sad news. Another foundation club to bite the dust in the older age open competition. I don't see that article as being totally accurate with regards to saying that it costs Wests Tigers themselves $1m as it doesn't. Still. It is a News Ltd rag saying it. www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/ ... 6241210873

sad news. Another foundation club to bite the dust in the older age open competition. I don't see that article as being totally accurate with regards to saying that it costs Wests Tigers themselves $1m as it doesn't. Still. It is a News Ltd rag saying it. www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/ ... 6241210873

Why has the leagues club ended their association?

Not sure why. I could only speculate.

What is interesting to consider is that they are going to spend more on junior dev, but then have one less club to play at when they reach 20. That's a shame also.

I thought he full point of the leagues club were to support the clubs?

westsmagpies.blogspot.com/2012/0 ... y.html?m=1 So Magpies are 'dead' as they're not in the NSW Cup and mergers don't count as 'alive'. On that basis, Balmain Tigers died when Balmain-Ryde-Eastwood started. St George aren't in the NSW Cup, so they must be dead too, while Newtown, Illawarra and Norths are alive and kicking. Oh and I've heard the Bulldogs have confirmed they will return to Belmore on Sunday, 12 February to play the Roosters across all grades.

westsmagpies.blogspot.com/2012/0 ... y.html?m=1 So Magpies are 'dead' as they're not in the NSW Cup and mergers don't count as 'alive'. On that basis, Balmain Tigers died when Balmain-Ryde-Eastwood started. St George aren't in the NSW Cup, so they must be dead too, while Newtown, Illawarra and Norths are alive and kicking. Oh and I've heard the Bulldogs have confirmed they will return to Belmore on Sunday, 12 February to play the Roosters across all grades.

You're preaching to the converted.

Maybe when they first opened and for many years after, but to be honest their first obligation these days it to their members. If a club wants to increase, cut or remove a budget to any of the sporting organisations they give money to, they can.

It appears that is is not well between the merged clubs. www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/leag ... 1pxjl.html

It appears that is is not well between the merged clubs. www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/leag ... 1pxjl.html

Interesting considering that Sheens has put most of his players to Balmain for the last couple of seasons anyway.

My preference is that they both exist.

Bloody NRL again.

Money root of all evil I'm afraid

To prove how good the media are. Did anyone notice that in the SMH it said that Wests Ashfield allocate $400,000, whilst in the Daily Telegraph, it says Wests Ashfield spend $300,000 on the side.

They just stumble from figure to figure. That's a $100,000 difference.

It's a bit like the Daly Cherry Evans's mum is English story. Or the Adrian Morley WANTS to play for NSW in Origin story. Complete nonsense.



Please don't eat everything you are fed.

If it costs $500,000 or whatever to run one senior side in, let's face it, an irrelevent competition that attracts fewer fans than most country clubs, I'm not surprised they want to cut them. I wish we had that money to spend in other areas that really need it or could put it to better use. Sucks for old Magpies fans but how many of them exist anyway? It's another case of history being given too great a value. They're not the old club they used to be anyway because they're not playing at the top level, not playing at Campbelltown or Pratten Park or whatever, not playing to big crowds etc. They're just a team of second stringers that wear the same colours etc. It's just not such a desperately terrible thing to lose them. There are much bigger issues in the game. It's also a case of Sydney-centicity. Country Groups are more important for the game but cost less to run but you wouldn't see a single piece of publicity if for some reason a Group was forced to cease playing.

Good points ECT. I guess there's a lot of emotion and nostalgia about it all. Though calling it an irrelevant comp is a bit far. Go and ask NRL clubs that if they'd had a choice out of the two, would they rather keep their NRL Us20s team going or a reserve grade side going and see what they say.

Yeah but it's irrelevent to the average fan. No one goes to the games or really care. To spend half a mil on a team in that comp seems like such a waste. Imagine what that money could do elsewhere. And in this case the NRL club doesn't want this reserve grade side. So if they have few fans, few sponsors and their NRL club doesn't want them it says quite a bit really. On the broader issue of reserve grade versus u20s I think the clubs would be split. Some would rather have u20s and some prefer reserves. And some would change their mind more often than they change their jerseys.

how true.

1/2 mill would be about right. When the plan for the WA Reds was to move up to NSW cup from Jim Beam they were going to need a budget of around $800k to run a squad and pay for travel and accommodation. We wisely decided we could do alot more good with that money by investing it in our jnr set up.

Given ABC screens womens cricket I am surprised there isn;t national FTA covg of NSW cup, that would make it more attractive to sponsors and fans. Hopefully the IC will set about soerting out the 2nd tier of our game after they have sorted out the NRL.

True, but it is on Fox Sports midweek. As is a QLD Cup game's highlights.

The ABC goes out of its way to broadcast women's sport as some kind of effort to bring sexual equality to the TV sporting scene. Of course most of it would rate dismally, but that's not the point. We're lucky they still show the Qld Cup in Qld at all considering the direction ABC sport has gone in recent years. It's probably only tradition that keeps it going, even though it would rate better than most of the basketball. netball, bowls and the like they show. The likelihood of them expanding their RL coverage in the future is virtually nil. Especially as the NSW Cup is a bit of a farce. At least the Qld Cup maintains the facade of being a selection of clubs independent of the NRL from across the state. The NSW Cup is just a reserve grade for Sydney clubs that the clubs don't even want to play in in some cases. It's not a state league.