporting the Pacific Islands and multicultural rugby tournaments out there and bring them into more structured competitions that people can buy into, and also support their volunteers," Hore said.
"Remembering that western Sydney is 9000 square kilometres and there'll be two million people flooding in there in the next 10 years, we're going to have to grow that.
"It's not rocket science, you will not see lightning bolts out west but we will start something."
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Challenges abound in the region, including the well-documented dramas with Penrith and the more recent financial struggles at West Harbour.
But Hore said he was not only confident they could make a meaningful, if modest, difference, but that NSW Rugby could fund most of the work themselves, through the Positive Rugby Foundation and the raft of government grants on offer.
"We're not going cap in hand necessarily to Rugby Australia, we're going to do it ourselves," he said. "This is not a social welfare state.
So they are going to set up a Western Sydney colts comp so the richer Shute Shield clubs can pick the talent out of it? Isn't that what happened before leading Penrith to get cut?
Nutta is going nuts on GnGR
http://www.greenandgoldrugby.com/our-time-has-come/
He's really sticking the boot in
Amazing innit? Plans gathering dust for 30 years. Hore in the job 2 years and not a word about GWS Rugby development. AF mentions plans for the area and they are instantly falling all over each other to pay some lip service. It would be hilarious if it weren't so pathetic!
On junior rugby in Australia:
Forget koalas, it’s Joeys that are an endangered species
Simon McLoughlin
Deputy Sports Editor
The Australian, October 12, 2018
Take note of the name Joey Walton. Why? Because he is that rarest of things - an Australian Schoolboys rugby player from a state school. The Australian Schools squad announced this week for a tour of Ireland and Scotland featured 26 boys from private schools, and Walton, a kid from Wadalba High School on the NSW Central Coast in the heart of rugby league territory.
For years there have been concerns that rugby relies too heavily on the private school system to produce players. Consider the 1977-78 Schoolboys touring team, a side some say was responsible for saving Australian rugby. Of its 29 members, 12 were from state schools including five from Matraville High (Mark, Gary and Glen Ella among them).
Matraville still turns out great footballers but they are all rugby league players - Roosters premiership captain Boyd Cordner among them.
Joey Walton, the last of his kind? For the sake of Australian rugby, we hope not.
↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑ Heartbreaking stuff, and says a lot about where the real problems in Australian rugby are actually coming from
At the Fiji vs Force game, the Fox cameras picked up images of Twiggy among the kids clapping both sides onto the field and the Fox commentators made very favourable references to him a few times. There were more shots of Twiggy handing out sunscreen and chatting to DHP and others. Contrast for me was the images of Clyne a few weeks ago swanning it in the corporate box at a NRC game in Sydney.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bo4Nc4hnT5W/
I cannot comment on GAGR due to some issue, but somebody else might want to mention this under Nutta’s piece.