By Dale Budge
Never has club rugby been in such a difficult position as it is right now. A combination of our time-poor lifestyles, COVID impact, rugby’s dwindling popularity amongst younger people and the current governance structure are all contributing to its woes.
Counties Sports Hub editor Dale Budge has come up with five initiatives that could help give the sport a shot in the arm it so badly needs.
- A pre-season Beach Blitz tournament
Organising pre-season fixtures is getting harder – other unions start later than we do here in Counties Manukau and objectives from trial games don’t always align.
The sport needs to get people involved from the get-go, rather than being forced to wait for players’ appetites to come around. A celebration type tournament, with all teams being based at the same place in a carnival atmosphere might be the tonic to get players motivated sooner.
Imagine all clubs playing a number of 20-minute games against different opposition at somewhere like Port Waikato or Awhitu.
Each club could set up a marquee, with BBQ, music and players’ families. There could be plenty of team bonding, going for swims in between games etc.
There would be commercial opportunities for the Union to explore with the concept and there would be plenty of content for social media etc to spread the gospel and get people hungry again.
- Friday night U21s
I’ve written about this before but the answer to me is obvious. The best way to grow playing numbers is to expand the U21 grade, which will see more players flow through the system into other grades in future years.
Not only would Friday nights work better (end of the working week) but it needs to be played during warmer weather. I would seriously consider making U21s a summer competition or at least start it much earlier – beginning of March to early May at the latest. This way people will turn up.
Clubs can switch from trying to get patrons into the clubrooms after the game on Saturdays to putting on food and drinks for people to consume while watching the games.
By separating this grade out from the others, it will give more time and focus on the competition and makes the players become more of the focus. Most kids at that age would love seeing their photos on social media or reading about how they played etc.
Sticking with the traditional Saturday timeslot buries the grade behind Prems. Yeah, it is what we’ve always done but that is no longer working.
- All other senior rugby grouped together
Every year the Council of Delegates debates what the perfect structure for senior rugby should be. It fluctuates from less teams and more competitive rugby to more teams but more lopsided scores and much longer seasons. Players don’t want a long season but clubs need the bar takings so every year we reach an impossible place from which to make a decision.
Perhaps the better way is to fit the competition to the window available. Give the majority (see below) of players Easter and Queen’s Birthday weekends off and work back from the cut-off of having rep players available for finals.
That will leave a window of approximately 16 weeks, which lends itself to an eight-team competition playing home and away, starting in mid-March and with Easter and Queens Birthday off.
If we adopted an English football style Division 1, Division 2, Division 3 format, each team would slot into that based on where they finished the previous year. Automatic promotion and relegation mean teams can move up or drop down as they get stronger or weaker and will continue to play against teams that are of a similar quality to them, making for more meaningful rugby and no lopsided scores.
The U85s grade would be the exception to this as it is working perfectly as is.
- North v South Allstar game
The opportunity exists to create something akin to a State of Origin concept that could become a feature on the club calendar while also serving as a Counties Manukau trial. It sees the competition split into north and south. North would include Weymouth, Manurewa, Ardmore Marist, Karaka, Papakura, Beachlands and Drury while the South would feature Bombay, Pukekohe, Patumahoe, Waiuku, Puni, Tuakau, Onewhero, Te Kauwhata, Te Kohanga and Maramarua.
The leading club coaches would be picked to coach each team and the Counties Manukau coaches could help select the teams from each corresponding area.
The game would be played on Queen’s Birthday Weekend, with no other club rugby taking place and the creation of the Lomu-Vidiri Cup could go to the winning team.
It could be replicated at age group level and in the women’s grade.
There would a heap of interest in club form, which provides interest and content leading up to the selections.
- A stand-alone women’s club competition
We desperately need to create our own Counties Manukau women’s club competition otherwise we will never be able to do it. If our players are used to playing in a strong Auckland competition, that will only get stronger with the growth of the game, it will only get harder to prize them away to play locally.
Yes, that will upset the existing clubs like Manurewa or Ardmore Marist and maybe some players won’t feel that is the best way forward for them but if we don’t do it now it will become increasingly harder to ever do it and will make it much harder on future players.
I would use the existing women’s clubs – Manurewa, Ardmore Marist, Papakura, Patumahoe and Maramarua, who are entering a team this season.
Create a draft of the Counties Heat players, ensuring that all teams have equal access to the best players. From there, the clubs will recruit as usual. More clubs can be added when they have enough numbers to be part of draft.
The women’s game is on the up and we need to be part of it pronto otherwise the Heat will end up hurting.
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