League: Invercargill, Timaru teams join competition

Ray Fitiao.
Ray Fitiao.
The Dunedin premier rugby league competition is set to be boosted by Timaru and Invercargill teams next season.

The newly formed Titans, from Timaru, and the Cowboys, from Invercargill, will increase the competition from four teams to six.

Otago Rugby League chairman Ray Fitiao said it was ''pretty exciting'' news for rugby league in the South.

''By all accounts, Timaru have some pretty useful players up there, so it will be good to see them,'' he said.

''The Cowboys want to be part of Saturday competition, as opposed to just a Sunday competition, like they play in in Invercargill.''

The Titans have replaced the Timaru Warriors team, which formed in 1986 and played in lower and social grades in the Christchurch competition.

The team has struggled in recent years, and player-coach Nathan Robinson said it was time to move forward as a new team in a different competition.

The two new sides will join the Kia Toa Tigers, South Pacific Raiders, East Coast Eagles and University in the Dunedin competition, which will start in late March.

''We need to sit down and work out the logistics of it all,'' Fitiao said.

''We are proposing three rounds, a semifinal and a final.

''The first round would have teams who draw the Cowboys travelling to Invercargill. The second round we would probably look at all the teams [who draw the Titans] travelling to Timaru, and the third round we will make a decision on later.

''We have already got something tentatively in place. We just need to see where the clubs are at with that.''

The ORL board will hold its next meeting on January 26 to settle details.

With teams expected to provide their own transport for away games, each club would be responsible for funding its travel costs, Fitiao said.

However, ORL will help ensure clubs know ''what they need to do in terms of funding, fund-raising and applying for grants.''

''Obviously the board will have to step in at some stage if clubs don't have enough on board. We are all in this together and we all want to make it happen,'' Fitiao said.

''We don't want defaults. We don't want teams struggling and saying, 'Well, we just couldn't get the money together to go to Timaru, so we decided we would take some cars but only 10 guys showed up'.

''We don't want any of that. For a prem competition, that is rubbish."

The East Coast Eagles proposed entering two teams in the competition next year, which would have saw the competition expand to seven teams.

However, its lone team last season had a high player turnover and a second premier team would not be considered next year, Fitiao said.

''We just want to see them consolidate that premier team and maybe bring in a development team later in the piece.''

New Zealand Rugby League southern zone general manager Steve Martin is pleased the competition is expanding and thinks it will draw more people to the sport, which has had a 20% growth in participation each of the last three years in the South, he said.

''I think it will be more attractive to people to have a crack at the game, given there are four established Dunedin clubs they can choose from,'' Martin said.

''It's definitely attracting interest from young folk. The biggest challenge for us as a sport is to make sure we have got the infrastructure to sustain that: coaches, referees and volunteers. That's what we are working on at the moment.''

- Robert van Royen

 

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