Rugby League No. 1 football code in Melbourne school

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Rugby League No. 1 football code in Melbourne school

Post by Dizzys_on_fire »

Who would have thought?
AFL

Rules No More
By KARL de KROO
May 12, 2005

Aussie rules no longer rules at Melbourne's Bayside Secondary College in Altona.

Bayside has become the first school in Victoria to adopt rugby league as its No. 1 football code.

In a significant development for the sport in Victoria, Bayside has introduced a formal rugby league scholarship program.

It will also become the first Victorian school to field a team in the prestigious Arrive Alive Cup national schools competition.

"We still have an Aussie rules team and we go all right in our local area, but we have found we have more kids interested in rugby league," Bayside assistant principal Robert Evans said yesterday.

"Rugby league is very strong in this area and when we were approached by the Victorian Rugby League, in association with the NRL and Melbourne Storm, about developing a rugby league talented sports program we jumped at it.

"We thought it was a terrific opportunity to provide our kids with the chance to pursue a career in professional sport either as a player, a trainer or coach."

The school side will be coached by Paul Bramley, who is also the high performance manager for the VRL's junior representative program.
http://dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story ... id=3106889

Positive news for Victorian Rugby League. Nothing massive, but a key stepping stone nonetheless in regards to developing local juniors.
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Post by Beaussie »

One school in the entire state of Victoria is a good start I suppose. I wonder how long it will last? I note they still have an Australian Rules team.
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Post by Dizzys_on_fire »

The article states that the school is in Altona. I remember watching a Rugby League program a couple of years ago which featured the Altona Roosters Rugby League Club. Not sure if it was the Footy Show or Boots 'n' All. Anyway, this team was extremely talented and held many point scoring records at grade level including goal kicking, tries and overall points.
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Post by Beaussie »

How long do you think (if ever), it will be before we see Victorian kids filtering through NRL ranks Dizzy?

Will it all fall apart if the Storm fold? The news in yesterday's Age wasn't to positive about the Storm and rugby league in Victoria:
The Age wrote:
Little warming to Storm
By Simon Castles
May 11, 2005
http://www.theage.com.au/news/Sport/Lit ... click=true

Melbourne Storm is in the top six, was favourite to win the flag for a fleeting, glorious week and has been sensational one game and dreadful the next. I have taken note of this because, well, I thought someone should.

As someone who loves rugby league (I'm one of the local handful), I find the efforts to grow the game in Melbourne an odd mix of the compelling and the comical - a feeling crystallised by the news that the No. 1 ticket-holder for the Storm in 2005 is Molly Meldrum.

Molly has even had the team logo tattooed on his arm, which, should the team ever fold - and surely this is still on the cards - would leave him in the same situation Johnny Depp was in with his "Winona Forever" tat.

The Storm has been part of the National Rugby League for seven years. In that time, a whole lot of people have done a whole lot to make the thing a goer - not least the players, and, of course, the NRL, which continues to pour money into its southern franchise.

But as a foreign species introduced into Victoria, rugby league has never quite taken to its new habitat. It was given a nice home and special care, but it has always felt threatened by predators (Tigers, Hawks, even Magpies). With the onset of winter, it looks longingly to the north, to where its species roams free. It's not that other footballus domesticus is considered a pest in Melbourne - it's not really considered at all.

The Storm does have fans. But it could sure do with a few more, as well as media interest that didn't have the distinct whiff of charity.

At the Storm's season launch this year, chief executive Brian Waldron spoke, as did team coach Craig Bellamy and captain Robbie Kearns. And they spoke as one: why not come along to a game, Melburnians - you never know, you might just like it.

There was an air of desperation - and there always is when the Storm speaks. It's almost like the Storm is some avant-garde theatre troupe pushing an experimental new production. Sure, what we're doing is a little different, bellow these oddly-shaped strangers in the funny jumpers, but hell, challenge yourself and purchase a ticket. There are plenty of empty seats . . .

Sadly, of course, people tend to walk right past experimental theatre. At best, the odd person stops, looks on bemused for a minute, and then, with a shake of the head, wanders off in search of tickets to Mamma Mia!.


It's not easy being a rugby league fan in Melbourne. In fact, after a decade here, I've come to think it's almost impossible. To those rare Storm fans out there - I admire your sustained commitment. I suspect a good many, like me, came to this fair city from elsewhere. You came knowing they played a different code here.

But there were things you weren't prepared for. You didn't realise that rugby league wasn't even on the radar. Or that it would be easier to find the results to an under-12s Australian rules game in Moe than to find the score to the rugby league grand final on the TV news. You didn't know that Channel Nine would see more ratings sense in putting Police Academy 4 on again than showing a rugby league game before 1am.

And you didn't know that to say you liked rugby league would be such a conversation stopper - that it would elicit a response distant and wary in Melburnians, like you'd just owned up to some bizarre sexual practice.


At the season launch, Kearns was refreshingly frank with journalists, most of whom looked like they desperately wanted to be at an AFL game. "Without support down here," Kearns said, "we're not going to last."
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Post by King-Eliagh »

What im wondering beaussie and dizzy's is if there is a league team in a melb school then who do they play against? Surely there are other teams who play against them? So ummmm beaussie your wolf claim about one school in melb playing league may be another wolf? Wolf wolf! :lol:
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xman wrote:
KE, why is an even comp important?
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Post by MAKAVELI »

Meanwhile every school in QLD and NSW have aussie rules teams. :P
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Post by Dizzys_on_fire »

MAKAVELI wrote:
Meanwhile every school in QLD and NSW have aussie rules teams. :P
I believe the article in emphasising that in this particular Melbourne school, Rugby League is the prefered sport, or no. 1, not just the fact that they play Rugby League.
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Post by Beaussie »

King-Eliagh wrote:
What im wondering beaussie and dizzy's is if there is a league team in a melb school then who do they play against? Surely there are other teams who play against them?
Not exactly sure who they play against. The VRL is an absolute shambles. I wouldn't think there would be many schools in Victoria where rugby league is offered as a sport. More likely the case that it is rugby union.
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