Retiring Wallaby Mark Gerrard urges fractured rugby community to help revive the game
RUGBY
Christy Doran
September 1, 2018 4:00am
CHRISTY DORAN@christypdoran
Source: FOX SPORTS
Former Wallaby Mark Gerrard says Australia’s rugby community must stop complaining and start taking action into their own hands.
IT was former United States President John F. Kennedy who challenged his fellow countrymen and women to contribute in anyway, shape or form to the public good.
“And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country,” Kennedy famously said.
And, as he prepares to pull on the jersey one last time, former Wallaby Mark Gerrard has channeled his inner Kennedy, issuing a call to arms for the Australian public to do everything they can to elevate the standing of rugby in the nation.
On Saturday, Gerrard will face Sydney University in the final of the Shute Shield competition at North Sydney Oval after earning a recall to the Warringah Rats’ side.
It’s a fitting finale for Gerrard, who will retire after a career spaning 17 years at the top which saw him play 24 Tests and score a hat-trick in the Brumbies’ Super Rugby 2004 title win.
All the more fitting is that his final game will be for the Rats, the northern beaches club he made his debut for as a teenager.
With North Sydney Oval once again expected to be packed to the rafters – with a crowd of more than 15,000 predicted – the revival in club rugby is running counter to the struggles in the professional game.
Sixteen years of Bledisloe disappointment, a complicated Super Rugby structure and poor results, little funding to the grassroots of the game and concerns from parents over player safety, has all contributed to a dark cloud over the game.
In 2015 Super Rugby, the average crowd size was 19,163, easily a world best for a club rugby competition.
Last year, that average had dropped to just 14,436, a 24.67 per cent drop in just two years.
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In Rugby Australia’s most recent annual report, the governing body revealed that just $3.7 million would be given to “Community Rugby.”
Rugby Australia has repeatedly said that one of the reasons why the Western Force was culled from Super Rugby last year was to allow for more funds to flow into the grassroots of the game
But Gerrard, who returned to Sydney’s northern beaches this year after his second stint playing in the Japanese Top League, called on the community to do all it could to help get rugby back on the right track.
“I’m sick of hearing about people talking about grassroots and not do anything,” Gerrard told foxsports.com.au.
“You always need more money.
“I need more money to renovate my house.
“But I’m not going to wait forever, I’m going to try and make it work.
“I want to get in there and do as much as I can.
“That’s the growth of the game.
“If we don’t get those players interested at that young age all the way through you lose them.”
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In particular, Gerrard said that it was vital that better pathways were provided, which would see youngsters get involved in the game from a younger age and give clarity as to the roadmap for representative honours.
“I believe that all the Super Rugby franchises should have an academy junior program which runs from 12 years old – the start of high school – and see them until they’re 18,” Gerrard said.
“You’ve got age groups.
“You’ve got how many clubs, teams they have, there should be no GPS, CHS, you’ve got to bring these Sydney based boys together.
“What about if the Waratahs had a Sydney north, a Sydney west, a Sydney east and a Sydney south?
“Create little academy programs.
“It’s not going to be easy.
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“West could be out of West Harbour for a month and then to TG Milner.
“North could be at North Sydney Oval and then move to Warringah or Manly Oval.
“Easts could be at Easts or Randwick or Sydney Uni.
“You’ve got to be a bit innovative in how you structure these academies.”
Gerrard was adamant that getting rugby back into the public schools was the most important step the game could make.
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Shute Shield captains from Sydney Uni and Warringah Rats
Shute Shield captains from Sydney Uni and Warringah RatsSource: Supplied
“Schools and clubs, especially from 12, 13, 14 years of age,” he said.
“This is where we need to nurture these kids and give them a pathway.
“If the end result is you want to be a Wallaby, then how do you get there?
“I asked this question to my son’s Tigers’ team and I asked these questions to their fathers as well, in separate.
“I asked them how you make the Wallabies?
“’You’ve got to be good to good enough to make the Waratahs.’
“How do you get to the Waratahs?
“’Just be really good.’
“And the parents said ‘you’ve just got to wait until they’re older to play for the Waratahs.’
“I said ‘well, there’s no pathway then obviously.
“I asked the same question to my league parents and they said ‘SG Ball, Harold Matthews, Jersey Flegg’ and it grows and grows and grows.
“There’s a clear pathway.
“Why don’t we have that?
“’Yeah, good question,’ they responded.”
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Originally Posted by chibi
) getting most of the development spots and smaller ones giving it away. Coaches seeing these programs as their pathway as much as the kids': Coaches therefore, copying the "against the spirit of the game" tricks of the NRL coaches, wrestling in the PTB, tactical offside, etc, etc. Kids having creativity stifled in favour of structure. Clubs bringing country and NZ players as young as 14 or 15 to the cities for their Harold Matthews and SG Ball squads - to the obvious detriment of their country clubs which are shriveling on the vine. Even when these pathway competitions finish those same coaches tend to keep development players together in district competitions, flogging all the other teams to the extent that a lot of kids get disheartened and give it away. 
