DUBBO CYMS’ dream of competing in Group 10 next season is now firmly in the competition’s court after Western endorsed Group 11’s decision to block the Fishies’ move.
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The Dubbo club’s desire to jump ship in 2017 was the main talking point at the Western Rams annual general meeting at Wellington on Tuesday night, with Rams regional manager Peter Clarke confirming the region’s board endorsed Group 11’s decision to quash CYMS’ potential move to the neighbouring competition for next season.
Western reelected incumbent chairman Peter McDonald, as well as vice presidents Ross McDermott and Bryson Luff, for the 2017 season, with the rest of the committee then made up of voting delegates from every competition – both senior and junior – within the Rams’ jurisdiction, which incorporates the Barwon Darling, Castlereagh, Group 10, Group 11, New Era Cup, Outback League and Woodbridge Cup competitions.
Clarke said a “determined” CYMS was now likely to approach Group 10 for sanctioning, which, if successful in earning the support of new chairman Linore Zamparini and his clubs, will then lead all parties to the Country Rugby League, where the governing body will have the final say on whether the Dubbo club will be granted entry into Group 10.
The Central Western Daily contacted Zamparini on Tuesday morning, but the Group 10 chairman was waiting for a detailed copy of CYMS’ proposal before further commenting on the switch.
Zamparini was an apology at the Western AGM.
On hand at Tuesday night’s two-and-half hour meeting, Clarke said the role of the Rams’ board was to look at the benefit of the entire Western region, adding a resolution to the saga was still a long way off.
But Clarke added the Dubbo CYMS proposal had a lot of strong points to it, leading to their strong push to compete against regional centres of similar size, namely Orange and Bathurst.
“We’d be silly to sit here and just dismiss everything they’re saying,” Clarke said, positive the process was following due course.
“There was a lot of discussion about it and it’s great there’s passionate supporters looking at different ways of going about things.
“But the whole point of everything we do is for the betterment of the game in the region for every club and every competition, so we’ll look at any way we can do that as a possibility.”