Corrupt Communities
It was the March 28, 2015 the under 15’s State Championships, the team manager of the Eastern Suburbs Roosters -spent over $150,000 dollars on acquiring players from across the nation and paying for their travel fees. Let me just repeat for clarity - Under 15s! Obviously this team won the entire tournament, but this is an utter disgrace. The rest of the teams in the tournament are disadvantaged as they have to play against virtually a Junior Australian Team, hardly an even playing field! This gives the rest of the young athletes participating a very small chance of winning, and a microscopic chance of being noticed and selected in higher ranked teams. This in turn, diminishes the up-and-coming players’ opportunity of being in the NRL, when they may truly have potential. The system is completely corrupt from the ground up and needs to be exposed and dealt with. I remember how influential my own local, grassroots rugby coaches were. They introduced me to the sport and kept me interested in our great national game. My coach would support and guide each player with what we needed to improve on and how to go about being the best that we could be. Our game used to be about the love and community spirit. It was about playing the game with your mates and developing talent
But we now witness coaches spend money on their team for their own benefit. There is a self-interest that has gradually crept into the game, even at the local level, and it is destroying the sense of fair play and community. It also destroys the opportunity for our young and up-and-coming stars to break through into the NRL by showing off their talent. Where is the encouragement of young talent? Where is the community feel? Since when did Under 15s become “big business” rather than a local sport propped up by the Bunnings Sausage Sizzle? Managers of our local grassroots football teams that keep our great game alive, are now trying to kill the spirit and history of how Rugby league began. We have to find a way to stop this.
After visiting several grassroots coaches and their rugby clubs, I found that this is effecting many clubs around the nation.
Coach Brad Ferguson- Midtown Bears Junior rugby Club
“In the past year we have lost three players due to poaching, it has absolutely ruined our team's chemistry and has brought a divide in our community team.”
Mike Stansberry- Association of Junior Rugby League
“We are aware of such things as poaching are present in our current grassroots competitions, We are trying to plan ways to prevent this from happening, we have considered many avenues to take but it is hard to keep track of everything.”
By Scobie Jenkins