Central Coast Rugby League: President answers questions about under-19s changes
With questions over logistics, the impact on players and club resources, the head of the CCRL has explained planned changes to the under-19 competition.
Central Coast
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The Central Coast Community Rugby League has sought to ease concerns clubs may have about the planned changes to the division’s under-19s competition next year, outlining the board’s vision and answering some key questions about how the new competition will function.
Earlier this month the CCRL, along with the Newcastle Rugby League and Hunter Junior Rugby League, announced plans to merge the Central Coast under-19 competition with the Newcastle and Maitland under-18.5 grade to form a single competition across the Central Coast-Hunter Region in 2024.
It was also announced that Wyong and The Entrance were invited to join the Newcastle Rugby League under-19s competition – the premier youth division in the Hunter that aligns with the Denton Engineering Cup – in what would be a two-tiered system.
Officials from a string of Central Coast clubs raised questions and concerns about various issues associated with what would be the biggest shake-up of the age group in decades, and have called on more information from the division as to the finer details of the system.
Gerard Andrews, the president of the CCRL board, said the decision to combine the competitions was primarily driven by a reduction in playing numbers in the age group over recent seasons, with the Central Coast under-19s competition falling from eight clubs in 2021 to just five both last season and in 2023.
“Both regions got together and said, ‘We do have a decline in numbers,’” said Andrews.
“We looked at the history from 15s, 16s and 17s, and looked at what’s coming up, both historically and in the future of what the 19s looks like, and it didn’t look good as far as the migration from 16s and 17s into 19s football. There’s a massive drop-off,” he added.
“And what we’ve got to look forward to in both those regions are declining numbers in their respective competitions.”
Indeed, there are currently nine under-17s teams from seven clubs across the under-17 grade this year, with Erina and Terrigal both fielding two teams.
Last year there were 10 teams from six clubs spread across two divisions. This came after there were nine teams from nine clubs in 2021, and 11 teams from nine different clubs in 2020.
‘In decline and dying’
Instead of waiting for the new year to see how numbers for the age group were tracking, Andrews pointed to recent history as to why the division made the call to combine the competitions now.
“At the start of the year we put out submissions for everyone. Every single club puts in an under-19s application,” he said.
“But as time goes by they say, ‘We’ve only got three turning up to training, we won’t have an under-19s team,’ so it gets very hard to plan and get a draw out, and then there are clubs pulling out within weeks of the commencement of the season.
“So this way, we’re ensuring that we definitely have a competition up and running, because we’ve got four or five clubs up there and we’ve got four to five clubs here.
“And in time, we may not need to do a migrated competition; we may then go back to our individual competitions based on numbers. But if this works, which everyone thinks that it will, we’ll get a lot more players playing the game at the under-19s level, which is in decline and dying at the moment.”
Creating an even competition
In addition to concerns over broader playing numbers, Andrews says that the proposals – and in particular the invitations for Wyong and The Entrance to join the top-tier competition – were made in order to encourage teenagers to make the jump to seniors and ensure a more even competition across the board.
“We looked at the numbers coming through in the 17s, and we saw a lot of those teams are 17 (division) two standard, which means a lot of them weren’t playing (under-19s) because they didn’t want to get flogged by Wyong and The Entrance every second or third week – it’s not fun.
“So we knew that we needed to retain 17 twos into the 19s here locally, and the only way to do that was to say, ‘Wyong and The Entrance aren’t here, and if you guys want to stay with your mates and your local club you can do so, because it’s not going to be so hard for you,’” Andrews said.
He added: “We needed to ensure that if they’re leaving the Central Coast competition that there’s a sustainable, competitive competition for both regions. There’s an 18.5s up there (in the Hunter), which is like a second division of the under-19s.
“You’ve also got the district clubs in Newcastle and six of them field under-19s, so there’s a spot available for two more, which is Wyong and The Entrance, to fill that.”
Representatives from both the Roos and Tigers have said they haven’t yet made a decision on what they would do with their 19s team next season, and would wait for more information on the finer details of the proposals before making a call.
Concerns over structure, logistics
One of the main questions coming from local clubs was just how the competition would function, with concerns that the extra travel would not only turn potential players away but also place a strain on logistics.
“You’ve got to remember that if these 19s aren’t at school then they’re apprentices. They don’t have money for fuel to get up to Maitland and Newcastle every second week. Some of my boys struggle to get to Toukley, with fuel the way it is,” said Kincumber president Lyndon Duncan.
“I’m going to struggle to get my guys up to Newcastle. We’re going to have to get a Coaster or a 20-seater bus to get them around. People say, ‘Oh it’s Newcastle, it’s not that far.’ It’s an hour and 50/two hours to get there, then two hours to get home.”
While acknowledging the extra travel, Andrews said the plan was to construct the draw in a manner that would attempt to ease the burden on clubs and players.
“What we’re going to try to do is build up numbers (on the Central Coast) hopefully to six so we can play each other twice locally, they play each other twice locally at the northern end and then we mix at the back of the season where we all play each other once,” he said.
“It only means travelling up there no more than four times, and we can find a neutral location so both regions aren’t travelling as far, or we can get compensation: we can order a bus and the players can go up together, have some fun, a game of footy and then come back – and that will be funded by the NSWRL.”
It is not yet known how many teams will nominate for the Central Coast under-19s competition next year. However there is hope that even if Wyong and The Entrance move to the top-tier Newcastle competition that the likes of Terrigal and Toukley will enter sides to complement the existing teams and bring local numbers up to five.
In addition, similar logistical questions were raised over the trainers, strappers and other support staff, with concerns that not having all teams from one club at the same ground on the same day would stretch volunteer resources.
However Andrews says the division has sought to ease the pressure on clubs with a compromise solution.
“You only need a blue shirt when you go away, because we’re going to strike a deal that if they do have an orange shirt or a strapper or a table that they need then they can share that with the home side,” he said.
“Likewise when those clubs come down to play us, we’ve also got to be accommodating and let other clubs share the strapping table, for example.”
Still on the topic of resources and logistics, many clubs that rely on under-19s players to fill in for other grades were worried they may be left short for numbers with their youth grade teams playing away games in the Hunter.
However the association is confident that given the small amount of games in Newcastle, as well as the nature of the draw, that this shouldn’t place too much of a strain on clubs.
“When they do play away, they’re likely to be playing on a Saturday up in the Hunter region, which means they are still available to back-up on the Sunday for their respective higher grade team,” said Andrews.
‘Ensuring the survival of the game’
Following the announcement, opinion on the Coast about the proposed changes has been mixed, with some clubs keeping an open mind but demanding more information, and others applying a more critical torch to the plans.
While acknowledging the considerable changes to the competition, Andrews said that the boards in both regions felt they were obliged to act amid falling player numbers.
“It’s tough, but you’ve got to make the tough choices to ensure the survival of the game,” he said.
“And with the 19s, if we didn’t do something now, it was going to be in dire straits. I’d probably then have further blame with people saying why didn’t we do anything?
“Well, this is an attempt to do something, and we’ve got collaboration and understanding from both regions that this is the way forward and we’ve given it every chance to make it work. We’re trying to give kids a game of football that they enjoy.”
And while clubs have been frustrated by the lack of detail and clarity on the matter, the CCRL is continuing to work through the details on issues like the ability for players to move between competitions, with Andrews noting that they will meet with the clubs in the coming months.
“We’ll get the season over and done with firstly, and then get the officials from the respective clubs to outline the vision for the under-19s.”
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