one less junior league club in melbourne

[horrie's heroes]

wtf, how could this happen?

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/06/08/1086460294941.html?oneclick=true

man... if we're ever going to make an impact in victoria we should at least be making an effort at the grassroots. wyndham city as far as i can tell were one of the larger and more organised junior clubs and they had the best purpose built field, even named after glen lazarus. now they've gone over wholesale to yawnion. i understand that there may have been some issues between the clubs president and the vrl but surely they could've been sorted out.

 

[Jeffles]

Tragic. While the VRL administration is partially to blame, the Philip St-Holt St-Bent St axis of evil must also be accountable for not pushing the profile of RL in Melbourne.

 

[yakstorm]

What a BS article.

The individual who runs the Wyndham Rugby League club almost ran the Melbourne Junior Rugby League into the ground. He successfully took the MJRL which had as many as 26 clubs when he took over it and ran into down into a 6 team competition.

When the remaining clubs revolted, and all said they would leave league if he didn't, he finally resigned and then took his club with him across to Union. The VRL officials as well last year have been removed for their poor form, and have been replaced by at least a more forward oriented group.

 

[horrie's heroes]

i wasn't too sure about the "issues" involved between drummond and the vrl, but i knew there was something to it. thanks for clearing that up yakstorm. sounds like he ran the mjrl as his personal plaything and when it was taken off him he cried and took his club to somebody else who would play with him. but the fact remanins the vrl have lost one strong junior club. any hope of them coming back if drummond left the scene?

 

[TheFirstRabbitoh]

Arguing about whose fault it is is bollocks.

I've heard people bag the crap out of Drummond and blame him for the state of Melbourne RL. I've also heard people stick up for him and say it was the VRL that were to blame.

In the end that's entirely immaterial - the in-fighting's and total lack of NRL support has run the competition into the ground.

At the end of the day, there's no colts grade in Melbourne and anyone who plays league as a junior has nowhere to go after they reach 15 or 16 years old. Except union.

 

[yakstorm]

Agreed there with First Rabbitoh in the fact that there has been a lack of NRL support, and on the MJRL issue, the end of the day the competition, if the VRL/NRL/ARL want it to grow, it can't be run by someone who has a club connection.

There is certainly no innocent parties down there south of the border which is a real shame that so much potential which was there after the Storm enterted the comp in 99 has now been lost, and the Junior competition now is smaller than it was pre-Storm.

Even the Junior club I played for in Melbourne no longer exists in a playing form is quite depressing.

 

[Jeffles]

Thanks for the info Yakstorm

 

[Alan Shore]

Drummond is hopeless and incompetent, but then again so are the VRL and NRL. The Storm do their best but they can't do much without league backing.

 

[Mark Rudd]

More worrying is that I havn't heard the NRL give out HOW their going to help RL in Victoria.


They should've been doing something 10 years ago.

 

[Tadpole]

 

[saddog]

Still, its a real pity as I was lead to believe that Wyndham City Chargers were very progressive. In fact, the club I am involved with have played a game against thier under 18s each year for the last few years, and they had a few good kids, and were quite competitive. It is a ridiculous sitiuation that ther is nothing above under 16s to progress to , simply start an 18s comp and teams will step up, and the link to senior footy is al least plugged.

 

[Jeffles]

Interesting to see that there were two clear sides to this story and how misleading it can be to only hear one.

Thanks for the tip Yakstorm.