After months of proposals, feedback, negotiating and tweaking, the Central West Rugby Union (CWRU) board has finally confirmed a number of changes to the Blowes Clothing Cup competitions, effective from next season onwards.
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And they are radical.
Firstly, and crucially, Dubbo Rhinos will re-enter the top tier competition, and CWRU chief executive officer Peter Veenstra confirmed the club will field first grade, second grade and colts outfits.
As a result, the Blowes Clothing Cup will be an 11-team competition, which needs to fit into an 18-week season.
And so, in one of the biggest moves in the competition’s history, the Blowes Clothing Cup will be split into two pools, two thirds of the way through the season.
After playing every other side once in the opening 12 weeks of the competition, the 11 clubs will split into two random pools - one of five, one of six - to play out the final six weeks of the regular season.
From there, the five team finals series will be determined from the overall points tally.
“We’ve got 11 clubs, with 12 weeks to get through (for one full round),” Veenstra explained.
“The second half of the season will be six weeks, so the draw will be done and we’ll go from there.
“All the sides will play the same number of matches, and the finals will be the top five full stop. The top five overall, combined.”
Veenstra explained the board sees this route as the best result for all involved, and while conceding they can’t please everyone, he said the committee is confident in the new system.
Under the new changes, and in an expected move, CWRU has made first grade, second grade and colts mandatory for all the clubs, as the latter wasn’t compulsory under the board’s original proposed structure.
Colts will be changed from an under-20 competition to an under-19 age group, despite resistance from the larger clubs in the region.
“Colts will be mandatory, but the thinking of the board is to change the by-laws so it becomes a bit like the junior competitions so that if teams don’t have 15 players, the numbers are matched so it becomes a competitive game,” Veenstra explained, with the minimum number of players set at 10.
However, if colts teams don’t field at least 14, they officially forfeit the result with the number matching rule in place to ensure as much rugby is played as possible.
“One of the reasons we’ve gone back to the under-19 age group is that we’re very much aware of leakage from the under-17s.
“We know there were clubs where no under-17 players played in the under-20 competitions, and that had to do with the three-year gap being too great.
“This brings it back to the two-year gap we have between all the junior age groups.
“We’ll also be trying to have third graders playing every second week.”
The Rhinos have stated with confidence they will have three grades and Veenstra said the returning club has his full support.
“We know the Rhinos have at least 15 players on their books for the colts age group,” he said.
“So they will have ones, twos and colts.
“They’ve worked very hard at recruiting, they’re working with the Clontarf Foundation in Dubbo, and also with the Senior College.
“They’ve been very proactive in sourcing colts players.”
The GrainCorp Cup is also set for somewhat of a revamp, with Temora and Cootamundra likely to move from the Southern Inland Rugby Union, into the second tier Central West competition.
- Matt Findlay, Central Western Daily