Doubts over rugby league’s survival
‘‘In five years time I don’t think we will have a game, we are slowly declining.’’
Ken Laban doubts anyone will be playing rugby league in Wellington in five years.
That is a big call from a man who played in arguably the most famous rugby league team Wellington has produced.
Laban was part of the Wainuiomata team that won two nationals titles more than 25 years ago.
It was a golden era for the sport with clubs like Upper Hutt, Randwick and Petone all fieldings Kiwis and providing Wainuiomata with fierce competition.
Wainuiomata club captain Clinton Buchanan has been involved with the club as a player and coach since the late 1990s.
He is pessimistic about the future of the code and said Randwick’s recent default pointed to some bigger issues in the game.
‘‘In five years time I don’t think we will have a game, we are slowly declining and it is only a handful of staunch volunteers that are keeping the game going.’’
The standard of the senior competition was not strong, he said.
‘‘There are a lot of guys like me who are 40 and carrying 20 kilos too much, who are playing senior. That is the calibre of the players we have.’’
A lack of money and players expecting to be paid, had hurt the game, he said.
‘‘If you go back to the glory days of the early 90s and and 80s, we were getting more publicity than rugby. If you went to a Wainuiomata-Upper Hutt game there were 10 Kiwis on the field.’’
Laban said it was not only league that was struggling. Wainuiomata rugby was also short of senior players and young guys seemed reluctant to commit to training and getting fit.
Clubs were also struggling financially with players reluctant to pay subs.
New Zealand Rugby League community manager Jacob Cameron said all sport was finding it harder but he rejected the suggestion the game would not exist in five years.
‘‘That will not be the case at all. The answer is that all sports are facing the reality that there other avenues of entertainment and we need to adapt and be innovative to capture their interest to play the game.’’
The NZRL offered Wellington a range of support in everything from developing coaches to organising competitions, he said.
A new general manager was recently appointed but only lasted a short time before leaving.
The timing of his resignation and the difficulties some clubs had had getting their season underway had caused some anxiety but he was optimistic about the future of league in Wellington.
Upper Hutt stalwart Tyrone Paikea played in an era where Upper Hutt had five senior teams as well as under-19s and under17s. It attracted huge crowds and their Kiwis included Mike Kuiti, Adrian Shelford, Mark Woods, Syd Eru, Morvin Edwards and Kevin Tamaiti.
‘‘We also had a lot of Junior Kiwis, Stephen Kearney played his junior football here and then went to Randwick.’’
Upper Hutt were unable to field a team in the top grade this year and he said the lack of depth was a big issue.
The lack of age grade teams and the absence of league in schools, were major problems facing the code.
Wellington Rugby League lists 42 junior teams where as there are just over 300 junior rugby teams and about 120 college sides according to Wellington Rugby’s head of community rugby Will CaciaBirch.