Reverse the colts age, under 19s is killing us.
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That’s the passionate message CSU Bathurst club captain Charlie McIntosh sent to the Central West Rugby Union board, just over a week out from the start of the 2017 Blowes Clothing Cup season.
On Thursday morning McIntosh confirmed the students will battle to field a colts team at all in 2017 – let alone a competitive one.
CWRU took a firm stance on the issue before this year, saying any clubs unable to field a colts side would be relegated to the second tier GrainCorp Cup.
McIntosh explained his club is desperate to avoid that, suggesting relegation would be devastatingly detrimental to any hope of clubs returning to the top tier anyway, and has done everything in its power to recruit colts-aged players.
It just hasn’t happened.
There’s a number of factors contributing to that for the students, but the under-19 age bracket is the biggest.
“We’re battling,” McIntosh said, succinctly.
“It’s not just us having trouble, I know that. It’s not going to make for much of a competition if [CWRU] relegates several clubs either.
“CSU has had a 40 per cent decrease in on campus enrollments, but that’s just part of the issue. There’s also not a lot of people going straight from high school to university anymore.
“With the competition being under 19s, that takes out a significant portion of players available to us.
“We’ve lost a few to Bathurst Bulldogs as well, which doesn’t help.
“We’re at a point where we’re having to offer discounted registration for the colts and we already make absolutely zero profit on that as it is. Times are tough … but we’re still pushing, we’re still trying.
“We’re having a club meeting Thursday night to brainstorm ideas and try and come up with a solution. We’ve reached out to our old boys and are trying to utilise any contacts we have to try and get a colts side together.
“Everyone is now a recruitment officer as far as I’m concerned”.
The best solution, in CSU’s eyes, is also the simplest.
“We’d call for Central West to consider raising the age back to under 20s, now,” McIntosh fired.
“There’s some really good things happening at the club at the moment, we’ve appointed Scott Hatch as head coach and Nathan Caroll as our strength and conditioning coach.
“We’re putting in a good foundation to improve the club in the long run, but how is that going to work if we can’t get a colts side together (to benefit in later years)?”
Anyone interested in playing can get in contact via the CSU Mitchell Rugby Facebook page.
Matt Findlay
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
