THE Junior State Cup is set for a major overhaul from 2019 as the event has grown to a point where it can’t be held in the one location.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Throughout its 22 year history, the event has grown from 110 teams through to its current peak of 357 last year.
As a result, New South Wales Touch Association has made the decision to split the event in half by setting up a northern conference and a southern conference.
Tenders for those events will open up in the next week or two with a decision on a location for both events hoped to be finalised by November.
NSTWA general manager Dean Russell said it was still unknown which teams would fall into which conference.
“At the moment we’re using some models where we will get an equilibrium of talent across the two conferences of affiliates,” he said.
“We’ll come up with a definitive line of who goes where – some may be obvious, while others may not be.”
We’ll come up with a definitive line of who goes where – some may be obvious, while others may not be.
- New South Wales Touch Association general manager Dean Russell
It is believed associations such as Port Macquarie, Newcastle and the northern parts of Sydney such as Hornsby and Manly will fall into the northern conference.
“It would be reasonable to suggest the Northern Eagles and those in the Hunter will head to the north conference,” he said.
“But for some of the others in the Sydney basin it may not be quite as obvious.
“It may not be a simple case of stating those north of the Harbour Bridge will go north, while those south go to the southern conference.”
The two conference events would be held on successive weekends, but the 2018 event in Port Macquarie next February will remain unchanged.
Russell said the decision had been made after their models had indicated a “level of disengagement” in the southern part of the state.
As a consequence the playing numbers in those areas had diminished.
“The event is just too big now (to have it in one place),” he said.
It’s no reflection on Port Macquarie or what has gone on in the previous 12 months with Tuffins Lane and the like.
- Dean Russell
“It’s no reflection on Port Macquarie or what has gone on in the previous 12 months with Tuffins Lane and the like.
“We made that perfectly clear to Port Macquarie Touch Association and council and they were happy with that.
“Our modelling suggests the northern conference which Port Macquarie will be in will have similar numbers to that of the senior state cup and that’s certainly not a small event.”
Once the northern and southern conference winners had been decided, Russell said they would then play in a state final, hoped to be within two months.
The location of that state final could be where the northern conference and southern conferences had been held, or it could be somewhere different.
“We could have a northern conference held in Port Macquarie, a southern conference in Wagga and then a state final in Dubbo for example,” Russell said.
