A much-needed and long overdue meeting of Lower Mid North Coast rugby union clubs will be held next Tuesday December 4 at Nabiac to discuss the re-introduction of a junior competition.
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Tom Davidson, the NSW Rugby Union’s North Coast development officer, will chair the meeting at the Nabiac Hotel from 6pm at which the structure, age group and venues will be determined and competition officials appointed.
The Myall Coast Mudcrabs withdrew from the competition last season, leaving just five first grade senior teams – without a junior competition - from Forster-Tuncurry in the Great Lakes to the premiership-winning Wallamba Bulls club at Nabiac with the competition’s remaining three clubs the Manning River Ratz in Taree, the Gloucester Cockies in Gloucester and the Clams at Old Bar.
Junior players are the lifeblood of any sport, feeding players into the senior ranks, but without youth nurseries to develop rugby’s crucial basics and skills, all clubs save Wallamba have struggled for numbers in recent seasons.
“It is imperative we initiate a competition such as we had previously. I believe an under 16 competition is the way to go. It has to happen,” Forster president, Damian Daczko said.
“We have been fortunate at the Dolphins to have a strong core of players such as our props Ben Manning and Lee Crozier, Matt Nuku and Mark Hagarty, and the Harris brothers, Tom and Colin, but where do we find the next crop of players?”
In that period, the Forster Dolphins had in their junior ranks, all too briefly, the splendid Jamal Idris, who eventually played professionally in the NRL and ultimately represented Australia at Test level.
Like rugby league and soccer, rugby union is a physically robust code. Without a junior system for several years, local rugby clubs have survived, but with declining numbers.
Last year, Wallamba club’s coaches, Lee Sullivan and Jim Wilson, initiated a highly commendable coaching program for junior players, but it has been apparent for some time that a unified approach was needed by all clubs to rehabilitate a competition of some nature.
After an introductory season of seven-a-side rugby for women, the Lower MNC has expanded the competition to 10-a-side this winter. If numbers dictated, a similar policy could be implemented at youth level. Tom Davidson has listed matters to be raised at the meeting as committee positions and roles; venue locations; competition dates; game format and ground management.
