IT’S the confirmation of the worst kept secret in rugby league, but Monday’s announcement the 2017 City-Country clash will be the last of its kind was met coldly by Country Rugby League officials.
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Officially announced as the venue for next May’s clash, Mudgee’s Glen Willow was the back drop for the confirmation from National Rugby League head of football Brian Canavan.
“An iconic fixture that has produced many, many champions,” Canavan opened with.
“Together with Country Rugby League and the NSWRL, we announce this will be the last Country-City fixture, beyond 2017.”
CRL chief executive officer Terry Quinn said he and his board wasn’t happy the match, which has been run since 1911, will cease to exist from 2018 onwards.
“Short answer is no, we’re not happy,” Quinn said.,
“But we’ve been in discussion with the NRL for a long time and the NSWRL, and this is the best way to take the game forward.”
Canavan said, holistically, the game was taking a different format forward with the presentation of both regular season competition games and representative fixtures from the 2018 season onward.
It’s a revelation brought about by the game’s pathways review, which has already meant the axing of the National Youth Competition, the Holden Cup, after 2017.
Canavan said the announcement of the scrapping of the City-Country clash was the next step in the unveiling of the pathways review.
But he stressed the NRL, which also considered Dubbo’s Caltex Park for the final City-Country fixture, wasn’t walking away from its commitments to regional areas.
From 2018, the NSW Cup will be expanded to include sides from regional areas, which will bring more top flight rugby league to rural communities. While a formal commitment to bring NRL games west as part of the game’s “decentralising” will be made.
Quinn was optimistic about the future, but admitted the old “us-versus-them” mentality of a City-Country clash will be lost.
“It’ll be missing, but we will be negotiating other games to come out to the country. That commitment will be held by the National Rugby League.” he added.
“It’s sad to lose this game. You look at the current Australian side and a lot of those guys got their start with the Country and the City side, it does work and I know we’ve got selectors everywhere, but that test of man against man settles a lot.
“In short, we are disappointed but we’re hopeful bigger and better things will come out of it.”
