Hay Magpies facing uncertain future in Group 20

Heading into the season, Hay put forward their problems with fielding a first-grade side and asked to play in reserve grade to keep the club alive.

That was agreed to by the board and, according to Group 20 operations manager Rocci DiSalvatore, they would be judged after the opening rounds as to the next step.

"We feel that because they have enough first graders in their side to be competitive," he said.

"In the opinion of the board, they have good enough players to be as good as the sides on the bottom of the ladder.

"We have clubs already struggling like Yanco-Wamoon and TLU Sharks, and we are a first-grade competition, so we feel they should be in first grade, and that was the whole intention, and that is the general opinion of the whole board."

President of the Hay Magpies, Jack Byrnes, feels this will be the death of the club if they are forced into first grade this weekend.

"In reality, we've got no chance of competing in first grade," he said.

"If we're forced into first grade this weekend, we're out, we're gone, that's the absolute truth of it.

"I've told Frank Cauduro (Group 20 interim president) that numerous times but still they come with this crap."

The Magpies received an email from Group's 20 board, which outlined their options if they were to continue to play in the competition.

The club has been told that from round five, they must play in the first-grade competition. If they remain in reserve grade, they still play for competition points but would be ineligible for finals.

Byrnes feels that if they were to remain in the reserve grade competition with no prize at the end for the hard work, it would be near impossible to maintain the interest of players.

"In a perfect world, you'd say to your players, look fellas, we're not allowed to make the finals, but let's all cling together and get through this year and see what happens next year," he said.

"We're talking about 20-25-year-olds, we don't always think about the long term future of clubs at that age.

"They're going to look at it and think 'bugger that, I'm going to go and do something else, that's my fear that in two or three weeks time we haven't got a side anyway."

The Hay side have picked up two wins from their three games to start the reserve grade, but they've been far from dominant on field.

They came away 32-18 win over Darlington Point Coleambally in round two, but that win came at the end of the game where the Magpies were able to make the most of two sin bins at the end of the game, while they defeated TLU Sharks 36-6.

Byrnes feels the reasoning for the change of heart doesn't add up.

"The initial comment a couple of weeks ago came, they said we've got too many first graders in the reserve side," he said.

"As I explained to Frank, 'mate, go back through our the last half a dozen years we've been last, last, last, second-last, and we've had a third-last'.

"Yes, they're a first-grader for Hay, but are they a first grader for a team that's going to make the finals for Group 20 in first grade, that's debatable."

To add to that, Hay have lost two of their first-grade quality players to season-ending injuries in recent weeks to further reduce the already small playing numbers.

The Hay president feels that situations out of the club's control have caused the club to fall into the position it finds itself in.

"We were bringing sporting visas in, the last time we competed we had 408s. Obviously, that's not possible now, so that's impacted obviously on our ability to put first grade on the field," he said.

"And the other thing that has impacted is the shrinking Hay population, which is a problem for everybody in the town, not just the rugby league club.

"But communities need their sporting clubs, and Hay's had a pretty long history with a close association with its sporting clubs, and I'd hate to see that impacted, for everybody."

RELATED

The decision to change their mind halfway through the season has Byrnes questioning whether the Group has the best interests of the game at heart especially considering the decision was reversed without Hay being able to put their side forward.

"Group 20's attitude is just so wrong in that they, the board anyway, should be nurturing rugby league and doing whatever they can to keep rugby league going," he said.

"If this was rugby union, SIRU would be doing everything they could to keep Hay going, as they've done over the years anyway with the rugby union in Hay. It's just such a different attitude to what Group 20 portrays.

"So we find ourselves in a bit of a stoush, they've backed us into a corner, and I guess we'll do our best to fight our way out."

The Magpies will be holding an emergency meeting tonight (Monday) at the Hay Services Club starting at 6pm for anyone interested in the immediate future of the club.

"It'll probably give everyone a chance just to vent, I'm not sure that it'll change the approach that we'll take a club because what I think will come out of the meeting is that everybody will support the appeal," he said.

"I sent them an email last night inviting the board to our meeting tonight, and I said on the end of it that it was a courtesy that our club wasn't provided before the board made a decision on our future.

"So the offer's open for them to come out and learn a bit about what's going on in Hay, and they may go away with a different attitude, I'm not sure."

***

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content: