IT’S out with the new and in with the old for Central North with the zone yesterday voting to quash the two-tier model and return to a straight 10-team two-round format for next season.
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The change in competition structure was the big news out of the annual general meeting at Barraba, which also saw Tony Byrnes returned as president for a second year.
The two-tier structure was introduced two years ago to try to reinvigorate the competition.
It was at the time voted in for two years but never really gained unanimous support.
That came to a head yesterday, with the motion to stay with the two-tier system defeated.
“We had to have a special vote on that,” Byrnes said.
The clubs each got two votes along with the executive and, while the number for did outweigh the against, it wasn’t enough to carry the two-thirds majority stipulated by the constitution.
The introduction of the two- tier system was predicated by the zone recognising that they needed to take steps to address the seeming imbalance between the top and bottom clubs.
Then-president Peter Burke was one of the driving forces behind the change and said at the time they were “trying to create an environment that caters for all levels of rugby”.
Byrnes said personally he would have liked to see it continue and admitted he was a bit surprised by the outcome.
“The general feedback I was getting was that the two-tier system was starting to work,” he said.
In saying that, some of the clubs had expressed the view they felt they would have fared better under the old format.
“There were a couple of clubs disappointed,” he said.
“We need to now as a zone keep a look-out for how the smaller clubs are travelling.”
“We don’t want the risk of losing clubs halfway through the year because they can’t put a competitive side on the paddock.”
That was one of the fears that led to the change, and one of the biggest merits of the two- tier system was more competitive games.
At the same time, that increased the toll on the players, especially in the top tier where the second round was virtually a war of attrition.
To address that, the competition was shortened to just one round in the second round this year.
The discussions around the two-tier system took up a large chunk of the meeting but there was also other business to attend to.
One was the election of the executive.
David Rodgers was returned as secretary/treasurer, Wayne McMahon as zone recorder and Jenny Middlemiss as senior vice president with Sam Scott coming on as junior vice president.
