In League with Issue 1 February 2012 Message from the General Manager Numbers in the South grow Inside this South Island Rugby League shows a 17% increase in numbers issue: Welcome to the first edition of In League with South Island Rugby League. This In the Past 2 monthly newsletter is for members of the South Island Rugby League community, its friends and supporters. The newsletter will provide rugby league updates, articles, League on the 3 images and information on the game in the South Island. West Coast 2011 It’s an exciting time to be involved with Rugby League in NZ. The changes at NZRL Southland’s Sea- 3 Headquarters and the fine work that is being done to get the game back on track is son 2011 now starting to show dividends. The popularity of the game has never been so high especially amongst young people. Otago Rugby 4 League 2011 The Southern Zone has been in existence Tasman Rugby 5 now and fully operational for just over 18 League 2011 months. In that time a huge amount has Canterbury Rug- 5 happened with Rugby League in the by League 2011 South Island. Coaching and 6 One of the real highlights from 2011 has Notice board been the employment of dedicated Rugby Important dates 7 League Development Officers in each Sponsors district. At present one position exists in Southland, Otago, the West Coast and Canterbury with a further one to be in place in Tasman early in 2012. Ruben Wiki with youngsters at the Otago Roots Camp in 2011 SOUTHERN ZONE 2011 saw the inception of a South Island District Competition for senior representa- tive teams which was won by the Canterbury A team. The re-emergence of teams from Tasman (the Titans) and Otago (the Whalers) was particularly satisfying. This competition will be run again in 2012. In addition, a South Island District Tournament will also be held in July 2012 for 15 and 17 years old teams. At a district level it has been heartening to see Rugby League back in Tasman and Otago. In 2012 it looks likely that there will be 6 teams in the Dunedin and 7 teams in the Tasman competitions. 18 months ago there were none. Great also to see Hokitika fielding teams on the Coast and for Southland to be looking at 7 teams in 2012 after having only 4 in 2009. A lot of work is being done in schools across the mainland and there is a real enthusiasm for the game. I’m sure that you will enjoy reading about how things are going in the various clubs Home of the and districts of the South Island. I’m keen to get your Rugby League stories and pic- South Island Scorpions tures as well so that others can see them. Just email them to me at [email protected] League is the game they play in Heaven The lightning-fast modern game has left union looking like league in the old days of unlimited tackles and the zero metre rule: very boring In the evolution of sport, one stands out as the most brutally novelties in attracting the attention of young people. The globali- exciting game devised by humankind: rugby league football. At sation of sporting coverage has also increased the level of com- a time when many men lament the metrosexualisation of socie- petition for domestic codes. Rugby league’s achievement has ty, it is a refreshingly physical code. As the legendary coach been to stay alive in this tough environment. While attempts to and commentator Roy Masters once said, ballroom dancing is expand the code into AFL-obsessed Melbourne and outlying a contact sport, rugby league is a collision sport. centres such as Perth and Adelaide have not been successful, it remains strong in its states of origin. It started in Australia in 1908 as a breakaway from the toffee- nosed, tweed-coated amateur code of rugby union. Like most In the battle of the rugby codes, league is supreme. Even though aspects of the industrial society, this was a class-laden event. union has now turned professional, its standards have fallen A group of tough-minded, hard-bodied working-class men in away. Ironically, it resembles the way in which league was Sydney resented the elitist and parsimonious values of the played in the 1950s: a pointless series of rucks from which the rugby union establishment. They saw a code flush with money, forwards barge the ball forward and the backs kick it away. Rug- yet too mean to pay them travelling expenses or compensation by union is locked in a time warp of unlimited tackles, zero-metre for time lost at work on match days. So they created their own defensive lines and spectator boredom. Even worse, at an inter- professional league.History has recorded the class tensions at national level, the game is plagued by overly officious referees play. Herbert Moran, captain of the Australian Wallabies in who mistakenly believe the fans have paid good money to watch 1908-09, wrote of how, after the split, rugby union ‘became them blow the pea out of their whistle. Twenty years ago, I was a cleaner because we lost some of the rougher elements’. In a keen rugby union fan. Today, along with many others, I would paper reviewing the period, the academic Murray Smith has rather watch paint dry than endure the tedium of a union test argued, ‘the development of rugby league as a rival code must match. be understood as the failure of the upper-middle class in Syd- ney to negotiate with lower-middle class and working men who The second factor in league’s success is the way in which it wished to share their game.’ helps men deal with the repression of masculinity in modern society. One of the saddest things I have witnessed has been In the century since its formation, rugby league has not only the decline in Australian male culture, whereby men have be- maintained its working-class fan base, but developed new con- come reluctant to express themselves in traditional ways, such stituencies to become the pre-eminent winter sporting code in as through physical strength. This has been squeezed out of New South Wales and Queensland. Its appeal is fascinating. society by a number of powerful influences: the crisis in male With the rise of labour-saving technologies, the working class identity brought about by changes in the workplace and family in Australia has shrunk. Yet league remains popular, pointing to unit; the rise of Left-feminism, with its sanitising impact on public its capacity to re-invent itself and keep pace with social and culture; and the moralising of the mass media, hypocritically nar- economic change. rowing the spectrum of so-called socially acceptable behaviour. Two factors have been fundamental to its success. The first is Men across the class divide enjoy the physicality of rugby rule changes. When league broke away from rugby union it league. Its power athletes are among the best in international adopted rules that promoted ball movement and limited the sport and, with changes in the ethnicity of the game, they are amount of kicking. The number of players per team was re- getting even better. Ten years ago it was rare to see a Polyne- duced from 15 to 13 and the dreary spectacle of a rugby ruck sian or Aboriginal player in first grade. Now they are the predom- was replaced with a much faster play-the-ball. These changes inant ethnic groups at the game’s elite level. To give one exam- made the game fan-friendly, inviting the possibility of skilful ple, rival fans have taken to calling the South Sydney Rabbitohs, chain passing and open field running. The ruggedness of man- one of the grand old inner-city foundation clubs, the All Browns. on-man tackling was matched by the excitement of plays that swept from one end of the field to the other. The Polynesians, in particular, were born to play rugby league, with their stocky physiques and explosive power and pace over Whenever rugby league was threatened by monotony, such as short distances. They have taken the code to a new level, leav- when the mighty St George Dragons won 11 consecutive ing it unsurpassed for the strength of its tackling and running premierships in the Sydney competition between 1956 and skills. Rugby league has become the game they play in Heaven, 1966, its administrators found ways of enlivening the code. The Hell and all manly places in between. Dragons had a roster of champion players but also a determi- nation to exploit the unlimited tackle rule, using their big for- Written by Mark wards to bash other teams into submission through lengthy Latham, former periods of ball retention. Two new rules restored the free- Australian Federal flowing purpose of the game. The number of tackles was re- Labor leader, St stricted to four and then six, while the zero-metre defensive line George Dragons was extended to five and then 10 metres, giving creative play- follower since 1968. ers greater space in the ruck area. First published Spectator Australia Increasingly, society demands a faster pace and greater inten- Sept, 2010. sity in its recreational activities. Traditional sports are now com- peting against computer-generated games and other electronic Page 2 In League with West Coast Rugby League 2011 The past season was comprised Cobden-Kohinoor, Hokitika,Suburbs/ one of the most Waro-Rakau and Brunner. Again it was a repeat significant in the history of 2010 with Cobden-Kohinoor taking the honours of the game here on the from Suburbs/ Waro-Rakau.