The proposed Central North womens 7s competition was given the green light at Sunday’s annual general meeting.
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The zone threw its support behind the introduction of a full field 7s competition to run in conjunction with the Central North senior competitions.
The competition has been on the horizon for a couple of years and several clubs have indicated they are interested in fielding sides.
There are still aspects to be finalised with no age divisions set yet. Returning Central North president Tony Byrnes said there was some discussion on Sunday, and 17s and opens were both suggested.
“We’ll go back to our February meeting and see how that pans out,” Byrnes said.
The zone will also support the entry of a Central North womens team in the Country 7s Championships in April and 15s Championships.
The referees association also attended Sunday’s meeting and put forward a number of new initiatives.
One of the most significant is the introduction of a coaching and grading system, which they haven’t had before.
“Referees themselves need to know where they sit,” Byrnes said.
It is one of sports biggest challenges – retaining and recruiting referees/umpires, and Central North is far from immune from the struggle.
“Whilst we’ve got some top notch referees there are some other good referees around that we need to entice back into the game,” Byrnes said.
They also need to be able to attract new referees, otherwise, as Byrnes said it “could be a problem in the future”.
All of that takes resources and support, and commitment from the clubs.
Another development from the meeting was a motion from former Central North juniors president Dom Shortis to lead a sub-committee to look at how they can better provide a pathway for juniors stepping up to seniors.
Byrnes noted there was also some discussion about changing the constitution and adopting a different leadership structure as they start to look at where they will be in five years time.
