Country Rugby League chief executive Terry Quinn hopes to amalgamate groups 4 and 19 and have competitions running under that new banner by as early as next year.
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Quinn said it was time to “think outside the box” in the bid to strengthen league in the region.
But he conceded it was early days for the ambitious move – a new group with three divisions – and “a lot of mindsets will need to be changed” to make it happen by 2019 at the latest.
Quinn responded to an article in The Northern Daily Leader on Thursday in which Narrabri first grade coach John Rumsby lamented the quality of the Group 4 First Division and called for a radical solution to the problem, including the possible amalgamation of groups 4 and 19.
Quinn said: “We’ve got people looking at a better way to make that competition (Group 4) work up there and somehow use 19 and four to make a strong competition. There have been some preliminary discussions on how that would go.
“Sometimes you’ve got to break down people not willing to look for change.
“It’s something we’re really mindful of. It was once a very strong (rugby league) area.”
Quinn said ideas for fixing the problem needed to be put “into some sort of think-tank forum” to deliver a “product that suits all needs up there”.
“We’ve got a lot of teams across both 19 and four and the (Group 4) Second Division,” he said. “Everyone has to put their thinking caps on and be prepared to change and make viable competitions up there – and there could be three levels, if need be.”
He added: “We’ve just got to think a little bit differently in the way we develop the product to make it more palatable for all concerned and the spectators as well.”
Rumsby also questioned the work the CRL was doing in high schools in the region, given the belief that there has been an alarming drop in junior players entering the senior ranks.
But Quinn said that job had rested with the NRL after the ARL Commission’s establishment in 2012.
He agreed that more development work needed to be done in high schools – that there were not enough “troops on the ground”.
