KC the idea certainly has merit.

From a NSWTA point of view both myself and Jarrat are talking about some kind of university touch challenge. Basically a replacement for unigames. We have not raised it with our bosses yet but i'll keep you all posted on further developments.

Quote:

In regards to this Varsity proposal, if it were to go ahead, what is the consensus of having a "VARSITY CUP" so to speak? Basically, once the the USYD, UTS and MQU, and Cumbo UniGames sides have been selected, we organise a tournament on say, a Sunday (TBA), and each team plays a sort of round robin type format, with top 2 teams going through after the end.

KC, I think that is certainly something that could be looked at. We'd have to be careful about allowing varsity to be dragged into the "uni games culture" by doing something with those teams...

In the initial year I think that promoting Varsity as an avenue for serious representative touch should remain the prerogative.[addsig]

Victa,
I forgot to mention something to you tonight, so I thought I'd post it here so as to let everyone else have their two cents worth as well, after all it affects everyone.

In regards to this Varsity proposal, if it were to go ahead, what is the consensus of having a "VARSITY CUP" so to speak?

Basically, once the the USYD, UTS and MQU, and Cumbo UniGames sides have been selected, we organise a tournament on say, a Sunday (TBA), and each team plays a sort of round robin type format, with top 2 teams going through after the end.

Maybe set up a perpetual trophy as well, name it after members that have made significant contributions to each club.

Someone has probably already proposed this but I thought I'd put it to the masses.

What are the thoughts?

Another angle of this discusson, from a purely commerical and marketing side, I believe there is potential there to promote the "club" in the sponsorship landscape, building on the ideas of:
"best of the best" players of the 3 respective unis combining incorporating the huge total playing pool of the unis as well (with membership numbers/comp numbers etc
new team = new start. No baggage associated with it (e.g. Western Force)

However things to consider as well (in regards to sponsorship):
Success on the field is vital
Logo and club name selection is super important to promoting the "club" out there
Potential conflict of interest with existing individual uni touch club sponsors (im more thinking of pub/venue sponsorship)

Kicks

Ash has pretty much summed up UTS's position

but I suppose i better add my two cents worth....

I like the idea and the name.
I understand the concerns from all sides quite well, it will be difficult to make the overall precedings fair in respect of all clubs having an equal contribution and I think as a default alot of people will fall back to thinking Victa, Crim and co will do it.
However, I for one will get heavily involved if it get's off the ground from the UTS side and i think that as the club grows and get's it's identity many people will jump on the bandwagon and help out.

I think that eventually it would be able to have a relativley even representation from all unis. Even though obviously as said before Syd uni will dominate at least intially.

Being the sole representative from UTS in the sydney champs side last year this idea would also be good in the respect of having a well known and advertisable rep side. The only reason i played sydney champs this year was because i was reffing on monday nights. It is also obvious from o'day sign ups and the like that we get good players with junior state cup etc experience and all we can presently say is try out for uni games.
It would be a benifit to all universities if when good players first come to uni and sign up we are able to tell them of a varsity rep side that has a good reputation.

that took ages to write and i probably got confused.....oh well.
Ill keep checking this thread now.

ralph

Having thought a bit more about this I remembered one of the many things I forgot to mention in my last post.

In terms of the social aspect of the current clubs and a point that has been highlighted I offer the following. Currently each uni has teams representing in NSWTA Tournaments. However each uni only has 4-10 players (per team) that really want to pay Rep touch. As such we then ask around all the uni games and park players looking for numbers. The easiest way to sell the whole idea to possible recruits has been by using the uni games experience at the clubs' social culture.

With the new merged entity for rep touch we should be able to gather male and female squads with at least 14 players who want to play Rep touch. Thus alleviating the need to recruit the social players to fill teams and therefore bringing the social aspect.

That said if there are planty of social players that want to go to State Cup then they could possibly be entered under the name of their individual uni. Therefore they are seperate from the merged entity leaving them to concentrate on playing touch.[addsig]

I would disagree that Sydney consider University Games a priority - although they ask that athletes on scholarship attend UG, ever seen a top-shelf Rugby player at UG? That may not be the case at UTS or MQ - in fact the latter would probably place more emphasis on success at UG than any other.

However, anyone who has been to uni games knows what it is really - social sport. When selling the idea to the parent bodies we need to emphasise the following passage from our constitution:

... to encourage, foster, promote, develop, extend, and govern Touch within the University

and

... to subscribe to become a member of or co-operate with any other association or associations whose objects are altogether or in part similar to those of the Club

It also mentions organising AUC contests, but I think that any fair-dinkum University sporting body would acknowledge that mainstream recognition is more important than the insular recognition of winning an AUG.

Yeah, i totally agree. It will be a serious rep team and players should be expected to treat it that way.

as for the two concerns mentioned..they are big issues and will involve quite a bit more dicussion.

Anyway, if you are going to take this to the next level and start some planning, let me know, cause we'll definately get involved. victa, you've got my no.

Guys sounds like quite a good idea. It's more or less a formalisation of what has been happening at Sydney Uni over the past couple of seasons.

Smash in terms of the clubs cultures yes they are quite similar but I am under the impression that by starting the new entity there is a hope that the culture will shift a bit. That uni games and Yass KO will be the highly social piss up events where the uni's enter their own teams and that the Varsity side will participate in NSWTA Rep Tournaments will a focus on playig rep touch. This isn't to say that you won't have a good time just that you will save all your partying until the event/s are over or after games. This means things like no drinking the night before Vawdon Cup games, waiting til you are knokced out of SCup before hitting the piss.

I do have a few concerns and these include:
1. It's fine to merge players but where are all the other resources such as referees, coaches, managers and tour coordinators going to come from. There needs to be an equal contirbution from all parties.
2. The universities sports assoc. believe that uni games is a priority which means there will be a clash at both the commencement of Vawdon Cup and come semi finals. This needs to be addressed early so that those who want to play rep are not left in the lurch by those who wish to and are required to attend uni games.

I certainly think the idea is a positive step forward and will see competitive teams entered into tournaments.

You also need to consider the things that make other teams and clubs successful (wests, canterbury, penrith etc).
1. Commitment to the team. The whole thing needs to be looked at as a priority in your life. Not necesarily number 1 but up there. This involves attending training even when assignments etc are due. You know you have the commitment to attend training and games plan around it.
2. Train with purpose not just for the sake of training.
3. Socialise after the event. Friday nights or weekends after games. Team bonding and culture are important but need to be worked around the main focus - playing rep touch.

Just some thoughts that will hopefully assist your planning and implementing of the concept.[addsig]

Hi guys,

Speaking from a UTS perspective here. As you could probably imagine, we're all for the idea, seeing how our fine educational institution thought it would be a great idea to build a campus without sporting fields, and sell the campus that does have fields. So a problem UTS touch will always have is finding fields to run a comp which is a prerequisite to affiliate with NSW Touch meaning, a UTS rep touch side, probably won't happen for a while, unless we merge with a local area (we're looking into norths and Balmain but if we had the choice a varsity team would be a lot better)

We currently have 7 UTS teams running around sydney and it is our social comps and uni games teams that create the club identity as such, i don't see how this new varsity club, which would effectively sit above our three clubs with players feeding in to it, would effect the identity of any of the clubs. myself and 4 other UTS guys played with syd uni up at state cup and to be honest..i think all of our clubs have pretty similar 'cultures'. we're very sociable clubs, but play hard on the field.

Varsity is a means to provide players that want to step up to the next level, a chance to play with a decent club, that will have quite a considerable drawing area and much more focused on performance. Money will be an issue, but that can be addressed later. We have stacks of uts students that are playing reps with other areas, mainly cause we don't have a team. Many people have often said they would play for UTS if we had a team, and i think they would have a similar approach to a varsity team.

Anyway, thats my monies worth, UTS is all for it. Obviously we don't have to lose the option of providing students the chance to play rep touch for the uni but i feel this amalgamation will allow student from all unis to not only play rep touch but to play in a quality team.

cheers,
smash