sport, local-sport, City Country, Country Rugby League, fixture, Mudgee, Glen Willow, rugby league

Don’t worry, Des, you’re not welcome here either. Des Hasler’s ordinary call to rule out his Canterbury Bulldogs players eligible for next weekend’s City-Country clash at Glen Willow is the final blow in the coffin for a fixture on its last legs. The reasoning behind the snubbing of the May 7 representative fixture at Mudgee is poor. The Bulldogs play North Queensland at ANZ Stadium on the following Thursday, a relatively short turnaround – four days – which Hasler says puts his players welfare in jeopardy. It’ll pass as an excuse, but it’s still a poor one. The question has to be asked: will the club employ such a measure after the second State of Origin clash on June 21? A match, realistically, the club could have at least two players involved in. In that case, the Bulldogs play the Warriors in New Zealand just two days later. Shorter turnaround, longer trip. Same stance? Doubtful. The double standards is embarrassing. CEO Raelene Castle is on board with the move too, notifying the NRL of the club’s stance on Tuesday. Such contempt for regional rugby league, from those clouded by the big smoke, shouldn’t be accepted. It simply can’t be. In metropolitan NSW, the City-Country fixture has been on the nose for years, mainly because coaches like Hasler can’t see the relevance of the game. It’s not a genuine State of Origin trial, they say, so why play the game at all? In its essence, the clash has never been about trialing for NSW jumpers. Not for those the game means the most to, anyway. For regional NSW, the ginormous area west of the great dividing range represented by NSW Country, an area Hasler has forgotten about entirely, the clash is an event. An event people travel hundreds of kilometres to so they can catch up with family, fellow rugby league supporters, mates, all to watch some top flight footy in their own backyard. They come to watch the country boys do a number on those city slickers who’ve shunned the bush for so long. City slickers like Dessie. In our western area alone, bush communities have supported the fixture in their droves, with Dubbo’s clash at Caltex Park attracting 9627 people in 2014 – the most recent hosting of City-Country within our boarders. Previous to that, Mudgee’s last game in 2012 attracted 8621 people and in 2009, when Wade Park last held the rep game, a full house sign went up when 8226 fans flooded Orange’s premier sporting precinct. Try telling them the fixture doesn’t mean anything. The flow-on effect for each town’s economy is massive. The boost it gives senior and junior rugby league clubs in the area immense. But after the Mudgee clash on May 7, such a game, such a benefit to rural clubs and communities will be dead and buried. So thanks Des, thanks for hammering in that final nail in City-Country’s coffin. The only answer to all of this is to pack out Glen Willow in a little over a week’s time and give the fixture the send off it deserves.

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