Thirteen Group 6 teams withdraw from comp

[***MH***]

http://www.rlcm.com.au/latest-news/7949-rugby-league

Thirteen Group 6 teams withdraw from comp
Wednesday, 13 October 2010 10:53
By Alexandra Beech -

The Group 6/Wests combined competition has been cancelled after the country teams voted unanimously last Tuesday to give the Campbelltown teams the boot. Group 6 president Grahame Andrews said the decision from all 13 Group 6 clubs, the referees association and junior association was partially based on disagreements over off-field behaviour. "There's certainly been some grievances," he said. "There's been some dramatic differences of opinion in off-field behaviour," he said.
"There's some incidents that we don't feel have been treated properly off field."
At the Group 6 grand finals at Campbelltown Stadium last month, a brawl broke out in the crowd between 40 people.
A Bringelly man, 23, a Narellan man, 24, a Ruse man, 32 and a Mount Annan man, 20, were arrested and police forced another 30 people out of the stadium for being drunk and disruptive.
Andrews said brawls such as this had not been a catalyst and there had been a number of reasons for the Group 6 decision.
He said they had fought hard to get the combined competition started and there had been some good outcomes from the joint venture.
"It's certainly benefited our first grade competition combining with Wests," Andrews said.
Western Suburbs District Junior Rugby League chief executive Julie Luke said they hoped Group 6 would reverse its decision.
"This outcome is very disappointing and we are particularly saddened for all of our clubs who have competed over the past two seasons and who have worked tirelessly to build the competition into by far and away the largest senior rugby league competition in NSW," she said.

 

[elbusto]

http://www.rlcm.com.au/latest-news/7949-rugby-league

What does this mean for the Wests Clubs and how many are affected?

 

[CoachMan]

All of the Wests clubs have been hit. For them it came pretty much out of the blue. The Wests administration must have seen something coming - after all they were behind the main reasons that Group 6 wanted to split. There were a few incidents throughout the year with Wests clubs, and they didn't handle it to Group 6's expectations.

At the moment Wests seem to be stalling because they don't have an answer, or a plan, to tell the clubs. Best case scenario from the clubs is that they run their own comp to the same standards group 6 was over the last 2 seasons. In saying that, the people at the top need to be wiling to accept blame, and grow from the experience

 

[Flapper]

Is there any indication of which clubs contributed to the increased violence?

It's probably for the best if the Wests teams can just get their sh*t together, Group 6 is a superior comp with or without the Wests teams, but with them added in it's, as was noted, easily the best senior comp going around.

 

[CoachMan]

There were two main issues:

1 was an on field brawl caused by the Hinchinbrook club against Bowral. The fight got really out of hand, and the Wests club was banned for the year as a result.

the 2nd was the Collegians club, who allegedly assaulted a bouncer at their major sponsors place at a post game function. Wests administration pretty much swept this whole incident under the rug, against the wishes of Group 6, and of all the clubs, who wanted Collegians banned. The incident has caused a lot of tension and arguments of bias toward that club, especially when the Wests administration regularly throw out heavy handed suspensions for small incidents (case in point a man was given an 18 month suspension over an sms questioning why a 14 year old was not registered to play - with no foul language or threats).

There was also an awful lot of talk that the Group 6 administration simply could not handle working with the Wests staff who were forceful, domineering and unwilling to listen or compromise. Which from my experience would not be far fetched at all.

 

[Flapper]

Fair enough. I'm a big fan of Group 6 ball, especially Oakdale through my dad playing there and mine living there, and I hate to see it weakened in any way. I'd rather see a healthy G6 without the Wests teams than a fractured G6 with them

 

[RedVee]

Thats a real shame, I was pleased about the reunification returning the Campbelltown teams to the comp.
I'd be disapointed if Collies were the problem having attended for 6 years watching my boy run around for them and being a member of the nearby licensed club you point to. I thought it was a good move for Collies to join in at this level, but if what you say is correct it would be better for their A grade to serve a 12 month suspension (or whatever) than to lose the comp altogether.
Before the unification most of the problems seemed to come from Narellan, which is classified as a G6 team not a Campelltown team.

 

[The Major]

There were two main issues:

1 was an on field brawl caused by the Hinchinbrook club against Bowral. The fight got really out of hand, and the Wests club was banned for the year as a result.

the 2nd was the Collegians club, who allegedly assaulted a bouncer at their major sponsors place at a post game function. Wests administration pretty much swept this whole incident under the rug, against the wishes of Group 6, and of all the clubs, who wanted Collegians banned. The incident has caused a lot of tension and arguments of bias toward that club, especially when the Wests administration regularly throw out heavy handed suspensions for small incidents (case in point a man was given an 18 month suspension over an sms questioning why a 14 year old was not registered to play - with no foul language or threats).

There was also an awful lot of talk that the Group 6 administration simply could not handle working with the Wests staff who were forceful, domineering and unwilling to listen or compromise. Which from my experience would not be far fetched at all.

What grade for Hinchinbrook had the donny brook with Bowral? I played in the A grade comp last year and Hinchinbrook forfeited games towards the latter end of the season and we werent told why. I wonder if thats what it was for, that they got punted for fighting.

 

[CoachMan]

The Hinchinbrook brawl was in 3rd Grade. 2010 Season. Apparently they have a suspended $5000 fine as well, and were originally told they couldn't field a team in 2011, but I'm not sure where that stands now the comp has split.

 

[Highlander]

It was not Hincinbrook players who were the main problem it was some of there supporters getting into a fight with another supporter (Who was registered with another club NOT Bowral) That started the whole thing!! which then spilled into the players becoming involed.

There were multiple issues through out the year i seen a few

The biggest problem with the merger was group 6 controlled its clubs and Wests so forth. There was no merger at board level.

The Real fight now is the wests clubs trying to jump ship