Western Suburbs Magpies to enter final season

[Berkeley_Eagle]

FOUNDATION club Western Suburbs Magpies are about to approach their final winter in Sydney before they vanish once and for all.

But the diehards out west are not prepared to go quietly, organising a protest rally on February 5 to fight for survival.

When the Magpies merged with Balmain in 1999 to form the Wests Tigers, one of the agreements was Wests and Balmain maintain their own identities in the NSW Cup.

But as of 2013, Wests Tigers plan to field just one team in the Cup to save money for junior development - meaning Wests Magpies will cease to exist at senior level.

Officials at Wests have privately fumed they have received the raw end of the deal from the Wests Tigers marriage. They do not appear on the Wests Tigers logo, and in recent years have watched all NRL fringe players sent to Balmain.

Magpies chairman Paul Dillon last night said he was disappointed with the Wests Tigers and their plans to enter just one team in the Cup - even if it sounded the death knell of the same club that made Tommy Raudonikis, Noel Kelly and Keith Holman household names.

Even if they wanted to go it alone, the Magpies could not afford it as major backers Wests Ashfield, who spend $300,000 on the Cup side, will end their association at season's end."We're very disappointed with the Wests Tigers, and what should have been a wonderful celebration has come to this," Dillon said.

"The agreement was the Wests Tigers be the NRL side, and Wests and Balmain remain in the NSW Cup. We offered to the Tigers to play in the NSW Cup with a Magpies jersey and stick a Tiger on the sleeve but they said no."

Dillon said there were disgruntled junior clubs in the region who had been barred from training and playing in the Campbelltown district. He said the protest also wanted to highlight the need for more than four NRL games to be played at Campbelltown.

The merger has meant Wests Tigers have needed to spend up to $1 million annually to support two NSW Cup teams.

Tigers chief executive Stephen Humphreys said last night that junior development programs needed to be a higher priority than running two State Cup sides.

"In my opinion Wests Balmain and Wests Tigers spend an inordinate amount of time, money and effort on the NSW Cup, and I believe we'd all be far better off if some of that time, effort and money was redirected into the junior leagues and junior development programs," he said.

"I've expressed that view to the Wests Tigers directors."

Western Suburbs Magpies will maintain an identity in the junior representative competitions but cease to exist at senior level.

 

[Mals]

Poor form, may as well remove Wests from their NRL name & call themselves the Balmain Tigers.

 

[km@ntis]

Very sad indeed, it's always a dark day for Rugby League in general when something of this nature takes place. Wouldn't mind if the Melbourne Breeze folded though - lol.

 

[Captain Moondog]

Shame to see one of the foundation clubs folding. They've been shafted by the NRL and Balmain, but the major factor was Super League. Feel sorry for the fans.

 

[eagles2win]

Poor form, may as well remove Wests from their NRL name & call themselves the Balmain Tigers.

It's very poor form especially when no less then three NRL sides (Dragons, Raiders and Storm) asked to use them as a reserve grade team only to be knocked back.

Oh well long term the junior clubs will join the parra, Canterbury and St George local comps oops someone didn't think of that at the tigers (if only we were joined with we could swallow up some of there area)

 

[Hamster Huey]

Time for Wests to seriously consider hooking up with the Perth bid and getting a presence out WA way.

Play 4-5 home games out of C'town, keep a team in the NSW Cup (Magpies) and base the majority of those players out of Sydney, take on the juniors in both SW Sydney and in Perth. Amend the current WA bid colours to reflect the old Reds black/white/gold/red.

Would take some tinkering but it must be a far more attractive option for Wests, and the NRL/IC will look at such a more more favourably than a the likes of the recycled CC/Bears effort.

 

[mozgrame]

C.Q Magpies! I like it.

 

[MadMarcus]

The West Tigers really is a bastard child with an identity crisis. What on earth do Cambelltown and Leichhardt have in common? About as much as Manly and Gosford - or Kogarah and Wollongong for that matter.

I agree with Moondog. The Magpies are another victim of Super League more than anything else. I am surprised their NSW Cup team lasted this long.

Reading this story reinforces how glad I am that the Northern Eagles are dead and burried. Joint ventures were without doubt the dumbest idea RL administrators ever had.

 

[tookey]

Bring back wests and norths

 

[bones]

Cronulla and Souths next please.

 

[Shoe1]

How can Wests leagues at Ashfield get away with not funding the magpies after 2012? That is the basis for that club having registered club status, surely?

 

[mickyj]

What a joke.
Balmain and Wests were last and 3rd last in the criteria to survive in the NRL and them joining got them in over norths.
Kick then out and bring back Norths. If it is not a partnership they have not merged and then did not make it into the NRL.

 

[eagles2win]

What a joke.
Balmain and Wests were last and 3rd last in the criteria to survive in the NRL and them joining got them in over norths.
Kick then out and bring back Norths. If it is not a partnership they have not merged and then did not make it into the NRL.

Now that would be interesting... especially given what's supposedly transpired during the merger. I would go to as far as to say it would be the biggest rugby league club derby match in the world

 

[mickyj]

They only merged when it came out they had both failed to make the top 16 and missed a spot in the NRL. Which meant Norths were left high and dry.
I am not a norths fan or of being merged with them but they were screwed the most by New Ltd crap.

2 less sides in Sydney would be ok for the NRL.
I feel like I could even join the bring back the Bears........

 

[Hamster Huey]

They only merged when it came out they had both failed to make the top 16 and missed a spot in the NRL. Which meant Norths were left high and dry.
I am not a norths fan or of being merged with them but they were screwed the most by New Ltd crap.

2 less sides in Sydney would be ok for the NRL.
I feel like I could even join the bring back the Bears........

Balmain made the cut, but Wests didn't. They were in the same position as us and Norths; as long as one of the clubs made the top 14 then they could enter into a JV. If both Balmain and Wests had of missed out, then they could not take the $10mil on offer from the NRL.

 

[mozgrame]

Like the Bears or not, they got hammered. I wonder if Florimo is smart enough to start making some noise in Gallop's ear? Their fans should be starting to march in the streets. And the Rabbits fans should march with them!

 

[Peter C]

They only merged when it came out they had both failed to make the top 16 and missed a spot in the NRL. Which meant Norths were left high and dry.
I am not a norths fan or of being merged with them but they were screwed the most by New Ltd crap.

2 less sides in Sydney would be ok for the NRL.
I feel like I could even join the bring back the Bears........

Balmain made the cut, but Wests didn't. They were in the same position as us and Norths; as long as one of the clubs made the top 14 then they could enter into a JV. If both Balmain and Wests had of missed out, then they could not take the $10mil on offer from the NRL.

This is correct to a degree, Balmain did make the cut and Norths were automatically disqualified due to the fact that their board filed for insolvency towards the end of the 1999 season, as a regional team playing out of Gosford they would have satisfied the criteria rules.
Any teams that decided to merge before the criteria rules took effect, such as ST.G/ILL, were also exempt from the criteria, however, if two teams who DID NOT make the criteria and decided to merge AFTER the crieria was applied, then they could not do so. but any team which made the criteria and decided to merge with a team that did not make it, then that was OK. eg Manly and Norths.
Whilst the Super League war was detrimental to most ARL aligned clubs, I feel that it was very helpfull for Souths, as they would have surely disappeared into oblivion if the war never happened, as their exclusion forced their fans to galvanise support from sectors they never saw before.
Cronulla was also saved as they aligned themselves with News LTD, as they would have disappeared completely, due to their constant financial difficulties.

 

[MadMarcus]

All ARL clubs got screwed by SL - none more than our own.

However in the Bears case a lot of their demise was self-inflicted. They were committed to moving to Gosford (good call I thought), but they managed it appallingly.

They were so committed that when the construction of the stadium was delayed they had already let North Sydney Oval go so they had nowhere to play. Do you remember them playing at Suncorp before a crowd of 500 people - all at a time when financial performance and crowd numbers were more important than ever because the criteria was being applied.

By the time the criteria was applied the club was insolvent, but by some miracle they were given the opportunity to survive through the Northern Eagles joint venture.

The idiots that represented the Bears on the Board put and end to that and that was the final nail in the coffin for the Bears.

But that's history. If I had to choose between the Bears and the Wests Tigers aberration, I would rather have the Bears in the comp. For mine, I don't think any of our rivalries quite eclipse the old Manly v Norths days at Brookie and NSO.

 

[Peter C]

All ARL clubs got screwed by SL - none more than our own.

However in the Bears case a lot of their demise was self-inflicted. They were committed to moving to Gosford (good call I thought), but they managed it appallingly.

They were so committed that when the construction of the stadium was delayed they had already let North Sydney Oval go so they had nowhere to play. Do you remember them playing at Suncorp before a crowd of 500 people - all at a time when financial performance and crowd numbers were more important than ever because the criteria was being applied.

By the time the criteria was applied the club was insolvent, but by some miracle they were given the opportunity to survive through the Northern Eagles joint venture.

The idiots that represented the Bears on the Board put and end to that and that was the final nail in the coffin for the Bears.

But that's history. If I had to choose between the Bears and the Wests Tigers aberration, I would rather have the Bears in the comp. For mine, I don't think any of our rivalries quite eclipse the old Manly v Norths days at Brookie and NSO.

100% correct, I think both merged entities are an abomination, and I would certainly prefer Norths over the Tigers,due to our rivalry, but what I really hate about Norths is that they blame the reason for their non existence entirely on Manly, and have conned the rest of the rugby league public into believing it.
They wait on the sidelines like vultures for any negative publicity regarding Manly with the thought that our demise will be their salvation or resurrection.

 

[Mals]

Well said Peter C. Unfortunately the intellect of the Bears fans on websites like the Daily Telegraph is non existent so they resort to calling us names such as woManly or the Sea Gulls. Pathetic!!