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Provinces free game from zones
By TONY SMITH - The Press | Tuesday, 30 October 2007
A Canterbury-led initiative has forced the New Zealand Rugby League to make changes to its new provincial competition.
League's grass roots have kicked into touch key components of a controversial review by NZRL director of football Graham Lowe. The former Kiwis coach had championed a zone-based representative programme and a national inter-club competition to replace the axed 22-week Bartercard Cup national championship.
The Bartercard Cup first contested in 2000 has not been revived but the bulk of Lowe's proposal was rejected by the NZRL's 15 districts and seven affiliates at a conference in Wellington earlier this month after Canterbury Rugby Football League (CRFL) and the Taranaki district tabled alternative proposals.
NZRL general manager Peter Cordtz confirmed yesterday that the mid-season zonal competition and the end-of-season national inter-club championship had been scrapped.
A seven-week representative programme will now be played at the completion of the club season in August, culminating in a grand final at the end of September.
Cordtz said there would be three divisions in the representative championships.
Canterbury, Wellington, Waikato and Auckland will contest the first division. The remaining 11 districts will play in the second and third divisions on a regional basis.
The new structure won the unanimous support of the conference and was endorsed by the NZRL board at a special meeting before the Kiwis-Australia test in Wellington on October 13.
The senior representative programme will be underpinned by National Junior Cup competitions. An under-16 series will be staged in June followed by the under-18 campaign in July to early August.
Cordtz said the new format was "very similar" to the representative programme in the "early to mid-'90s", before the advent of the Lion Red Cup national franchise competition.
"In the end, despite a fair bit of angst, it's a good outcome," he said.
Cordtz said the new structure would still achieve the key plank of Lowe's review, "to rebuild the base of the game club football".
"Most of the concern was about the lack of a strong provincial programme." It was widely believed that could not be achieved by the "short-format" zonal system proposed in the Lowe review.
Cordtz said the districts had made it clear they wanted to retain their own provincial identities.
Neither the bigger provinces nor the smaller districts were keen on the prospect of big scoreline blowouts in the zonal system, which would have pitted Canterbury against West Coast, Otago and Southland in a southern zone competition in June. A southern zone team basically Canterbury in drag would then have played against the Central, Northern and Auckland zones in July.
The CRFL made it clear it preferred to play as Canterbury especially after losing the Canterbury Bulls franchise, which Cordtz acknowledged was the "best known brand" in the Bartercard Cup.
Canterbury was also concerned the Lowe plan could fragment the club season. Cordtz said the new national inter-club competition was a "casualty" of the revamped programme
Provinces free game from zones
By TONY SMITH - The Press | Tuesday, 30 October 2007
A Canterbury-led initiative has forced the New Zealand Rugby League to make changes to its new provincial competition.
League's grass roots have kicked into touch key components of a controversial review by NZRL director of football Graham Lowe. The former Kiwis coach had championed a zone-based representative programme and a national inter-club competition to replace the axed 22-week Bartercard Cup national championship.
The Bartercard Cup first contested in 2000 has not been revived but the bulk of Lowe's proposal was rejected by the NZRL's 15 districts and seven affiliates at a conference in Wellington earlier this month after Canterbury Rugby Football League (CRFL) and the Taranaki district tabled alternative proposals.
NZRL general manager Peter Cordtz confirmed yesterday that the mid-season zonal competition and the end-of-season national inter-club championship had been scrapped.
A seven-week representative programme will now be played at the completion of the club season in August, culminating in a grand final at the end of September.
Cordtz said there would be three divisions in the representative championships.
Canterbury, Wellington, Waikato and Auckland will contest the first division. The remaining 11 districts will play in the second and third divisions on a regional basis.
The new structure won the unanimous support of the conference and was endorsed by the NZRL board at a special meeting before the Kiwis-Australia test in Wellington on October 13.
The senior representative programme will be underpinned by National Junior Cup competitions. An under-16 series will be staged in June followed by the under-18 campaign in July to early August.
Cordtz said the new format was "very similar" to the representative programme in the "early to mid-'90s", before the advent of the Lion Red Cup national franchise competition.
"In the end, despite a fair bit of angst, it's a good outcome," he said.
Cordtz said the new structure would still achieve the key plank of Lowe's review, "to rebuild the base of the game club football".
"Most of the concern was about the lack of a strong provincial programme." It was widely believed that could not be achieved by the "short-format" zonal system proposed in the Lowe review.
Cordtz said the districts had made it clear they wanted to retain their own provincial identities.
Neither the bigger provinces nor the smaller districts were keen on the prospect of big scoreline blowouts in the zonal system, which would have pitted Canterbury against West Coast, Otago and Southland in a southern zone competition in June. A southern zone team basically Canterbury in drag would then have played against the Central, Northern and Auckland zones in July.
The CRFL made it clear it preferred to play as Canterbury especially after losing the Canterbury Bulls franchise, which Cordtz acknowledged was the "best known brand" in the Bartercard Cup.
Canterbury was also concerned the Lowe plan could fragment the club season. Cordtz said the new national inter-club competition was a "casualty" of the revamped programme
