blogging it real

Enough gets written about the NRL so I thought I'd fill in a few people on the Bartercard Cup now and then during the season. And it's a long season with 18 rounds (two full rounds home and away) plus 4 weeks of playoffs.

The competition has had major changes to it in terms of the teams that will participate. The organisers have tried taking it in the direction that the NRL has headed in over the past decade or so, cutting down the number of teams in it's central city (Sydney in the NRL and Auckland in the BC.) and introducing regional teams.

The competition has reduced from twelve teams down to ten teams with 5 from Auckland down from the 7/8 of past years. Those 5 Auckland teams are all regional sides which include feeder clubs rather than what we had before which was individual Auckland club sides. The idea behind the changes have been to include more clubs in Auckland and so hopefully get more of a following and also to raise the standard. The other positive benefit will be that more players will be available for the Auckland club competition.

Downsides are that many club supporters in Auckland.... HATE the Bartercard Cup and wish the NZRL would sod off and give the clubs back their players. The club supporters have not supported the BC and are still obviously far more likely to go wand watch their local club side on a Saturday than go to watch a handful of their players turn out alongside a bunch of players from other clubs in a regional team which may or may not exist in a few years from now. one club which hated it more than most were the Marist Richmond Brothers who declined to climb into bed with the Mt Albert Lions and so basically got shown the door. The other marriage was the Otahuhu Leopards and Eastern Tornadoes. Other sides such as the Tigers have been swallowed up by a North Harbour franchise, as have the Glenora Bears by the West Auckland initiative, and the Raiders by the Northland side. All other teams have remained as they were.

Personally I think it's a decent idea but it will only work if it ends up with the support of feeder clubs. I have heard rumours consistently over the past few years that many players have more loyalty tot heir local club than the BC and so don't turn out for BC sides. Also the 'low' wages (read: none) and travel (particularly for non-Auckland sides) are further disincentives for players.

Anyway, onto the comp.

The teams are:
Northern Storm (representing Northland plus the Hibiscus Coast)
Harbour League (representing North Harbour, and yes it's a stupid bloody name)
Waitakere Rangers (representing West Auckland)
Auckland Lions (representing central Auckland, though basically it's the Mt Albert Lions side that won the comp last year)
Tamaki Leopards (representing east Auckland witht he name Leopards coming from the Otahuhu club)
Counties Manukau Jets
Waicoa Bay Stallions (representing the Waikato, Coast to the west, and Bay of Plenty)
Central Falcons (representing the central North Island)
Wellington Orcas
Canterbury Bulls

First round results were
Waicoa Bay 58 Counties Manukau 16

* Word on the street here is that up until a few weeks before the comp started Counties Manukau were getting shitty training turn outs before losing several key players to the Waitakere Rangers across town and then Dean Hunter their coach stepped down.

Tamaki Leopards 38 Northern Storm 16

Harbour League 12 Waitakere Rangers 6

* Matt Rua, former NRL grand final winner with the Melbourne Storm scoring Waitakere's try

Central Falcons 41 Wellington Orcas 40

*must have been a decent match to watch after the Orcas led 28-16 at the break. If the name Wellington orcas looks familiar it's probably because that is the name of the side that they attempted to get into the NRL when it last looked at expansion. mark my words, they will be in the NRL in the next decade. There is just too much talent coming out of NZ and ending up in Aussie sides.

A major reason why the Warriors aren't sucking up all this talent is that they don't have a reserve grade side. They also don't have other sides nearby them that they can poach off or monitor closely.

Anyway, on to the Monday night game.

There are Monday Night games scheduled all season as a promotional initiative with each of them screened live on maori television. Commentary is in English with occasional comments in Maori. The first match was between grand finalists from last year the Auckland Lions and Canterbury Bulls at North Harbour Stadium and Auckland ran out winners by 28 points to 16 after the scores were locked up at 16 all with a few minutes left.

It was a fairly scrapy game which is probably what we should get used to considering all these games will be played at night and in wintry conditions. Standout players for me were the 13 and 9 for Canterbury and 11 and 3 for the Lions. I can't be arsed going back to check who they were except that the 13 for the Bulls was their captain. Auckland looked the maore talented side with ball in hand but Canterbury played a basic game where they defended well and attacked a lot up the ruck area. As soon as the Lions spread the ball wide though they found holes with Start running in 3 good tries and as suggested by the commentators, we will see this kid in the NRL in a couple of seasons.

Here is a good wrap of the game by John Coffey at rugbyleaguenz.com

One thing which will have to improve is the crowd numbers. There can't have been anymore than 50 supporters there. Not particularly surprising really but they have got to go down to local clubs and practically beg, kicking and screaming, plus a bit of cash wouldn't hurt, to get people along, especially to the televised games. Free entry and one free beer would about do it for me ;)

Next scheduled Monday Night Game is between Harbour League and Counties Manukau Jets at North harbour stadium. Expect to see the Harbour side run out comfortable winners.

And if dc_red is keen I might pop along to the Waitakere Rangers game v Central Falcons at Waitakere Stadium on Sunday afternoon.