MEDIA RELEASE FROM CRONULLA JRL
Attn: All members, players, referees and parents of the Cronulla Junior League
Firstly, I take this opportunity to welcome everyone to the New Year. I would like to acknowledge the current bushfire crisis that has taken place over the Christmas / New Year break and which continues to this day and understand that many of our members have been affected. The Cronulla Junior League stands with those who have lost homes and livelihoods throughout this unprecedented natural disaster.
Secondly, it is best that the information contained in this document is released this side of the break as many families and players begin to look at registering for the 2020 Junior League season.
Just prior to the Christmas break the Junior League met for its 1st General Meeting following the AGM to vote on some key changes to the way we structure our local competitions. These changes were put forward by the local clubs and voted upon.
The Executive Team have ratified these decisions at our latest meeting. The changes have been made for the following reasons:
Foster long term growth and sustainability within our Junior League
Enhance the game day experience for both our senior and junior competitions
Encourage healthy competition in all age groups
Overall and long-term goal to grow our participation numbers in order to again localize our competitions without relying on NSWRL Conference Competitions.
They may seem like very big changes now, but they have been made to better our competitions for the long term and secure healthy rugby league competitions in the Cronulla Sutherland district for years to come. These decisions have been made in the best interest of those playing the game and not those watching the game.
I will outline now the key changes for season 2020:
Senior football (1st Grade and 2nd Grade) will now play on Saturday afternoons. 2nd grade to kick off at 2-2:30pm and 1st Grade to kick off at 3:30-4pm. This will take effect immediately and will be the normal day of play. Clubs may, with a joint request, play on a Sunday but must provide notice well in advance.
(a) Saturday football competitions (U9 up to and inclusive of the U13’s) will change to a Div1 and Div2 competition structure with no Div3 competitions offered. (b) Div1 would include all the Gold teams and the top half of the Silver teams from season 2019 and the new Div2 comps would include the bottom half of last years Silver teams and all last year’s Bronze teams (c) We have in effect created two large competitions instead of 3 diluted competitions (d) Throughout the season all teams would play each other once, then a re-grade would occur, and the two divisions would be split down the middle creating 4 smaller competitions with the aim of allowing all teams from U9 to U13 to compete in a semi-final series. Rules around semi finals etc. TBA
The League Tag competitions for this season will now be individual age groups, not double age groups. Ie. U9, U10, U11, U12 etc. We have seen huge growth in these competitions, and this is the natural progression and result of this growth.
We will no longer be offering an U17 competition next season, with our age groups to align with that of the representative age groups. Next season our Sunday age groups will be U14, U15, U16, U18 and Emerging Cup. The intention is to have an U18 Div1 and an U18 Div2.
Based on the success of the BarTV live streams during the Junior League finals series we have engaged them to live stream all day at one ground per week “Ground of the Round”.
If you have a query about the above changes, please send through any questions to your club Secretary. We understand there may be some short-term pain, but we believe there is a genuine long-term gain as a result of these changes.
We thank the clubs for their involvement and feedback during this process.
Nathan Waugh – Chairman, Cronulla-Sutherland Junior Rugby Football League
